康小詩的貓窩

Celebration of Shakyamuni Buddha's Birthday( this  photo came from:/www.cttbusa.org/   )

  a sight of “Ten Thousand Buddhas Jeweled Repentance” ( 萬佛寶懺 ) ( this     photo came from:/www.cttbusa.org/   )

3        Five Contemplations Dining Hall (五觀堂)   

 They cook with huge cooking pots.

Many volunteers are cutting vegetables.

  Lunch time 

I washed big basins.

3        0522  I’m making herb tea.(I’m the “other kind ” artist. )

          My Work in CTTB

2009 is a busy year in CTTB, they are going to celebrate CTTB’s 30^th anniversary, therefore there are many Dharma assemblies in this year.

I was a volunteer teacher here in 1996, so I also applied for a volunteer teacher job in the beginning this time, but finally I postponed my schedule due to my mother’s sickness.  Besides, I am also bothered by sore throat often.  Which place needs most workers?  The answer is “kitchen”, so I become a kitchen-maid in CTTB at last.  It’s a big challenge to me, because I have only cooked for 2-3 persons since I got married.

I work at “Five Contemplations Dining Hall”( 五 觀 堂*) which is connect with kitchen. 

The first day I worked in kitchen was Shakyamuni Buddha’s Birthday, a great celebration was held then.  More than one thousand visitors came here, and I helped to wash dishes.  The dishes are different than what we have at home.  They look more like basins, and made of stainless steel ─ quite large and heavy (the shape is rectangular).  We (a dish-wash team working like a producing line) washed a lot of dishes everyday, A-Mi-Ta-Fwo!  I peeled apples on the second day, about 100 apples, A-Mi-Ta-Fwo again!

I do other works sometimes, such as cutting different kinds fruits or peeling potatoes, carrots, etc.  Anyway, there are always a big amount of fruits or vegetables. I’m kind of clumsy in the beginning, but now is better. Day after day, I learned more things at kitchen.

Several hundreds people came here during “Ten Thousand Buddhas Jeweled Repentance” (萬 佛 寶 懺, , A great assembly, 26 April to 19 May ), I helped to cook a lot of herb tea in every afternoon.  It is even a big and hard job by cooking tea! (you can see and understand how hard it is from the picture).  Usually, I used a big pot to cook, than separated the soup and dregs (It takes a couple of hours.). When I do this, I think I’m doing some artwork. 

I’m used to these things now. I’m glad to do these things for many people.

I also found a garden at the back yard of my dorm, but nobody takes care of it, so I decided to look after it.  I pull up the weeds and water the flowers often, the garden looks much better right now.

* Five Contemplations Dining Hall:

         The dining hall constructed in the fall of 1982, and enjoys ample natural lighting and ventilation.  It can seat 2,000 people to eat meal.