We spent most of the day at Mercy. We spent some time in the morning helping the people in the art gallery translate some things for the auction. Next it was time to finally figure out our time table. We were originally scheduled to work every day, and during the week days work from 8am to 8pm. However, between the three of us we were able to figure out a better schedule so Misty and I have one day off (Monday). We are going to have to start saying no as our schedules are jam packed. We are teaching from 8am to 8 pm, Tuesday to Friday, with a short break for breakfast, lunch and supper. On top of that we need to do a weekly progress report for every student we teach, as well as make up lesson plans for children to some of the adult staff.
We spent most of the day teaching one of the applicants for Norway. She finds out tomorrow if she is the one selected to go.
We went to visit the children and adults on the AIDS wards. One of the ladies made us a bracelet with our name on it. It is really nice. She spent so much time with little details, even decorating the bag she put it in.
We also found out that the man I visited a lot on the ward was taken to the hospital. He is not well, but the other patients were unable to translate when he went and how bad things really are.
For breakfast today we cheated and went to 7 eleven for some milk for our cereal. We need to eventually work ourselves into eating salty rice soup for breakfast. For lunch we had what we called the Thai version of Mr. Noodle. It was okay, however we were pretty excited to find out that the hard boiled eggs that were being served were just plain eggs!!! No added salt or spices!! Even though I have never been a huge fan of eggs, it held me over today. For supper we walked to Tesco and had McDonalds. I'm sorry George, but we were dying. We were going to shop at Tesco for some fruit and vegetables but they would not let us take our book bags in, and we did not want to leave our laptop and camera alone so we left and walked home.
We finally have a cell phone!!! I'll pass the number along.
Today was not as warm as the past few days, the only time I checked today it was 26 degrees.
Since I do not have too much news from the day I'll tell you some stories and things about the culture. People here do not eat a lot of meat, mostly just chicken and fish. Keep in mind that when they do eat meat, they eat ALL of it. (I was a little shocked to find chicken knuckles in my soup). When a place setting is set for supper, a fork and spoon are the only utensils used. The spoon is used for putting your food in your mouth, and the fork is for putting the food on the spoon. The fork never enters your mouth.
Also, when people enter buildings, you are to always take your shoes off at the door. Your head is the most sacred part of your body and you are not to touch someone's head. The feet on the other hand are the opposite. It is offensive to touch someone's feet or legs. It is also offensive to point your feet towards someone.
There are stray dogs EVERYWHERE!!! They will not put them to sleep because of their religion. They believe that the dogs could be a relative that was reincarnated.
One of the boys who walked us home yesterday (SaiChum), has had a rough life. When he was a year old both of his parents died. Him and his sister were left to fend for themselves in the garbage and rubbish of the Bangkok streets. Because of the unsanitary living conditions, his eye sight has been severely affected and he is almost completely blind. The condition will continue to get worse until he will lose his eye sight. Also, the living conditions have affected his skin and most of his skin ...
This morning we met Jerry Hopkins, a famous author and had a conversation with Father Joe. He spoke of the the "sea gypsies" that will be coming to stay with us in April. These youth are from the Tsunami ruined area. He also told us about Galong, who will be turning 40 soon. He only has two teeth left and is losing them because of his age. Galong has Down Syndrome and is only expected to live a few more years. His life span has been quite long so far because he is well fed. Galong attends kindergarten for the 14th year in a row. The structure helps him cope with day to day living. Father Joe also expressed his thoughts on the welcoming of a young pregnant girl living on the streets. She will be coming to live with us at the Mercy Centre soon.
Let me tell you a little bit more about Galong. Not a lot is known about Galong's history as he was found sleeping on the sidewalk in front of a sleazy back street bar. The name Galong means "a little bird that has lost its way" in Thai. Someone at Mercy named him because when he was found he did not have any documents, nor did he know his name. I already told you that he draws every morning, however even though he draws the same thing every day, Galong also has quite the imagination. He has an imaginary motorbike that he rides everywhere. He will even show you a picture of him riding this motorbike. However, Galong has been quite sad lately as he has lost his imaginary motorbike. This is difficult because how do you even begin looking for such a thing? Galong engages everyone at Mercy in his war play. He pretends to throw fake bombs at people to blow them up. I don't know when or why this started.
cocktail of drugs for all of the aids patients at 6 pm every night. Throughout the night they are checked every hour.
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