Buddist Temple

I will try to keep this one short but that usually never works out. The second day that I was in Bangkok, Bonnie and Ray wanted to go to this Buddist temple that took care of AIDS patients. So off we went in a taxi to try an find the, the only thing is the driver didn't understand our Thai, so when we said the temple at Lop Buri he heard Lam Buri, and took us an hour in the wrong direction, which when we got there we had to turn around and come an hour back. In order to drive out two more hours to Lop Buri making it an all day affair. It was definitely arranged by God, because I could feel His presence there the whole time, admist all the rejection that these people have gone through (most Thai's will avoid poeple with AIDS and even their own family member's will excommunicate them) and pain that they are going through, although the staff and volunteers make their stay there as comfortable as possible. There are 120 beds at this facility and a couple hunderd at another one that they have. There is a Catholic priest that has worked there for the last 4 years. His name is Micheal and he gave us a tour of the whole facility, which most people don't get to do and we got to pray with people (which isn't really allowed because it is a Buddist temple). Micheal told us that there is 5 different ways that the virus (which is effective because of the AIDS) attacks people. I am not sure if I can remember them but I am pretty sure that those 5 different ways are the skin, the digestive system, the eyes, the brain, and I think the last is the cardio-vascular system (lungs, and heart). The tour of the facility ended with a stack of ashes in front of a Buddha shrine, which where the ashes of 7000 people who died of AIDS since 1992 at this one facitlity, and no one came to get their remains; and 7000 is number of the ones that no one came to get, because quite a few remains did get picked up. Well since not alot is know about AIDS among the Thai commoners, other than it can kill you, people think that they can get AIDS from the remains and because of that fear no one comes and picks them up, not that they hate their own family members or anything. Oh and on the way out their were these statues made from the bone resin of AIDS patients that had died (no comment). Visiting the facility was quite overwhelming; well I don't know what else to say other than that, except God bless you and please pray for Micheal and the people that work there.

Pictures from top to bottom: Me with one of the AIDS patients (he really wanted a pic with me, and was really happy that we were there); An AIDS patient, a Thai helper, and I (I am holding a grapefruit that they insisted on giving, and it was actually really good); A Japanese volunteer, an AIDS patient, and Micheal, the Catholic priest who gave us the tour; the stack of ashes in front of the shrine (in behind there are shelves with more ashes); the bone resin statues.