A World Turned Upside Down

I wrote last week about a friend in Phana who had left his home outside Thailand aged 12, 39 years ago, together with an uncle and a cousin. I called my friend Al, not wanting to cause him any trouble.

Al's uncle and cousin both died some time after  they all arrived in Bangkok and he never had any contact with the family he had left behind in his country of origin.

That is, until earlier this year.

One day Al turned up at my house, very agitated and very excited. He had met a man from his home country who had telephone contact with people in the area Al had lived in. This man was going to try to find out what had happened to the parents and sisters Al had left behind. Not many days later, Al dropped by again, even more excited. He had found out that one of his sisters was alive, married to a policeman, and Al had her telephone number. Calls to that number had been unsuccessful, however, and so were the ones I made that day and the next few days.

But we didn't give up, and one day, using my VOIP, Al got through to his sister! She had just returned from the haj  in Saudi Arabia, explaining why we hadn't got through before.

The phone call, as you can imagine, was extremely emotional, joyful and painful. Al's parents had survived the war but had died just a few years ago. Al's sister was doing well (she had married a policeman, remember, and Al knew all about some of the ways policemen do well) and his other sister had survived too and was living in Saudi Arabia.

More phone calls followed in the few weeks before I left Thailand. Al of course was over the moon at finding that he was not, after all, alone in the world as he had thought for so long. But he couldn't go 'home' to visit his sister because he has no documents that would allow him onto an airplane, and no documents that would allow him back to Thailand. And he couldn't, I hope, contemplate returning the way he had come, on foot. The sensible thing, of course, is for his sister or sisters to come to Thailand to visit him.

When I left, it was unclear what Al and his family were going to do about his new knowledge. It would be a harsh judgement to say that he would have been better off remaining in ignorance, but at least he would have been spared the emotional tumoil, and his way forward in life would have been more certain. He has, after all, made a life and a family for himself in Thailand, in Phana. I hope that when I get back to Phana next month he will be more settled, though I doubt that life will ever be quite the same again for him.

Comments

[Mike]

Lawrence this has been a great story. I hope that things work out. How marvellous the Internet can be.

Drop me a mail to let me know when you get back.

Off on a road trip for a few days now.

[Martyn]

Lawrence the story unfolds more and yet you are now thousands of miles away from its source. Al must be in an emotional state right now and really his only option is to hope his sisters visit him in Thailand. I hope they do because Al's story deserves a happy ending and a free roti or two for you.

Best wishes from Wiltshire.

[Lawrence]

Mike, thanks for your comment. Hope you enjoy the road trip but also that you'll still have some wanderlust left for when I'm back in Thailand. That won't be until late November, by the way. Will email you then, and am following your road trip now (I think).

[Lawrence]

Hi Martyn. I agree with you, Al is a man I really admire (though I also know he can be a bit of a difficult person to deal with). It was discretion that stopped me taking photos of an attractive young muslim woman. If I had, the words "My father wants to see you" would have put even more fear into me!

You seem to be back from LOS very quickly. Must have seeemed even quicker to you. How was the little dog situation resolved? Or not.

[Martyn]

Gaan has returned to the village home, we picked him up no problem though I think he was wondering where he was going again. Thanks for asking.