People from Isaan – Piak and Taai

Piak and Taai have already been described in the series “A life of Isaan” (April 2017).

Piak looks up disturbed when he feels raindrops falling again. It has been rainy for days, the showers fall with the regularity of the clock. He is standing in the middle of a rice field up to his knees in water, the mixed bag that must pass for work clothes is soaking wet. His back hurts from bending over for weeks, hands and feet feel like sponges and are full of cracks. Taai is no better off, she also does her duty, brings in the young rice plants and spreads the bundles across the site so that Piak does not have to move too far.

She also regularly plants a few square meters full, a monotonous job that still requires you to stay focused. The plants should not be too deep because then they will not take root, they should not be too close together because then they will not grow and if they are too far apart, the yield per rai will be too small. You also have to stay alert because the water is full of life. The leg protectors they wear are against the bloodsuckers, but they don't stop a possible snake. The surrounding dikes are teeming with small black scorpions that can give painful stings. The only nice thing is the , the freshwater shrimp. Piak and Taai quickly and conveniently grab these and disappear into their pockets, a small addition to their menu.

It's been the same pattern for weeks. Piak brings his cows early in the morning at sunrise to a piece of land that belongs to his youngest sister. There are tall fruit trees that currently require no care and from which the cows cannot rob. The grounds are covered with tall grass that keeps growing because of the rains. Then the family eats some ingredients from the garden, supplemented with frogs or shrimps from the rice fields, every day.

Still quite early, around six o'clock, Piak goes to the rice fields. Taai stays at home a little longer, she takes care of the almost four-year-old PiPi, who can go to the small kindergarten in the village around eight thirty. Afterwards she also starts working in the rice.

It's not until around noon that Taai comes back and takes care of the food, usually a quick bite, cheap ready-to-eat food: noodles with some chemistry that pass for dried vegetables and only need boiled water. As the only addition, she adds an egg. In between, she performs some household chores such as spreading bedding, their rickety home is infested with damp. They quickly eat their lunch together and in the afternoon they continue with the farm work.

Around half past two Taai picks up her son from school and drops him off at the shop with liefje-lief. To continue working until about six o'clock, only then will the couple stop working in the field. Completely covered in mud, they first take a shower with their clothes on so that most of the dirt is washed away. There is therefore a lot of washing: a different set of clothes is needed every day because the laundry does not dry in a single night, even if it is hanging under a roof. And they don't have that many clothes, so their outfit is a mix of everything available, sometimes a crazy sight. A lot of discarded stuff from the more affluent sisters for Taai, and Piak often walks around in shirts and shorts that are a bit too big, sweetie-sweet did a sort of clean-up a few weeks ago in the overflowing closet of The Inquisitor - which never can say goodbye to old things even if he no longer wears them.

Funny actually: Piak walks around in T-shirts with the name and logo of De Inquisitor's old company, so they are almost fifteen years old. “BX-Aluminum Kaai 140 A'pen” is now known in the rice fields of Isaan … .

The heavy rains of the last few days bring even more work. The excess water that washes away carries seeds with it and a type of grass begins to spread between the rice that quickly overgrows the soil, which is detrimental to the growth of the rice. Do they have to weed regularly, carefully pull out manually before this grass suffocates the soil. Also water occasionally after copious night showers, the rice plants must remain partially above water or they will rot.

It slows down the rest of the job and gradually the couple gets into financial problems. Because as long as people work in the rice there is no income, on the contrary. A few times Piak went to work on the fields of larger landowners, but they only give XNUMX baht a day. And so De Inquisitor finds out that in the months of May and June they had to manage on about one thousand five hundred baht a month. Nowadays their electricity bill is invariably three hundred baht, so twelve hundred baht left to live on … . It immediately explains the one-sided diet, they simply cannot afford better, a live adult chicken costs about a hundred baht, a kilogram of pork around two hundred and eighty, a kilogram of fish a hundred, let alone steak, that is completely unaffordable for them.
And there is simply no time to go fishing or hunting.

So The Inquisitor lets it blue-blue when he notices baby-sweet practically adopting little PiPi. The little guy is already quite thin, in full growth that one-sided diet is not conducive. So nowadays PiPi eats from the Western kitchen: sandwiches with cheese or with ham and a nice glass of milk. Spaghetti with freshly made sauce: lots of vegetables and minced meat. Pea soup with smoked sausage. Balls in tomato sauce with celery, the boiled potatoes are ignored by the man and eat sticky rice.

A week ago, love intervened even more. You could see from Piak and Taai's faces that they were dead tired from weeks of toil, the will to get a good yield from the rice is great. But Piak's birthday was coming up.
The Inquisitor didn't even get a chance to bring in anything, he was sent to town to to go get. (Tie rak, also a kilo of steak, PiPi likes that). And a cake! (Tie rak remember there are XNUMX of us, PiPi eats as much cake as you). Piak and Taai also had to bow to sweet will: they were summoned to stop work around noon, take a shower and rest for a few hours.

The Inquisitor took PiPi under his wing, had to pick him up at the school, spoil him with macaroni-with-ham-and-cheese (Tie rak, add some spaghetti sauce, yes, PiPi also has some vegetables), and by six o'clock ' give a hot shower in the western bathroom in the evening. Which the boy really liked because he had gotten hold of the spray can with shaving soap, an unknown item for him.

And it became a nice get-together with sweetheart her brother's family that evening. Well, sitting on the floor around a pot with a charcoal fire is not exactly the ultimate in comfort for a Westerner, but it didn't spoil the fun for The Inquisitor. On the contrary, his clumsy attempts to collect pieces of meat and vegetables with the chopsticks are a source of amusement. But a nutritious meal for everyone, finally some variety and joy for Piak and Taai. Those who completely recovered after the short break, moreover there is some work for Piak again, so income.

Liefje-lief and De Inquisitor want a better fence around the garden. The current one cannot keep the three dogs, much larger and stronger than an average Isaan dog, and notorious chicken catchers, inside. They dig under it, they jump through weak spots, they bite through the too light gauze wire. But that is a big job, The Inquisitor needs help. Piak revives, four hundred baht a day is much better. Moreover, the new fence must be ready before the end of July. So that The Inquisitor and the love can go on vacation.

Well, a completely different world of course. While the average Isaaners toil and sweat, worry about their rice and weather conditions, and worry even more about their finances – we are busy planning vacations. Because we 'need it'. We have stress to find a good hotel, well located and neatly comfortable, preferably not too expensive. We think about what we're going to do, how we're going to have fun. How nice we're going to have dinner. Where we're going to step, how often we're going to sag.

It makes one think sometimes.