Bangkok traffic.

Journal and photo by Adam Burgess

Just in front of me was another street person, a mother carrying a baby as she walked towards the overpass to sit and hope for baht to fall into her cup. As she approached the stairs, the baby started to cry. Its face curled up, tears came out, and it reached towards the ground. The mother tried to quiet her down as she took the first couple of steps to the sky train. It was then that my eyes followed the line of the frail outstretched arm down to the filthy pavement below where a small portion of somebody’s dropped banana lay half smooshed into the cement. As the mother continued obliviously up the flight of steps, the little hand flopped down behind the mothers back, the dirty chin slumped onto her mother’s shoulders, and the wails turned to sobs. This struck a chord in Neil and me. We don’t shell out a lot because its impossible to help everyone, but we both looked at each other and thought, “That’s horrible.” So we gave the mother 40 baht. She has no idea why, I’m sure, and was quite surprised to receive money without having yet assumed her place next to the others on the walkway above.

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