Above: Me and Gelong in the graphic art room for the afternoon. I don't know why but he insisted on that pose.Below: Momma and I.
Mercy was full of excitement today. I arrived ready to teach my first class but went upstairs to find a locked door and a rearranged room. Thankfully my students were so excited about class that they got someone to open the door (this is what I’d like to believe anyways). We had a problem with the air conditioner, and instead of making the room cooler, it was actually making it warmer. By the end of the class we were all fanning ourselves off with paper, and had the windows wide open.
While waiting for our next class, I checked my email. Uma brought Frank to the door of the computer lab, and I went out to stay hello. They usually stop and say hi to me every morning. Frank does not talk. Frank grew up as a Mercy boy, calling Mercy 1 his home. He was at the top of his class both academically and sports wise. He was one of the best football (soccer) players that Mercy ever had and was incredibly outgoing. The house parents described him as being good at everything. About 8 months ago, Frank left Mercy 1 and moved to his new home - the adults AIDS hospice. He sure sticks out among all of the other patients, and not because of AIDS but because he is only 17 years old. Some may say that Frank is lucky because he does not have AIDS. However, Frank is paralyzed. He lost his ability to talk, and move anything, aside from his eyes. His body is nothing but skin and bones, without any muscle mass or fat.
Frank had his own little secret. He sniffed glue. He did it secretly at first whenever he left Mercy. However, one day 8 months ago, Frank sniffed too much, damaging his brain and losing all control over his body. Today, 8 months later, Frank is getting a little better day by day. He relies on others to push him around in a wheelchair, and is still not able to really move. His head is held straight between two cushions on the chair. His arms are still and fixed in an upward position. He is bedridden most of the day. He responds to touch with a small spasm or a big smile. He is now able to move his arm about an inch forward to give me a high five. Hopefully in the next month or so he will be able to meet me halfway. And hopefully, with more medication he some day will be able to play soccer again. But right now, we can only take each day as it comes, one small step at a time. Please pray for him.
Uma says Frank is in love with me. He clamps onto my hand and doesn’t let go. Apparently he only does this when he really likes someone. I try to imagine what he was like when he was well but I cannot even imagine. I have never seen someone so thin in all of my life. You can see every joint. I cannot even begin to describe him. Frank experimented like most teenagers do; just one day things went terribly wrong. I have to ask myself; how did he come to this? What was so appealing about the high he got from glue that was worth risking his life over? Did he know how life changing it would turn out to be? Or did he think it wouldn’t happen to him? How did he start sniffing? Did other sniff with him? What is he capable of now…is he still mentally competent? Will he ever fully recover? Will he ever play soccer again?
Momma and Nancy have been fighting for the past 3 days.
On our walk to preschool Misty and I had a good laugh as a young boy was standing on a bar in the phone booth, barefooted, wearing only shorts. He was standing on the bar to make him tall enough to reach the phone. I enjoyed watching him lean against the booth to hold himself up, while looking like he was having a very important adult conversation.
We arrived at the preschool, right on Thai time (about 10 minutes late). Thai time allows for lateness as well as provides you with as much extra time as you want to make stops on the way to your final destination, whether it is to talk to someone or to shop. If anyone ever questions your tardiness, you say you were stuck in traffic.
At preschool we were teaching upstairs again. This time we had a class of 39 very excited and energetic children. Some days we have lots of children and other days very few, so we did not have enough sheets copied. Once again we had to improvise. It was a sweaty experience.
On our way home from preschool we stopped at the little coffee and smoothie shop we discovered a couple of weeks ago. We thought it would be a nice way to cool off with a nice refreshing smoothie. However, instead of enjoying a nice refreshing drink, we found ourselves in a race against ‘the melt.’ It won.
We had lunch with the adults in the AIDS hospice. Uma and Tui asked if we could teach them English too because they wanted to learn some important things like “I love you. I miss you.” We knew they were up to no good, so we told them that we would teach them BUT we were only available at 4 am. We soon found out they were not too serious about learning.
Momma asked if she could paint my nails again. I guess it is my own fault for taking the old nail polish off too soon. I told her she could paint but “no cut.” Tui picked out the color. He felt the yellow color would look ‘swai’ (beautiful) with my skin color. Agreeing with what he decided, momma set to work. I soon found out I was getting the ‘jaundice’ look. My hands look like a sick infant. Momma topped it off with her sparkles. So mom, you were right, one more week of Momma, meant one more manicure.
I walked Takatan to school after lunch. She came to give a hug and kiss during lunch hour, but needed to get back. She wrapped her arms around me in a warm embrace, and away we went. All of the other children in the Mercy preschool were already having their afternoon naps. It is so cute when they do this as they are all curled up on the floor together. I will get a picture of it one of these days.
Anyways, I brought Takatan to the last classroom on the bottom floor, only to later find out that her class is apparently upstairs. Hopefully she found her way. I can see why parents get so emotional when they drop their babies off at school for the first time. When I looked back in the classroom, there she was standing, waving, with the saddest look in her eyes, while all the other children slept around her.
This afternoon we took Father Joe’s Aunt Betty to a Japanese cake house that SiJie discovered when she first arrived. Misty and I have both been there before. It is a small little place off one of the side streets. If you did not know it was there you could easily walk by it. However, the place is always packed. They were all sold out of the chocolate cakes so I settled for a pumpkin cheesecake…or so I thought it was a pumpkin cheese cake. It turned out to be custard. Having never had custard before I was not accustomed to the eggy taste so did not enjoy it every much. We had a nice chat. Betty liked to play cards and mentioned the card game called Phase 10, thinking I would have never heard of it. However, thanks to the youth at the IWK this summer, not only have I heard of it, I’d like to think I’m a pro. We made plans to play some evening this week.
The pond outside Father Joe’s house is now the home of two large fish. It has always had fish, but these things are gigantic. They were hand raised. It was nice to see the children crowd around it after school was dismissed to watch the fish. Even though the fish are ugly (Father Joe agrees), the children’s faces were well worth it.
Today I spent most of the day dreaming of what I want to do when I arrive back in
Ning was admitted back to the hospital last night. This time back to where she has social assistance. This morning my class told me about how their health care system works. People buy insurance in a particular hospital. If they get sick, they can get free services at that hospital. However, if they require a private room, it is TBH 1500 a day. Insurance is the highest level of coverage you can have. Second is social assistance. This is usually paid into when you are working somewhere. Everything is also free. Finally there is the gold card which is given to those who cannot afford the other two options. Basically, those living in poverty. Although this card shows that they have financial help, someone with this card is not guaranteed care, and if they receive care, it will not amount to the care if they had one of the other cards. If two people show up at the hospital at the same time, the person with insurance will be helped first, even if their condition is less severe.
Also, since insurance or assistance are only bought in one hospital, it means that if you are not close to where your hospital is and you get sick, you are required to pay, whether you have insurance from another place or not. This is why Ning had to pay for the care she already received, because she was not at the hospital she has assistance with.
Another tad bit of information: a visit to the doctor around the slums is TBH 300 (so about $10).
The dance teacher from Mercy is still in the hospital, and still in a coma. It is not looking good. If he wakes he will have suffered major brain damage. Please pray for both of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment