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 30th 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.
