Showing 1 - 10 of 10
The lost scavenger
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 13/05/2018
» From the second floor window of their flat, Pretty Molly sees her slum scavenger husband returning from a day of foraging. Her snippy stray mongrel barks excitedly as Pretty Molly begins shouting out the window to him.
A slaughterhouse love story
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 02/07/2017
» She's a slaughterhouse kindergarten teacher. Her whole life through and through. And her husband was a boy who grew up just over the footbridge crossing the canal to the other side, next to the temple. And her face becomes more beautiful day by day. Serene might be a better word. Her whole life of 48 years. She has been teaching slaughterhouse kindergarten children since her middle teens.
Master Gaw finds refuge
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 05/03/2017
» That wasn't like Master Gaw. He was the toughie of the second kindergarten class, as rough and tumble as any four-year-old boy in our Klong Toey slums. Not afraid of ghosts that might lurk in a dark corner or under the bed. The kid feared nothing.
A dance to fix a granddad’s broken heart
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 20/03/2016
» She said, “I think I was dreaming. I was sleepy, but I mean, I sort of remember, and it wasn’t scary. Mum in heaven whispered ‘Ahh — ree — sah — rah ... my daughter, you’ve got to mend granddad’s broken heart and stop the pain in our family. Please do this for me, and I shall rest in peace. I didn’t mean to, but I hurt him so much.' ”
A sprightly angel and a sacred tree
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 09/03/2014
» Lovely Miss Sprite. Angel of the week — second year of kindergarten — winner of the colouring contest — elegantly going on five years of age. She has a voice pitched between the song of an angel and a chirping baby bird sitting on the edge of the nest, not quite ready to fly. Likes to put a leaf behind her ear — picked from that Sacred Tree behind their slum shack. Her mum used to do that too. Lovely features, she has a smile that could stop any herd of wild elephants that might be visiting the neighbourhood. As for her innate beauty? You would immediately pick her out of a crowd. There was a problem: orphan girls fetch a pretty price. But we dealt with that.
Ms Teacher Lady
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 06/10/2013
» Let me tell you about an old-time Klong Toey revolutionary: a slum kindergarten teacher. Still going strong in her seventh cycle of years _ that makes her more than 72. But don't dare ask her if her beautiful hair is turning slightly grey, even around the edges. No guns, no knives, only pencils and paper and nursery rhymes. You'd say: ''What? A kindergarten teacher revolutionary? You're daft.'' But that's the gig. As long as she can remember, that horrible proverb rattled around in her head _ not enough children to tend our water buffalo. Even as a little girl, she told her mum _ that's not right. And schoolmarm mum said: ''You're right my daughter, so you change that.''
Miss Dao and her amazing feats
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 23/09/2012
» She has mostly had to learn everything herself. Mum couldn't be there for her, and Miss Dao also has to take care of Granny, as she'd promised her mother. You know, things like mixing her betel nut chaw and holding her hand crossing the street. She has three older half-brothers and a half-sister, but they aren't close. Her half-sister is married, and Dao only saw her once at the temple for her mother's cremation.
Ex-street kids fight the nightmares and find the dream
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 05/08/2012
» Ever since she was 11 and on the streets, Noi had always dreamed she would get married in the proper style, with a dowry, a ring and a bridesmaid. Her husband would have a real job and talk nice and love her. After she met the right man she promised herself that she would make it happen, and she wanted it even more after her two children were born. Her husband Somchai, also street-raised, always had the same response when she told him of her matrimonial dreams: "Why not?" But that was as far as it went.
Two fortunes linked together _ Klong Toey style
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 17/06/2012
» It all went down in Aunty Tien's Noodle Shop, also known as the Klong Toey Slaughterhouse local ladies' noodle shop, where the matriarchs of the neighbourhood trade stories and gossip. Aunty Tien is the proprietor. She had taken the girl in, a teenager on the run from the brokers, sleeping nights in a stall at the Klong Toey fresh market.
The long road to mercy
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 19/02/2012
» Seven, she favours that number. She's seven times seven years of age and has been "Mother Gung" to our HIV/Aids kids under seven for seven years now. It's been, she says, "a long journey, and I choose to stay".