Thailand Newsletter #11 - April 22, 2001
Two more weeks?
This is going to be short, I only have half an hour on this hospital computer. It costs 90 Baht which is nine
times as expensive as it was in U-Thong. Carol does have a partially torn ligament. She has braces on her knee and is getting daily physical therapy here at the Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok. This is supposed to be
the best one in this area of Asia. The orthopedic surgeon - he has treated the king of Thailand at one time - told her that she had to stay in Bangkok for about two weeks. After that he would be able to tell if
there was any damage to the meniscus ( the cartilage within the knee joint) in which case she would need an operation. Peace Corps put both of us up at a hotel attached to the hospital, Bumrungrad Hospital Tower,
room 2040. It is like an efficiency apartment, very nice, with satellite TV, Cinemax, HBO, CNN, Discovery Channel, several channels from India in English. Fortunately, Peace Corps insurance covers everything. Carol
can get around on crutches - still a slow process. Today, I pushed her to her physical therapy session in a wheelchair. She is doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances but the injury is still painful
most of the time. It should be getting better every day. Nothing to worry about, really.
The hospital entrance area and lower floors are more like those of a five star hotel, chrome, water fountain,
lounge chairs, reception and customer service desk, a Starbucks Coffee shop, Au Bon Pain, McDonalds, Japanese restaurant, bookstore and several other shops. There is a wonderful tropical garden on the sixth floor.
It's a very busy place with Farangs (foreigners) everywhere. “You probably don’t want to trade with her,” I tell the others who say they are envious.
After checking with the orthopedic surgeon, nurse Malee gave special permission for one day. A Peace Corps van picked Carol up last night so she could
stay with me at the other hotel and be able to participate in today’s ceremony. This morning all 27 of us were sworn in as volunteers by the U.S. ambassador of Thailand. There were
representatives of the Thai government, the Thailand Peace Corps director, Roger Harmon, the entire training staff and a lot of volunteers from
previous groups. It was a very nice ceremony and there was a lot of excitement.
(Here are
a couple of pictures from the ceremony. No, I didn’t give the speech. Some of us posed for pictures before trainees and guests arrived for the swearing-in.)
After a luncheon we packed up and a Peace Corps van drove us back to
Bumrungrad Hospital. Going to our site seems very remote right now. We must be patient. We'll keep you posted.
I have only 10 more minutes left on this computer and will use the time to retrieve any e-mails that came in.
Love from both of us
Norbert
...
P.S. Don't worry - we are a lot safer than this Thai family on their motorcycle, the
most popular mode of transportation anywhere in this country.
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