HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]: 

PCEC members try to pronounce Otolaryngology

Rotarian celebrates 70th birthday

Dusit International completes its mission during Sales & Marketing Workshop 2010

Brother Stanley Villavicencio gives testimony about his miracle healing

PCEC members try to pronounce Otolaryngology

Master of Ceremonies Roger Fox welcomed everyone to the Pattaya City Expat Club’s regular Sunday meeting on July 18, 2010. After the usual opening announcements, he called on Club Treasurer Judith Edmonds to give the annual Treasurer’s Report. Roger then called on Richard Silverberg to tell everyone about his latest Internet find.

Wearing his Phyathai Hospital Sriracha (PHS) International Marketing Executive hat, PCEC Member Gavin Waddell introduced the featured speaker, Dr. Wilawan Suriyayon.

Richard mentioned that all of us have received emails passing on comments that are purported to be true. For example, there was a round of emails a while back about schools in the UK deciding not to teach their students about the holocaust - Hard to believe? Yes - Was it true? No. Richard pointed out that there is a website, www. snopes.com that in many cases can tell you if the information is true, partially true, or not true.

The website was created several years ago by a husband and wife team to debunk so called urban legends. When such outrageous information appears, they follow up with research to see if it can be validated. Often, you will find that some of these stories have been around a long time and seem to resurface periodically. Richard suggests that you may want to check it out at snopes.com before passing it on to others. If you don’t know where to look, use their search engine by putting in the topic or some information from the story you are checking out. He also said that the snopes website can be an interesting place to visit - their site has a link to “Top Scams” and a list of categories ranging from autos to weddings.

PCEC Members were fortunate to visit the Royal Thai Navy’s Sea Turtle Conservation Centre. This is a rare specimen, an albino sea turtle, resident at the centre.

Roger then called on fellow member Gavin Waddell, who was wearing his Phyathai Hospital Sriracha (PHS) international marketing executive hat for the meeting. Gavin introduced the featured speaker, Dr. Wilawan Suriyayon, an ear, nose, & throat specialist from PHS to talk about allergies. She is a member of the Board of Otolaryngology (Gavin said he had to practice a lot to pronounce that word).

Dr. Wilawan said she would explain what allergies are, what causes them, their symptoms, and what treatment might be available. She said that allergies are an exaggerated reaction by the immune system to something the body comes in contact with - the body will have an allergic reaction to one or more allergen. Allergens can be inhaled, swallowed, or come into contact with the skin causing this abnormal reaction. Allergens that most frequently cause allergies are: pollens, mold spores, house dust mites, animal dander, foods, insect bites or stings, plants, insect spores, latex rubber, viruses, bacteria, medications and environmental conditions. Allergic reactions occur after the immune system mistakenly learns to recognize innocent foreign substances (allergens) as potentially harmful. The fundamental causes of allergies are not really known.

She said that if you have family members that have allergies, you are more likely to also have them. Also, allergies are more common in children than adults. In some cases, an allergy can be life threatening if it causes anaphylactic shock. This is a severe allergic reaction that can cause death. In such cases, immediate emergency treatment is required, including administration of anti-venom in the case of stings from a bee or wasp.

If you have an allergy, there are many skin tests that can be performed to identify the allergen. Dr. Wilawan said the results of a skin test are usually known in about 15 minutes. Treatment is often to avoid the allergen - for example if the allergy is from pollen, staying indoors during the morning and not going out on windy days is one way to avoid it. If you cannot avoid the allergen, then there may be medication available, such as steroids, antihistamine, and decongestants to relieve the symptoms. Another treatment is to get allergy shots. In such cases, the shot contains a small amount of the allergen. Over a period of time, which can be months or even years, the body will learn to tolerate the allergen.

After Dr. Wilawan answered many questions from the audience, Roger updated everyone on upcoming events and called on Les Edmonds to conduct the Open Forum; always informative and often humorous where questions about living in Thailand and Pattaya in particular are asked and answered.

Rotarian celebrates 70th birthday

He huffs and he puffs and he blows the candles out.

Elfi Seitz

Hans Schaad called and many came. The former Swiss banker who retired in Pattaya celebrated his 70th birthday July 14 at the A-One Royal Cruise Hotel.

Schaad, an active Rotarian who is a member of the Rotary Club of the Eastern Seaboard, invited not only his Rotary colleagues but also many of his friends.

He thanked all who came to celebrate with him and said he plans to live another 30 years. He recently recovered from a serious illness.

Schaad has been generous with his time and finances for Pattaya’s needy and said he preferred people donate to the Rotary rather than give him birthday gifts.

Guests enjoyed a live band and danced through the night, with some taking up the microphone for some impromptu karaoke. The buffet was sumptuous and capped with a huge birthday cake.

The guests avail themselves of the sumptuous buffet.

Dusit International completes its mission during Sales & Marketing Workshop 2010

Dubbed Dusit 2010 iDecode - Empowering You, the conference from July 14-16 gathered sales & marketing professionals and executives in revenue, reservations and public relations as well as representatives from the company’s regional sales offices in Asia, Germany and the UK at Dusit Thani Pattaya, one of the properties of Dusit International. CEO Chanin Donavanik gave the opening remarks.

Chatchawal Supachayanont (left), general manager of Dusit Thani Pattaya, dressed as a space ship captain during the Space Station Dusit Gala Awards Dinner, shares a light moment with Sachon Thiraprawat from Dusit Thani Bangkok, one of the awardees at the space-themed night.

During the three-day workshop, delegates were locked in marathon sessions brainstorming new and innovative ideas on topics ranging from the increasing power of online marketing, social media revolution, electronic management and distribution and global sales transformation for the future, among others.

The first day was spent on teambuilding courses provided by the host hotel’s own teambuilding crew in order to give the delegates a chance to get to know each other since they represented different properties across Thailand while some came from properties overseas such as Dusit Thani Dubai, Dusit Thani LakeView Cairo and Dusit Thani Manila in the Philippines.

The teambuilding event was called “Dusit Space Cadets Training Academy” and the same theme was carried through the conclusion on Friday night, July 16, when the entire delegation celebrated the successful convention with a gala awards dinner called Space Station Dusit in which individual achievements of the properties were honored and recognized and the winners accepted their award clad in their favorite space outfits.

The winners in different categories including Best Space Outfit awards.

Brother Stanley Villavicencio gives testimony about his miracle healing

Filipino missionary was ‘born again’ after near-death experience

Stanley Villavicencio tells parishioners
at Nikolaus Church about his meetings with Jesus.

Elfi Seitz

You may never have heard of Stanley Villavicencio. A simple man from the Philippine island of Cebu, he is the father of 16 natural and adopted children who now travels to tell anyone who will listen about how he believes was saved from certain death by Jesus.

Villavicencio collapsed with cramps, convulsions and vomiting blood in March 1993. He was rushed to a hospital where doctors told his family that he would probably die of organ failure. He lingered in a coma for three days and, during that time, he dreamed of eternity.

Now a Roman Catholic missionary, Villavicencio told a group in Pattaya July 8 that his vision was “like watching a movie about my life on a big screen.” Days, hours and minutes played over and over three times. His said bad deeds were shown in slow motion while his good works went by in a flash. Yet still, he said, he felt joy and euphoria seeing it.

Villavicencio described heaven as a huge garden filled with aromatic plants and trees, fresh air and was cool like in an air-conditioned room. He describes Jesus as a good-looking man, tall and fair with long wavy hair, red lips and the beautiful blue eyes who showed off dimples when he laughed.

Villavicencio said he cannot describe the emotions he felt standing before the Lord, but it was heavenly to be in his presence.

Jesus, he believes, ordered him to live and gave him a mission to spread the good word, even naming those who could help him. “Go back to the world because you still have many things to do,” Villavicencio quoted the savior as telling him. “If I have any message for you, I will just appear to you in a dream.” He claims he’s fortunate enough to have occasional visits.

Miraculously, Villavicencio awoke from the coma and pulled all of the tubes and hoses out of his body. He left the hospital and joined the seminary and is now a Jesuit priest.

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