It’s funny - I mean frustrating - but lately each time I feel I have insight about anything, I get knocked down another rung on the ladder. Some days I feel like I am on a wide, comfortable rung of enlightenment, but then slip and am shown that I still know so little. The good news is that I now feel that I am climbing down the ladder - so getting knocked down is me getting where I am going a little faster. Climbing down takes a little less fight and physical exertion, but I have to step carefully so as not to fall. Whichever way you are headed, the pull of gravity is problematic.
Today I went on outreach for the first time in a few months. Krisida (the Thai nurse) and I visited three people who are in need for various reasons. The first was a man with no use of his arms or legs because of an autoimmune disorder, who was recently well enough to go home. I thought I had posted about him, but I cannot seem to locate it. We went to visit him because he needs to be checked on, deserves a weekly bath, and likes an occasional shave. We also delivered food to help his family afford to feed him.
A little additional detail - his house has only 3 walls and is about 5 feet tall, has a wooden platform for sleeping, and steel roofing held in place with bricks. The sun beating on the low steel roof warms it enough to make me feel like I am in an oven - even before I put on my protective gear to assist with bathing him in a chair. However, I think part of the reason he may not love the care center (besides being away from his family and plenty other reasons not to) is that he has a television in his house.
A borrowed of a image of a 'Salah' from the web, maybe I will get my own image up in the near future.
The next person was a patient at the care center when I first arrived, and her granddaughter lives in the Friendship Garden (where we live). We are there to deliver food from the Sisters of Good Shepherd and check on her. She is in her 80’s, and lives with her husband who is completely blind. When we arrive, she is a few houses down from her own home, sitting in a 'salah'. She is sitting with another woman who is working on a wooden weaving machine making “mattresses”. These are what the poor sleep on. This other woman spends hours hand-making them and tells Krisida that she sells them for 50 baht ($1.50 USD with the current exchange rate). The woman we are visiting tells us that she needs the walker she had when she was at the care center; she has been using a plastic chair as one. Krisida tells me she recently had shingles as well, but overall she appears in good spirits.
Please forgive an interruption and a couple minutes of nerdery, but I thought I would share some recent insight. Achieving simplicity in life is not as easy as just changing from ground coffee to instant coffee. Of course when I put it that way, I sound a little idiotic. But I want to tell you, instant coffee is so much simpler as a consumer.
1) It is cheaper
2) You don’t have to grind the beans
3) You don’t have to worry about the right coarseness of the grounds for your coffee brewer
4) You can boil the water as hot as you want
5) You don’t have to time how long your french press steeps
6) It really doesn’t matter how old the grounds are or when the beans were ground
7) If you’re like a few of my friends, you don’t have to try and roast your own beans
Okay, I won’t belabor the point any further, but believe me I could (this may have already caused a few of my friends to throw their computers in aggravation)! Sure you sacrifice some flavor, but look at how many fewer worries there are - and I am still caffeinated! Pretty ridiculous anecdote right? Now, let me frustrate you a little bit more - actually, the first step in simplifying was a lot like this. I always want to overcomplicate things, but when taken in small steps, simplicity does not have to be complicated. Find a simpler or cheaper method of doing something, and then judge the merits of other ways.
On our last visit, I wish I had taken a picture of the 'salah' that this gentlemen spent his time in. We drove in and sat down next to his mother, father, and himself. I was a little concerned: I am not a slight person, and with Sister Kumari (visiting from India) there are five of us on a low-lying wooden platform with a thatched roof (patched with plastic bags of various sorts). I look to the corner nearest the mother and the nails are completely exposed on her side, the support beam has been worn to 1/3 of its original size, but not to worry - there is some sort of wire holding together the beam and her corner. Should be fine, right?
The man looked to be in his mid-40’s and parents in their early 70’s. He is completely blind (a complication of either the HIV, his medications, or an opportunistic infection). Again,we are there to deliver food from the Sisters of Good Shepherd. Rice, milk, noodles, soy sauce and oil. He shows off by telling us the brand of milk we delivered, which he recognizes by the straw attached to the cardboard carton (he mentions that he thinks this brand is not the best tasting). He also tells us the product and brand of each of the bottles based on touch as well. When we first arrived, Santi (our driver) snuck over and grabbed his foot, which brought a good laugh. There’s a lot of laughter and playful banter which I cannot be a part of, but I have come to terms with this type of situation. I think his parents will tell him more about me after we have gone.
As we leave, Santi points out a little 6x8 elevated shed with woven walls (made out of some sort of reed and a steel roof and says the man’s name and “sleep, sleep” - it still deflates me. I want to ask if he has mosquito nets, a kitchen, etc... but it doesn’t matter. I know he sleeps on a mattress that probably cost less than 50 baht.
This is similar to what his house looked like.
Here's what some people refer to as a mattress.
The Thai people are like any other people; they have moments when they are down - even in the Land of 1,000 Smiles. But what I am learning is that people with very little seem to bemoan very little. People with very little also seem to value each other quite a bit. Spending time together talking or sitting silently between thoughts. For instance, you know how when you spend time in or on something - shoes, couch, jeans, chair, etc... - it gets broken in? I can tell you the bench (the one in the 'salah' I was worried would collapse) was broken in like nothing I have seen before. It was solid, untreated wood that had been worn down to soft, smooth roundedness and an antiqued glimmer that only comes from time and use. Like water smoothing a stone, those three people and many visitors had clearly spent countless hours together smoothing the 'salah'. In the short time with them, I also had a sense of a Simplicity of Spirit. Ugh, down another rung - I’ll have to get back to you on whatever Simplicity of Spirit means.
Sticky Rice!!!
Finally, I briefly expand on the idea of the simplicity of instant coffee. Stepping away from most of my possessions has shown me the value of stopping to think about what value possessions really bring. My library card and digital reading device would be hard to part with right now. On the other hand, in boxes back home we have sturdy silverware and nice ceramic dishes. I can tell you that I am not any less happy eating out of plastic dishes with steel cutlery. To be perfectly honest, lately I find that I am most happy when I am eating sticky rice with my bare hands!