Smiling is universal...

          I was lucky enough to be with some people who could speak English. Not everyone could, of course, and among those who could, some were too shy (or not interested maybe ^^) to talk with me. But 4 of the guys and a fair number of monks were able to actually have some talk with me, from the really good one (Phra Sit, Helli, Phra Sanet) to a simple mumbling of simple words.

           But we don't always need to speak to be understood. Where English didn't exist, smiling was doing it all. How many times... On the markets, in the villages, with the monks... how many times did we just say 3 words before looking at each other, laughing and shrugging as if to say "it doesn't matter" ?
            A smile shared with 2 old grannies, in front of the bowl of soup they just gave to you... In the market, the laugh of this little girl when you show her the picture you just took of her... The glances exchanged with some novices in a temple... The wild grunts to scare the children you are playing with... or rather to make them laugh...
            All of this is more important than a thousand words. Communication is mostly wordless and we tend to rely too much on our tongue, forgetting all the rest. This trip reminded me of it, among other things.