Is The New Really New, Or Just The Old Again?

All of Thursday was devoted to travel. Our first stop was at a church close to an hour outside of town to greet a Baptist pastor. [Later in the day he would serve as a contact for us.] We wound our way through Syriyam to the Pagoda in the River. Originally built on an island in the middle of the river, this pagoda was quite large with about 8 separate buildings. We started by feeding popcorn to the rubber/butter fish which look like very ugly catfish. We wandered around the pagoda noting the painted panels of a king's dream imagined ~600 years ago. Depictions showed the moral depravity and decline of the population where everything was opposite how it should be--the frog was eating the snake, people cheated instead of helping each other, ponds were deep at the edges and shallow in the middle. Some of the local people who occasionally join us on our travel outings mentioned that it was interesting how this dream happened so long ago and now it was coming true. Seriously....when have humans ever shared peacefully and not cheated one another?? I did find my day of birth corner which is where I would sit and pray if I was a Buddhist.

From here we traveled to see ancient ruins of a Portuguese church from 1749. This was not overly exciting as it was high weeds around the ruins and a crumbling brick structure. The highlight was the tomb of an Armenian buried inside the ruins. This is where we met up with the local Baptist pastor who helped us gain access to the location since it is guarded.