Life in Isaan
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Khundon1975
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A tale of woe
Compiling my next rendition but had to post this now as it has cut me up and some may learn from the gravity of the situation
This little lad (not so little now) is only 7 years old and already weighs 63 kilos and is a forlorn Isaan village victim.
Fell off a motorbike driven by his mother and cut his foot. Then his parents IGNORED it. He has been to the local hospital where they eventually skin grafted from his bottom but it was too late. The infection had set in and he now has gangrene and is in danger of losing his foot or even his leg or even his life.
I have pleaded with his parents that he should go to Khon Kaen for proper treatment but they smile and say they have no money and it is Bhuddas will.
Throw money at it? You open the flood gates and get no thanks for it
Life here in the sticks can be so frustrating
Known the lad since he was 2 and I used to be able to lift him. He can knock me down with a charge now. Overweight because he cannot stop eating. Even at school he cries if he has no food. Lovely natured lad so it seems such a pointless waste and futile and there is sweet FA I can do about it
His parents of course know no better and they won’t listen to a farang
Sadly TIT (This is Thailand)
Richard
I have suffered a small cut in my foot and ignored it for 24 hours. Then got it dressed and a course of antibiotics eventually cleared the infection. Took 3 months though. To those who incur the same please wash with clean water (not tap water), iodine the wound and dress it. change the dressing daily and when the wound has nearly healed leave it to the open air. Too long in bandages is not good. your wound sweats and turns bad
Compiling my next rendition but had to post this now as it has cut me up and some may learn from the gravity of the situation
This little lad (not so little now) is only 7 years old and already weighs 63 kilos and is a forlorn Isaan village victim.
Fell off a motorbike driven by his mother and cut his foot. Then his parents IGNORED it. He has been to the local hospital where they eventually skin grafted from his bottom but it was too late. The infection had set in and he now has gangrene and is in danger of losing his foot or even his leg or even his life.
I have pleaded with his parents that he should go to Khon Kaen for proper treatment but they smile and say they have no money and it is Bhuddas will.
Throw money at it? You open the flood gates and get no thanks for it
Life here in the sticks can be so frustrating
Known the lad since he was 2 and I used to be able to lift him. He can knock me down with a charge now. Overweight because he cannot stop eating. Even at school he cries if he has no food. Lovely natured lad so it seems such a pointless waste and futile and there is sweet FA I can do about it
His parents of course know no better and they won’t listen to a farang
Sadly TIT (This is Thailand)
Richard
I have suffered a small cut in my foot and ignored it for 24 hours. Then got it dressed and a course of antibiotics eventually cleared the infection. Took 3 months though. To those who incur the same please wash with clean water (not tap water), iodine the wound and dress it. change the dressing daily and when the wound has nearly healed leave it to the open air. Too long in bandages is not good. your wound sweats and turns bad
RICHARD OF LOXLEY
It’s none of my business what people say and think of me. I am what I am and do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. It makes life so much easier.
It’s none of my business what people say and think of me. I am what I am and do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. It makes life so much easier.
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sandman67
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mate take a walk about in any poor part of the world and you hear worse.
My UN guide in Cambodia who had survived only becuase his mam and dad hid him in a rice jar th night the KR came into town. His mate who had one leg and half a right arm care of a landmine. My ex who was deported back to Russia and a life of misery care of my ex wife. The 12 year old kid in Kosovo who one day kicked the wrong sort of can and kicked a cluster munition. The Ghurkas who fought for us and we spurn. The .....
The world is a horrible place mate. Its wild, wired and wierd on top.
All our fault.
Focus on it and it will mess you up.
If this matters enough for y to comment on it do the right thing by your heart.
Make a small difference. I know what Id do.... F what anyone else thinks mate. Do what your heart tells you, never your head. At the end of the day its (insert number) packs of fags I wont smoke
Like the film says...one random act of kindness
My UN guide in Cambodia who had survived only becuase his mam and dad hid him in a rice jar th night the KR came into town. His mate who had one leg and half a right arm care of a landmine. My ex who was deported back to Russia and a life of misery care of my ex wife. The 12 year old kid in Kosovo who one day kicked the wrong sort of can and kicked a cluster munition. The Ghurkas who fought for us and we spurn. The .....
The world is a horrible place mate. Its wild, wired and wierd on top.
All our fault.
Focus on it and it will mess you up.
If this matters enough for y to comment on it do the right thing by your heart.
Make a small difference. I know what Id do.... F what anyone else thinks mate. Do what your heart tells you, never your head. At the end of the day its (insert number) packs of fags I wont smoke
Like the film says...one random act of kindness
"Science flew men to the moon. Religion flew men into buildings."
"To sin by silence makes cowards of men."
"To sin by silence makes cowards of men."
I'm really surprised that it's taken so long for you to notice this sort of thing 
I often reflect on 2 examples from the days when I used to spend a lot of time living in Jungle conditions:
- Over the years I saw a lot of children born (not literally). When I used to return on my next visit, I'd ask what had happened to the baby. Invariably the child had died. Whenever I asked how they had died, the answer was always a ghost got inside of him/her, and ate the baby from the inside.
- My daughter's best friend lived in a house on stilts. She lost 3 consecutive babies through them toddling off the side of the house.
Life is cheap in Issan.
I often reflect on 2 examples from the days when I used to spend a lot of time living in Jungle conditions:
- Over the years I saw a lot of children born (not literally). When I used to return on my next visit, I'd ask what had happened to the baby. Invariably the child had died. Whenever I asked how they had died, the answer was always a ghost got inside of him/her, and ate the baby from the inside.
- My daughter's best friend lived in a house on stilts. She lost 3 consecutive babies through them toddling off the side of the house.
Life is cheap in Issan.
Championship Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Leeds Utd 
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
I agree with Sandman on this one Richard, something needs to be done. You could go to the police about it, but probably burn your bridges forever. You could just pile him into a bus and go, saying you're making tamboon in honour of His Majesty's birthday. They would buy that, or confuse them and they wouldn't say anything.
Your significant other needs to try to intervene as well and talk sense into them.
Pete
Your significant other needs to try to intervene as well and talk sense into them.
PeteGovernments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source
I think if I were there on the ground, I'd probably have to try to intervene. Difference is I'd never be more than a visitor there (3 weeks is the longest I've done, and it's an experience I wouldn't want to repeat for a longer period) - I couldn't live the village life.
The danger of helping this kid when you are also a long time resident, is how do other families react to your actions? IMHO most Thais want something for nothing. Is there a danger that at some stage in the future a child could be deliberately maimed in search of the Farang Baht?
A horrible thought I know. However, you need to be sure that an humanitarian act of Farang kindness is not going to backfire on innocent kids.
The danger of helping this kid when you are also a long time resident, is how do other families react to your actions? IMHO most Thais want something for nothing. Is there a danger that at some stage in the future a child could be deliberately maimed in search of the Farang Baht?
A horrible thought I know. However, you need to be sure that an humanitarian act of Farang kindness is not going to backfire on innocent kids.
Championship Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Leeds Utd
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
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HuntingTigers
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- Location: Manchester, England
Heart of Darkness
No truer words were written BB. After reading Richard's and Randy Cornhole's experiences up country I perceive we are entering into a different world here. This is truly The Heart Of Darkness.Big Boy wrote:Difference is I'd never be more than a visitor there...
...you need to be sure that an humanitarian act of Farang kindness is not going to backfire on innocent kids.
It is a world we, [Westerners], can never understand or fully comprehend. For my pains, my degree is in Philosophy, and one of the areas of study was linguistic philosophy. We can 'learn ' the native language, we can imitate it, we can make ourselves understood when we speak it - but we ourselves will never understand the emotive and affecting connotations the language entails to the native listener.
I was struck when reading Richard's discourse just how much it echoed the writings of Joseph Conrad in his novella, 'Heart of Darkness'. It is beyond my innate and instinctive nature not to afford, or attempt to afford, some relief to this child's suffering. But, by doing so, as BB notes, I may set in motion yet a greater evil.
Truly, I am a stranger in a foreign land.
HuntingTigers.
It may be rubbish - but by golly it's British rubbish.
Come on guys. I'm not saying that BB's example is not possible, but it is a very remote possibility. We're not dealing with some stone age tribe just discovered.
I agree completely that Westerners shouldn't try to smother other cultures with outside influences, but in this case Richard is dealing with the boy's life and he's key at this moment in determining if it possibly continues or not.
All the other 'could happen, would happen, what about this' thinking has to take a back seat and professional care obtained for the boy ASAP. Pete
I agree completely that Westerners shouldn't try to smother other cultures with outside influences, but in this case Richard is dealing with the boy's life and he's key at this moment in determining if it possibly continues or not.
All the other 'could happen, would happen, what about this' thinking has to take a back seat and professional care obtained for the boy ASAP. Pete
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source
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HuntingTigers
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"I shall only pass this way but once"
"We're not dealing with some stone age tribe just discovered." - No we are dealing with a feudal peasant society in which ghosts and spirits play a significant part. The people here discourse in a language into which we, as outsiders, have little or at the very best an incomplete comprehension of.prcscct wrote:Come on guys... We're not dealing with some stone age tribe just discovered...
I agree completely that Westerners shouldn't try to smother other cultures with outside influences, but in this case Richard is dealing with the boy's life and he's key at this moment in determining if it possibly continues or not.
All the other 'could happen, would happen, what about this' thinking has to take a back seat and professional care obtained for the boy ASAP. Pete
"I agree completely that Westerners shouldn't try to smother other cultures with outside influences...". I never said we as Westerners were trying to smother anyone - I made the observation that we didn't, in street speak, have a clue as to what was going on in that society and that to meddle could give rise to unintended consequences.
"...but in this case Richard is dealing with the boy's life and he's key at this moment in determining if it possibly continues or not". Let me say this, "I shall only pass this way but once - whatever good I can do let me do it now - let me not desist nor delay - for, I shall only pass this way but once".
Not my words, but those of Walter T. Emerson, an American philosopher. I guess that is how I feel and that's what I would do but I would be well aware that I have may just upended a red ants nest over myself.
HuntingTigers.
It may be rubbish - but by golly it's British rubbish.
That depends on where (in the West) you are from or how well traveled you are. Ever see the film "Deliverance" with the boy playing the banjo in the early part of the movie. I've been to plenty of "villages" like that in the U.S. (in fact I have some family that lives in one!).It is a world we, [Westerners], can never understand or fully comprehend.
Poverty, death, disease, and apathy are everywhere. Thailand does not have a monopoly on them. Help who you are able to help and pray for the rest...
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
Quite right, Pete. What I see here is the same old Thai crap of loosing face.prcscct wrote:Come on guys. I'm not saying that BB's example is not possible, but it is a very remote possibility. We're not dealing with some stone age tribe just discovered.
I agree completely that Westerners shouldn't try to smother other cultures with outside influences, but in this case Richard is dealing with the boy's life and he's key at this moment in determining if it possibly continues or not.
All the other 'could happen, would happen, what about this' thinking has to take a back seat and professional care obtained for the boy ASAP. Pete
"I have pleaded with his parents that he should go to Khon Kaen for proper treatment but they smile and say they have no money and it is Bhuddas will. "
The smile says it all!
If you want to be a human being, tell them to f--- off, and take the poor little bloke to a Doctor. They will not admit it, but you will go that far up in their eyes that you will be able to tell Buddha what to do!
You are not somebody from outside interfering in their way, you are living in the Village for Christs sake!
And by the way, I have recently done exactly the same thing myself, and although not living in the Village, I am looked up to when I visit.
May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil know`s you`re dead!
They say they have no money, hang on, isn't it free (30baht) for them or are they refering to the travel costs? It was in Khon Kaen when my father-in-law went for a heart bypass a couple of years ago and he's still around so they do a OK enough job in the government hospitals.
I know things are done differently in the village and that superstition is still abound everywhere but perhaps getting a senior village figure, like the headman or monk, to talk to them might be an angle of approach that could work as wading in might not be the culturally correct thing to do, there are many ways to skin as cat remember. I would advise caution about interfering too overtly in the affairs of others in the rural environment, a low profile approach could be a better way, even given the sensitivity and emotional content of the subject.
I know things are done differently in the village and that superstition is still abound everywhere but perhaps getting a senior village figure, like the headman or monk, to talk to them might be an angle of approach that could work as wading in might not be the culturally correct thing to do, there are many ways to skin as cat remember. I would advise caution about interfering too overtly in the affairs of others in the rural environment, a low profile approach could be a better way, even given the sensitivity and emotional content of the subject.