This is the day for the 3rd 7th day ritual. Mom’s god daughter 小花 told us she wants to host this one. The 3rd one is supposed to be hosted by the daughters. The schedule starts at 9:30am. Both of us got there before 9:30. We waited for Mr Liu and then the prayers. Again, they were late and we didn’t start till after 10am. We burned the incense first to mom and moved her name plate to a small temple 念佛寺. Two more prayers were waiting there for us. They prepared three meat dishes, chicken, pork and fish, and I think 24 small dishes of vegetables.
There are Budda statues in gold in the middle of the temple, then different tables were set up for different family to use for their rituals. We placed mom’s name plate on one and there is another incense urn for the god that guards the death door. They prayed for over an hour and after we threw the coins to see if mom has received the prayer, we took her plate back to the room all the plates are temporarily placed waiting for the funeral and came back and burned the paper money for her. There are two places to burn the paper money, one for the gold money and one for the silver money.
During the breaks, Mr. Liu saw me drinking tea out of my water bottle, he told me he will give me some 普洱 which is good for losing weight. 小花 also wanted some, and Nikon said he wanted some too. He told Liu to go back and get it then. He came back during the next break with 3 kinds of 普洱 tea. The big cake is for nikon which seems the best, one for me is half roasted, one for 小花 is fully roasted. We insisted on paying, he said then it’s $500NT for each. 小花 got out $1000 and insisted on paying for it. Nikon didn’t pay any.
After the ritual, we went to a restaurant Liu suggested for lunch. We finally gave the money 小花 paid for the ritual back to her after Liu told her to use it to burn some paper money for mom in the future. I hated arguing about money with her. She is the kind that would physically push and shove the money back and forth with you. I hated it. I’m glad Liu provided her some excuse to take the money back. It’s not that she really wants to pay for things, but she will put on a show for it, and if you find the way for her to step down, she will gladly take it.
At the temple, I kept feeling stings on my right foot. After the shower the next morning, I looked at my foot and noticed some red spots on it. So I put some mosquito itch ointment on it and got out the door to the funeral home. When I came back in the afternoon, I looked at my foot and noticed lots of red spots on my right foot. After counting, it’s well over 30! The temple must be infested with fleas. It’s built next to the mountain and its slated to be torn down soon. My poor foot again. Mosquitos and fleas love me.