Bangkok Homes and Gardens Charity Tour

Posted on 31 January 2012 by christao408

On Saturday the Dusit chapter of Soroptimist International, an organization that concerns itself with issues surrounding women’s welfare, held their biannual Bangkok Homes and Gardens Charity Tour. We had the opportunity to visit three beautiful homes all located on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. One was a prince’s home, another was a merchant’s, and the third was a nobleman’s.

I’ve compiled a very nice (if I do say so myself) eight-minute video. Instead of duplicating the information below, I’ll post some pictures with very brief comments.

Wanglee House

This Chinese house was built in 1881 by a rice merchant. The Wanglee clan owns it to this day.

The house is built according to the principles of feng shui, facing the river.

Designed in traditional Chinese courtyard style, the house represents a study of the Chinese culture brought to Siam by Chinese merchants during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Chakrabongse House

Pronounced “cha-kra-bong”, this house was built in 1908 by Prince Chakrabongse, the 40th child of King Rama V. While studying in Czarist Russia, he eloped with a Russian woman, bringing her back to Siam unannounced.

The house is now owned and lived in by the prince’s granddaughter.

There is also a small boutique hotel built on the property closer to the river.

We were provided a guided tour to the inside of the house. No photos were allowed so I have borrowed other photos that appear on the internet.

Praya Palazzo

An Italian-inspired mansion built in 1923 by a colonel in the customs bureau during an era in which Italian artists and architects were all the rage in Siam.

The palazzo is now a very exclusive 17-room boutique hotel, accessible only by boat. Very charming place.

The unseasonable rain finally caught up to us and the hotel staff rounded up umbrellas to shuttle us back to the pier. Made it back to the Shangri-La Hotel reasonably dry and appreciated the opportunity to get a peek at what life was like in Bangkok a century ago.

2010 Scream for Charity

Posted on 5 November 2010 by christao408

Since 2003, a Bangkok-based company and member of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) called English Solutions has sponsored an annual Halloween party for underprivileged children at the Mercy Center in Khlong Toei. This was the first year I heard about it and my friend Ken and I went to volunteer.

Held the day before Halloween, the “Scream for Charity” gives hundreds of underprivileged children an opportunity to experience a fun day and a chance to get a taste of this very American of holidays. Halloween isn’t celebrated in Thailand although in the past few years it has taken on a little life of its own, especially at nightclubs. Thais love ghosts and all things spooky so Halloween is finding fertile soil in which to spread its roots.

Hundreds of children wait for the final event of the day – trick or treating.

The Khlong Toei area of Bangkok is the city’s largest slum. While I had previously been in some of the edges of the area, I had never before been into the heart of it and I was shocked. While the neighborhood is full of life, it is also teeming with poverty. One of the largest organizations helping the community is Mercy Center, a shelter for street kids, four orphanages, a hospice, a home for mothers and children with HIV/AIDS, a 400-pupil kindergarten, a community meeting place, and a serene haven in the slums with small gardens and playgrounds.

The Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus on a shelf that usually holds a Buddha statue.

Father Joe Maier, a Catholic priest who has served in Thailand since 1967, founded Mercy Center along with Sister Mary Chantavaradom. Father Joe has become something of an institution in Bangkok, speaking truth to power and shining the spotlight on the plight of the city’s poor even when the elite class would rather they be out of sight and out of mind. His columns regularly appear in the Bangkok Post, an English language daily, telling the stories of the young people who have come through Mercy Center. Sometimes their stories end in triumph. All too often, though, they end in sorrow.

The Scream for Charity was a lot of fun. We had more than 100 volunteers, both expats and Thais, and probably 400 children. Ken and I were assigned to the trick or treat bag decorating station. Working with eight or so children at a time, we helped them decorate their bags with pictures of jack-o-lanterns, bats, and ghosts.

Everyone, even if they weren’t showing it, was eager to get their face painted.

I didn’t have a chance to get a lot of pictures, both because we were busy working and also because the organizers asked that we hold off from taking pictures because it could become a bit of a circus. Interacting with the children was fun. Some were painfully shy, others were fairly outgoing. Some still had that childhood innocence, others had been affected by their circumstances and were already jaded. But for a few hours at least, they had fun, played games, visited the haunted house, ate food, and went home with bags of rice, candy, school supplies, and other things that are much in need.

Khlong Toei is in the port area and containers are stacked high behind many buildings.

Afterwards, Ken and I walked the couple of miles out of Khlong Toei and back up to the convention center area to catch the subway. Along the way, we remarked that it has been almost two years since our volunteer English teaching in Samut Songkhram province came to an end. It seems that it has been too long since there has been any regular volunteering in my life. Living in Thailand gives me a great appreciation for how blessed I am and how much I have that so many others don’t. I try to always be appreciative of those blessings and not take them for granted.

I’ll leave you with this trio of pictures from 2009’s Scream for Charity, courtesy of Fredrik Divall. These capture the sense of the event very nicely.

The Power of Half

Posted on 12 June 2010 by christao408

This morning I listened to a podcast from the Diane Rehm show from National Public Radio. In it, the host subbing for Diane interviewed Kevin Salwen and Hannah Salwen, the father-daughter authors of the book The Power of Half. The book documents the path the Salwen family took when they decided to sell their house and move into one half its size, donating half of the sales price to charity.

Along the way, they also changed many of their consumer habits and starting making more time for their family and their community. It is an interesting story and one that illustrates the idea that most of us could probably get by with less than we have, and probably could give more of our time, money, or talent than we currently give.

What amazed me, though, was the range of negative reactions callers to the show and commenters on the website had. These negative reactions generally fell into two categories:

The first category was complaints that while they had given half of their stuff, the Salwens were so well-off (upper middle class, it seems) that they still have a very comfortable life afterwards. They’ve never really known “need” so we shouldn’t see them as a good example. Plus, Jesus taught that we should only do good works in private. No need to make such a public splash about it.

The second category was complaints that the Salwens are out of touch with ordinary people and that in these tough economic times, there are many people who can’t afford to give half their stuff to charity (which Kevin Salwen specifically said at the start of the show they were not advocating that people do). “Flippant,” “insensitive,” and “disconnected” were some of the words used to describe the Salwen family.

There was also a small category of people criticizing that the primary recipient of the family’s charity is an organization that fights hunger in Africa. “There is great need in our own country!” some people complained.

Now, this really amazes me. This family examined their own life, realized they enjoyed a cushier lifestyle than they needed, and acted on that realization. In my mind, that’s a good thing. Who are we to criticize that? As near as I can tell from listening to them, it was done with the best intentions and the only reason they have publicized the story is to encourage others to think about what they could potentially do without in their own lives – a message that I think doesn’t hurt the vast majority of Americans, even ones who are in financial tough times, to hear.

What is it with this bitterness? If you don’t think the family deserves praise, then don’t praise them. But why do some people feel a need to attack them and tear them down? Spend half of the time you would have otherwise spent attacking them and use it to do something that betters the world!

Cycling to Recycle

Posted on 17 October 2009 by christao408

Throughout the year the Thailand Cycling Club conducts many different charity events. They collect and repair old bicycles, donating them to underprivileged children. They raise money for various causes. And they help recycle pull tabs from aluminum cans into artificial limbs and crutches for those without arms and legs.

After getting my bike rack fixed and taking my bicycle in for a much-needed service, I was ready to accept my friend Poom’s invitation to join TCC on this annual trek to bring the hundreds of thousands of pull tabs they’ve collected up to BCM – Bangkok Can Manufacturing – the largest maker of aluminum cans in the kingdom and one of the main drivers of the “pull tabs to limbs” charity.

The meeting point was Suan Rot Fai (Railway Park), built on the old executive golf course for the State Railways of Thailand. There were about 150 riders. In addition to each of us carrying a pink back pack full of tabs, many riders were carting additional tabs using any means necessary, including this cart fashioned from PVC pipe.

Me with my sporty pink back pack. Notice that I’ve decided, despite the political unrest pitting the Yellow Shirts (royalists) against the Red Shirts (republicans), to go ahead and wear my yellow jersey this morning. Hope I don’t get beaten up!

We set off from the park just after the national anthem was played at 8 am, as it is in public places all over the country.

The route north took us past the old airport, Don Meuang, along a wide road that had light traffic and, unfortunately, not much shade. On the 30-km route in the morning, the weather was still relatively cool and a little breezy, so the lack of shade wasn’t much of a problem. Above, we make a stop at a petrol station to use the facilities.

Poom figures we should wait at the “point assembly”.

When we arrived at BCM’s factory (which is located across the street from one of the country’s largest indigenous beverage companies, Green Spot), the staff had chests of ice cold beverages for us including plenty of water.

Above, our haul of pull tabs being piled up in the BCM parking lot.

A display in their lobby shows the products made from the recycled tabs and, presumably, cans. I’m a little confused. I’ve long believed that the tabs are made from a different metal than the cans themselves. A little research on Snopes.com debunks this myth, explaining that the tabs are also aluminum and that the extra work to remove the tabs and handle them separately is wasted effort.

Nonetheless, the charity is being organized by the can manufacturing company, so I would think they must know what they are talking about when it comes to cans. I will continue to set aside my pull tabs while recycling the rest of the can as normal.

Instead the conference room with the air con at full blast, we watched a video presentation about BCM and then had some dignitaries speak. An official presentation of the pull tabs was made by some representatives of the TCC. Then it was time for entertainment. After the group sang an a capella version of the royal anthem (that’s HM the King on the portrait they’re holding), a young man who is the recipient of two artificial legs made through this recycling program spoke to us. He expressed how much having these artificial limbs had improved his quality of life. Then he put on his guitar and, strapping a pick on his handless left arm, led us through a popular song about having courage. Snippet in the video below.

Afterwards, the group posed for pictures.

At this point we were all set to roll out for lunch at nearby restaurants along the Rangsit Canal. Unfortunately, we discovered that Poom’s rear tire had a flat. So while the rest of the group road ahead, Poom and I stayed to repair the flat with the help of two other riders. While he was carrying a patch kit, we were fortunate that there are more expert riders who carry larger pumps and better equipment.

After lunch we started our route back. Riding through the town of Rangsit, two khatoey on the back of a motor bike called out to me, “Farang lor jang leuy!” as they sped by.

Because it is rainy season and we’ve received a lot of precipitation, some of our route along the canal was flooded. It took us a little longer to head home than it did to ride to the plant in the first place. To top it off, I had to take a few breaks on the way back to cool down as the sun was really beating down by that point.

Nonetheless, it was a wonderful ride and a very worthwhile cause. Lots of fun!

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

Tag Archives: Charity

Bangkok Homes and Gardens Charity Tour

2010 Scream for Charity

The Power of Half

Cycling to Recycle