Improving

Here's our patient at one week, opening a care package:

We've come quite a ways and have 4 weeks to go! He is back at school with the help of a wheelchair and seems to be getting around okay. His cast is quite colorful with signatures now. I'll have to get a photo of that as well.

Hungry Ghosts

It's Hungry Ghost Month again in Singapore.

This is a time when Buddhists believe that the souls of the dead roam the earth and can be mischievous, cause troubles, and generally be cruel. It begins in the 7th lunar month at the Full moon and lasts until the next full moon. During this time, people burn offerings of "hell money", food, paper cars and houses to their ancestors to appease them. It's generally thought that the ghosts who cause misfortune are the souls of those ancestors not remembered and honored at this time.

Here is an example in my neighborhood:

They believe that burning these things will keep the ghosts happy so that the ghosts will leave them alone. They also believe it is a bad month to get married, move, remodel a house, travel, or swim.

At the end of Hungry Ghost month, people float paper boats and lanterns to guide lost souls to the underworld.