Why You? Wai Kruu!!!

wai = a thai greeting and sign of respect shown by placing the hands together in a prayer like gesture and bowing the head or the knees
kruu = teacher

This morning was the Wai Kruu ceremony at Prabhassorn. It was beautiful and thankfully took up the time of all my morning classes. We are going on two weeks without teaching Kindergarten. Rock on.

So the ceremony was really special. The morning started out with all the children lining up in the courtyard at the front of the school to give alms to the monks. So the monks went around with baskets and we wai-ed them and put food in their silver buckets. I think they left with like 4 truck loads of sustinence and the children left with good karma so everyone was a winner.

Wai Kruu is a teacher appreciation thing. The teachers all sat in the front of the auditorium in a semi circle of chairs. There was a traditional Thai style music band of students playing and the marching band was there although I still havent figured out why. The children gave some speeches and did some praying and then they came up and gave their favorite teachers flowers and/or presents.

It was so precious. They would bow on their knees in front of us (which seemed uncomfortable) and wai. Sometimes they smooshed their little heads into our laps or sniffed us or whatever. The more agressive/appreciative children would hug and some of the teachers were crying. And it was unbelievably sweet but I really didnt know what to say. "Thank you"??? I ended up saying "good student" and touching them on the head or the shoulder since it appeared to be what other teachers were doing.

I kept a close eye on who was giving me flowers and who conveniently forgot to come up and wai me! All in all, I made out pretty good with a half dozen roses, 3 MaLais and a calendar. It was kind of like a popularity contest. Reminded me of when we bought Santa-grams or whatever in high school and sometimes you debated whether or not to buy one and send it to yourself just so people would see you getting it during class and youd look cool. Or maybe that was just me.