STREET FOOD

 

 One night walking home from BIG C (it is kind of like a Kmart) we passed all these food vendors.  We only bought some fruit, though I was temped by the fish...........I am sure you will be also!

 Elder Wolfley will be returning to the states this Friday, he has been an assistant to the president while we have been here.  We will miss him.

 Our Patio is looking better since we inherited some plants from another senior couple that will be returning home next month.

HUMANITARIAN TRIP TO RANONG

Last Saturday/Sunday we flew to Ranong in Southern Thailand with Elder and Sister Ure.  They are the Humanitarian Couple here in Bangkok.  The church had donated several machines to Princess Mother's Foundation to help with cataract surgery for those who cannot afford it.  The Ure's needed to go to see how the machines were being used.  Princess Mother's Foundation travels to out of the way places, to those in need.  There are 6 - 7 eye surgeons that volunteer their time, countless nurses and others who come to the 2 day event.  Five of the doctors were from Bangkok alone.  They did 138 surgeries on Saturday.



We flew in on Saturday morning and were met by our hosts Thong Chai and his wife, Moo.  They took us to an outdoor restaurant before we went to the hospital.  The food was real Thai, and Elder Grange loved it.  I liked the rice and some sort of steamed vegetable that looked like spinach, but wasn't.  We could see across the river to Myanmar.

We watched a few surgeries, I did not get too close.

 The church donated one of these machines.  They call it a Phaco and it is an $80,000 machine.

Elder GrangejE

The barefoot surgeon. The foot pedal controls certain parts of the Phaco.

The church donated these fast autoclaves and they were being well used.

The patients were lined up out side the operating room.

This is where they stayed the night if they did not live close enough to go home.

Cute little girls!

 The next day the families lined the outside of the room waiting to take their parents, grandparents home.

The doctors checked.

 Then checked a little further with this machine that LDS charities donated.

 We got to go through the room and place sunglasses on them.  Very sweet, as they thanked us and grabbed our hands.  We were so honored to be there and be a part of such an amazing effort.

A happy reunion with Grandma!

Elder Grange talking and getting the stories of some of the patients.

This sweet lady wanted lots of pictures with us.

Love what this picture says.

Elder Grange chatted it up with the men also.  These men were waiting for their final discharge.

 

We were so impressed with so many skilled volunteers who made this happen.  The people there treated us like we were visiting dignitaries.  We were so humbled by the fact that we just showed up and received so much love.

Oh, and it was good to get out of Bangkok and see a different side of Thailand.

 

Don't Judge Me.....

Yes, that is a Carls Jr sign. and it was delicious!

Sometimes a guy just needs his hamburger and girl has to have some onion rings!

Not an oreo there, that is an authentic Bolivian or Panamanian coin purse.  It was bulging with Thai Baht just moments before until the Carl's clerk helped me unload some.  So the question is, which son brought this home to me from his mission?  Ryan, Spencer?  Who is going to claim to be the gift-er of my beautiful embossed leather coin keeper!!

RANDOM SITES AND THOUGHTS

OUR FAMILY

Just Because......We see little kids and smile, parents reading to and chasing their children, lots of young adults (we live right next to the University)  We think of our family, we are so blessed!

This is our very functional office, my desk is first and Elder Grange has the large wrap around style, very impressive for a very important guy! 

Meet Narin.  We share our office with him,,,,or maybe he shares his with us. He is in charge of all visas and work permits for the whole mission.  He arranges travel for all the Thai missionaries serving in Thailand and for Thais that serve in other countries.  He is very smart, I bother him a lot with little questions and he is always kind.  He talks Thai with John, to help John get better, but his english is very good.  We met his cute wife and his adorable little girl who is just a bit over 1.

Walking out of our apartment building we followed this adorable little "cub scout" and his father!  Cute, cute!!

One day we left work a bit early and rode the subway, the sky train and walked a bit to the dock and rode a boat to Asiatique.  It is a "nighttime shopping experience"  We ate, shopped and walked around.  Ate some ice cream from Swensons and then did it all in reverse to get home.  It was a 5 hour round trip!

We were happy to get out of the office after 2 13 hour days in one week.

Yep, Random Thoughts.

OUR WALK TO WORK...AND BACK AGAIN!

These are just some of the sights on our way to work.  It is about a 15 minute walk.  It would be 10 if you did not have to dodge so many people on the way.  It is a pleasant walk, except when the Klong (that means canal) is smelling bad, or worse than bad, because it is always pretty stinky.  ha ha

Mister Donut has pretty good donuts, you can pick up a glazed for 10 baht, about 30 cents.


 These are the pretty flowers that are on the bridge over the Klong.  I cut out the sea of humanity that is coming at us from the subway.  We are swimming up stream to work and going home.  The subway is right over the bridge.

This is the flower lady, we just came down the steps.  We buy flower leis from her to welcome all the new missionaries!

 Just outside of the subway is the line for motorcycle taxis.

 These taxis are coming to pick up from the line.   YES!, they are on the sidewalk!  Pedestrians beware!

                                                                                        She climbs on and they are off!

We jay walk across the street, it is quicker and safer! And we are there!

COMING HOME.....  

                                                                 Street Food

                                                                over the klong

                                                      The klong, and the klong long taxi

                                                             more street food

                  The plaza that is FULL of vendors every Tuesday and Thursday

The 7-11 across the street from our apt.  I think it has everything we really need!