Last week I went on a cultural assignment trip to Wat Prabat Nampu which is a temple dedicated to the care of aids patients. It was only about 10 minutes drive from where we live. It was set up in 1992 by a Buddhist monk as hospice care for HIV/AIDS patients. I have never been to a place like this, even though I've worked in hospitals where there have been seriously ill people, this was a surreal experience. We gave the patients bags with instant noodles, vasoline for their lips and lollies but that felt like so little for people with a death sentence. The temple's museums you have to see to believe. One had body parts in jars. The "life museum" had dead bodies with some sort of preservative pumped into them so that the their skin had dried up. Next to these bodies was the name of the person and a short biography about how they contracted AIDS. I have photos but they are a bit too gruesome to post.
HIV/AIDS is a real and growing problem in Thailand. One source of the problem is that many Thai men see going to a prostitute as normal social entertainment and have no moral problem with it.
Here in the photo above are approximately 10,000 bags of ashes, of people who had died at the temple but had no relatives to come back and retrieve their ashes.
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1 comment:
Noodles and lollies do seem a bit useless don't they? Still the good news is that you also have the hope of eternal life thru Jesus! Maybe if it is only 10 min down the road it could be a regualr trip - maybe combine some pysio and gospel?!
scott T
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