We all need friends

We all need friends - an overused saying but a truism.  Where would we be without them?  The monks in the picture are on their morning rounds for almsgiving.  Even they need help and look who's helping them. 

A good friend from Australia came to visit me in Bangkok.  It's quite an effort to undertake but Stella wanted to come and here she is.  Om, my great Thai friend here, wanted to come to the airport to greet her.  Thank God he did as he helped with the bags.  Then it was get her to the hotel and what to do for dinner?  What better idea than buy Italian from Nando who has his restaurant by my apartment building.  Nando was very careful to give a great plate of pasta and what a plate it was!  A quest was to find a clothing store where my friend could get clothes made.  I took her to a small clothing business owned by a family I know through the cathedral.  Well, they didn't have the material.  So the woman who runs the business says to Stella that she will take her to the store to buy material.  So off they go. 

The list goes on.  We all need friends.  As St Augustine says, the greatest poverty in life is not to have any friends.  How true!

It was a tough Songkran

At the end of the annual Songkran Festival which happens at the time of Thai New Year, I am on my way to work on the first day back.  And what do I see?  Outside the Tesco Lotus Express right by the Catholic Bishops' Conference Building is a cat sleeping on top of the stacked water . To me, this says it all about where Thailand is at today.  

After five days of holiday and three full-on days of throwing water at each other, people are exhausted.  Much energy was expended and much fun was had.  There were also the stories and the tragedies and the falling-outs that happened along the way.  As always here, I have my story and it speaks of my Bangkok, a city like no other I have ever experienced. 

On Monday night, at the end of the three day Songkran Festival and the massive water throwing, I am outside my apartment building, having presumably a quiet beer with a group of local, western males, living longterm here.  Then onto the scene comes a local Japanese guy with his Thai girlfriend.  They are intent on throwing water at Nando, the guy with our simple, local Italian restaurant.  Yes, the Thai woman is quite absurd and over the top but then what does one of the western guys do?  He throws his glass with beer and it hits the Japanese guy in the face.  There is then a full-on fight between these two.  It happened quickly and I wondered what to do.  This is not a situation I would have expected and not one I seek or engage in.  On the spot, I tried to be the peacemaker but that was not working as it needed a stronger enforcer than I.  In the fracas, the western guy had his computer stolen by a friend of the Japanese fellow.  When the high energies at play dissipated, I acted as consoler. 

What was exhibited by both sides was bizarre and unacceptable behaviour.  You don't throw glasses at people, you don't steal computers and there is no point in violence.  The outcome was two sore and tired bodies, with two angry men, both of whom felt wronged.  It all left a bad taste for everyone there and there was a shared sense of disgust and shock. 

I am always friendly with the guys in my neighbourhood.  I don't get into the local, western drinking routine, avoiding it purposely.  This time I joined them as I had reason to talk with Mickey, a good guy from Canada.  So I was there to witness a part of their group dynamic that arises because a couple of the guys drink too much and can't handle it.  After this, I have decided to avoid totally having a drink with this group but I will always be friendly. 

Then what do I see by the end of the week?  The western guy in the fight is back there at the same table with some of the same others sharing again in their nightly, social round of drinks.  Amazing!  Until the next fight?  Some people never learn until it is too late.  As for me, I am tired of this.  I just stand my ground and think the cat in the picture shows much more wisdom than many western guys in my Bangkok. 

Happy New Year!

I am not mad.  It is New Year but in Thailand.  It is Thai New Year and their big and real New Year.  13, 14 and 15 April are the days for this annual holiday season, otherwise known as Songkran.  This New Year period is shared elsewhere in the region and is celebrated with much water.  The idea is to wash away the bad luck and bad things of the past year and wish well for the year ahead. 

All very lovely but it turns into a mad orgy of water with everyone chucking water at everyone else, using water pistols, buckets and even the fire brigade.  It's true!  You have to see it to believe it.  The truth is that you have adults going wild with water fights and water dousing.  Everybody is a target.  It is all about fun but it is also about letting go and getting rid of all those repressions and tensions that have been holding you back or at least that is how some of us see it.  It is an annual and social way of releasing all those built up tensions and then move on feeling refreshed.  If you can't beat them, you join them.  So I will have my water pistol ready for defence purposes. 

Then here I don't share a picture of a lovely water blessing or of a water fight scene from Songkran but of my parents' grave in Brisbane.  Make no sense?  Well, for me it does.  My mother would hate the word but seeing this photo from my sister, I thought for me it brings some closure (that's the word mum hated).  It's a little bit sad for me to see the photo.  For some reason, as I see it, I also think how lovely.  It tells me in a physical way that mum and dad are at rest and life moves on.  I was reflecting on this on the day that would have been mum and dad's 74th wedding anniversary.  So let's get rid of all that holds us back and move on with life. 

Happy New Year!

It's Easter

It's Easter week in Bangkok and traffic is just extra terrible but not because it is Easter.  So why?  I am told it is the annual time for honouring the Chinese custom of acknowledging the dead.  So everyone is off everywhere to visit the dead.  Amazing! 

Then yesterday, I went to the funeral mass for the father of a Thai priest who has been good to me.  It is the first time in over seven years that I have been to a funeral mass.  What I noticed struck me.  Having a son a priest, I assume that this family is very Catholic but they still use Buddhist symbols.  I saw the incense sticks on the coffin and some other signs of Buddhism. Christianity is still very young in this country and while ones may be Catholic, they are Thai and very affected by the strong Buddhist environment here. 

What I also noticed at the funeral was that the priest's family were good, simple people - nothing complicated about them.  I was also struck by the number of priests.  There were over 50 and the ones I met were very friendly. 

As I reflect on the holding onto Buddhist ways within the Church here, I think of the line from the mother of the bride at a wedding I attended.  It was for a very Catholic family but still their strong belief was that the more priests they had present, the better and stronger the marriage would be.  It is all nearly superstitious. 

Maybe I am too western and rational.