Monday, November 20, 2017

Mama Noodles! And 500 Baht

At one point in my shooting a father found an unopened package of MAMA noodles (very popular here) in the garbage, he tossed them to his son. Later on I was leaving the dump and I saw the little boy on the ground opening up the package. I asked him if it was noodles (Gway-Tee-Owe in Thai). He said to me in English, MAMA! He had a big grin on his face. The noodles are often even raw as a snack. I told him I would bring some MAMA for him tonight. On the way home I stopped at 7/11 and bought 5 packages to hand out the the children tonight.

At one point the father of the groom came to me complaining of a medical problem with his back. Then later a Thai speaking person and finally an English speaking girl spoke to me about the problem. Seems he needed money for medical care. Not sure how that would be done, in Mae Sot, at the local Burmese clinic (Mae Tao) or inside nearby Myawaddy (in Myanmar, Burma). The family asked for 500 baht ($19.51 CAD), quite a lot of money, the same cost as 2 1/2 pairs of boots. I decided to give them the money. I believe he was telling me the truth, the family in the past has always been very hard working and honest with me.

The way I look at it, the money people gave me back in Canada/USA was to help the families, there are many ways to help, including giving money to them directly at times.