Living an Isaan (Part 2)

The Inquisitor now has a unique opportunity to follow the average life of a small Isaan family. Sweetheart's brother. A typical Isaan life, the ups and downs, probably with the main question: how to build a life in this underprivileged region? 

Piak and Taai are satisfied. There's some money. Taai had earned about four hundred baht from the sale of her chicken legs, Piak received three hundred and fifty for his day of concrete work. But soon they realize that this will disappear immediately: the electricity bill must be paid back, three hundred and twenty baht, and they also have a bill in the shop. Six hundred baht already, and dear-dear is strict about that, five hundred baht is the maximum, for everyone, including brother-dear. Do they still have more than two hundred baht in debt after payment. And what about the fungi of the cows?

Old village wisdom offers a free solution for this. A somewhat older man, a 'buffalo specialist' apparently, knows how to make a paste of herbs, the animals have to be rubbed with it. So Taai and Piak set to work, gathering the herbs in a bunch. Then pound it flat in a typical clay pot with a pestle, then cook for hours – on a charcoal fire. And behold, it works, after two days the fungus is disappearing!

Piak's beans can now be harvested daily, every day they collect about twenty kilograms, hurray! Because that means about one hundred and sixty baht when sold, on top of that they now have an important ingredient for a beloved meal: . Something like this makes Isaaners happy, De Inquisitor's wife is also crazy about that spicy food, she supplies the other ingredients. Can we eat together again, outside, in the shop on the street side.

Everyone should be able to see that you have enough food, even that you can eat well. Piak, Taai and liefje-lief call every two minutes to passers-by or shoppers: (a cheerful local take on 'eat along').
Taai, meanwhile, brings more zeal to the Piak house. She has green hands, and now grows vegetables herself on a somewhat larger scale. More than for her own use, she can regularly go to the market to offer typical Thai vegetables, every baht of cash income is good. De Inquisitor can also enjoy this because she also successfully grows cauliflower, lamb's lettuce, onions and tomatoes. Taai makes it a point of honor: growing beautiful, healthy and insecticide-free products. But that costs her a lot of time, because not only do those vegetables need daily water in this dry season, she also has to remove the countless insects manually. But she enjoys it, and the plot where the vegetables are grown looks beautiful too. Careful arrangement, placed with a sense of form and beauty.

Piak plans to make charcoal. Taai had already heard in the town that there were daily buyers for this raw material and that sometimes more than one hundred and twenty baht per twenty kilograms was paid for it. So Piak got to work, first he has to repair his furnace, which had been neglected for years and the rainy seasons had caused collapses. Must he collect fairly clean 'red earth', and mix it with wet mud. He then patiently sculpts everything back into good shape by hand, a nice kind of termite mound is the result, but it takes him two days. Afterwards he will chop trees, not all types of wood are suitable, the more sustainable, the better. But illegal. But no one is bothered by it, certainly not Piak. It can be used from a tree as thick as bone. Then cut into logs of about forty centimeters, all by hand of course, Piak cannot afford good tools.

The wood does not have to dry, goes straight into the oven and fires. Kind of smoldering fire, no flames. Thirty-six hours is the average, take a look and sure enough, done. Only, Piak has bad luck. Halfway through the firing, his kiln partially collapses… Apparently not letting the mud mixture dry long enough. Someone like The Inquisitor would swear to death, an Isaaner would not, who cheerfully comes to tell the story of what happened and starts all over again….

All in all, the entire production of about twelve bags of twenty kilograms takes about a week. The young couple earns one thousand five hundred baht. Taai and Piak are overjoyed when the charcoal is sold, they are debt-free for the first time, they can even save some money. They casually share this with us, because you discuss everything with family when there is harmony. They are going to save two hundred baht, they have to go to the town to open a joint account at a bank. For Piak this is the first time in his life and he is proud of it.

And more good news is coming. The Inquisitor and sweetheart already had plans to build a warehouse in the back of the garden. Pfff, digging holes, placing (piles), pouring concrete, producing roof construction, laying plates, brick walls, ….. When Piak and Taai hear that “lung”-Rudi is not eager to do the job themselves again, they quickly put themselves forward as candidates . At the set price of ten thousand baht, a fortune for them. Piak even got over-enthusiastic, he would do all that in three weeks!

We are now four weeks further, just the and the horizontal steel beams for the roof construction are lying…. An Isaaner, you don't drive him crazy, even if he can earn a lot of money. Because this is not only due to the slow pace of work. Piak has to take care of many other things. The bean field, and also placed a hundred and fifty banana trees because young cuttings got cheap. And they also need water daily. Taking care of his buffaloes. Son Pi-Pi has to be taken care of, sometimes Taai goes to town to sell chicken. Gather food, so move into fields and forests. Cooking food, because here in the region it is just as well the man who makes the food, not just the women.

Yes, anyone who thinks it's all just a kind of lazy life should reconsider their opinion. There is a lot to do, and despite that little to earn. Moreover, the climate does not always cooperate. Last week everything came to a standstill due to heavy, much too early rains. A few days later, the heat crept into the country, working in full sun, with a temperature of over thirty-five degrees is not everything.

The Inquisitor fully understands that the pace of work is not too high, and that regular rest breaks are taken.

To be continued