2 Today Things

Finally am caught up with yesterdays blogs, I also wanted to share 2 things I noticed today when I was walking to the local Foodland supermarket for an American breakfast (scrambled eggs, ham, 2 toast, kiwi juice and tea for $1.50)

There is a open area filled with wild dogs next to the sidewalk that I walk when I head to Foodland. The sidewalk is protected by a big high see through metal fence, their are many angry dogs are on the other side of the fence. I have walked by this area dozens of times and the dogs always go crazy when they see me barking away, a mangier group you could not imagine, all beat up by life. Today as I walked that walk at 8am I saw a mystery man on a bicycle inside the dog area, he was wearing dark clothing and a big straw hat, his face was covered with a ski type mask to protect himself from the sun so only his eyes showed. I watched him first go to one area where there were 6 dogs and feed them from a bag, then he cycled off to another area which was gated, the dogs in the next section eagerly awaited him quietly with waving happy tails, in this area he cycled to a spot and then spilled out a long line (so that the dogs would not fight over it) of food (looked like rice), in this group he fed another 7 dogs including one puppy. he cycled on and I saw him feed another 3+ puppies in a wooded area. The last I saw of this guy he was cycling off in the distance with 3 new dogs trailing him, he must have been heading to a 4th spot to feed them as well.
Who was this mystery man? He looked very poor, he must do this everyday, as the dogs all knew him and were quiet and soft to him yet violent and angry to others on the outside sidewalks (the power of kindness and food!). Not sure how but I would want to meet up with his man and make his portrait, a good person who goes out of his way to help these poor abandoned strays. If we all followed his example and put others in front of our own selfish needs, the world would be a better place.

After I had finished watching this fellow and his feline friends I walked up and over a saphan loy walking bridge (bridge over a busy Thai street, the only way to cross heavily trafficked Bangkok streets safely). On the other side of the bridge there was a work project going on, 3 large condominium buildings going up. On the bridge I met a young male worker with a girl who might have been his girlfriend, they looked around 21 years old. I asked him as we walked if he was going to work on the condominium he said yes, so I asked him how much he made a month doing that work, he told me 3900 baht ($130). $130 a month for long hard days of work, with probably only a few days off a month.