Isaan Rice Harvest - 14 and 15 November 2009

Undaunted by the previous, Friday 13th, day's adventures and motivated by the opportunity to spend some more time with 9 month old Peelawat, we returned to Tahsang Village on Saturday and Sunday to contribute to the harvesting of the family's rice crop.

On Saturday and Sunday the crop that was planted in July just outside of Tahsang Village was being cut. This field does not have red ants so I was looking forward to spending a great deal of time documenting and observing the activities there.

Duang splits her time between caring for Peelawat and cutting rice. Duang's daughter and Duang's mother have been sick so extra help is required to look after the nine month old baby. Saturday ended up being a "baby care" day. Duang's daughter was feeling well enough so she spent the day cutting rice. However, Duang's mother was still not feeling well. She had been to the hospital two days earlier with gastro-intestinal distress. On Saturday she was still rather weak. No problem - her youngest son came over to take care of her.

"Number 4", as he is referred to as since he is the youngest of four children arrived in Tahasang Village with an IV bottle and assorted items related to infusion. He is not a doctor. He is not a EMT. He is not a nurse. He is an entertainer. Apparently anyone with the money can buy IV materials for home personal use or on willing subjects. I was astounded. The IV bottle was made out of glass and contained a yellow liquid. I tried to read the ingredients but the writing was all in Thai. The bottle as well as contents looked identical to what I had seen being used on patients in the hospital.

A saht, a woven reed mat, was placed on the tile floor of the family market for Duang's mother to lay on. Polyethylene packaging twine was used to suspend the IV bottle from a wire that ran from a column to the exterior wall of the room. Duang's brother declined to use my belt as a tourniquet on his mother's arm to help bring up a vein (I had seen a belt used in many films where people were shooting up - wrapping around the upper arm and using their teeth to maintain tension around the arm). Instead he used several rubber bands to create an elastic band to tie around her arm. I was impressed with his knowledge and skill up to this point. He had flooded the IV tubing, installed a vent in the IV bottle, evacuated the air out of the tubing and run some liquid out of the needle. Now it was time to insert the needle into a vein. Finding the vein and inserting the needle proved to be more difficult. Eventually the process was successfully completed. Momma layed quietly on the saht for the afternoon.

Once Momma was settled in with her IV, our attention focused upon Peelawat. He had been sleeping in his hammock on the opposite side of the room and woke up as the set up of Momma's IV was completed. After he woke up completely and got accustomed to everyone, Duang decided that it was time for his bath. Since it was a hot and sunny day, Duang took a small plastic tub outside to the backyard to bathe Peelawat. She filled the tub with water from a hose and used the hose to rinse him off. Peelawat enjoyed his bath even though the water was not heated.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent working on the computer to edit photographs and playing with Peelawat.

On Sunday we spent most of our time out in the rice fields. I shot photographs in the morning and then the late afternoon to take advantage of the better light.

It was hot and humid all day long. I had left Duang back in the village to take care of Peelawat. After photographing the family at work in the fields, I took a walk towards the sun. I walked towards the sun for two reasons - I wanted the setting sun at my back to photograph the workers and there several groups of other workers in that direction. Walking over towards the other workers was rather difficult. The recessed paddies were filled with dry stalks of rice either vertical or laying almost flat. Out of respect for the farmers I did not want to trample over the unharvested rice. That left me the option of walking along the tops of the berms around the perimeters of the paddy. The raised area along the paddies are now overgrown with 4 months of unabated weeds. To make matters even more difficult, the berms are periodically cut by narrow trenches - perfect ankle twisters and ankle busters. The overgrown vegetation pretty much camouflages them. I had also watched a program the previous night about people getting bitten by cobras. I pretty much convinced myself that no snake would hang around the dry rice paddies so I cautiously plodded along.

I spent about 2 hours on this trek, stopping to photograph interesting scenes and stopping to rest as well as await the sun to get lower on the horizon. It was extremely hot and I sweated a great deal. I sweated so profusely that my fingertips became wrinkled as if I had stayed in a bath too long. Midway into my solo journey, I thought that I heard Duang's voice. I was too far to see her even if the rice had not hidden her. After deciding to return to the family, I had some good fortune - I found a piece of aged bamboo - a perfect walking stick. With the use of my walking stick, my walk back was much easier and less intimidating. When I got back to the starting point, Duang was there cutting rice. She had correctly surmised that I was going to be thirsty and had a can of Pepsi along with a glass of ice awaiting me. I have to admit that it was the best Pepsi that I have had in my life. The best Coke is a fountain drink at O Sanctuario outside the entrance to Machu Picchu but the best Pepsi is in a can out in an Isaan parched rice paddy.

Getting Caught Up

Many things have occurred since my last blog.

I have edited some more photographs. The result is a new gallery of Maehongson on my photography website

http://www.hale-worldphotography.com/Travel/Maehongson-December-2007/9739423_FNQuv/1/659455871_BxcgM

Duang has been to the doctor and had most of the cotton packing removed form her ears. We have to return on Saturday to have the stitches removed. So far it has been a good experience for everyone involved.

We have seen Peelawat, our 7 month old Grandson, twice. He has developed a couple new behaviors that make me wonder if humor is not genetically embedded rather cultural. He can now stand up on a chair leaning forward and grasping the chair back with his hand for balance. We had to take Duang's mother to the Regional Cancer Center for a checkup. Duang was busy with her mother so I got to take care of Peelawat while we waited and waited and waited some more. Peelawat and his father had taken her to the center earlier in the morning. They then drove the truck to our home so that we could drive them all back to Tahsang Village before we returned home with the truck. The son-in-law had borrowed the truck in order to take one of the 93 cousins to the hospital because "she was crazy". As is so typical here in Isaan, you don't go to the doctor or hospital alone. In the case of the cousin, two babies and four adults accompanied her on her visit. Apparently she got additional medicine for her epilepsy. She sometimes behaves weirdly which I am certain has nothing to do with her epilepsy. I might suggest that these behaviors warrant some therapy but everyone including she were happy at getting the medicine to control seizures. In Isaan, if you have a truck, you are often called upon to provide taxi and ambulance service for the extended family. Sometimes you might even get some gas money!



While I was taking care of Peelawt during our 3 hour wait for Duang's mother to be finished at the Regional Center, Peelawat put on a show. He held his bottle of water and was able to place it in and out of his mouth with one hand to drink for the first time. After drinking some water he would take the bottle out his mouth, and look at me with a big toothless grin bordering on laughing and twinkling eyes as if to say "Hey look what I can do!" This suggested to me that perhaps he had a sense of humor. His next behavior convinced me that he definitely has a sense of humor - even at 7 months. He would take his bottle and bite down on the nipple with his gums as hard as he could. He would then pull the nipple out of his mouth making a loud popping sound as the nipple snapped out like an elastic. Peelawat would keep this routine going for 4 or 5 sequences with each sequence interrupted by a huge toothless grin with drool dripping from his chin. He was grinning ear to ear as if he was taking pride in his "joke". Peelawat enjoyed the hospital, much more than me, and entertained himself looking at everyone and everything. He did not cry during the entire three hours.

Duang's mother is apparently fine. The chest rattling and all consuming cough that she has had for the past 3 years that I have known her is due to "too much sun and too much rain". I am learning something new everyday. Something new, but I am not sure that it is always true.

When we were back in Tahsang Village we sat outside socializing with the villagers and relatives. The village dogs all started to bark, more than usual, as a pick up truck roamed slowly through the village. The back of the pick up truck had a large wire enclosure built over it. Inside amongst the many baskets and debris inside the cage, I saw many dogs packed in the cage. The dogs seemed rather forlorn and not just due to their physical state. These were not some one's pets. These were village and Wat dogs. Dogs that are accustomed to fending for themselves. I had a pretty good idea what this was all about but I asked Duang anyhow.

She told me that the man went around picking up problem dogs. The Lao Loum people of Isaan villages live with dogs. The dogs are more tolerated than cared for or considered as members of the family. Small children may play with a dog some what but the term "It's a dog's life" seems to apply to Isaan. The dogs hang around and scrounge for what food they can get from their "masters". Many dogs hang around the Wats where food is more available and the Monks are certain to not persecute them. From my understanding from Duang, is that this man goes around and buys dogs that are a "problem". He then sells the dogs to be eaten by some people. I don't know of any dog markets in Udonthani but I have been told with some disdain that some markets in Sakon Nakhon Province do sell dog meat. Now I have an idea where they get it from - no ranch, farm or feed lot. Just as interstingly, I was assured that the people who ate dogs were Central Thai people or Lao Thoeng (Upland Lao) or Lao Soung (High Lao) but not Lao Loum. I often write and a theme that I try to maintain is how much people are so much alike. Here is another example. Every where that I have travelled I have encountered some type of bias against some ethnic group or certain peoples. The names of the victims changes from country to country and region to region but the sin of Pride that motivates it is constant.

We are better than them because they ...