Shadows of Shelly

Shelly - The Exploration Part 21a

TWENTY-ONE-a

Shelly – The Exploration

Brit had arranged for a couple of Air Force airmen to shuttle us to the dock where hotel staff were using golf carts to transport us and the luggage to the hotel. The multiplex was larger than what Dak Akura and I remembered. There were several new high-rise apartment buildings and a combination office and shopping plaza.

The base was really a detachment. The squadron commander had a mix of U.S. and Royal Thai Air Force with small one engine training planes used for coastal patrol and recon. The PT boats were manned by Royal Thai Navy and Border patrol. There was a platoon of Royal Thai Front-Line Guard that patrolled the area North of Phuket along the Burma border.

The complex manager was a cousin named Dak My Awn (ดอกไม้อ่อน – Soft-Flower.) Her two daughters were Dak Akura's and my age. The four of us explored the Phuket day market near the hotel. It had many venders. Some offered vegetables, fruit and nuts. A few sold fresh shrimp, lobster and fish. Others tendered cooked food of a large variety.

Chris and Brit were in the suite when we returned They had bathed and dressed in summer slacks and short sleeve shirts. They escorted us to Dak My Awn's. She and her daughters had cooked the same day catch from the Andaman Sea and the Thai Gulf.

After supper the guys took us to the movies where Cleopatra was playing with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The movie was in English, but headphones could be rented that transmitted Thai voices. After the movie we were walking back to the hotel when a kid approached us asking for Ha Baht (ห้าบาท - $1.25) to purchase shrimp fried rice from a street vendor.

The Job to Die For

Dak Akura and I protested. Brit gave him a hundred Baht note which was about $5.00. Brit said, "I remember when I was thirteen and begged for five Baht and your Daddy gave me a five-dollar bill which was enough for me to eat for two weeks. After that your Momma had little jobs for me to do around the hotel. Then they adopted this beggar-bum." His eyes were flooding with tears. I took a tissue and dried them.

I called out for the boy to come back. The look on his face indicated he might run away. However, he did return holding the money ready to give it back to me. I assured him that the money was his. After asking him a few questions, I discovered that his Daddy was a day worker and the family lived in a vacant lot two blocks away. Their shelter was a couple pieces of discarded cardboard which kept the sun off of his baby brother on a bright day and the rain on a soggy day.

I made Dak Akura, Chris and Brit follow me as the lad led us to the spot where his family resided. It was worse than I thought it would be. His little sister was sick and needed a doctor. The entire family was hungry. I knew that what we had paid for the movie would have fed the family for a week.

Thai people will not accept charity. The youngster must have been desperate to ask for money. I asked the father if he would mind doing odd jobs at the hotel. His face lit up.

He asked, "How many days?"

Six days a week and off Sunday.

"You mean a regular job?"

"Yes, and your wife can have a job cleaning the kitchen or washing sheets. We provide you a small house for your family to live in. We will pay you four hundred Baht a week.

Chris said, "That's only twenty dollars a week."

"If I offered him more, he would view it as charity and would not take the job. As a day worker he makes forty Baht a day. That is only twelve dollars a week at the most. It looks like he has not had much work this week. A regular job will be the blessing of his dreams."

I told the man that the job meant his children had to go to school. His face was beaming brighter. He knew his children's education was worth more than he could have ever hoped.

Brit commandeered a rot barn tuk (รถบรรทุก - This is a small truck-bus with open sides and a bench on each side of the bed to sit, also known as rot song thouw (รถสองแถว)to haul the family and their meager belongings to the hotel. The desk clerk had the hotel doctor come to tend to the little girl. Other families in the workers area brought in food, furniture, clothing, toys for the kids and pictures of Brit and me in our workout garb.

Chris ask, "Do you do this all the time?"

"What?"

"You go on your honeymoon and come back with a little boy and his grandmother. Then you pick up a boy off the street, hire his Daddy and give them a place to live!"

"Even though I was born an American, Brit and I have become acclimated to Thai ways in many areas of our lives. The Thais believe in making merit which is similar to Christians giving where there is a need.