Post Script

You know when someone tells you something, and you automatically filter that information into the, “Oh, they’re just over-exaggerating,” category, where you heed the person’s message, but decide to take it with a grain of salt & consider it less potent than the propounder implies? And do you also know that feeling of realisation you get when you discover that not only was the messenger telling the truth, but they might’ve even been down-playing the severity of the issue so as to not appear sensationalising the state of affairs? Well, I think that that feeling has just hit me.

Moments ago, I went for a short stroll down the sois (soi = residential street; road = arterial thoroughfare) behind the school. We teachers were told in orientation by an ex-pat who’s lived in Thailand for decades that the culture is largely one of appearances, and that they like to put their best faces on, while sweeping the secrets up, behind corners and under rugs. I don’t think that there’s any better way to exemplify this very attitude than in walking into the bowels of residential Bangkok. The deeper you go, the narrower the streets, and the more difficult the access, until you find yourself walking along a concrete sidewalk-sized “road,” surrounded by jungle and swamp, wherein dwelling after dwelling stands. I don’t think I would venture to call these places houses, so as to give you an improper idea of how many people live. These abodes are literally sheets of tin tacked together with an odd wooden beam here or there for some random structural support.

To be honest, I don’t quite know what to say. I can tell you that my heart was deeply moved, and that my eyes have seen past the veil of “everything’s groovy in Thailand” that the roads project. I often wondered how people survived here in Thailand, when many prices for items (save for the most basic staples) are comparable with prices at home and when the average monthly salary works out to be something like $700. Now I have a better understanding: these people don’t, for the most part, have anything besides the most basic staples. Now, is this true for the majority of Bangkok & the majority of Thailand? I don’t know. I’ve only been down one section of the soi network, which connects millions of people to Bangkok’s arteries much like capillaries in the circulatory system. Are other communities the same, where people are literally living in swamps, having nothing more than a few sheets of tin nailed together as a roof for shelter? I’m not sure.

I’d like to find out, though.