Showing 1 - 10 of 16
Moonshine Mum
Life, Father Joe Maier, Published on 04/11/2019
» It wasn't a big jump off Three Soldiers Bridge, maybe 3m, but no matter. She couldn't swim. When you can't swim, any jump into a canal is dangerous.
Keeping the dream alive
Life, Father Joe Maier, Published on 22/04/2019
» When Granny ordered her daughter and her daughter's "live-in" to move out of their Klong Toey shack, there was no wiggle room for argument and debate. To emphasise this point, Granny had a long pistol, the trigger of which she had never in her life pulled, but a gun, nevertheless.
A Christmas story
Life, Father Joe Maier, Published on 25/12/2018
» A Klong Toey miss. Smartest in her senior class, captain of her Bangkok league-winning volleyball team. Beautiful long black hair coming down to her shoulders -- tall like her dad. Born to a devout Buddhist family on Christmas Day. But on her 18th birthday and Christmas, she is fighting back tears, as she vows to do this impossible thing for her dying mum.
From low to high
Life, Father Joe Maier, Published on 12/11/2018
» Seventeen years ago, Mum gave birth to a healthy son in a provincial prison hospital two hours outside of Bangkok. She named her son Ake. To avoid the nightmare of trying to remember who might have been the actual father of her child, she had blessed him with her own last name.
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.
Getting to graduation with leaps, rebounds
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 22/04/2018
» Dressed in graduation cap and gown, pink ribbons in her hair, Miss Pu Glin posed for her first-ever official photo looking regal and confident. She even had a hint of swagger.
Klong Toey's future finest
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 01/10/2017
» He's 10 months old now, Master Tack. Happy, good-natured, smiles a lot, not afraid of stray cats and scavenger dogs. They like him; he likes them. It all works out. At night he doesn't cry. You'd love him. A great baby. Well, not totally "great" just yet, but give him time. He will grow up to be one of Klong Toey's finest. Just watch.
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.
Tragedy of a street kid success
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 29/05/2016
» Why tell this story? Why take the effort to try and remember an 18-year-old street kid who drowned in the Chao Phraya River, half snockered on drugs? So, even though dying and drowning were the last things from his mind, drown he did, die he did. And it was kind of his own fault.
Just for a while
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 06/07/2014
» Miss Tang: she’s one of the happiest girls I have ever met. And you can just close your eyes and visualise her — a super kid at the top of her game of life. Hasn’t lost a battle yet, although she’s been battered and bruised much too often for any teenager.