January 21st
First of all I would like to apologize to all for not making entries for the last couple of days. Between our schedule and my lack of sleep it’s been difficult to put words to paper.
I’m going to make 3 separate entries today as penance for my slothful blogging.
Okay, apologies over…let’s get over it and take a seat around the campfire kids.
We have to start our tale around 12 midnight Thursday. After checking my e-mail I decided to go to bed. I have been keeping my nightclothes out on the balcony and just grabbed them and quickly changed.
After turning and tossing I finally fell to sleep after about an hour and was woken to yet another value lesson while staying in Thailand.
The lesson is this:
“ALLWAYS check your clothes before you put them on when you have been airing them outside!!!!!
Unbeknownst to me I had crawled into my small bed with a freshly laid Spiders nest. That’s right I said Spiders nest.
After being bitten several times I ran outside and ripped the nest off of my pajama top and tossed it over the balcony; which was probably a bad idea since it would have been required for the clinic to see if there were any toxicity issues.
After a deep cleansing shower and covering my body with Gold Bond medicated powder I then realized that I had no where to sleep. There was no way in hell I was going to get back into bed thinking that the little critters had staked out their claim.
The resolution was to try to sleep sitting up at my desk but that just didn’t work. Plus my mind was telling me that thousand of little legs were tap dancing on my back. This made it difficult to engage in any activity like reading or watching a movie so I opted to walk the halls and smoke copious amounts of cigarettes.
I figured I would smoke the beasts out.
Finally at 5:30 a.m., knowing that I would have to get up for the build at 6:30, I gave up and took all the sheets off and slept in a little ball at the foot of my bed.
At breakfast that morning I noticed that I had a deep purple bruise on my forearm where one of the bastards had taken some DNA.
Rather than spark panic with my fellow team members I gently suggested to our team leader that she should recommend to the group that they shake out their clothing before wearing them…and then I was entered into the logbook again. Damn!!!!
Later that night I showed the bite to one of our hosts who confirmed that the bite was toxic. I knew it wasn’t a problem because the pain and the size of the bruise had subsided.
The Thai people are famous for there sense of humor and when I showed the bite the reaction was concern at first. After explaining to them that I was fine the reaction was…”this is good! Tomorrow you wake up and be Spiderman”
I am typing to you hanging from the ceiling right now.
Friday at the build site was to be a half-day but unfortunately we only had the chance for about an hours worth of work.
One of the local workers, Ah-Ron, was pinned in the septic hole when a pile of bricks fell.
When you read the next section you have to understand that accidents occur at any construction site be it in Thailand or Canada.
With Ah-Ron pinned the team rushed to his aide and we all had enough first aide training that we knew how to evacuate him from the pit. And we had to evacuate him. We couldn’t wait as we were advised that it would take approximately two hours to get an ambulance to assist.
Hearing this, we cleared the debris and Bob, the Team Leaders Husband, picked Ah-Ron’s slight frame up and passed him to Nic who braced his shoulders and neck and me bracing his legs and feet.
We loaded Ah-Ron into the back of the site truck and sped off to the Hospital near Phuket and when I say sped I am talking dirt and gravel flying up into our faces to what seemed like and aggressive facial peel. As we sped down the two-lane highway Nic braced Ah-Ron’s head with his knees while I held his knees together.
Kang, another local worker was with us rotated between praying and following our instructions to keep Ah-Ron engaged. We were concerned about concussion. Bob kept us all calm.
We take so many things in Canada for granted and one of the most obvious during this time is that Hospitals are not quickly accessible. Think about it. If you had an accent at home how long would it take to get an ambulance or for that matter, drive to the nearest hospital?
It took us about 20-30 minutes at lightening speed. I’m not really sure of the time it took but it seemed like an hour.
Our support for third world countries is so important and I don’t think I truly understood that until today.
Thankfully, there was no significant damage to our friend.
Personally, the most touching thing for me came when Kang came out of the emergency room and asked me to come in to see Ah-Ron.
I walked into the room and Ah-Ron weakly motioned to me to come to him where he took my hand and held it tightly. He had tears in his eyes and was speaking to me in Thai. I had no idea what he was saying but it didn’t matter we had developed a bond that I wasn’t even aware of. I was over-whelmed with emotion.
Big Baby.
Leaving Ah-Ron at the Hospital we drove back to the site where we informed the team that he was okay. It was important for all of us to remember why we are here and continue with our good work; but it was decided that we would pack up for the day and return on Monday to continue.
After about an hour on site we left for lunch at a local restaurant. By the time that we finished the site truck rolled up and Ah-Ron stepped out to our applause.
After lunch we were taken back to the hotel to change and shower and then we piled back into our transport and were taken to a local elementary school for some activities.
Once there, we were taken to a covered auditorium where we waited for the Children to come and greet us.
What an experience.
The kids were sat on the floor in straight lines organized by grade level. Wanting some good photo opportunities I sat with them. I’m not sure what they thought of this. Having a man my size sitting with them was probably a little strange at best.
Norah was presented with Roses from the class representative and then the kids showed us the singing and dancing talents. Cute beyond all measure.
Afterwards we showed them how to make snowflakes out of paper and sang the Canadian National anthem for them. The children reciprocated by singing the Thai National anthem.
I think….
The team presented a box of sports equipment and a few books and then we played with them on the soccer field and swings.
At one point I had three small kidlets crawling on me as I pretended to be the Hulk for them. If the circumstances were any different I probably would have started reminiscing about the spiders the night before- but there was no love with the Spiders.
We said our good-byes and headed back to the hotel and dinner.
After dinner “THE MEN” went to the Kao Lak arena where we spent the evening watching Muay (moo-eh) Thai boxing. There were 10 bouts in all and each was full of ceremony and lightening fast action.
The first bouts pitted two small children (approximately 8 years old) against each other. Nic remarked to me that he thought that some of the children that we had met earlier where in the ring. This disturbed me but John reminded me that we put Canadian Children in the Hockey rink at a much earlier age. I don’t know if the comparison was valid…but I did see his point.
Dad…got some great action shots for you.
We left the arena shortly before midnight and headed back to the hotel: where, after a detailed examination of my nightclothes I crawled into bed and slept with anticipation of Saturday’s cultural day.
All in all a great day for self-reflection and cultural awakening.
Have I told you how much I love this country?
