Isaan Innocence - Fern

These are a couple pictures of one of the younger villagers in Tahsang Village. Her name is "Fern" and she is the daughter of another cousin of Duang's. Just about everyone in Tahsang Village is related to her. She even has relatives in the next village.

Fern is 2 years old. She is not too comfortable with me. Getting pictures of her is a real challenge. However with big dark eyes like hers, any and all work to photograph her are worth the effort. I typically steal some shots of her while I am photographing Kwan.

Like most small children in Isaan, Fern is well behaved and keeps close to the adult caring for her. Her father, mother, and grandmother seem to share the caring for Fern equally.

Like Kwan, Fern does not have many toys to amuse herself. She has a large stuffed Disney cartoon character that she carries around. Other than that she makes do with whatever else is available - food wrappers, string, pieces of wood, pieces of bamboo, and plastic bottles.

Fern as well as the other small children of Tahsang Village are brought to the various platforms outside of village houses to sit on their care giver's lap while the adults socialize. The little children have the opportunity to interact with children their own age as well as to check out the new borns that are brought around.

When the children get to be three years old, they become more independent and play with their older brothers, sisters, as well as other children their age. Play involves chasing bicycles, chasing each other, kicking things around. Sometimes after the older children return from school, a girl may give dancing lessons to the young toddlers or teach them as if they were in school.

The children start school when they are three years old - a sort of nursery school. They attend nursery school until they are six years old. Parents pay for they children to attend the nursery school. It is always a pleasant sight to see all the little people dressed in their school uniforms going off to school.

Children attend a local school for six years - if the family can afford the loss of hands for field work. It is a sad reality that all children are not able to finish at least six years of school. Things have improved a little, people used to have to pay school fees for the first six years of school but today it is free. To continue their schooling after 6 years, the children have to got to the high school in Kumphawapi - additional transportation costs along with school fees.

The lack of education makes breaking out of the poverty difficult for the people of Isaan. They are relegated to subsistence farming on the poor soils of Isaan, driving taxis in Bangkok, low paying construction work throughout Thailand, housekeeping, and service industry jobs in the tourism industry.

Even at two years old, young Fern is already a victim of poverty. She as well as the rest of the children is kept clean and although their clothes maybe old or hand me downs, the children are well clothed or at least the ones who decide to wear them. In Tahsang Village there is a 1-1/2 year old boy who often walks around without pants sometimes without any clothing. He takes his clothes off. My grandson went through the same phase. Now that he is three he is keeping his clothes on. Hopefully the little Tahsang Village boy is only going through the same stage in his development.

The children are also well fed. I have not seen any malnourished children a fact that I attribute to the wide spread practise of breast feeding and the Lao Loum utilization of alternative food sources for their diet. I know that if I were able to overcome my personal and cultural biases towards many of the Lao foods with Duang around I would never starve and most likely never go hungry. Born into the Lao Loum culture the Isaan children have no prejudices or biases to overcome.

Fern is a victim of poverty in regards to her health care. The other day when we were in the village I took the second picture above of her. She was sitting on her father's lap and I noticed her exposed thigh. She had a series of large scars on her thigh going up into her hip area. One portion of the scar looked like a large and deep cut that had been crudely stitched together. Through Duang I asked if Fern had had hip surgery. I was suspecting that she had surgery for hip dysplasia. I was wrong - terribly wrong. Four months ago, the weather had got quite cool - cool for Thailand. Villagers had set up open wood fires outside of their homes to warm themselves before retiring for the night. Family members set up plastic chairs and sahts (woven mats) around the fire. Little Fern fell into the fire and was badly burned.

Taking her to the hospital would have cost $43 USD to $57 USD - beyond the means of her family. Fern's injury was cared for by three elderly people from the village using various balms on the burns.

The good news is the injury and scar have not affected Fern's ability to walk. She was fortunate. Not everyone is.

The reality of life in foreign countries is not always pleasant. The lack of opportunities and the cost of poverty has impact on innocent lives. So many things that people take for granted in the USA are beyond the grasp of many other people in foreign lands.

Living and experiencing life in other countries provides a different perspective and sense of reality. Sometimes it hurts.