Ban Bang Khae Home for Older Persons

On Tuesday, I went with three of the other volunteers to Ban Bang Khae, which was the first residential home in Thailand, established in 1956 to help homeless and destitute elderly people. This is the placement for two of the volunteers and the other two of us went to visit for the day.

Ban Bang Khae is similar to residential living facilities in the states (or at least the one I am familiar with) in that it has accommodations for people who want to live in their own homes or apartments, but also want the 24 hour services and activities available; as well as accommodations for people who need 24 hour care, and everyone in between. The grounds are not as fancy as those in the states, but they are nice and well kept. There is a pond with a gazebo in the center of the facility where you can feed the (absolutely enormous 4 ft long) fish. Besides the apartments and shared rooms, the facility also includes activity rooms, cafeterias and various healthcare wards.

The only disheartening aspect of the visit was the alzheimer's ward where the patients literally live in what we would perceive as cages (small cell-like areas surrounded by fencing and locked each night). We were told that this is for their own protection and the protection of the other residents because some of the patients tend to wander and become disoriented and have also acted aggressively towards other residents on occasion. Each day, the residents of these 'rooms' are able to wander about with supervision and have specific activities geared to their level of ability.

In the morning, all residents participate in basic sitting exercise routines, which we were unfortunately unable to see as we were still on our tour. We were able to sit with the alzheimer's patients, and some other residents, during their morning activity. Many of them just sat and stared off into space, but others were actively working with puzzles and attempting to communicate with the English speaking volunteers. If there were ever I time I wished I understood Thai, it was then, because it was hard to know if they were actually speaking directly to you or if they were simply talking incoherently (as the nurses said they sometimes do). Since I wasn't sure which was the case at any time, I treated each person as if they were really trying to communicate with me and simply said that I did not understand when I didn't and responded when I did.

One woman with a big smile and a cheery disposition took to me and began singing to me in Thai through her almost tootles smile. I hesitate to describe her as "cute" because it might be construed as a condescending description, but she was so cute, little and happy. She kept telling me I was beautiful and asking my name. At one point, we were given sodas and I set mine aside, only to have her pick it up and motion to me for permission to have some. Since I don't drink much soda, I happily gave it to her, whereupon she took the straw and sucked it down like it was her last drink on earth. One of the other volunteers thought this was amusing and proceeded to give her his as well, which she happily downed with similar exuberance, but I couldn't help being concerned that so much sugar might not be good for her. No one else seemed to mind and she contained on as she was before, so hopefully it was as harmless as it was obviously enjoyable.

After the activity, we went to help the staff feed the residents who are unable to feed themselves. The room was filled with similarly "cute" smiling little Thai women as well as residents in various states of ill-health. One woman was completely bent over at the waist from her years in the rice fields. Another was literally about three feet tall and when she sat down and looked up at you, she resembled a tiny female Buddha.

I walked over to one of the nurses and asked if I could help and she motioned to a frail skeleton of a woman, curled up on her side. Her feet were curled from lack of use and one hand was similarly curled under towards her wrist. Her eyes were caked shut and the strap of her dress had falling down revealing an extremely gaunt frame. I sat down on a stool next to a hospital tray containing a dish of pureed food of some sort and began to feed her as one would a small child.

Each time she took the spoon and swallowed its contents, she opened her mouth wide for the next bite. I had to speed up my delivery to be sure that the spoon was there in time because as she could not see, she would close her mouth if if was not immediately delivered. As I fed her, I wondered what her life had been like and what she could tell me if there were only a way for us to communicate.

After about half of the bowl, she said, "im" (full) and I put the bowl down. She then reached over in my direction and grabbed my hand. We sat there for a few minutes just holding on to each other's hands. I could have sat there with her all day.