Another Day In Isaan

[panadolsandwich]

And the bell rings and someone somewhere with a heart at least more spiritual than I dongs it again, and again. There is a low fog as the sun dawns, but it's got it's work to do cutting through the sleepy murkiness. The so called cold season is coming. As do the monks that pass by, alms bowls in hand. Do I throw in a handful of rice? Yes I do, and its not by virtue but by proxy, and my wife, proxies it to her mother, whom is fast becoming quite the most matronly woman in her village - of which I'm becoming strangely proud of - who would have thought it I reflect to myself - but by her actions my esteem in the village grows.

 

Yet she has to surpass the elderly women passing by in their splendid rags and battered foot wear, on rusted motorcycle and sidecart loaded with their hard won comestibles, en route to the temple. All these garish colours amidst the dust and poverty. I wonder idly, could I divert them? Then the thought slips away. Because there is that thought that follows - where? Besides the early songbirds have arrived, so I let it go.

 

I sip strong coffee on the veranda, the orchids have started vividly flowering purple. I'm content. On the road a motorcycle stops and my friend the policeman comes through the gate and chats a while, bad news - an elderly gentleman selling BBQ pork at the market down the road was stabbed by a drug crazed twenty year old - a complete stranger to the victim. And why? The policeman says they don't know why. It appears the victim made an light-hearted joke about the guys tattoo. But that, if you know what I mean doesn't explain why, because as I explain to the policeman, this is way too complex. And I know enough to recognise how little I know. It's not unknowable, but we just don't know yet or at least I don't know, and he doesn't know.

 

I resist the temptation to analyse it for the moment, because what the hell makes someone violently kill another over a light hearted joke? Yes there were drugs, but I knew that couldn't be all to it - best to consign it to that part of my mind that unconsciously mulls over things like this.

 

Well like it or not, the day is underway. A baby frog hops around, and those big wings rise on the thermals over the old temple. A bare footed child walks past. And I think - just what the hell am I doing here? And it ain't for the first time. Another day in Isaan has started and it ain't barely started yet - but I'm a loving it.

[Fiery Jack]

Great stuff. ðŸ‘ðŸ½

 

jack

[YimSiam]

Makes me miss my time in Laos - and look forward to some future years of getting back to the countryside and finding my awkward place in that world...

[panadolsandwich]

I hear you brother, you can feel awkward or you can go native. The countryside is bliss.

[panadolsandwich]

There did they why - we ran the gamut, the days get more complicated towards the end, and yet. Betwixt the sky and the earth, surely there is no way to become better acquainted then by the simple virtue of being in Isaan!