I Arrive

From the ubiquitous Thai taxi, I glimpse the cloudless, early morning sky and sunbaked sidewalks as we round the clamorous street corner and catch our first glimpse of the Klong Toey slums near the port of Bangkok where we will work in an orphanage for the next two months. I have a wordless moment of panic. The scene before me is about as strange as it gets for a middle-class American living near the pristine Monterey Bay on the Central California coast. As we turn off the congested thoroughfare, drive under the overpass, and enter the heart of the slum district, my first images are of shanties built in slapdash fashion under massive freeway overpasses. I am riveted by the jumbled-up mix of humanity, livestock, food, garbage, and lean-tos under the highway concrete and next to the railroad tracks. Bare-bottomed babies toddle next to elders dressed in worn cotton tops and pants. Food stands with home cooking smells dominate the area. Scrawny, flea-bitten dogs roam in the middle of the street and our taxi swerves to miss one. <a href="https://medium.com/@deborahsimms/i-arrive-20a838a0ded4">Read More</a>