Mountain Water

I'm still living it up at the Buddhist temple. Generally, the noises of the day are amazingly loud cicadas chirring (if that's the correct noise for them), birds in conversation, and the chopping of vegetables from the kitchen. Yesterday, the idealic peace was momentarily disturbed by a loud shriek from our housekeeper (and cook, etc. who just happens to be about 75 year old) and I saw her spryly leap over 2 feet of woven mats and zoom across the walkway. I knew immediately that it had to be a snake or a giant spider. It was a snake. Our housekeeper wasn't bitten (thank goodness), but she was totally shocked, horrified, and scared almost to death. With no 'real men' around, she ventured outside our gated temple to find someone. She brought back a small, bare chested, older gentleman who arrived with a shovel in hand. With multiple grunts and harsh whacks of the shovel's edge, the snakes adventures among the mats where brought to an end. I don't think it was a poisonous snake, so I said a little prayer for it's transition onward.

Later that afternoon, we all (2 yoga teachers and 2 guests) decided to go for a hike. As I headed for the group at our doorway, I was surprised to see our 'housekeeper' also in attendance. Keep her age in mind, she was outfitted with a backpack (with a water cooler jug in it) buckled around her waist and chest and holding two empty water bottles. I knew our meandering walk was about to take on a new path. We had been carefully avoiding the pathways in the woods due to the mosquitoes (vicious blood suckers that they are!) and the scratchy, thorny brambles along the way. Instead, we'd been taking the very civilized and well paved road that wound it's way up and around the mountainside. Well, our delightfully energetic and tiny 'housekeeper' took the lead and headed right into the brambles up the rocky pathway straight to the heart of the mountain. Fortunately, I'd dressed for the occasion with long sleeves, long pants, and my trusty baseball cap. She set a pace that we were all challenged by. Aren't we supposed to be the young fit ones? Ha!
We were on a quest for a mountain spring. I'd heard about this spring where the water rushed out of the mountain that people walked significant distances to in order to get the 'sweet' mountain water. So we trekked up the twisty, rocky, hot path. Eventually, we make it. What a surprise. I had imagined a deep crystal clear creek flowing rapidly down rocks with dragon flies and flowers all around. Instead, a white PVC pipe was poking out of the hill with a thin trickle of water flowing into a mucky, muddy puddle. My first thought was, "How are we going to get a huge jug of water down that path without breaking our necks?!" However I kept it to myself and began helping to fill up the smaller bottles and transferring the water into the large jug. Mosquito kamakazi flyers attacked, occasional pebbles crashed to our feet from the mountain top, and our own thirst mounted. It was a HOT day! How I longed to gulp that cold mountain water. But I knew if I did, I might be bathroom ridden for the rest of the trip (maybe a slight exaggeration). So everyone took long drinks, I was strong-somewhat of my own personal martyr- and we filled all of the jugs and bottles. By this point, several other locals were waiting in line behind us to fill their own jugs. Still wondering how on earth we would manage the jugs safely, our 'housekeeper' began to climb into the backpack. I complained loudly only able to say, "I can! I can!" To which she replied, "I can, too! I can, too!" When I entreated my colleagues, they shrugged their shoulders and just stayed close to her. Apparently, she had made up her mind. However, I was greatly relieved to see that there was a much wider, smoother, and flatter path for the way down. Additionally, after about 3 minutes, our housekeeper sat down, unstrapped herself from the jug laden backpack and let another person climb in and strap down. Everyone took turns carrying the monster backpack back to the temple.
Happy to be back, everyone grabbed their cups and began slurping the good mountain water. I, on the other hand, went to fill up my cup with the boiling water from the thermos that we normally use for drinking water. I got a couple of strange looks, but no one comments on my steaming cup while there was finally a cold beverage available.

I still can't help but think back to my 4th grade science class when we talked about why it's not a good idea to drink out of mountain streams. Fortunately, I'm learning to keep my mouth shut (some of the time anyway), and I haven't seen anyone suffering from digestive issues. I on the other hand, have finally begun to experience the need to stay very, very close to the restroom. Any movement in the abdominal area sends me sprinting to the privacy of my own bathroom. I'm so grateful for antibacterial soap and running water. I have a 45 minute car ride back to the Fragrant Hills retreat tonight. Yes, I am wondering how I will manage. I think I'm going to look up the words for, "Pull over now!" :)

More pictures to come.