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I will set the stage for when this question was asked.
The Abbot of the Thai Theravada Temple I attend regularly was working with one of the dogs. The dog is a large German Shepard. The dog bumped the Abbot who then slipped on a rock. He felt great pain in his leg and ankle so he went to the ER where he had an XRay. The XRay revealed an obvious multiple fracture of the middle of the tibia. The ER doc likely had not had the experience I had investigating accidents for NASA. The first thing we learned to do was ignore the obvious.
The Abbot asked me to accompany him for his first visit to the orthopedist. Turns out this was a very wise request. The orthopedist is from Nigeria. Even though he is Board Certified, his English is very basic. He allowed me to look at the XRay. I saw what he saw. I fracture dislocation of the lower tibia with a displaced and slightly rotated dislocation. The orthopedist said that surgery should have been done in 24-48 hours. This visit was 10 days after the injury. The abbot was immediately admitted to the hospital where the surgeon did his surgeries. It is a Catholic hospital.
The Abbot wanted me to stay with him during the hospitalization because of the possible language problems. Which did occur of course. One of the young monks stayed with him the entire time. I ran the errands one of which introduced me to General Patton's personal sniper which I related in another story. The hospital personnel got a crash course in how Thai Buddhists treat the monks. Theravadan monks eat twice a day. Breakfast is just after sunrise, about 6:30 am. The last meal of the day has to start before local noon, usually 11 am. When I came in carrying a "pintoh", (a multillayered 'lunch box'),for that meal. they asked me what is was about. I had to inform the nurses about that custom so they would understand why no one ate the breakfast, lunch and dinner meals. I had to estimate his intake and output for them.
One of those attending the Abbot was a nice youngish Black woman. (She was not just out of nursing school nor was she nearing retirement...). She asked me a lot of questions about the Abbot, the temple, Buddhism and my partiicpation. After a couple of such short session she asked me the fateful question. "But, aren't you Caucasian?". She was immediately a bit concerned but my laugh put her at ease. I explained how my father had lived in Thailand, Land of the Smile, for many years helping to build the roads, railroad and airports after WWII.
Seems that judging people by their color knows no color barrier contrary to what people would like to believe.
The folly of health care continues. When the Abbot was discharged no instructions were given about restrictions on his activities. I drove him from the hospital to a private home for a ceremony for a woman that was in a coma and about to die after 9 years. Her family was devotedly attending her as the monks were chanting. She was in a hospital bed in the living room of the home. It was a good thing we went in that the woman died later than night.
It is almost a week after the surgery. The abbot still does not have a follow-up appointment with the surgeon.
