Arriving in Thailand

Asian airline companies seem to have that something a little extra that USA airlines just seem to be missing. Maybe it was that on our “short” 2-and-a-half hour flight from Manila to Bangkok they gave us a meal. Maybe it was the friendly service and extremely clean airplane. (Of course, we have what they are sometimes missing – better aircraft maintenance!)

There were three things in particular that really marked today. The FIRST thing to catch my attention were two ever-present monuments everywhere you go in Thailand. There are pictures of the king and queen EVERYWHERE. On many of the overpasses there is some kind of homage to the royalty of Thailand.

Then there are always little houses erected for the spirits who were the former owners of the land. The idea is that you build this little house at the edge of the property where you are building so that the spirit will inhabit that little, nicer house where people leave gifts and put flowers rather than invading or haunting the new building that they will be putting up. (Or, if it is a field, that they won’t disrupt the tilling, etc. because now they have a nice little house to live in.) This really has nothing to do with Buddhism. (In fact it would be considered more Hindu than anything.)
The SECOND moment that really made today a great day was visiting the children’s homes that Fr. Adrian Pelosin and the other PIME priests run here in Nothamburi. The majority are girls, and many of these children come from homes where the parents had been willing to sell them into the sex trade in order to buy more drugs. Some of them are orphans. They have the opportunity to stay here until they are 18 years old. It was really neat to see them, hear the stories of the teenagers, and play with the littler ones.

Like in the Philippines, many of the smaller ones kept coming up to be sure that my belly was really real!! Gotta love em!

The THIRD think which really opened my eyes today was the visit to the slums where Fr. Adrian works. Since it wasn’t possible to build on land anywhere, they began building out over the water on the side of the river. The conditions in these slums is just deplorable; I don’t need to tell you what goes into that water (everything!). This particular slum is one that the government has decided to take over and from which to remove these people (who basically are squatters, but since they’ve been there for some 40 years the government at least tries to take care of them somewhat). The reason? To build another train bridge over the river. So here you can see them dismantling some of the wood in order to sell it… even by jumping into that (sic. Filthy) water.

A very interesting day to say the least. I really have a great respect for the challenges that our missionaries face in this country, especially in their great work with the children and the poorest of the poor. Incredible.