Thursday, 13 January 2011

Slum lurgy, gruesome patient files


The blog has been silent a couple of days. I am battling a wave of strange head colds and fevers, which creep up on me, then leave again.

Who knows where these bugs are coming from. I like cuddling the toddlers at Ball's place, and they are always sickly. In fact, almost everyone there has a bug at present.

I recall a conversation with a Thai doctor, Mr B, who lives in this condo complex. I teach him English several times a week.

Our genteel, middle-class condo sits cheek by jowl with a slum area.

Mr B has dropped in to the same slum area in which Mr Ball and family live perhaps just three times.

'I wear plenty of clothes, and clean my hands as soon as I leave,' he said.

Most middle-class Thais such as Mr B wouldn't be caught dead in a Thai slum. He enters that area only in an emergency, such as when he needs to to reach the local 7-11 through the slum, which serves as a short-cut.

'You should be careful when you enter that area,' he told me.

To practise his English, Mr B pretends he is presenting medical case studies to an audience of farang doctors.

One of Mr B's patients, a police officer in Bangkok, managed to contract tuberculosis in his knee. Mr B showed me a video he took of the operation which the patient underwent to remove the TB. It was not pretty to watch.

'Perhaps 20% of the people in that slum have a chronic disease,' he said.

Mr B knows about my relationship with Ball and his family.

'On the plus side, TB does not like healthy people like you,' he said. 'Keep eating, and you should be fine.'

-
'I know that as soon as I see my child, I will want to work,' said Ball.

I spent a few hours with Ball's family the other night, when I took the opportunity to ask my young man when he intends finding a job.

He has been out of work since early November, when he lost his job as a messenger for a city bank.

Ball's girlfriend Jay, who is five months' pregnant, said nothing. She must have heard this story before, I thought, and no longer lets Mr Ball's complacency upset her.

'I want you to find a job now, not in four months,' I said. 'You have to put some money away for the big day.'

Ball's childhood slum friend, Y, knows someone who might be able to find them a job at an air conditioning firm.

Y has been promising to take Ball to the company for days, so they can apply for a job.

I am getting tired of waiting. If there is no progress soon, I shall withdraw his allowance as punishment.

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