The saying dirt poor comes from rural farmers who own land but don't usually have a lot of money to spend. They eat well but probably don't have an iPhone 6 in their back pocket. Dirty poor is the way I would describe Thavorn's family. They have their plot of land and a house but they are simply dirty. They don't clean! There are cobwebs everywhere and dust an eighth inch thick in places. They have 5 old filthy pots to cook in and will leave the first 4 dirty all week until Friday and then clean all five at once. Meanwhile the red ants feast and bite. If anything drives me out of the village early it will be the lack of cleanliness and sloth-like approach to getting anything done. Being dirt poor does not give you licence to live like pigs. Soap is cheap!
Jabba's excuse is her weight. We put her on the scales and she was 112 kilos which is more than me and she's 5' tall. Of course her knees are giving out as would mine if I was carrying 62 extra kilos around. Why is she fat? I would say because she eats 5 times the amount of food I eat!At 55 years of age she is beyond help and will probably develop diabetes or hopefully heart attack out. She was telling Thavorn she hopes to last another 10 years to see Tai and Dun grow up. I would not bet on 5.
What pisses me off is neither Jabba or Lot seems to know how to say thank you in English or Thai. They seem to think they have an entitlement coming because Thavorn has a farang. There are many village legends about the largess (word of the day) of farangs but I think they are mostly legends. There is no shortage of gossipers in the village and many of them stop by during the day and I hear the farang word often.
I now have a 9 year old running buddy. He is a cute Thai boy who joined me a day ago and now shows up every morning to run laps with me. He is now my running conscience :-) He runs in sandals that probably cost 100 baht and I run in 6,000 baht asics. He has no trouble keeping up with me despite being 4' nothing. This is the best of Thai. Tai and Dun are much too lazy to run. They have Jabba and Lot as their role models as they are now just getting to spend time with Thavorn and I.
Tomorrow is Sunday which is the day most Thai males get drunk all day on Thai whisky. They work 6 days a week and indulge on Sundays. Maybe I will join them for a shot or 2 :-)
TTYL
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