The next morning dawned bright and clear after the night's rain. After a hearty breakfast, we said goodbye to Ananda and trudged on. We were following the river of course and enjoying the scenery as well
The first few hours of our morning journey were uneventful and we stopped for lunch at about 11 a.m. We were enjoying some sandwiches and tea when quite unexpectedly the sky darkened again and a sudden storm descended on us. Heavy rain forced us to run for shelter under the trees and then we saw to our horror that the river had burst its banks and water was surging towards us in huge waves!
It was so sudden that we didn't know what to do. Just as we thought we were going to be swept away, the waves miraculously stopped at our feet, then receded. We couldn't believe our eyes! By the grace of the Lord Buddha again, we were saved from being swept away and ending in a watery grave! The nurses were in a state of shock and awe, they had never seen anything like this before in their lives!
As for the nuns, I must say they had fared very well despite all that had happened so far. They had great faith in the Buddha and was confident nothing untoward would happen to them. As APK said, "Sticks and stones may break our bones but we shall carry on until we complete our mission."
Then we came to this part of the river which we had never been to before. There was a small community there too but unfortunately, they were not very friendly and looked at us with suspicion. We heard remarks like "They're scammers pretending to be nuns" and "They only want our money", things like that. It was most disheartening but APK like a good leader calmly and lovingly spoke to them and soon we had a small congregation at our feet! As it turned out, they were thirsty for spiritual knowledge and begged APK to continue speaking.
We left that village some two hours later. It was already late afternoon and we had to find a place to sleep for the night. We looked around but there was nothing but wilderness.
Fortunately the two nurses had brought along a tent which they had used in their camping days and amazingly, it was big enough for all eight of us! So after some prayers and a simple dinner, we squeezed into the tent to sleep. We were all tired because of the heat and soon fell asleep.
Then suddenly screams came from one of the nuns in the middle of the night! She had got up to drink some water and taken a peep outside the tent....
Startled, we all sat up and looked in the direction she pointed.... and saw to our horror dozens of orangey red eyes staring at us in the dark! One of the nuns started chanting "Ah Mi Tuo Fo" and the rest of us followed, our voices trembling. We couldn't tell who or what they were - perhaps hungry wolves or coyotes - it looked like we were doomed! Frightened, we pulled our blankets over our heads and continued chanting loudly.
Then a voice spoke. "Do not be afraid. We are the guardians of this part of the forest. We are protecting you and making sure you are safe."
We were amazed to hear that and cautiously peeped through our blankets. The orangey red eyes had gone after assuring us that we would be safe and we went back to sleep, feeling much better.
And so ended Day 2 of our Walk for Peace.
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