Back at the apartment, Elaine occupied herself by starting our next video, while Roy pottered around. Our day ended with our monthly Zoom family get-together, which is a great way for our family to stay connected, given that we’re scattered all over the world and it’s always lovely to catch up with everyone.
Today we collected our hired car and set off to Makro, a store we’re somewhat familiar with and one that was recommended to us by more than one cruising friend, especially for the bulk items. Fortunately we found a lot more than we expected, which would have made our trip to Tesco’s much easier, although that turned out to be a complete waste of time, as they hardly had any products we would buy; we couldn’t even get decent meat. Fortunately, there are plenty of other supermarkets on the island, so we shouldn’t have a problem; we have to make a second trip for all our fresh produce regardless.
Unfortunately, we also had to return to the Bangkok Hospital Phuket, since an insect bite of some sort, which Elaine got a week ago, became infected and, no matter what she’s tried, it just got worse. Turns out she had an allergic reaction to whatever bit her and, being immunocompromised, was the perfect recipe. After an excruciatingly painful episode of having to have the wound cleaned out, before it was dressed, we left the hospital with antibiotics, topical antibiotic cream, saline solution and a set of instructions on how to care for and dress the wound moving forward; not exactly what we wanted to be dealing with right now, but, at least, she should be on the mend in a day or two.
However, our day only got worse and ended with very upsetting and worrying news pertaining to Keenan and the family in Arizona. Although Keenan had successfully completed his training in Atlanta, he returned home after his in-laws had moved into the house temporarily while their existing home is being sold, to build a new one, but both had contracted COVID-19 unknowingly before moving in. All our “babies” are now isolating in a COVID-19 infected household; the worst kind of news to hear in these times and there’s absolutely nothing anyone can do about it, except pray and watch it play out, since Keenan is the only vaccinated person in the house.
And on the subject of vaccinations, besides reports of only the Chinese Coronavac being made available to foreign workers and retirees in Thailand, which excludes us as tourists, China has, however, been proactive in ensuring that, not only are their citizens within China being vaccinated, but also all their citizens outside the country, working through the Embassies and Health Services of over 120 foreign countries to provide vaccines to their citizens living abroad and here we are, citizens of the wealthiest nations in the world and we can’t get a vaccine anywhere, with one of us immunocompromised and the other over 60 years old, although we’re still expected to complete our US tax returns and pay taxes every year, even though we haven’t lived in the country since 2014.
Of the 6 million doses of Coronavac Thailand has received from China thus far, 500,000 of those doses were donated by the Chinese government, on the understanding that Chinese nationals based in the Kingdom would be the first overseas citizens to receive the inoculation as part of what Beijing has termed their “Spring Sprout” program.
It is estimated that 150,000 Chinese citizens currently live in Thailand, the highest number of any nationality who are not from the neighbouring countries of Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia. There are also approximately 200,000 foreigners from Australia, Europe, the US , the UK and Japan residing in Thailand, who are mainly professionals and retirees, but currently their only access to a different COVID-19 vaccine is by returning to their home country. Comments like: “I am happy and proud to be able to get a vaccine on Day 1 organised by my government” and “I am grateful for my country and the embassy, and people who help to make it happen, from airline staff who fly the vaccines here to Thai medical workers”, makes us shake our heads and wonder, especially since our Embassies have been completely useless when we’ve desperately needed their assistance on more than one occasion in dealing with the fallout we’ve been exposed to with this pandemic.
Regardless, we aren’t going to change the situation and have to just keep doing what we’ve been doing for the past 18 months, but, more importantly, pray that our loved ones in Arizona come through this latest circumstance unscathed.
