Wade's Trip to Thailand

As you may know, Wade works for Operation Smile, (operationsmile.org), which offers free reconstructive surgery to children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and palate.  They sent him on a medical mission a couple of weeks ago and he just returned last Saturday... Thank goodness it was in one piece.  Thailand has had a lot of rioting in the streets which has caused a lot of deaths to the Thai people.  To stop the rioting the government put a curfew on the country that NO ONE could be out in the streets after 11:00 pm or they could be jailed for up to two years and they get a huge fine.  So when Wade drove through the streets of Bangkok (which has a population of 15 million people) it was completely empty, "like a ghost town".  He said it was such a weird creepy feeling.  Luckily he had papers that let him travel through the town.  This picture is of one of the buildings the rioters set on fire, and what the streets looked like after the riots.

  

Before going to the mission site, Wade got to sightsee in Bangkok. He went to the Grand Palace, which is where the king of Thailand traditionally lives (although the current king does not live there).  Since the country is nearly 95% Buddhist, a lot of the buildings at the Grand Palace are Buddhist temples. 

Here, they are restoring some of the art work by hand.  Everything was very detailed and intricate.

At the mission site in Chonburi, over 100 people showed up to be screened by the medical doctors.  In the picture below, you can see a young boy in a wheelchair with a towel wrapped around his face.  That's how many of them live their lives--with covered faces because they are ashamed of how they look.  Here are a few pics from the mission site, including a child after receiving surgery.

Wade saw some other cool stuff while in Thailand, including:

Yummy local cuisine,

(Squid, Octopus, and other gross stuff)

A local orphanage with over 70 kids,

But only one small bedroom, a small kitchen, and one bathroom!

Not really sure what this is, but there is a resemblance.  ha ha ha

And last but not least Wade came home and told me more about the monkey's there and how cute they were more than he told me about the mission itself.  I think I know what to get him for Fathers Day :)