On Saturday night we accompanied Father Joe to mass at AIT. AIT (Asian Institutes of Technology) is a university campus on the outskirts of Bangkok. Father Joe has been conducted mass there for over 20 years. The church population is made up of Philippians, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Indonesians and Thai’s. I’m not that familiar with the traditional Catholic Easter service so my description may lack proper terminology. The first part of the ceremony included the lighting of a large fire in a fielded area on campus. A large candle was lit from that fire and then each person proceeded to light their own candle using the flame from the large candle. Together as a group, we then proceeded in a processional to the building where the service was held. There was quite a breeze so it was a challenge to keep my candle lit. Eventually I just gave up. The service was about an hour and a half long, and it included communion, and at the end of the service some pretty decent music. The service was held in the student union building on the campus and during one part of the service, church members decorated the room with flowers and banners. After the service, there was a children’s pageant, a large feast and fireworks. The service wasn’t over until 10:30, and Father Joe was pretty exhausted so we didn’t get to stay for the later celebrations. We had a chance to meet up with some of our Philippians friends that we met the first night we arrived at a get together at Father Joe’s house. Oh, an important event of the evening included our mode of transportation. We drove in an old Mercedes Benz. It was pretty classy, I must admit. Father Joe mentioned that the car was given to him last year by an older man who moved back to the US. He also pointed out that we should feel special because we were driving in a car much older than us. So now I can say I’ve driven Mercedes Benz, an experience I never expected to have…haha.
We arrived home from mass at around 11:00 starving because we didn’t have supper and we missed out on the feast after the service. So we tried our luck with some food from a nearby street vendor. I had some noodles and Jodie had some rice and pork. I’m a wee bit sick of the rice, so noodles are welcomed alternative for me.
Easter Sunday in Bangkok turned out to be quite the day. Father Joe took Jodie, Si Jie and I out for lunch to an Italian restaurant. Tom and John also arrived and joined us. Father Joe insisted that we order anything we desired on the menu. The restaurant was probably one of the fanciest that I’ve ever been to EVER in addition to having unlimited supply of food, it was quite a remarkable experience. So we ordered our meal, Jodie and I both ordered ravioli, Si Jie had spagettie and when we had finished Father Joe asked us if we liked our meal enough to have it for supper. We replied “Yes”, and he ordered the meal again to take home with us. Then it was time for dessert. My mouth has never eaten anything quite as delicious as the Tiramisu that I ordered at this restaurant. It changed my life…haha. In other words, we were treated like King and Queens for an afternoon. Oh and I forget to mention that we had unlimited bread and red wine. We also were each served a large chocolate Egg so all it all our Easter celebration was complete.
We asked Father Joe about what happens when an AIDS patient dies at Mercy. He went on to explain that the individual’s family is usually contacted and then the death certificate has to be processed for them to be cremated. He went on to explain that our friend from the AIDS ward that died on Thursday her situation was actually very complicated. Father Joe explained that her name is Bhoha, which is the equivalent of John Doe or Jane Doe, it’s a name given little to no meaning. Like when she was born, she had very little importance and she was given the name just to get a name. So when it came time to cremate her, her name served as a deterrent because it is very common and signifies little to no identity. When it came time to cremate Bhoha, she didn’t have any proper identification and the doctor was worried and felt rushed to bury her because she also had TB, along with HIV/AIDS in her body. Mercy Centre with the help of lawyers and Thai government staff were able to get the necessary signature to put her in rest. Her body was laid to rest at a nearby Temple on Saturday.
Father Joe went on to share a heart felt story that happened a few days before her death on Thursday. He mentioned that a couple of days ago he had taken her along with some other patients to a near by temple. She had asked to go to the washroom and he had told her that she had to wait. She ended up wetting herself and was really embarrassed. Father Joe went over to her to apologize and she said it was okay. The next day, some of the staff took her to Tesco to pick out some new clothes. She mentioned that she had never been to a department store, and had a wonderful day where staff treated her to new clothes. A few days later she went to the hospital and died of lung congestion. Father Joe said that it was as if that strange pant wetting experience was in itself a blessing, because the result was a wonderful day of pampering at Tesco just before she left us to go to heaven. Father Joe was obviously moved by emotion when he told the story and he shared it with us with a lot of compassion and mercy.
In other Mercy news, one of the girls from Mercy 6 ran away from the centre on Saturday. She must have got by the guards and walked out of the centre. Her mind is not all there, so it is not believed that she would have schemed to leave. She probably got bored and somehow walked right by the guards. She is 17 years old and an AIDS patient who has been at the centre for 6 months. Jodie and I actually saw her on Saturday evening around 6 at the Mercy Centre watching people playing basketball at the court from the balcony. Father Joe mentioned that some of the children were upset, especially Note, who is the master of the house. He always knows what’s going on at the house and was upset that he wasn’t able to stop her from leaving. There are people who have looking for her in some familiar places but we are hoping that she will be found and brought back safely to Mercy instead of being persuaded by someone on the streets and taken advantage of.
On Sunday afternoon, we rested and hung out in our room and in the evening we decided to hit up Khoa Shan Road. It’s a backpacker hangout and a foreigner hotspot. We attempted to take the bus there but during the process of switching from one bus to another, Si Jie lost an earring. Jodie and I had loaded the bus and Si Jie took a few steps back to retrieve her earring. Suddenly the bus started to pull away, and we watched in shock as the Si Jie started running after the bus. To make this story short, we never re-connected with Si Jie. Our cell phone was dead and we had no way to call her. We waited and waited and decided to keep trekking because we were well on our way already. On the final leg of our trip we took a taxi that dropped us off on a street with no shopping or lively activity. In that moment, Jodie and I looked at each other with scared looks because it was already so late and we still hadn’t found our destination and we had no idea where we were. So we decided to walk down the abandoned street for a few minutes and thankfully as we looked to our right we saw a bustling street, we had finally made it to Khoa Shan Road. We spent about an hour there shopping and feeling normal surrounded by tall, regular sized foreigners. The place was also bumping with football fever as football lovers gathered on the street to watch the Manchester United and Liverpool game on big screens.
So in conclusion, we had quite an eventful Easter weekend. We went to church, and drove there in a Mercedes Benz. We ate a chocolate egg and an Italian meal instead of turkey. I hope you are all enjoying your Easter weekend as much as we did here in Thailand.
Sending love from Thailand,
Misty
No comments:
Post a Comment