Ken Burns at Brandeis University Commencement 2024

Everybody should watch and listen to one of my personal heroes, Ken Burns, giving a commencement speech at Brandeis University. Watch the whole thing, if you can get past the political statement, you’ll get the message.

“As a Nation, we are diametrically preoccupied. Everything is right or wrong, Red or Blue, young or old, gay or straight, rich or poor Palestinian or Israeli, my way or the highway.

Everywhere we are trapped by these old, tired, binary reactions, assumptions and certainties. That preoccupation is imprisoning.”

Ken Burns at Brandeis University

Our European Vacation or How to see Europe from the back seat of a car.

Our story begins as a lunch discussion after church on a sunny Sunday in February. We were discussing vacations and a comment from our friends, Sara and Chad, was, "Hey, you should join us on our trip to Portugal.” Diane (nor I) had ever been to Europe and she has it on a to-do bucket-list. She immediately said, “Yes.” I had some reservations because I had a sense our friends had a different view of vacationing than we do. Though world travelers, they are very spontaneous and view vacationing as more of a race against time to accomplish as many goals as possible in the time allotted. Kind of like “The Amazing Race” rather than “Rick Steves’ Europe.” We, on the other hand, are more, “Where can we go to eat a nice meal, take a picture then take a nap” kind of travelers. What we got was “Rick Steves joins the Amazing Race.”

My mission in life is to praise Jesus and make my wife happy. Although I had my reservations, wanting her to check that bucket list item, I joined the crazy train to Europe. We pushed our coins together and made our contribution to airfare, hotels and fun. We were joined by our friend Louis, more about him later. What we didn’t do was ask a few probing questions that, in hindsight, may have improved our lot in life on this trip.

Folks, I’ve hated airports since 2001 and my faith in them hasn’t changed much since. I often harken back to those days when you could just walk in, walk to the gate to depart or meet someone or just get some food and people watch. Now we’re barraged with PA announcements about security precautions, ‘don’t leave luggage unattended’ messages, long lines and not-so friendly TSA agents who change-up the rules on a whim and seem to compete to get you to get as close to undressed as possible. Even Pre-Check doesn’t always go as advertised with some new guy deciding whether shoes and belts are on or off. Don’t get me started on paying for my luggage which may or may not arrive at the same destination as me. I forgot the AirTags AGAIN!

The DFW experience was passable and the flight to Philadelphia was uneventful. We were fortunate our travel mates, Chad and Sara, are among the 1 percenters who have a zillion points and can get us free bags and a stay at the Admiral’s Club. Side note, American’s Admiral’s Club was the idea of American’s first CEO, C.R. Smith. In 1939, Smith, a Texas native, wanted to have a place at the new LaGuardia Airport for VIPs and other elite customers to go before their flights. Smith wanted them to feel like “Admirals of the American Airlines Fleet” so he named it the “Admirals Lounge”. The receptionists were called “Skippers” and the bar staff were “Stewards”. It was such a success, other airlines followed suit and now have their own lounges. 

Another friend, an American Airlines Flight Attendant we had met, spoke about the thankless job they had and whenever she traveled, she always brought a little gift bag for each of the crew as thanks for their work. Diane and I decided to do that for our international flights. The crew were very appreciative and gave our team extra attention, some extra snacks and a bottle of wine on the return flight to Philly and DFW.

Philly to Lisbon was a long haul but the 787 was well stocked, had lots of movies and made it to Lisbon without losing a door or engine cover.

After 2 ½ hours to Philly and seven hours to Lisbon, the first red flag waved. Our companions had rented a BMW X-1. Mind you, there were five of us with two bags a piece and some backpacks to accompany us. The X-1 is a fine “Luxury Compact SUV” (with an emphasis on “Compact”) that BMW even admits can seat “up to 5” if the 5th person is a pulldown armrest with Stanley cups. Just a little on the tiny size for all of us and our junk. Realizing this, our friend tried to get a van which was way too pricy but was able to secure a Volvo XC60 Hybrid SUV. Lots of get up and go but still a little small for 5 people and all our stuff but it had to do (see photo).

We hit the road and drove 2 ½ hours to a neat little town on the south coast of Portugal called Luz in the Algarve region of Portugal. Side benefit, our friend Chad speaks Portuguese from a time he spent in Brazil in his youth. You’d be amazed how Portuguese is NOT like Spanish. There are some similarities, but way different.

There is the  Praia da Luz (the Beach of the Light) which is very scenic with sand meeting cliffs. Luz harkens back to the time of Roman conquest and still has remnants of Roman ruins around town. There lies the Fortaleza da Luz which was built in 1624 to protect the harbor, church and village from pirates and Moors who plundered the area. The Fortress is now a great restaurant (Fortaleza Da Luz Restaurant) which overlooks the beach, and has a great menu to choose from. Portugal and Spain are both seafood centric but there are other things to eat there. One of the best Cheeseburgers and fries I ever had was in Salamanca, Spain. Also, everywhere we went most people spoke English, had English signs and even English translated menus.

There we were introduced to Vin de Verde (Green Wine). A Portuguese national favorite, it is basically a dry white wine with just a hint of carbonation and low alcohol content. It comes from the northwest corner of Portugal, the Minho region where a lot of Portuguese grapes come from. It’s kind of like their version of Boone’s Farm if anybody remembers those days. We spent the night at our really nice VRBO three bedroom condo.

The next day we drove another 2 hours to another cool little town, Faro, farther east along the coast. Faro is another ancient town from Roman times established as a fishing and fish processing center. We did lunch. After a walk around and a rooftop drink overlooking Faro, returned to Luz. The next morning, we got back into our SUV and began our 3 hour drive to Seville, Spain. Lots of open country and the next red flag. You see, my friend driving is a cop.

All of you who were cops recall the driving habits you acquired while in Patrol or Traffic. For those who don’t know, imagine driving a powerful 4,200 pound vehicle (don’t forget that giant battery) that belongs to someone else and your only responsibility, regardless of preventative maintenance requirements, is to gas it up at the end of the day. Everything in between is crazy driving to get to your destination.

View of :Luz from our patio

Chad and Sara were in the front. As Chad sped our way through the Andalusian countryside, Sara was busy holding her Google Maps in one hand and monitoring the Volvo’s navigation console, calling out turns, lane changes and traffic circles (they were everywhere) like a co-pilot working an Instrument Approach in Cat 5 weather (clouds almost to the ground, really scary). While we were captive in the back sliding side to side as we hurtled across Spain trying unsuccessfully not to slide into one another like it was the 24 hours of Le Mans.

We were weaving in and out of traffic on the flat plains, hedges of vines heavy with their grapes whizzing by and winding mountain passes only occasionally stopping at gas stations to refill the Volvo’s insatiable appetite for gas at an average of  $1.62 PER LITRE (about 5.86 a gallon) and filling ourselves up with snacks and the best machine made Café de Leches I’ve ever come across.

Pastel de Nata and café

Let me digress, my first instinct on hearing that a side trip to Spain was in the plan, reminded me of all the pastoral beauty my good friend Dana encountered and documented and the people he met he has blogged about walking the El Camino de Santiago. “The Camino” follows the Pilgrim’s walk through Spain to the Shrine of St James at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. Huge following, lots of foot blisters and eternal camaraderie to those who have completed or even attempted it.

Our ride was not so much pastoral as our view was confined to seeing the farms and villages zip by from the side windows and the view forward of lumbering trucks and lessor vehicles not keeping in tune with our friend’s schedule through a bug spattered windshield (see photo from Diane’s seat as she bravely straddled the cars tunnel). I got a much better appreciation for what it must be like sitting behind the pilots of the Space Shuttle.

After extricating ourselves from the rear seat, like butterflies from their cocoons, we visited Seville (Sevilla). An inland port, it is the chief city of Andalusia and the fourth largest in Spain. Sevilla was important in history as a cultural center, as a capital of Muslim Spain, and as a center for Spanish exploration of the New World.  Sevilla has been around since the 2nd Century BCE (that’s before Christ). It really brings the “Old” to Old World architecture. Sevilla became the center of the exploration and exploitation of America (think Chris Columbus).

Universidad De Sevilla est 1505

For two centuries Sevilla was the dominant force in Spain’s New World commerce; it was the site of the chief mint for gold and silver from the Americas, and many Spanish emigrants to the New World sailed from its quays. Sevilla was in fact the richest and most populous city in Spain in the 16th century, with some 150,000 inhabitants in 1588. Their importance was fleeting, however, since Sevilla’s prosperity was based almost entirely on the exploitation of the colonies rather than on local industry and trade. As a result, Sevilla’s economy declined in the 17th century, though its cultural life underwent a great flowering at that time. The painters Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Zurbarán, and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, the sculptor Juan Martínez Montañés, and the poet Fernando de Herrera are the glories of Sevilla and of Spain. Miguel de Cervantes conceived of his novel Don Quixote while he was confined in Sevilla’s jail (I’m guessing Mike had too much Vin de Verde).

Catedral de Seville

Columbus is buried there in the Tumba de Christobal Colon in the massive Seville Cathedral. Although Chris is buried there, it was not his first stop. He died in Valladolid, Spain and was originally interred in Sevilla waiting for a Cathedral to be built in Hispaniola (now Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic). When Hispaniola (the D.R.) was signed over to France, they pulled Chris out and sent him to Havana. When that didn't happen, he was sent to Sevilla for burial in the Cathedral. He got more mileage after his death than he got “discovering” the New World.

We then returned to Luz to pack and prepare for our sortie north to Santander, Spain. One of our primary missions was to get our friend and fellow back seater, Louis, to his ancestral home of Rumoroso, Spain. Louis had traced his grandparents to the town prior to their migration to America. So we invigorated ourselves with Café Lattes and de Leches in the early light at The Studio Coffee in Luz and off we went on our 10 hour drive to Rumoroso.

Halfway up, we stopped at Salamanca, Spain passing through the Plaza Mayor de Salamanca, a huge sprawling town center. Beautiful architecture and, though we didn’t stick around long enough, is lit up at night and quite a sight to see. Salamanca is a UNESCO World Heritage site that became prominent in the 3rd Century BCE and the capitol of the Castillo and Leon districts. It is also home to Salamanca University. In 1218 King Alfonso IX founded Universidad de Salamanca considered the oldest University in Spain.

We walked the winding alleys of the town and found Meson El Churrasco open for lunch (home of the great Cheeseburger mentioned above). Trip Advisor came in handy (make sure you get those international cell phone rates added) for restaurants and menus. Some of our companions were Gluten intolerant and many had Gluten Free options.

After a little shopping, we then hopped back into our Swedish ride and made the rocket run in the waning light to get Louis his photo op at Rumoroso at the very northern coast of Spain.

The Art Hotel Lobby

As day turned to night, we made our way to our next hotel, The Art Hotel in Santander, Spain (yes…I did say The Art Hotel). It is a boutique hotel with real modern art inside. It was a nice room on the first floor with an actual window you could open but our view was the alley next to the hotel. Packed up and ready to stuff our bags into the back of the Volvo the next morning, we now had a tried and true procedure for that and off we went on another 10 hour ride back to Lisbon.

It’s important to note that throughout our travels, we couldn’t help but notice that just about everywhere we went, whether on the road or in the cities, we encountered graffiti. I get the art and symbolism of some of it but it really takes away from the beauty of a place.

Lisbon (Lisboa) is the capital and largest city of Portugal. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world and the second-oldest European capital city (after Athens), predating other modern European capitals by centuries. Established by pre-Celtic tribes and later the Phoenicians there are ruins which date back to the 1st Century BC. The Portuguese were also big-time explorers, think Magellan, Vasco De Gama and Prince Henry the Navigator (an SUV we could have used on this trip) which is why people in Brazil speak Portuguese.

Lisbon was the nicest of the places we stayed. The Ikonic Lisboa is part of a chain of hotels throughout the world. It is located in the Park of Nations, the site of the 1998 Lisbon Expo on the banks of the river Tagus. It is a very modern hotel (not pet friendly) with an AMAZING breakfast buffet as part of our stay. Travel tip, don’t forget your 240/120 volt converters. If you plug something American into a socket, bad things will happen to your device and maybe the building.

Breakfast Buffet

For dinner, we walked into the Park of Nations and found Cantinho do Avillez. We were seated outside people watching on the promenade under the wings of a replica of a Sopwith Camel bi-plane from WWI. I enjoyed one of the best Quinoa salads I’ve ever had.

Luckily, the following morning, the airport was minutes away and we got there in plenty of time to get through security. Well…there was a slight deviation I experienced for the first time. I noted on my ticket back to Philadelphia had a series of four Ss printed on it. When I got to the gate, my name was called along with other passengers to return to the ticket desk. When I got there, we got pulled aside and a secondary search was conducted on me and my carry on bag just as the airline called for boarding. I was number three and had to take everything out of my pockets, remove my belt, remove my phone and iPad from their cases and my shoes. All items including me were swabbed for GSR and Bomb elements and once re-dressed, the agents were kind enough to let me jump the line to get on the plane. I was worried I wouldn’t make the flight.

When I got on the plane I immediately searched SSSS on a ticket. Here is what I found: Secondary Security Screening Selection or Secondary Security Screening Selectee, known by its initials SSSS, is an airport security measure which selects passengers for additional inspection. People from certain countries are subject to it by default. The list is a subset of the “No-Fly” list. The passengers may be known as Selectee, Automatic Selectee or the Selectee list. In the case of Southwest Airlines, secondary screening selectees may have a "checkerboard" pattern printed on their boarding passes. So beware the dreaded SSSS or checkerboard on your ticket.

The flight back was long but comfortable. American has two meals they served, breakfast and dinner. Both were passable for airplane food. Because we had handed out our gift bags, we got a little more attention and got some extra drinks, snacks and a bottle of wine. Several of the Flight Attendants came by to thank us for the gifts and seemed genuinely appreciative.

Back in Philadelphia, we made our way to the Admiral’s Club for the three-hour layover which got delayed further by a storm front passing through Dallas. I had lost my original return ticket to DFW along the way and had the ticket reprinted in Lisbon. Unfortunately, the reprint did not have my TSA Pre designation and I had to go through regular security (note to self, don’t lose your ticket ever again). We got home around midnight and had to Uber in a Lincoln Navigator (how ironic) back to our car and home. A 1,362 mile road trip we will not soon forget.

In case you’re curious, the gift pack was a small flashlight (was timely in that the Attendants had recently been told they can’t use their phone flashlights on duty), mini tube of hand cream, tube of lip balm, a red “Flight Crew” key fob, one dark chocolate and one milk chocolate candy all packed in a snack size baggie….all available on Amazon.

My Thailand Experience

 I think we can all agree, we are a spoiled people. We were fortunate enough to be born or transported to this land of milk and honey where things are relatively organized (well, except our current government wrangling) and we can depend on a steady access to fresh water, electricity and food. All of which, one way or another, are regulated and consistent throughout the expanse of our Nation. Not so much in lands outside of our borders (sorry…not you O, Canada, you guys are pretty set except for that weird money you have).

Let’s take a moment to discuss flying to distant destinations. The farthest I’ve flown was to Hawaii. About six hours with no delays. Dallas-Fort Worth to Doha, Qatar was 17 HOURS. There’s only First Class/Business and then the unwashed rabble (us).

We had these neat little video screens with like 400 videos and movies to watch but the seating space was ridiculous. When the person in front of me tipped back their seat, that little screen was now inches from my face. Luckily, I had been blessed with an aisle seat, I could get up at will and move around. My row companions, not-so-much.

Then there was the connecting flight, 7 HOURS to Bangkok and another hour and a half to Chiang Mai. That’s over a day in the air in a metal tube hurtling through space.

Apparently NOT worried about hijacking

Food wasn’t a problem, we had three meals on the Doha flight, two to Bangkok and another on the Chiang Mai flight (kudos to the Bangkok Air folks, they had, in my opinion, the best in-flight meal). Interesting side light, on Qatar, they give you this cool bag of stuff you might need like headphones, cute little socks and blinders to wear to sleep. They also have a “Personal Wellness Bag.”

Of course, it is an airsickness bag but with a twist. Look carefully and note the top is sealed, you have to tear it open to use it. I thought this could be problematic if you were in some sort of a hurry. This should probably have been covered in the Safety Talk at the start of the flight.

We Americans take so much for granted that, when we travel abroad, we have certain expectations and feel somewhat inconvenienced when those expectations aren’t met. The ugly American syndrome takes over and our hosts look at us askance, roll their eyes and do what they can to accommodate us when they can.

Like restroom accommodations. Both in Thailand and my experience in Mexico, not everybody is blessed with inside flushable toilets. Oh, you’ll be safe enough in some of the major cities, but just outside the city limits you would most likely end up with some version of this setup.

A stand up or squat situation with a manual flush of a bucket of water cast into the porcelain receptacle or it could be just a deep dug hole which may or may not be in a cabana or shed. Like camping, having a roll of toilet paper in your back pack (and some baby wipes for those more fastidious souls) is a life saver. For the “upscale” Resort we stayed in, they used flush toilets but a slight twist on the bidet concept. Bet you never thought to use a dish sink sprayer like these folks did.

When we arrived for our Medical Mission, Carmen took us aside and reminded us we were in Thailand and not to expect four-star accommodations or treatment. She emphasized we were guests in their Country and to act that way. We were told in no uncertain terms that taking shoes off when entering a person’s home or church was mandatory, and special dispensation had been offered us while we were at clinics because they expected us to be wearing shoe coverings on-the-job.

Masks are still common in Thailand (I was somewhat surprised, being from Texas, the Land of Virus deniers) how many people I saw wearing masks in stores or on the street) and if offered one or asked to wear one we should agree or leave the place we were in.

The Thai people are an old and proud culture and, although they will excuse a foreigner (they actually call us that), they can be easily insulted and don’t forget easily. Generally, if confronted by embarrassment, they will default to laughing or giggling and walk away. Many have been Westernized and many know and understand at least rudimentary English. It is taught in public and private schools and college/universities. There is also a huge Ex-Pat community of Europeans and Americans as well.

And, of course, there are a plethora of American fast-food establishments to make one feel at home. Although available, I never saw anyone use chop-sticks in and around the Chiang Mai area. Of course, with my corrupt sense of humor, I was trying to visualize someone eating a Big Mac with chop sticks.

Our first few days involved acclimating ourselves to the Thai ways. “Team Building” exercises involved us trying to pick up some basic Thai terms and greetings. Each Team of Medical and Vision had medical and/or vision terms to use to coax our patients to tell us what was wrong or right about what we were doing. This involved huddling with our Thai student leader and learning a song (in Thai) that we were going to sing to other groups later on…no pressure. No matter who you are or where you come from, it’s always easy to spot pain, suffering or fear in someone’s face and sometimes just holding a hand or shielding their eyes could provide comfort when the crazy foreigner is about to stick a big old needle into your extremity.

At one Team Building, Carmen split us into men and women and assigned us food preparation tasks. The men were teamed with some male Thai students to go to the food market. Our mission was to go into town and buy a main course, side dishes and a healthy soup.  One team had to prepare Breakfast.

The women stayed behind to get some open-air kitchen cooking techniques with our Chief Cook. Luckily, the men teams got an interpreter to go along to help.

We piled into our open pickup trucks (ah…did I mention they don’t have a Department of Transportation regulating things like…seat belts? Hey, its Thailand after all) and made our way through bustling downtown Chiang Mai traffic at rush-hour.

It was a cacophony of horns, loud exhaust, clouds of diesel smoke (oh yeah, no smog regulations), squealing tires and then add in motorbikes in various configurations (amazing the things you can hang off of a moped) darting in and out of traffic. All vying and jockeying for position where whatever driving regulations and traffic control devices are mere suggestions in the overall picture and, oh, did I mention all that driving on the wrong side of the road?

Funny story, while we careened through the streets, I mentioned this seemingly chaotic road scene to one of our mentors, Dr. Roy Batterham. Doc Roy said it may look that way, but, in fact, all people who apply for drivers’ licenses take mandatory driver safety classes AND a mandatory four-hour course in Courteous Driving and must pass the course to get their license. Backward third-world country? I think not.

We get to the open-air market and split up to get our ingredients. My guys were tasked with getting the soup contents. We approach what I will euphemistically call a Meat Counter. No refrigeration or even ice supporting these various cuts of chicken, beef and pork lying about.

I was told that Thais generally ascribe to the European style of meal preparation. In most cases, they buy stuff for the next couple of meals so there is no immediate need to refrigerate because the food will be consumed soon after purchase. Most folks have refrigeration in the cities but the more rural (and away from electricity infrastructure) the fresher the purchase or harvesting. This market was extensive and you could pick up just about anything we might have at a grocery store except for packaging and some of it maaaaay still be moving.

My guys looked to me (the VERY senior member of the team) to come up with the ingredients. I looked about under the watchful and clearly entertained eyes of the women proprietors. You see, Thailand is more of a Matriarchal society and men aren’t usually the ones doing the food prep or purchase. So, we were already behind the eight ball if you will.

I was a little overwhelmed with the smell and display of various meats, some I could not immediately identify. I did note there seemed to be a plethora of pig parts, hooves, bellies, ears and whole heads. So, I had our intrepid interpreter ask the woman behind, what I will loosely call “the counter”, if she had any ground pork. She quickly and enthusiastically answered yes and asked me how much I needed. I couldn’t find any clues around me and my stalwart companions were of no help so they left it up to me. I recalled I was in a Metric country and blurted out, “One Kilo.”

This seemed to satisfy the woman who then told us she would immediately grind up some and that we could swing by to pick up after completing our ingredient list. We then selected some beautiful and BIG carrots, some potatoes and cilantro. We went by the meat counter, scored our pork, had enough stuff to feed about 20 people and got out of there for less than the equivalent of $10 U.S. dollars (the Thai Baht was 36 to one U.S. Dollar at the time).

After dinner, I had some time to do some reading. There was usually a “hot pot” of water for coffee or hot chocolate. For convenience, our hosts used a common packaged single serving coffee. Doc Roy came by and I remarked to him the huge number of coffee shops I had seen on our travels. Literally a Starbucks or mom and pop independent shop every hundred yards or so. Doc Roy told an interesting story.

As you note on the map, we were on the outskirts of the infamous “Golden Triangle” of Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand. Opium, what started out as a revenue source for anti-Communist militias fighting in the 1960s in that region, ended up as a big Drug Cartel mess. Because opium was such a great cash crop in this region, the government was making efforts to get the locals off farming opium and move to a less dangerous and addictive crop. They went to the United Nations and their agricultural guy did a study and decided coffee beans would do well in their climates so there was a big push to switch over and now they have developed a huge coffee culture which coincided with the rise of coffee shops and cafes in the 70s and 80s. A success story if I had ever heard one.

It wasn’t all work and no play. We did get a day to visit a big tourist draw to Chiang Mai, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep built in 1384 AD. According to legend, a white elephant, carrying a relic of the Buddha, was released into the jungle and began to climb a large mountain in the center of Chiang Mai, Thailand – Doi Suthep. When it reached the top, the elephant trumpeted three times before dying on the mountain.

So, they built the Temple where the elephant fell using only local materials. There are 300 steps to the top and for good luck tourists walk around the Temple three times and ring the bells as you go. We were trying to get to the Doi Inthanon National Park and Elephant Sanctuary but the rains had washed the roads out and the park was closed (sorry Debbie).0

Then there is the downtown Night Market. It’s chock full of stuff you don’t need but have to buy because it’s so inexpensive, which includes a huge food court with traditional foods and an assortment of Gringo food like burgers, pizza and even Mexican.

On another day we got to visit the Central Festival Mall. A huge five floor monolith with all your favorite shops from Nike to Ralph Lauren. The food park was in the basement and had all the stuff you want to eat and desserts. Yes, even Krispy Crème was there. Prices in Baht were comparable to U.S. prices. There were no farmers shopping here.

All things must come to an end and our last day was packing and then airport nonsense. Chiang Mai was easy, very Southwest Airlines-like. But Qatar was beyond all expectations. In retrospect, the Arab nations probably had a heads-up on the Hamas invasion of Israel. Bangkok was pretty intense but in Qatar, the day before the attack, we went through four, count‘em, four separate security checks before getting to our final gate. At this writing, several Thai captives had been released by Hamas. 

After another full day in the air in my cramped aisle seat made me that much more grateful for our return. My comrades and I had a very rewarding and interesting trip loaded with memories of the place and the people. Now, I need to reflect and decide if I’m going back in 2025!

My Medical Mission to Thailand Part 1

T

Our church has an Outreach Program which includes sending Mission Groups out for medical care and construction projects in far off lands. I had previously been to Puebla, Mexico just outside of Mexico City to help a Medical Mission visit several villages to provide basic medical care and education. Every two years, we send teams to Thailand to help the  Christian Mission to the Orient at the Lana Theological Center (LTC) in Chiang Mai, Thailand. LTC runs a school and assists outlying, small churches in villages outside of Chiang Mai. As you can imagine, spreading The Word in a predominantly Buddhist country has its challenges but there are a significant number of believers out there to Shepard.

Thailand has been through many changes over the years. The Thai people emigrated down from China around the Sixth Century and became a Monarchy early on. Back then it was Siam until 1932 when it changed names to Thailand and befriended Japan during WWII. As the war progressed, that changed; Thailand saw an increase in American and British presence helping supply forces in China through its strategic position on the border of then Burma (now Myanmar) with aircraft flying “The Hump” over the Himalayan mountains and the Burma Road into China. Of course, we had a big military presence there during the Vietnam era because of its proximity to Laos and Cambodia. Though there have been many coups and political unrest, they have currently settled on a Parliamentary-Monarchy form of government with the military still overseeing developments.

As of this writing, Hamas has attacked Israel and in the initial fighting, several Thai citizens were killed or taken hostage by Hamas. Little known fact, Thailand provides almost all the foreign farm labor in Israel. And there may be consequences for the country's agricultural economy if large numbers of Thais choose to stay away after the Hamas attack. Many of the Thai workers have to borrow money to go to Israel and now they are returning, jobless and in debt.

LTC Compund

LTC was originated by David and Deloris Filbeck. Their daughter, Carmen, and son, Ken, now operate the Center. The Filbecks were called to bring the Gospel to the Lua people of Northern Thailand in 1960. David spent 10 years learning the culture and language. But the Communist insurgency in 1974 had David return to the States where he taught at several Christian Colleges until 1982, when they were called back and settled in Chiang Mai, the largest city in the North. Their children returned with them and they named their ministry the Christian Mission to the Orient. As part of their leadership training program, they turned the LTC into a four-year Bible College sending out graduates to leadership roles in their communities and to plant new churches in North Thailand.

Registration/Triage

Our reason for being there was because of an idea Ken had in 2007 of doing mobile clinics in outlying villages. Ken is actually Doctor Ken, an accomplished Emergency Room physician who practices in Thailand, Australia and California. Under his and Carmen’s supervision, teams like ours come to Thailand to do medical, dental and vision care. There is no real organized medical care outside of the major cities in Thailand. This would require travel into the city and can be quite costly. So clinics like ours are the only real chance for people to meet or be treated by medical people. We did not have a dentist this time so we focused on vision and medical care.

After an initial registration process, vitals were taken and they were triaged to either vision, medical or both. The Thai students did all the registration and interpreting (which led to interesting conversations as they tried to interpret medical stuff to our English). The vision folks, Danny, Amy, Chad and Sherri, had low tech manual gauges to determine eyesight measurements and gave out one pair of donated single vision readers and one pair of sunglasses. It was pretty rewarding watching the reaction of the patients who put on their glasses and for maybe the first time, were able to see and read in focus.

Our care givers were two RNs, Sara, Pamela, and Doctor Ken. They interviewed patients and diagnosed what they could, given our limited supplies and equipment. The people we met were mostly farmers and field workers doing hard labor. Most chief complaints were pain in joints, cold and coughs, general fatigue and the occasional trigger finger (fingers that lock when extending or contracting into a fist) or Carpal Tunnel. There was a pharmacy to dispense pharmaceuticals and vitamins prescribed by the Care Team.

I was partnered with Ken’s son, Samuel, a current phlebotomist and new medical student. Samuel was also somewhat fluent in Thai and was our interpreter. For the cases of general fatigue, we were tasked with doing B12 injections in the arm and for the joint pain we were doing direct knee injections or shoulder joint injections of pain medication. Samuel was a natural having stuck many folks in his work but I was the holdout. Let me explain.

Someone came up with the idea that I had vast medical knowledge from my days as an EMT when I was a Sheriff’s Deputy in San Diego (yeah…it’s ok, I laughed too). I was trained as an EMT as part of my duties flying as an Observer and Pilot for ASTREA, the Sheriff’s Aviation Unit. This period was almost in the black and white television days; the expectation was monitoring patients as we flew them to an ER in our County. We didn’t inject people with drugs but we could monitor a drip from an IV bag. We didn’t diagnose their conditions or offer treatment. We “scooped and hauled” as they say in the industry and got them to competent medical care waiting at the helipad like the opening scene in M.A.S.H..

So, imagine my surprise when Dr. Ken announced I would be injecting people with really sharp needles in places I normally would have avoided. Dr. Ken, on his behalf, was an excellent teacher and his demonstration was to grab my arm and inject me with a B12 shot in the bicep. He said, “Any questions?” I was a little stunned and said,” No.” I then began my career as a jungle Medical Tech. 

Joint-Army 1st Clinic

This went on for the first clinic as I happily drew B12 from ampules, turned to these lovely people and had Samuel ask which arm, as I poked and dispensed the B12 into their arms. We would trade off the injections but there were times when Samuel would wander off to help someone or interpret; then I was on my own with no one to supervise. Scary stuff. Dr. Ken came by and said he was going to do a knee injection. He prepared his syringe and had Samuel and I watch as he did so. He showed us how he found his mark and just slipped it in a sweet spot just to the side of the knee cap. He soon came back and had Samuel do one. Then came a steady stream of knee shots interspersed with B12s that Samuel was doing by himself while I held his alcohol swabs and band-aids if needed. 

Then came the double-team sales pitch by Dr. Ken and his co-conspirator, Samuel. Dr. Ken asked if I wanted to try the knee injection. To say I was hesitant was an understatement. Dr. Ken and Samuel, both said it was “easy” and nothing I couldn’t do. I held off and took the matter under submission as we ended the first clinic. 

The second day, we set up in another church and began our injections. Soon Dr. Ken came by with another knee injection and called me over to watch. As cool as a cucumber, Dr. Ken did his magic, found his mark, injected and withdrew. He then said the next one was mine. In 90-degree heat and 75% humidity, I felt a chill go down my back. Sure enough, within minutes, another injection came up and I had to prepare a syringe for this really nice lady I had never met before this moment. I followed Dr. Ken’s instructions, found what I thought was the right spot, slipped that needle in with a satisfying “pop”, and pushed the plunger and got out.  Amazingly, contrary to what you might think, there was no blood and she walked away without even a band-aid. I was relieved to say the least. From then on, Samuel and I traded off B12 and knees the rest of that day. 

I.T. Support

After each clinic, as a reward, we would make a 7-11 run. Yes, 7-11 stores were everywhere in the Chiang Mai area we were in. As well as Burger Kings, McDonalds, Dairy Queens and Taco Bells. If you didn’t notice the bundles of cables and wires hanging precipitously from the telephone and power poles, you’d have thought you were home in the States. Yes, this is one of the places you call when you need IT support. Go figure. Well….there is all that driving on the wrong side of the road stuff too.

On the third and last clinic we saw some shoulder joint injections come in. Dr. Ken did a couple and did show Samuel and I how to do them. Luckily, there were only a few. Samuel did some and one of our intrepid RNs, Pamela, wanted to try. Clearly, she wanted to expand her repertoire and, like a kid in a candy shop, with a big smile on her face, got a shoulder and a couple of knees too. I wasn’t able to get a shoulder in but that was ok with me.

We were based in Chiang Mai but for the clinics, like Mexico, we secured lodging in a hotel close to the villages we went to. The Royal Ping Garden and Resort was a short drive to the two villages we worked at. I should point out that most of the hotels in this part of the world were called “resorts." At one time, The Royal Ping may have been a luxury hotel property but it lost some of its luster. It’s a bit run-down but clean. We were treated to a buffet breakfast and dinner after a homemade lunch was served at each village we worked at. It had usable Wi-Fi and a nice pool. It was mostly constructed of wood and you can imagine what the effects of rain, heat and humidity has on a building in that part of the world. There was a vast distinction between the room accommodations. The guys started out in a one room cabin with one giant bed made from several mattresses. The women had similar accommodations but once viewed, chose to rent better rooms for themselves. There’s a reason it has a 3.8-star rating in TripAdvisor. 

In its defense, we were in rural Thailand amidst the jungle and the rice fields by its namesake, the Ping River. It is the rainy season and when we got there it had been raining on and off since our arrival in Chiang Mai. Then, the river was a meandering stream along the property. But on our first night there, it began to rain torrents. We’re talking water park like water cascading from the pitched roof onto the pool and patio. By morning, we could see the river had climbed its banks and was now a raging river with fast moving water and now waterfalls where there were none.

Everywhere was lush and green. The rain and, no doubt, high water table, formed big trees and flowers and an occasional Marijuana bush. You can’t miss that distinct bright green and leaf. I hadn’t seen green like that since my flying days spotting Marijuana fields in rural San Diego. I spotted several right alongside the road. It is legal in Thailand since 2022, and we saw several dispensaries in Chiang Mai. 

Ok, that covers the medical portion of the trip. I will soon have Chapter Two, our travels to Thailand and our assimilation into Thai culture.