TNSTAAFL

For or against...

Fever lays you down

Erin and I arrived back in Bangkok at the same time, and headed back home. But some how, within the 5 days of coming back she contracted her second case of Dengue. I'm not sure how that happened, or how I managed to escape it.

She ended up spending 4 days in the hospital with a varied skin rash that could have passed for a fresh sunburn, and a continuous round the clock guard from the girls in her office. Not to mention extreme body pain and nausea. The first day Erin's boss spent hours blotting her face with a damp washcloth. Apparently we as westerners, were only expected to arrive periodically with gifts of yogurt and croissants from 7-11. I think we're percieved as somewhat calous.

Friday Night

Coming home from work on Friday night I found, maybe 50 feet from our house, that a truck had crashed off the road into the drainage ditch.

At 8 pm, there's really not much to be done in terms of rescuing said truck, so the driver had decided to sit down and have some snacks and a chat with the owners of a internet cafe directly across from the truck. All this fell with in the realm of normal, until we decided to take turns having our pictures taken pretending to be pushing the truck over. Seeing white people pretend to strain themselves with pretend enormous strength is apparently hilarious.

Of course, the truck was gone by early the next morning.

Cleaning party...

Every Friday at 5:00 pm people break out brooms and sweep leaves, wrappers, trash, fallen fruit, etc. in too piles, and then set it on fire. With in minutes the whole hillside is shrouded in a thin and pungent smoke. Moving form one place to another you hit pockets of wood smoke, plastic, human hair, food - and all the unexpected combinations. For those with eye ailments, it becomes a hell, and for those who are concerned about the environment, a constant irritation.

But one thing I have noticed is that it seems to be a cultural phenomenon, and that cleaning is a somewhat regular and social activity here. If you can get used to the smoke, talking, sweeping and setting things on fire sounds like a fine sunset activity to me.