The family I am helping/supporting/sponsoring in a small way live in a tiny village with an unpronounceable name a few miles outside the market town of Maha Sarakham. These peasant farmers have a (very) smallholding of about 4.5 acres dedicated to rice growing which, assuming the crops don’t get decimated by flooding,
provide barely enough income to sustain them. There is an oversupply of rice in Thailand which keeps the government fixed selling price low and there is an inbuilt suspicion in these folk of the government’s initiative to promote alternative planting. Old habits and traditions die very hard!
Fishing provides not only food for the family but also some desperately needed extra income, especially when the rice crop fails. It’s hard, hard work netting the river
and making sure the equipment is kept in tip top shape afterwards
but rewarding enough when you catch something like this!
I do have to say that sun dried, barbecued fish is delicious!
A diet of rice and fish is often enhanced with Tamarind from a roadside tree,
lemon grass grown on the premises
plus other spices and leaves growing freely in the hedgerows. And whenever fish eating gets a bit boring, there is an abundant supply of frogs and rats to tempt the palette.
live ones readily available in this large pot if you’re still hungry. Yuk!
The cooking method is basic but it works!
and the result is usually ‘arroy’ (delicious)!
After the washing up has been done
It’s time to catch up on the latest gossip with friends.
whilst doing a bit of preparation for the next meal. Oh, how the Thais love their food!
The sense of friendship, community and collective responsibility here is palpable. Everyone helps everyone else with, seemingly, absolutely no degree of self interest. Bartering is common place e.g I’ve got excess fish, you have excess vegetables so let’s swop as is helping the even less fortunate by the giving of any excesses free of charge.
The glue that really holds this precarious existence together is the family unit. And being truly traditional country folk, moving away from the village is rare. I have lost count of all the aunts, uncles, nephew, nieces and in laws of ‘my’ family I have met! And the most striking difference between the family unit here and those ‘back home’ is an innate understanding that it is the younger generation’s total and absolute responsibility to look after their parents, come what may. In fact, tradition dictates that it usually befalls the youngest daughter to give the greatest amount of parent care. With no government pension or healthcare, this is some comfort assuming she has enough money to provide whatever her parent(s) need.
I have a huge respect for these people, especially how they all pull together to overcome enormous difficulties and I’m proud that in a very small way I have been able to help them.
Phileas
thelasthurrahsite 