Monks on their way to morning alms

I've had the opportunity to observe and talk with quite a few monks here, and they're really not what I expected. In the West, we (or at least I) have a notion of Buddhist monks being deeply spiritual living piously and leading their people into nirvana. But the reality, at least in Myanmar, is that they're just guys who belch and spit a lot like everyone else, but who happen to be wearing orange robes. Nobody seems to pay them any special attention or treat them differently when they see them walking around. Unless you get up early enough to see the monks going around in long lines to restaurants for their morning alms. Maybe this apparent lack of respect is because, unlike Western holy men, all monks don't devote their entire lives to religion. You can become a monk whenever you want, for as long as you like. Also, everyone is a monk for awhile. First, between the ages of 8 and 12, kids wear red robes of novice monks (who are remarkably well behaved). Then, later in life, adults wear the orange robes for awhile, maybe for as little as two weeks, to accrue merit for themselves and their family. So when a lay Burmese sees a monk, it's no big dead, since he was one too. And theirs so damn many of them.

Then there’s a more cynical theory. Maybe they're just poor people escaping their life of poverty by entering a monastery.