How the other half live

Isaan is unusual in that 50% of the population lives in rural areas. Doing a home-stay with a family in the village where I teach gave me insider insights into village life that outsiders can't learn any other way.  As I draw to the end of my first 'term' in Isaan, I feel like these 2 weeks in the village have been representative of my 2 years in Isaan. There have been joys and challenges in equal measure.

Child boxers as young as 7 and 8 in a village festival. While they will win around £20, bets placed on them can be anywhere from  £2 to £1000. The pressure from the community is intense. Makes me wonder about the boys I teach, are they into this?

The language learning curve is steep, and honestly exhausting... I've never been so quiet. There I was, thinking I was doing well with Thai, only for Isaan to bust my bubble. Village communities speak Isaan almost exclusively. A mix of Thai and Lao, Isaan has a very different sound to Thai, and a lot more personality! To understand anything at all, I have to concentrate really hard. So being surrounded by people speaking only Isaan was exhausting and humbling.  You feel like a baby, struggling to keep up with conversations (of which there are usually several going on at the same time), pretending to laugh along with jokes (which is usually met with a sympathetic "you didn't get it, did you?"), and not wanting to bother people to translate into Thai all the time. In this first term I have made good progress in Thai. But my time in the village has made me desperate to be able to communicate in their heart language, Isaan.

So it was a wonderful blessing to spend time with kids. They are so much easier than grown-ups! They are willing to speak Thai, teaching me phrases in Isaan, repeating them with their gorgeous grin till I get the tones just right. Every day after school we had bigger and bigger groups of kids coming to see us at the house, until eventually we had to move to the school grounds. We played games, taught them songs and stories about God in Thai and English, then had them act out the stories in Isaan. They couldn't seem to get enough of it. I'm so used to kids getting bored quickly - these would happily sing a song 20 times... and they'd practise the words in their lunch break!! 

Chopping eucalyptus trees

Making dried mango roll-ups to snack on. 

Red ants - all stages of the lifecycle are

"yummy". It's an acquired taste...

The work ethic of Isaan people has often been a mystery to me - at first glance it would appear they simply sit around for most of the day. I now realise that as an extended family unit they are endlessly busy with an amazing array of ways to put food on the family plate. My host family planted rice, grew and sold eucalyptus trees, farmed fish, raised chickens, ducks and cattle, had a corner shop and coffee stand at the house, sold snacks at the weekly market, sold lottery tickets on the black market and worked with a franchise in Bangkok. Besides this, they regularly went out into the forest to forage for wild mushrooms, bamboo shoots, red ants and all kinds of wild herbs to add to their food. 

Why they need to do all this is also now clear - they don't just provide for their immediate family, but the extended family - which includes most of the village and many in the surrounding villages. The house I stayed in was the family home for 8 people of 3 generations. Add to that seemingly constant visits by the endless relatives, and you never know who is going to join you for lunch, dinner or a snack. Collectivist culture means everyone is always welcome. Kids live in and out of each other's family houses. All of this means that quiet or alone time is non-existent. Why you'd want it anyway is a mystery to them!

Furniture is optional. Most of us have a very different definition of necessities than the Isaan village person. There I was, missing sitting on a sofa; while their bedroom slept 6 people, and contained 2 beds (1 piled with stuff), a TV and a couple of fans. When all you need to sleep is the floor, sleepovers are easy too!

Bathrooms are also optional. On a visit to a friend's house where there was no running water, we discovered showers are regularly taken outdoors. They actually have an enclosed toilet with a bucket of water (which is where I showered), but they are used to showering in a sarong next to the water tank. Ingenious.

Fear is pervasive. Fear of the dark, fear of the river, lightning storms, being alone... most of which at their root, are a fear of evil spirits. Not a day would go by that I would not hear a child or adult express this fear. It cripples them. I wondered why until I discovered that one of the ladies we regularly visit had become possessed by an evil spirit, and that this is commonplace. She hadn't slept for 2 weeks and was in constant pain. She had been to see the spirit doctor, but the painful rituals and amulets she wore hadn't yet worked. The spirit had threatened to eat her insides and eventually kill her if she was left alone. All this was said in front of her ten year old son. He has even witnessed the agony of his mother at the spirit doctor's ritual. Fear perpetuates. 

What saddened me is that she had heard some stories of Jesus. She had noticed that Jesus only had to speak the word and spirits fled. But despite her suffering, she preferred the 'devil she knew'. Jesus is the risky, unknown, foreign God that they are afraid to ask for help. What repercussions will the family face from the spirits and ancestors if Jesus was to intervene? What would people say? Different fears take over, and she remains bound. Only prayer can change this. In a collective culture like Daniel's, where all the children chant and bow together in Buddhist rituals and ceremonies at the temple and at school, what would it take for one to refuse? 

It would take a supernatural move of God. I believe it is a matter of time... He is able, and working in their hearts. This is why we need to pray like we mean it, and keep showing them Jesus until they fall in love with Him. He intends for each precious child, every hardworking adult, every drunk man, every tattooed spirit doctor, everyone created in His image, to live free. That is my prayer for these people I have come to love.