Bangkok Trip–Day 3 (Pt 1)

It’s 2300 and I just got back to the Maryknoll house in Phnom Penh. I need to get up early for a mass on the other side of town so I’ll post the Day 3 photos tomorrow morning. This is a picture from the bus going out to the old airport in a really heavy rain this afternoon. Come back tomorrow….

Bangkok Trip–Day 2

This is the lobby of BNH Hospital where Maryknollers have been treated for the past thirty years. It is a far cry from some of the hospitals Maryknoll people encounter overseas. I was there for an annual medical exam which we are not able to have done in Cambodia.
This is a little diorama of a VIP room at the old Bangkok Nursing Home which became BNH Hospital. BNH Hospital has more than a 120 year history, one of the first medical facilities in Thailand.
Upstairs on the Internal Medicine floor where I spent much of my time is this display proclaiming that “100 Years Old is the ‘New 60′”. More attention is being paid to older people now in Thailand which is predicted to become an “ageing society” in 2021 when 20% of the population will be elderly.

Bangkok Trip–Day 1

I flew to Bangkok today for a medical exam tomorrow, flying into the old Don Mueang Airport and then taking an airport bus into town where I got a taxi to this new Maryknoll house. It took a bit of doing to get here. Even the Bangkok taxi driver couldn’t find the little lane where the house is located and then couldn’t find the house. And for me it was the first time I have been to the new place.
I hadn’t eaten lunch when I arrived at 2:30 PM so I walked down the little allies and lanes and found this little shopping center where I bought a sandwich and a Coke. I took this picture because you never see a parking lot in Cambodia—which is why the sidewalks and front rooms of their houses are full of cars.
Walking back from the shopping center, I passed this forlorn guitar waiting for a garbage pick-up.
Shortly after I got back into the house, we had a heavy downpour, the type of afternoon rain we have now in Cambodia also.
A bonus for this trip was staying with Bro. Tim Raible (center) at the new Maryknoll house, and visiting also were Hiep Vu (red shirt) and his wife Tawny (right) and her sister Hang. Hiep and Tawny were lay missioners with us in Vietnam and Cambodia and are now serving in Bolivia.

Handover of Deaf Schools

Today there was a ceremony to formally handover management of the Krousar Thmey deaf schools to the Ministry of Education. More than 1,200 people were present so the prime minister came. Here the VIPs (right) and the others wait for his arrival.
After the ceremony all the deaf students and the teachers and staff of the deaf schools received a gift and then were treated to a formal luncheon. These are deaf staff from the Maryknoll Deaf Development Programme on the sign language committee.

Moving Up 2

In Moving Up earlier, I opined that the advent of a market for new and used water coolers, washing machines, and other appliances is an indicator of Cambodia’s gradual rising to a lower middle income country. Another such indicator is the increasing number of electrical shops that used to sell 50-watt bulbs and are now selling high-end chandeliers. They know some people have money and are will to part with it to show their new-found status.

Gimme Shelter

Raindrops are just starting to fall (see pavement, lower righthand corner) and motorcyclists head for the nearest gas station (they all have canopies) and take shelter from the rain.
People park anywhere, in any direction, and no one thinks a thing about it although it basically renders the gas station useless. It’s just the way you do things here.

It makes you wonder…

Here’s a picture of a schoolboy riding in the fast lane of one of the busiest major streets in Phnom Penh. But it’s the Kingdom of Wonder, so don’t wonder too much about the insanity. My theory on such counter-intuitive behavior is that 90% of the urban population grew up in the rural area where there were no cars, no paved roads, etc., and daily life was lived in the dirt roads of the village. They were the only clear places to gather and there was no traffic to disrupt a gathering. Those people later moved to the city and brought their ways of doing things with them and passed them on to their children. That’s why we average six traffic deaths a day.