COVID-19 - Sixth Update - Feeding the Dogs

A soi dog - at a time when we had never heard of coronavirus.

Our neighbourhood park.

Here are the major changes since the last update.

• April 7 – I discovered that “hoarding” can create nice surprises. I dug out some salt to refill our shaker (don’t nag - we eat it for the iodine) and in the same bin I found a jar of olives. Sweet!
• April 7 – Darrel discovered that – at long last – a dentist’s office has been built in our neighbourhood. It won’t be open for a month (or maybe longer depending on the current crisis) but when it is finally open, it will save us a longer drive to another neighbourhood. It amazes me that I can consider this good news, given my fear of dentists
• April 7 – We could hear our neighbour and his young son out on their balcony. Our neighbour was helping his son, who is half Thai and fluently bilingual, with his English reading skills. The only words we could clearly hear was the dad regularly saying, “Well done!”
• April 7 – You can now be fined 20,000 baht (about $800) for not wearing a mask here in Phuket.
• April 8 – I have become thoroughly impressed with YouTube on our smart TV. In the morning when we sign on, the first recommended video is CBC news. In the evening when we sign on, the first recommended video is Thai news. We don’t mind that algorithms have figured out how predictable we are.
• April 8 – Wuhan is open! People are returning to work. This is such good news.
• April 8 – Bangkok now has three vending machines selling cloth face masks along their Airport Rail Link line. They cost about 80 cents each. They are produced by the Department of Corrections and the profits go to prisoners. The Ministry of Health oversees quality control.
• An explanation about our masks: We have been wearing our masks for a long time. And we have been wearing the same masks day after day. They were given to us as a gift, and we treasure them. We hate to waste, and the masks are still in excellent shape, so each time we wear them we hang them out to be sterilized by the sun. I give mine a little spritz of Fig Tea (with lavender) spray which “promotes peace, reduces stress and tension” and which is one of the few things I can smell these days. It has been a number of years since my sense of smell has worked properly – a condition caused by either a virus or maybe a bump on the head – so it is a treat when I can enjoy a “lavender infusion”. I feel bad for those infected by COVID-19 who have lost their sense of smell. It’s a little chunk of joy taken away from us.  
• April 8 – It was announced by the Phuket Governor that all subdistricts in Phuket will be under lockdown orders starting April 13. Darrel and I aren't waiting and are locking ourselves down immediately. No more trips to the mall or Makro or Villa Market – but this is all run-of-the-mill for most of you, right? We have everything we need in our subdistrict, though, so we aren’t alarmed. The Governor said, “Next, we will work together with health officials and police to check every house, check people’s body temperatures and question people about their activities to track down any possible infections of COVID-19. The police will be involved because they are experienced in questioning people and identifying people who are not telling the truth.” 

(Note: the words highlighted with blue have links to originating news articles).

Darrel and a friend - before the crisis.

Darrel has a lovely contribution to this blog entry:  “Two days ago, during our morning bicycle ride through the village and National Park, we noticed three soi dogs (aka street dogs) who were sleeping in their usual spot. However, as we rode by, none of them lifted their head, or eye lid, as is usually the case. We had just read an article about soi dogs which explained how they are being affected by COVID-19. The article stated that due to a number of reasons, e.g., lock-downs, isolation, and extreme poverty due to loss of income, the locals are no longer able to provide these soi dogs with food and water. This bothered us to the point I started worrying whether or not these dogs were still living. We decided to make a donation to whoever is feeding our soi dogs.

Yesterday, when I did our laundry run, I drove through our village looking for the person who feeds the dogs. I did not see anyone so I was going to ask our taxi driver friend if she knew who took on this role but our taxi stand is closed, likely due to no customers. I decided to drive through our park to where I saw the three dogs the day before, fearing that I would find them in the same place and positions as yesterday. Unfortunately there was a soldier at the park entry and he told me I could not enter the park. The park has been closed for a few weeks now, but we have always been able to pass by the barrier for our bike ride. We have seen a number of Thais do the same so we assumed it was okay. In my broken Thai, I asked the soldier if he knew if someone was feeding the soi dogs. He barked back, no.

I thought that was the end of my attempt to help the dogs so I turned around and headed to our laundry lady. On the way there I noticed a Thai man riding a motorcycle with a side car in front of me. In the side car, there was a large bag of dog food and a large container of water. I pulled up beside him and indicated for him to pull over. With a bemused look he did pull over. Again with my broken Thai I asked him if he feeds the soi dogs in the park at Nai Yang. I was not sure if I had asked him if he does, or could, feed the Nai Yang park dogs, but he replied to indicate the affirmative. At that point I pulled out some Thai baht and gave it to him. He smiled and I left. Having done that at least gave me peace of mind (albeit maybe false peace of mind) that our dogs might be taken care of. I really was not certain that our money would result in the soi dogs being fed and watered.

After dropping off the laundry, I stopped by our local grocery store to pick up a few items. Then I thought I would go home an alternate route that would possibly get me into the park through a back road, as long as a soldier was not stopping traffic.  I wanted to go home this way to check-up on the dogs. 

Luckily there was not a soldier so I was able to get into the park. As I approached the location of the three soi dogs I saw a man at the side of the road placing water and food for the three patiently waiting mutts whose tails were wagging. I waved at the man and gave him a thumbs up.” Thanks, Darrel for that feel-good story.

How could you not want to help this little fella.

Where, once upon a time, people sat.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Well done British Columbia. The biggest provinces in Canada are definitely facing the biggest problems, but BC has had better success and has shared some of their secrets:

• They had a few isolated cases in January and February – early alarm bells.
• They did not have a viral “super-spreader” (like the infected fellow in St. John’s that attended two wakes at a funeral home).
• Their public health system functions better than Ontario’s. It was taking measures and messaging to the public before COVID-9 was on the radar for many politicians.
• On March 12, B.C. recommended against all non-essential travel outside of Canada, while Ontario’s premier told families to “go away” and “have fun” during the spring break holiday.
• B.C. put in early measures to stop health-care workers from working at multiple care homes, which was a big factor in preventing community transmission.

I found an interesting graph for the provinces of Canada.

I’m not totally sure how Thailand is doing. Reports vary, but given the population of the country – 70 million – and the number of tourists that come here every year – 39 million in 2019, and given that it was the first country to have a COVID-19 case outside of China - January 13), I think the country is handling it well. But it is certainly continuing to keep its guard up!

          Now that we are in lock down mode, I don't expect there will be any need to update this blog for a while. As we all sit and wait, we hear of people dying, and we watch our economies tumble and we worry about our friends who are out of work. But as we all sit and wait, hospitals are ramping up, supply chains are getting stronger, shelves for medical supplies are filling up, flu viruses are dying, corona viruses are dying, rhinoviruses are dying, polluted skies are clearing up, and millions of innovative people are creating helpful new gadgets or coming up with brilliant new ideas to help us move into a better future. My favorite quote from all of this comes from a young Canadian girl. She talked about her worries, but when asked "What gives you hope", her response was ... "Everyone".

Stay hopeful everyone.

That’s it for now. Take care. Loretta & Darrel.