Chris is off to work. He has worked late every night this week getting home around 9 or 10 or later, and since a few things happened yesterday, he has to go in to work today. It really surprises me how he doesn't really mind. He loves the work, and they are doing something really big right now---meeting a deadline or something. Anyway, it is just as well because I feel pretty rotten and really just want to stay in bed or lay out on the deck all day and hopefully get over this feverish-headachy-body-achy feeling. So, it might work out!
March 1st. Wow. Okay, so last week in Review:
On Saturday morning Chris and I finished cleaning the apartment. Then in the afternoon, we found a whole new part of town! If we were living in that area, I know that I'd like it here more than I do now. We both would like it better, actually. Eh, if we had only known! We found a part of town that has a HUGE park. Actually, there are a couple of them side by side up there. They are right next to Chatuchak, the weekend market. One of Chris's coworkers invited us to play tennis with him and his friends on Saturday, and even though I didn't own a racket or even really know how to play, we agreed! Yay! Something fun to do together that's outside! We went to the store and bought an inexpensive racket for me and some tennis balls, and then we headed up to the courts. Chris says that I'm pretty good---even though it was my 3rd time ever playing! The first time I hit balls, one of my friends taught me how to serve. She played on Vassar's team, and I guess she was such a good teacher that I can serve well, and that is about it!
The parks up in that part of town are so pretty! One park looked like it used to be a golfcourse and there were many flowers and trees planted all around. It seemed like a mini-botanical garden! Oh, if we lived up in that area, I would go there every day! I guess I could head up there even from where we live now. Instead, we live about 30 minutes from them by Sky Train and have to get through our street with the crazy traffic, smelly foodcarts, and intense heat (which hangs everywhere, actually) to get there! Ugh. Anyone who really knows me knows that summer is my least favorite season. I am so uncomfortable when I'm hot!! And this year, we are getting 9-10 months of summer from the time we left Philadelphia until summer's over in September! I've been told that April is absolutely unbearable here, and they are predicting an absolutely dreadfully hot April this year. With the heat wave that has hit Australia, there is reason to brace ourselves for the 45 degree Celsius weather that's heading our way. Oh boy....
Every day at 6pm, everyone stops what they are doing and the national anthem or some other Thai National song plays. We are rarely out and about at the exact moment, but we experienced it last week while at the tennis courts. Everyone stops what they are doing to stand and listen as the song is played over loudspeakers. Then, things resume as though nothing happened.
Okay, Monday and Tuesday were not really productive days, though I did catch up on some writing and reading. Tuesday afternoon, however, I ran into Cyndi, and she asked me if I planned on coming back to the Refugee Clinic. I told her I was coming in on Thursday (there, I committed to it!), and we made a plan to meet up so we could head over there together.
Have I mentioned her before? Cyndi, and her husband, John, moved here in December for John's work (he and Chris used to be coworkers). Well, Cyndi and John absolutely love it here! And they are so positive anyway---they always seem to see the bright side of things even againt hard and bad times. They are such an inspiring couple! They have been married for 26 years and are still very much in love! John lost his job about 5 weeks ago, and they decided to stay here in Thailand anyway. They are from New England, and absolutely love the heat (that's one big difference between them and me!). They came here and immediately found a community in their church. That is another difference: They fit right into life here with their ready-made community in their church. That's how Cyndi found out about the Refugee clinic and then she shared it with me.
Now, on to Wednesday.
Wednesday, I ran some errands and got the paperwork needed to start the Thai Massage class on Friday. I also did some wedding preparations stuff. For lunch, I met up with my friend, Mair, and we ended up talking for 4.5 hours! She is from Wales, but she has lived abroad for 7 years or so. She also is planning a non-traditional wedding of sorts back in Wales, but because of the economy and job uncertainty, they haven't really made more definite plans. She designed her ring (she is an artist) and it is beautiful rose gold. We have similar tastes, and we ended up talking about wedding stuff for a few hours! Oh, it was so much fun! She's 35 and her husband-to-be is 42, and both of them have been ex-patriates for 7 and 10 years. He's an injured-and-recovering triathlete and Mair has done a few 1/2 marathons. I have told her about the Philadelphia Half-Marathon which I would love to run in November 2010 (I think it might be a bit too much to be a first year med student and train for a half-marathon!). We'll see--maybe she'll come over for it!
I also asked Mair about some of the things that have been bothering me about being here. Does she ever get used to the disabled beggars and homeless people? I told her about the legless guy who lays on the sidewalk near where we go grocery shopping. She said there are a few of those guys. Then, there is the handless woman, and the other women nursing children. It is like the children are props. Mair said that in India, she knew of people who are maimed just to be more sympathy-provoking and be more profitable. Is this true? Oh, how can one deal to see and experience this? She said that after being here for 2 years, she has gotten used to it, sadly. Ugh, it still upsets me!
Thursday
Cyndi and I met in the lobby to head to the BRC together. The streets are interesting in the morning. Right by the BTS station, there are many, many, many carts and stands set up serving people meals as they head to work. It is just like being in a cafeteria line with so many choices and so much food. We meet around 8am, and by lunchtime, these carts are long gone (so I only ever see them when I'm up early!). From the looks of the volume of food available for sale on the sidewalks, it seems that most people (mostly Thais) get their food there before heading to work. It is like a little pitstop! The same type of thing happens in the late afternoons, after work when the streets are filled will foodcarts and people have pulled folding tables and chairs onto the sidewalks converting them into cafeteria lunchrooms. I know, instead of being repulsed by the smell of cooking meat, fish, hot spices, and fried food, I should be embracing this difference from life in Philadelphia or any other American city.
So, to get to the clinic, we take the Sky Train to Ari and then take a bus to the clinic. It takes about an hour. The buses here are interesting---have I mentioned them before? There is no way you'd find one like these in the States or in Europe for that matter. The doors often stay open, and the floorboards are wooden. There is plenty of room in the aisles for people to stand. When you get on the bus, someone comes around with a little tin box to collect your money (6.5 Baht) and to give you a ticket. When you want to get off, you basically just get up and stand by the door---which is probably open. Half the time, the bus doesn't even come to a complete stop before letting folks on or off.
The day was pretty busy at the clinic. We saw about 30 patients. Dr. Min, the usual doctor, was away in Burma/Myanmar and a substitute was there for the day. I got to meet her and the new nurse who is volunteering there for an indefinite time while her husband works in Thailand. Her name is Becky, and she is from the US---upstate NY, actually. She lives in NC when she isn't in Asia, and one of her children went to Davidson, a college that is about an hour from where I grew up. I had swim meets there in high school. What a small world! Becky and I immediately clicked over the fact that neither of us have a "group" here in Bangkok and how challenging it is to get ones' self established without a community. She joined the American Women's Club, though, and met some people through that group.
On Thursday, I saw Cyndi and Becky attempt to clean and change the bandages of a man who had gotten into a barfight with a rival. His head had been smashed with a broken beer bottle, his eye was black and purple and swollen shut, and a huge chunk of his ear was sewn back together to his head. They tried to remove the dressings until Cyndi realized that the hospital folk had stitched the gauze directly to the ear--probably to provide compression as well as to hold the ear together. I'll stop sharing more details, but it was pretty gruesome. The guy was in so much pain, too, and we tried to explain as much as we could to him and distract him, but he wasn't easily distracted. He was VERY lucky to not have been arrested or immediately sent back to his country.
At the end of the day, I was very glad I went to the clinic. Why in the world was I so hesitant to get back into this work? Yes, it is hard, but it is also important. Granted, I would be more motivated to do everything here if it were 10-20 degrees cooler!!
On Friday, I started my Thai Massage class, the experience of which deserves its own entry!
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