Jon reporting again from somewhere deep inside a steamy Bangkok slum, live from the mansion of an imprisoned drug-lord….I always wanted to start an entry with that! 

Yesterday we had a blackout. Not just for a few minutes, but for a whole day. Everyone began lighting candles as light surrendered to darkness. The romance of the slum has not worn off on Lisa and I, so it was another adventure for the girls & us. We enjoyed lighting candles and messing around until they drifted off to sleep.

Unfortunately a neighbour left a candle unsupervised and there was a fire. A slum fire can very quickly make hundreds homeless as every shack is built on the next. There was pandemonium as everyone rushed around, a fire engine turned up. I don’t know what is worse, having your shack burn down or having contaminated sewer water pumped all over your belongings!

The outbreak was quickly controlled with no other places getting damaged. As the throngs slipped quietly back into the shadows from whence they came I was told of the last fire here. So, in the half-light of a tropical slum during a blackout a tale was told me:

It was another hot day and another blackout. For single mothers in a slum with no social security hungry mouths still need to be fed and the bills still demand payment. One mother had to go out and sell from her roadside stall, having little choice but to leave her retarded son alone in the shack. In the sweltering heat he managed to light a fire, perishing in the ensuing flames that also razed 15 other box like structure known as “houses”.

The destitution of poverty forces people to make decisions they would never have to…how can we respond as Christ would? Whose tables should we kick over? Who should we weep with? Where on earth do we begin?