"Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." - Lord Alfred Tennyson

If you don't like depressing stories, you might want to skip down to the dancing monkeys shaking their booties.


I started my first day of volunteer work at Sri Thanya Hospital on Tuesday. I don't have that many classes this term, and so I thought that it'd be an interesting way to gain hospital/healthcare experience and exposure before starting Med school next year. My uncle's the Director General of the Department of Mental Health, and so I decided to take the opportunity to see how things are run at Sri Thanya, one of the nation's leading hospitals catered especially towards mentally ill patients. I would have volunteered at a "regular" hospital, but I've already had previous exposure at such places and want to see things from a different perspective.


On Tuesday morning, I got to meet a bunch of graduate students who were visiting from the University of Colorado at Denver. They were a lot of fun to talk to, exchange ideas and views with, and just hang with. We went to see one of the hospital's gift shops called "The Friend Shop" where they sell handmade arts and crafts products made personally by the patients. Not only were they amazingly intricate (there were wood carvings, oil paintings, glass etchings, etc.), but they were also breathtakingly beautiful. The people working there were either former patients or current patients, and what really struck me was the cashier who performed his job with such an incredible amount of earnestness: he vigilantly counted out my change and patiently waited for me to extend my hand before slowly and gently placing four Baht into the very center of my palm. He then gave me what has to be the biggest smile I've ever seen. Wow - no matter what it is we do for a living, we should all take pride in our work/jobs the way he does.


I parted ways with the U of Colorado students after lunch, and Ajahn Jaruwan took me around to see the various wards. There were varying levels from the severely mentally ill to intermediate and mildly mentally ill patients. Patients in the severely mentally ill ward were similar to ones you would see in movies. Unfortunately this is generally the sole image most people have of mentally ill patients - they think that they're all maniacal and stark raving mad, when really not all of them are as so.


The ward that probably touched me the most was the children's ward. Sri Thanya is not the main hospital in Bangkok for mentally ill children, but they still accept a few patients. When I arrived there, there were about fourteen kids crowded around the TV watching cartoons, and like most kids, they were so absorbed in Doraemon's adventures, they paid me little attention. That was fine; I enjoyed sitting back and observing them as they laughed without a care in the world as Doraemon, the world's cutest blue cat, frolicked around with his buds.


Just as I was about to leave, a little girl came speeding towards me from out of nowhere, crashed into my legs, and pulled my hand into her very small one.

Pi, pi, you look just like my mama!
Flustered Lynn has to regain her footing before inquiring, I do?
Yes, yes, I thought you were her at first.
Does your mother come to visit you often?
No, my mother's dead. She visits me in my dreams, though. (She says this as nonchalantly as if she were talking about the weather.)
How old are you, I ask.
Eleven.
Eleven?
I'm about to ask her another question, but she interrupts me first. Her hands go fluttering as she reverently touches my hair. Oooh, you have such long pretty hair, she cries. Her hands fly and she grazes my arm with the tips of her tiny fingers. And such pretty, white skin! I want to have white skin. Do I have white skin?
She tugs at my sleeve so that I can crouch down and look her squarely in the face. Ja, yes, you have very nice skin, I say. Despite her small stature, she gives me the biggest hug she can muster. Ajahn Ja taps my shoulder and whispers that we have to be leaving soon.
The little girls squeezes me tighter and cries out, You have to come and visit me again!
I will, I say.
No, really! You really have to come and visit me again. Please.
If only she could see how much I adored her. I promise... I promise I'll come again, I assure her.
She squeezes my hand and gives me the sweetest smile before saying, Thank you! She walks me to the door and doesn't stop waving until Ajahn Ja and I are out of sight.


I later learned from Ajahn Ja that she was physically abused and raped by her father. When she turned hostile and threatened to attack anyone who went near her, she was sent to Sri Thanya Hospital. Authorities promptly sent her father to jail, and after she was treated and ready to leave and go live with her grandmother (her only surviving relative), her grandma refused to accept her, saying that she was the reason her son was in jail. With nowhere to go, she was sent back to the hospital and will most likely live there until the day she turns eighteen.


I know that, like many societies in the world, mentally ill patients have a certain stigma attached to them. I'm not going to say that I wasn't a little nervous during my first day there; after all I really didn't know what to expect. But now I have a new and profound sense of respect for these individuals, especially the little girl who came crashing into me that day. She'd taken a pretty bad beating - physically, mentally, and emotionally - but still she radiated a wonderful sense of child-like innocence and purity. I don't know her name, but it's okay - I was able to catch a brief glimpse of her vibrant inner spirit, and for that, I'm more than grateful. She taught me an invaluable lesson that day.


~*~



Kang got all four of his wisdom teeth removed the other day - yeah, that's right, all four in one shot. He told me that his mouth was hecka swollen and that it "hurt like a bitch". Ouch, yeah, I bet. He couldn't eat anything - not even johk (a Thai/Chinese gruel-like dish made out of congee, pork chunks, and egg). I jokingly said that I'd get him a huge basketful of Gerber's baby food as a get-well gift and he apparently thought that this was a brilliant idea ("Hey, sounds good! I want baby food!") He asked if I was free to pay him a visit, and so, sympathizing with his "crippled" condition, Siri, Caro, and I decided to pay Kang the invalid a visit at his house.


After leaving Sri Thanya Hospital, I picked up Siri and Caro before heading to Kang's place. He tried to give me directions to his place over the phone, but I didn't know how to get to any of the streets or landmarks he listed off to me (hey, BKK-driving takes skillsss). Naturally, I got lost, and so I called him again. His sister, Thuang, picked up and told me that he was in the shower. Oops. She clarified the directions to their house and luckily Caro was familiar with the area and so she was able to take up the role of the trusty navigator.


Finding the main soi into his place was a cinch. We made a left at this huge steak place and found ourselves going down a long and dark road towards a housing complex called Moo Ban Seu Throng. I called Kang and he said that he was going to open the front gate and wait for us out front. As he was telling us to pass the guard and to keep going straight ahead, we suddenly got disconnected just as he was about to give us further directions. Ah crap. Oh well, we're expert BS-ing drivers (a term that Caro and I affectionately dubbed ourselves ages ago), somehow we'll figure it out ourselves. We drove straight ahead, passed the guard and telephone booth leading into the Moo Ban Seu Throng housing complex and continued going straight. Kang, Kang, does anyone see Kang? Three pairs of eyes and none of us could spot Kang or his mondo huge, swollen jaw (hey, his words, not mine). Arghh. Let's call him again.

Kang, I can't find your house.
Do you see the guard and the telephone booth?
Yeah, I passed them on the way into Moo Ban Seu Throng.
Wait, I don't live in Moo Ban Seu Throng.
Huh?
Get out of Moo Ban Seu Throng and turn left.
(I get out of Moo Ban Seu Throng and make a left at the first soi I see.)
Okay, I got out and just turned left.
Keep going straight and you'll see me standing in front of my house.
'Kay, thanks.


I hung up, continued going straight and suddenly came across a ban sang-kasee (slum-like dwelling made out of metal scraps). Caro, Siri, and I - retards that we are - couldn't stop chortling over the possibility of this being Kang's humble dwelling. We continued down the narrow one-lane soi and eventually reached a dead-end and another ban sang-kasee (albeit a larger one). More chortling and stupid joke-telling ensued, and we brilliantly figured that we were in the wrong soi. Okay, so how the heck do we get outta here? Um, by U-turning carefully - very carefully.


The eerie, deserted, one-lane soi.

This is rather difficult, you see. After all, it's an itty-bitty one-lane soi. I found a spot where I could U-turn at a vacant houseless lot, and as I was about to inch my way into it, Siri, ever the observant and vigilant person, decided to climb out and make sure I wasn't about to drive my car into a cleverly disguised, parasite-infested klong (hey, it happened to Big from the Thai music group D2B). Keeping watch of the vacant lot was a pack of scrawny, mangy, voracious-looking dogs, and so Siri sort of screeched and scrambled back into the car. Caro, ever the gallant and courageous one, decided to brave the pack of 12 dogs and climbed out of the car. Miraculously, I somehow managed to U-turn (reversing and backing up is rather challenging when you're laughing so hard you can't see straight and only have about two feet of vacant space available on both sides of your car). We got out of the stupid soi and found ourselves in front of Moo Ban Seu Throng again. The guard in front of the housing complex started flashing curious looks at my car, and I think a large part of his concern had to do with the three guffawing girls inside.


Caro and Siri suggested I go back into the soi again because maybe we'd missed his house. Here we go again. Into the soi we went and the big pack of stinkin' dogs started barking, yelping, and howling at us vexatious intruders again. I drove all the way in and, nope, still no house.


As if on cue, Kang called again.

Where are yoooou? I don't see your car.
I can't find your sooooi!
Did you turn left when you got out of Moo Ban Seu Throng?
Yeah, and I kept going straight but there was only a bunch of houses under construction.
Ah, okay, I'll drive out and pick you up then.


At this point, we were all feeling pretty badly. Poor Kang, with his throbbing jaw and all, had to drive out and "escort" us into his soi. We retreated out of the rabid-dog-soi (butt first this time around), and Kang led us to his house. We were a giggly, tittering bunch by the time we reached his place, and as I crookedly backed my car into his steep driveway, Caro warned me not to "go knocking over the three Mercedes Benzes and BMW". Aw gee, no one seems to have faith in my driving.


Kang greeted us with an ice pack pressed against his jaw and a half-serious inquiry as to whether or not I was able to get him any baby food. Hehe, sorry dude, but maybe next time. Kang's house is lovely, lovely, lovely. While it's huge, it's hardly overbearing, but rather very warm and welcoming. His entire family was in the progress of having dinner when we arrived, and I could tell that Siri and Caro were feeling just as awkwardly intrusive as me, but his mother immediately welcomed us into their house. After waiing his parents and introducing ourselves to them, Kang's mom sat us down at the table and immediately began to fill the empty spaces with sparkling conversation, our glasses with cool water, and plates with steaming rice. At first, the three of us just sat there as stiff as boards, each one waiting for the other to pick up her spoon and start eating. Then suddenly, like identical mirror images of one another, Siri, Caro and I rigidly picked up our glasses, daintily took a sip of water, and placed our glasses back down again at exactly the same time. Haha, we're such dorks. Kang's family started laughing and it helped to break the ice, hehehe.


The food was delicious and Kang's parents were great - they patiently took the time to get to know each and every one of us, inquiring about our various backgrounds and even asking for our opinion on various international schools since they're planning on switching Nong Put, Kang's younger brother, to a different school. For the entire duration of dinner, Kang sat across from me and played with his blender-spun johk. He stirred it around, dragged his spoon through the thick white gruel, and formed various designs and patterns. I think he took about five bites in all. Na songsarn jung; I could tell that his jaw was hurting horribly.


During dessert, Thuang went upstairs, Caro and Kang went off into the living room somewhere, and his parents started talking to me and Siri about a variety of things. They're extremely warm and gracious people, and very easy to talk to about everything and anything. At one point, Kang's proud daddy dug up a photo album full of Kang's college graduation pics and other childhood photos, and just as he was about to show them to us, Kang snatched the album and scrambled away to hide it. Awww, man, we so could have blackmailed him on Xanga with those!! As for Nong Put, he's such a smoothie-cutie-patootie. (Siri and I think he's going to be quite the charmer when he grows up.)


Kang puttered around the house with an ice pack secured to the bottom of his jaw that was held up by a piece of string tied securely around his head. After the obligatory helmet-head and nice-blue-beard jokes, we told him that we wanted to tie a bow around his head for pretty, aesthetic purposes. Despite our good intentions, he gave us the most menacing and fiercesome look, haha.


No, that's not a sinister, Asian gangsta doood. It's Kang after three days of not shaving.
Despite his previous claims, there really wasn't that much swelling. From what he'd told me over the phone, I was expecting the elephant man or something.

Oreo finally emerged and joined the party. I've never been much of a cat lover in the past (I always felt that they were a lazy, unfriendly, mean lot), but after playing around with her for one evening, I now think that they're wonderfully playful creatures (or at least Oreo is).


Oreo was a little shy of the camera. (left)
Kang helped me lure her away from her hiding spot with the help of what Siri dubbed "the rat whip thaaang".
Eek, check out Oreo's laser eyes - she's quite the predatory hunter. (right)



Oreo the ghostly feline.
She's awfully quick on her feet; she practically pounced on "the rat whip thaaang".

There was a gorgeous grand piano in the living room, and Kang said that, if I wanted to, I could fool around and play with it. I did, and the sound that reverberated from it was beautiful. I noticed a guitar nearby, and inquired as to who its player was. Kang said he used to play the guitar, and so we persuaded him to play a tune for us. Like a remote control, he suddenly turned on the humbleness and meekness and said that he wasn't all that great of a player. After hearing him play a few notes, however, we could tell that he was pretty damn good indeed. Pffft, crappy guitar player, my butt.


Kang zee gee-tar man strumming away like a pro.

I mentioned my guitar at home that was collecting dust in a lone corner of my room and how I hadn't the slightest idea how to play it, and so Kang dug up the guitar book he'd used many years ago to self-teach himself with, and said that I could keep it. He also handed me a guitar chord fingering chart, and despite my protests, he said that he could already remember them all and that I could also have it. Wow, thanks na.


We snooped around and peeked at all the family pictures and portraits decorating the living room area, laughed at Kang's funny baby photos, cooed at Nong Put's pics, and marveled at the similarities between Kang and Thuang's features. We sat around and chatted for a while, thanked Kang and his family for dinner, and finally left at around 10:30 since I had class early the next morning. I dropped Caro and Siri off at their respective houses, and as I was heading home, I got a call from Paddy. Poor dude lost his cricket match against some Brit peeps on Tuesday. Awww. Since I'm going to be meeting up with him on Saturday before he leaves for London, I told him that I'm gonna make sure he takes at least one bus ride through Bangkok before leaving Thailand!


So anyway, I was wondering, does removing all four of your wisdom teeth make you any less wise?




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