Someone - I won't say who - send me to get a blood test at a Thai hospital the other day. He wanted to make sure I was clean. The last time he went away, I took a couple of young guys home. Nothing happened, I told him, but...
Young ones are told strange things at school. Suddenly, it's not safe to drink from the same cup any more.
The nurses at the hospital must have seen all this before. 'I would like a blood test,' I said discreetly.
'Oh, for HIV?' one asked bluntly.
I am a foreigner, after all. They only come here for one reason, right?
'Yes,' I said.
'Oh, the HIV test,' she said, just in case the others gathered around the drug dispensing station next to us hadn't heard.
Actually, I suspect it was mainly for my benefit. These foreigners can be hard of hearing, and even thicker of understanding.
Wary of stereotypes that foreigners are sex-mad, I had actually come prepared to counter that impression. I also wanted a test for cholesterol, I said. If I asked for both, the HIV thing wouldn't look so obvious.
But perhaps because cholesterol is too hard to say, no one really seemed interested.
'An HIV test, then,' another agreed. She called out to someone else, even further away than the other group.
'The farang wants an HIV test' she said, loudly.
I looked round. No one was paying attention.
Just as well Thais do not care about such things. The personal is almost always public business, except when someone, for mysterious reasons of his own, wants to keep it private.
So, we're all agreed then. The 15 people waiting to see the doctor all knew. The farang wanted an HIV test.
Oh, and by the way. He was clean.
I went with a friend to a doctor's office recently. The examination room, where my friend spoke to the doctor, was open on the sides so I could hear the conversation where I sat in the waiting room.
ReplyDeleteAnother aspect of the lack of privacy is sometimes when I have flirted with a Thai boy on the street, thinking I am discreet, and then a whole bunch (mother, or father, brothers, sisters, friends etc) come and begin to comment loudly about my interest in the boy.
People can be too open about such things. Today I stopped in young E's soi to buy some som tam.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was waiting next to the foodcart for the woman to make it for me, another woman standing nearby asked me casually if I was his husband.
The som tam woman told me to ignore her. I smiled brightly, as I do whenever I walk down that street.
I am like a ambassador for the foreigner cause. I try not to cause trouble, but just smile, smile, smile!
Smiling is never wrong in Thailand. In the West smiling is considered improper in some situations, but in Thailand the worse it gets the bigger the smile.
ReplyDelete