Ghosts

Yesterday Lam, the president and founder of Farmer Community School where I volunteer and live, was telling me about ghosts in the village. Right now, men are hanging red shirts in front of their houses because a lot of men have been dying lately and they believe that a lady ghost comes to find a husband and kills the men so they can be her husband. But she is afraid of red, so the shirts keep her away. Last year she was in Plaboo, where I am, and nearby villages and 16 men died. 

Lam has a ghost in her house but he is good and protects them. 

Before I came, they gave food to the ghost in my house and asked permission for me to live there and for him to protect me.

There is a girl who works here who can't live in her house right now because she did something the ghost didn't like. They had monks and Lam's mom and dad go to the house and pray and ask forgiveness for what she did. 

There is a forest down the road that ALL the other ghosts are in. Lam said it's next to where I run sometimes but it should be ok because I don't go at night. But no one is allowed to go in the forest to use any plants or dump compost or anything without asking permission first because if you do, you get sick immediately after; it happened last year to a woman here.

There are also these necklace type totems that frame various monks they hang from their car mirror or around their necks that is suppose to protect them from ghosts and bad things happening (car accidents, sickness...). The old tattoos and artists, done by hand, have the power to protect you from ghosts and bad things. Lam says they're really hard to find now and that everyone uses the electric ones like we have in the U.S., but they don't mean anything. But there is an older man in my village who still does the old tattoos.

Neato, huh? :)

I thought it was interesting that a lot of people in the US believe in ghosts and will have priests or mediums come to get them out of their house because they're bad. But if good things are happening/nothing bad has happened, no one really thinks it's because of a ghost looking out for them.

Well I guess sometimes people are like "oh someone's looking out for me" meaning like their late family or something. But Lam doesn't know the ghost in her house, he's just a random spirit who is good to them.