Busy Weekend

Thursday

So much has happened in the past few days that I do not even know where to begin to reflect on it all. As you have read in the previous posts, many goodbyes have already begun. I said goodbye to Momma, a woman I have come to admire and love. I have never met someone who seems to be overflowing with so much emotion that it shows in everything she does. There was something about that woman’s smile that grabbed my heart and continues to push me every day. It is strange really; we did not speak the same language yet were able to communicate so much without words. Momma has inspired me in more ways than her and I both know. I worry that over time I will forget the glow of her eyes and she greeted me. But I also know over time I will not cease to think of her and try to picture her in her daily life.

Chris also left this week, and soon SiJie will be leaving too. It feels almost as if Misty and I will be alone again. Last night we noticed this silence and we sat in bed, half expecting SiJie to come in at any moment and spill about her day and the happenings of Mercy.

Goodbyes are a part of life. I have come to understand that, but it does not make them any easier. I am just beginning to learn how to think more positively, not about the goodbye but about the moments I have been able to share with these people.

SiChon has been attending school for the blind for about 2 weeks now. He boards there during the week and comes home on the weekends. SiJie asked him how he thought of the school. We were all struck by his response. “I finally feel like I belong. I have friends, whom I can help and show things to. At Mercy I am nothing. At school I am someone.” Pretty powerful thoughts from a young teenager.

Our friend from the AIDS hospice has finally come back after a month in the hospital. Today when I saw her she came running with open arms. She was in such a cheerful mood and so happy to be back. She looked well. Her English is quite good, so we had a nice conversation. Already the patients have been talking about our departure. We promised them that even after our last day when we are finished at Mercy that we will be back to visit them. I have been thinking about seeing if we could have a Karaoke party with them, as they love to sing and dance with us.

Our pregnant momma in the AIDS hospice is doing well. She found out she is going to have a little boy around the 18th of July. She promised she is going to try her best to have it before we come, but does not think it is going to be possible. The other patients assured us that they would take pictures right away and send them to us. Her little boy is going to be very loved.

I had a nice talk with Nancy today. Like me, she is having a hard time saying all of the goodbyes. She became very teary eyed when talking about how she is going to feel when we too are gone. She described us all as one big family now. Only momma has now left, and soon 3 of his sister’s will leave. But we also need to look at the positive: God allowed us to have another little new addition. ☺ It was nice to think of us as one big family, as that is how we treat each other. I especially love sitting around at lunch time sharing a meal together.

SiJie’s mom is here now. It is kind of strange to see everything through her eyes again, and remember how new everything for us was when we first arrived. A lot of things feel so familiar and comforting now. Even yesterday when 2 police officers pulled up to me on their motorbike as I walked back home on Soi 38, to tell me that “Danger” while pointing to my purse; it seemed strange to me as this is my neighborhood and I have walked here before. Yes, we do try and stay in at night or take a taxi but I have never felt unsafe here.

Yesterday morning I had a discussion in my adult class about homelessness. We were working on a story where a man pretended to have no money, however he approached the same man twice asking for money so the man decided to get him back. He invited him into a restaurant and told him to order what he wanted as he said he hasn’t eaten in 24 hours. The man made his order and then the other man asked the waiter to double it all, considering his friend was starving. In the end it turned out that the man was a con, and was actually just in the restaurant. It had a good ending, as he was tricked into paying for his own food and everyone found out he was a scam.

This story lead to conversations about beggars. I was reading in the Thai newspaper the other day that there was a man on Sukumvuit who pretended that he had no arms. He sits on the stairs of the BTS everyday, holding his cup in his mouth. However, the way he sits allows for him to hide his arms behind his back. When I hear stories like this I don’t know whether to give them money because I feel sorry for them to even consider such a thing, or whether I should give money because they are so good at what they do that they fool everyone and I should therefore pay to see the show.

My class talked about how they only give money to people who look really poor. I wonder what a poor person would look like. How could you possibly tell if someone looked really poor, who has the right to judge that? They also told me how some times you see a whole family sitting on the streets, first a mother, than down a bit a father, and then even farther a few children. I remember one time seeing a woman holding her child. From a distance I could see the child laughing and playing with her mother. As we approached she lay across her mother’s lap with her hand on her forehead, while her mother held the cup. Interesting.

Our conversations lead to a conversation on mutilation. Sometimes you see children whose arms or legs have been severed. I have seen it a few times that it seemed strange to me that so many children could have been born like this, looking almost the same. But in this world, children are not always born like this. Instead a “team” or so my class described it, watch people with their children; in the grocery stores, in the markets, on the streets…As soon as the caregiver is not looking, the team kidnaps the child. From there the child is taken back to the rest of the team where the unimaginable happens, and then the child is shipped off to another team member in another place where they will be employed on the streets as a worker for the team. I am sorry if this is upsetting to read, but I want people to be aware. Our world is far from perfect.

Speaking of our wonderful world, my class informed me that millions of people live in Thai slums. In Thailand there are over 1000 slums, 100 being in Bangkok alone. Most of the population of the slums in the city are family members of farmers who moved from the country looking for work after facing hardships from trying to work the land. Khlong Toei is the largest area of slums in Bangkok, made up of 30 slums which house the poorest of the poor. It is in this area that we live and work.



Friday –

It is now Sunday evening, and I have not even kept track of the past few days so that I could write about them. I am going to try to remember, but I think I will be lacking in the details. Heather arrived Thursday night, but we were unable to see her. Friday morning Misty and I both went to Mercy to teach our morning classes. We hung around Mercy until noon and then met Heather for the afternoon. We took her on a songtheaw to Mercy where she joined us for our afternoon classes. She did not really get to observe us much because all of our students were writing a test.

Classes lasted a little longer than usual because I was working with one of my students on an assessment test for Singapore. After class we spent some time chatting with our students. They are going to teach me some Thai cooking sometime next week. This cooking lesson also includes a morning trip to the market to buy all of the ingredients. I am very excited as I have been thinking of taking a cooking class before I go home, but there are certain things Id really like to know how to make, so my class will be tailored to me.

We went to see the children in Mercy 6. When we arrived upstairs they were all lining up for their medication. They receive medication every evening at 6 pm. My buddy is feeling a lot better now; I was able to tell when he ran up to me with the biggest smile on his face, waiting to be picked up. We joined the young children for their dance aerobics class before supper. This involves a music cd, and a lot of funny dancing. It was nice to see NomPare dancing as well, even though she needed to be held up by a teacher. At 8 years old she cannot stand on her own. Sometimes I have to remind myself that she is 8, as she has the body of a 3 year old and the ability of a newborn. Now that she is attending school for the blind she has been a little more independent with her daily tasks, such as feeding herself. Hopefully she will continue to improve in her own self care with time.

After our dance party we had a karaoke party with the staff in the AIDS office. Yord, Pie, Misty, and I belted out some love ballads. Next week we have a karaoke date. I should mention that in Thailand karaoke is very big, and you can rent out rooms at the mall to sing. It is as popular as bowling or seeing a movie.

In the evening we joined SiJie, her mother and Cedric for some food and beer at the Dubliner. We went here to celebrate SiJie’s last Dubliner’s night with Lee Shamrock, but we were disappointed to find out that he went on a one month vacation to California. The night was still very enjoyable and it was nice to sit and catch up on all the latest happenings.


Saturday

Saturday was a very eventful, jammed packed day. In the morning Misty and I walked with the boys to Soi 40 for mass. During the mass Father always asks if anyone is in the hospital or died in the past week. He also went around asking the children who has lost a parent that we have not had a memorial for. In a few days time we will have a large service, where we will all wear black and pray for those who have passed away. I too have a few dear friends to pray for.

After mass we met up with Heather and ventured out to the Grand Palace. However, we soon found out that we were actually dropped off by the taxi at the Reclining Buddha, which is right next door to the Grand Palace. We adjusted our plans and decided to check it out. Misty and I have been here before so it was not overly exciting for us. Heather got a massage at the Thai massage school. She highly recommended it; coming out saying that it was the best massage she has ever had in her life. So for those of you who are interested, that is the place to go.

After seeing all we could see here we walked to the Grand Palace. As we walked around the outside gate we passed several entrances. Finally at one this man approached and told us that Heather would need to cover up her shoulders and Misty needed to wear a skirt. From what I know, usually this stuff is provided in the entrance. He then went on to tell us that the main part of the Palace was closed for the afternoon because there was a special Thai ceremony going on, and all of the Thais were there praying, so it was not open to the public. BUT…if we wanted to get on a 10 Baht tuk tuk we could go see 3 different tourist sights for free! Pretty amazing considering they usually cost a couple of hundred Baht each. Nice try buddy…red flag went up. There is no such thing as a 10 baht ride anywhere, ESPECIALLY not on a tuk tuk. We kept walking and sure enough we found the main gate, and everything was business as usual. The Grand Palace was amazing. Most of the Grand Palace’s interiors are inaccessible to public view, but the exteriors are still awesome to witness.

After our royal adventure, we took a bus to Sukumvuit where we went to Siam Paragon (best hi-so shopping mall in all of Bangkok). We had supper here, which consisted of a chicken wrap. I can honestly say it was the best wrap I have ever tasted. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

We followed our lovely supper with a girl’s movie night. The three of us went to watch Sex in the City. Having never seen the show before, I was quite impressed. I highly recommend this movie to all you ladies out there. Just a warning though, make sure you see the movie after the malls have closed as you will find you are in a major shopping mood.

Sunday

That shopping mood I spoke of on Saturday was satisfied on Sunday when we went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. This is reputed to be the largest market in the world, with over 40 000 vendors and attracting 400 000 visitors each weekend. We shopped as last as we possibly could, spending from 8 am to 3 pm on our feet with a short stop for lunch. When shopping here it is advisable to get an early start to beat the soaring heat and ensuing claustrophobia. This market has everything from crafts, home décor, and clothing to flowers and even pets. It was incredibly hot today so the heat was bad, but the shopping was good. I’m proud to say I am the new owner of a dress and a leather belt.

We had to leave the market a little earlier than we would have liked, but we had some very important business to attend to. Misty and I brought SiJie to the airport along with P. Ning, and one of the preschool teachers. It still has not hit me that she is gone yet.

After we brought SiJie to the airport we took Heather to Soi 38 for dinner.

Monday

Monday morning started off with us going to Mercy for a meeting. Even though it was our day off, we had to attend a meeting with our bosses about one of the students we teach. Thankfully it did not last long.

We spent some time with Nancy, chatting about the differences between Thailand and Canada. We sang her the national anthem. I never really realized but our anthem is very slow and sad sounding, compared to others such as the happy, upbeat, Thai anthem. The adults asked us if we would come back to Thailand again soon. This lead to a conversation on how much an actual ticket to Thailand costs. Sadly, a return trip from Canada to Thailand is equivalent to a year’s pay for most people here. I cannot even imagine.

We met Heather at noon and hopped on the BTS. We were delighted to have another juicy wrap for lunch. Yes, I know it was the second time this weekend but it was just sooo good. I crave western food every once in a while. After our much needed stop we went to find a bus to take us the rest of the way. Unfortunately it started raining so we had to wait before beginning the rest of our afternoon. We tried to kill some time at the MBK teen shopping mall. This place looks like one of the markets, but in the set-up of a mall. Heather described some of the stores best when she said “this shoe store looks like a closet threw up.” Most of the little stores are jammed full of everything that it is an eye-sore. Since we know what the cost of most things should be, we also find a lot of things to be slightly overpriced.

After the rain stopped we continued on with our adventure, jumping on bus 47 and going to the Temple of Dawn. I remember roughly what the ferry terminal should look like, so I knew we were not in the right place when we got off the bus. I did not enjoy having people come up to me to try and sell incredibly overpriced boat rides. One woman persisted to tell me that her 200 baht ferry was the only ferry across the water to the temple. Thankfully I found someone who was not in the business of selling anything to give me directions to the correct pier, which was about a 5 minute walk down the road. When we arrived it felt more familiar, and the 3.50 Baht ferry ride was much more acceptable.

In about 2 seconds we were across the river and off the ferry again. We explored the temple but were disappointed as the top section of it was closed so we could only climb half way up. The views were not as impressive as they were last time when we were able to go all the way.

We took a river boat shuttle down the river to Siam Paragon in the afternoon where we had a lovely supper (I was the only one who liked my food…I guess this is why you should go Thai in Thailand…P.S. Mom, you’d love what I had, it was all curry!). After supper we decided we should end off our weekend the same way it began, SWENSENS! We ordered a chocolate fondue. I had to laugh when we each picked out 3 flavors of ice cream, and then the ice cream came and it all contained chocolate except for one.

After stuffing ourselves with ice cream we decided to try and make ourselves feel better by shopping. Thankfully none of us bought anything, as I think our visas would hate us considering the prices of things in that mall. (Think: Burberry, D&G, Prada, MANGO, Jimmy Choo…)

We arrived back at Soi 40 to find out that we have another volunteer now living in SiJie’s room. His name is EJ and he comes from the Philippines. He is doing his high school in Thailand and is here for a month to volunteer as part of the community service hours he needs to graduate. Tomorrow morning we will show him how to get to Mercy.

As you can see from our weekend we had a great time, but I am exhausted. We managed to take almost every form of transportation available, besides a taxi motorbike and a tuk tuk. I am glad we got to show Heather the real Thailand.