Isaan comes back to life

End of September, the rainy season is ending. For three months nature has done its work, rain and sun have allowed the young rice shoots to develop into a harvestable crop. It's not quite there yet, but people are getting impatient. 

The region had fallen into a kind of summer sleep. The 'Buddhist-Lent', a three-month period of austerity, had ensured that there was even less entertainment. Hardly any tambuns, except for a death, no big festivities. Little music to be heard, the people here cherish that period - apart from the notorious drinking brothers who continued to gather in Grandpa Sid's house. Some housing was renovated, but there was no new construction in the village this year. So again less income for many, such that the last younger men and women who would otherwise stay in the village also now moved away to the big cities to collect some income.

But The Inquisitor notices nervousness. People gather again, talk about the rice, the rains, how they're going to handle the harvest. Strange, because De Inquisitor thinks the same thing every year. The fields are checked daily. Community work is also starting again, many roads have to be repaired due to the damage of the rainy season. Red earth roads that you can hardly drive on. Liefje-sweet also drums up De Inquisitor, after all, she thinks he has plenty of time.

And there he is, crouching on his Thais, smashing boulders into stones that are placed in the deep pits and tapped. Everything is done manually, but there are more than thirty people at work, community work is important for the feeling of togetherness, almost every family has someone delegated. The monks from the local temple are also there, hardworking, they are more active than us. Because it's actually nice work, lots of fun, lots of laughter, slowly, enough people.

In return we go to the temple where the gutters have to be cleaned. And De Inquisitor jumps on the bandwagon : can he borrow the scaffolding afterwards so that he can clean his own drains ? That's not how it works here. The next morning half the gang is at the door, the gutters are cleaned in an hour…. Nice is not it.

The largest farmer in the village, with many rai's of rice, has already sent for a harvesting machine. Which he rents, too expensive to buy himself, even if he could later rent this machine to the smaller farmers. The thing is currently doing nothing in the middle of the street, at night you have to watch out, a motorcyclist has already driven into it. He is already renting it now so that he does not have to wait when his stalks have turned yellow, because there is always a risk that late ones fall outside, detrimental to the ripe grains. The others check their tools, sharpen sickles, knives, ... . They cut bamboo into small strips en masse so that it can be used as string to bundle the rice stalks and to tie the bags for the grains.

Grandpa Saam is already harvesting. His rice is ripe because he was the first to plant about four months ago. And the mutual service starts again. A dozen neighbours, friends and relatives bend over and sickle, make a bundle and put it down. Also hoping that there won't be too much rain. These bundles are then collected again, a hand-pushed small tractor with a flatbed then bumps along behind a lot of people. The bundles are brought to a central place, Grandpa Saam's small fields are scattered around the village.

Afterwards he has to rent a machine that separates the grains from the stalks, a job that De Inquisitor really likes because it is dusty, so he needs a beer now and then. This is provided by the farmer in question, along with the lao kao and the ice cubes. But they like to do that, they don't mind at all because .

And somewhere, without talking about it, they know something is coming up in the shop, just like the previous years. Once the rice has arrived, we organize a party. No monks or anything. Is a 'farang-inspired' thing. We offer a piglet, nice roasting on an open fire. Carton lao kao, two cartons Chang. Free for nothing in Flemish. As a thank you to the customers, because the rice harvest is a good time for the shop. And usually about ten people hang around, we traditionally have to leave them behind on the terrace of the shop around midnight, shutters closed, but we leave a light on. Sweetheart always knows what time they go home afterwards, often more than two hours later, howling loudly into the night.

But there's more. Once the harvest begins en masse, the families will round up their working men and women. Who then simply abandon their job, in Bangkok or wherever, and come. Hopefully with their pockets full of money too. Can debts be paid off, new things bought, necessary repairs carried out. And above all, organizing tambuns. It's high time to implore good karma, good health, financial prosperity. But the underlying idea is that people will be together again, children will see their parents again, grandmothers and grandfathers will be relieved of childcare for a while, there will be a lot of fun, plenty of food and drink on the table. This makes people nervous-happy.

The Inquisitor now understands many more things than before. When he got angry when the workmen who were laying new floors at his house in Pattaya would simply come and say that they were going to stop. What was repeated in the construction of the house here in the village, rag ! No more working people, the rice came first.

Liefje-sweet is now impossible to get away with sticks, the store must remain open. For the money? It does play a role, of course, but she sees it more as a service – people now need things that we have in stock, we can't let them down is her story. Moreover, she likes people to come by, always having a chat, always cheerful. Usually at nightfall, when they come from the country, have a chat over a refreshment, if too tired to cook, it's sweet.

Yes, The Inquisitor is starting his fourth year Isaan and is getting the hang of the rhythm of life here.