Showing 1 - 7 of 7
A fire fails to destroy community's spirit
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 30/07/2017
» It was early morning, still dark, and "old granny", as the neighbours nicknamed her to distinguish her from a younger granny also living alone in the next-door shack, was saying her morning prayers by candlelight.
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.
Miss Mott's Slaughter House survival
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 17/11/2013
» This is the harsh story of our own Miss Mott and the home-grown, inbred violence and drug savagery that seeped into Klong Toey's Slaughter House a few years back. Miss Mott was Slaughter House-born in the Year of the Rabbit _ the most gentle of creatures _ destined never to hurt anyone or anything but with predators all around.
Motorbikes, miles and an endless cycle for slum girl
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 16/06/2013
» The first time, 12 years ago, it was an easy rescue. Her dad, a European man, kicked down the door, barged in and beat up the two bad guys with his fists, cracked their skulls with a beer bottle, and picked up his three-year-old daughter, Miss Jew Waew. He waved down a taxi and brought her to us at Mercy. He had heard that we took care of abandoned kids.
Little girl with a big heart up from under the expressway
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 04/08/2013
» Demure Miss Tangmo (Watermelon) tries to be as good and loving as any mum on the planet, but she's only eight, and she worries a lot about her five-year-old brother and the twins. Not that there's really much to worry about there: he's happy and the twins are jolly three-year-old eating machines. Her mum, back in rehab? That's a worry, but it's nothing new.
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".