Village life

Saturday, 17 Feb 2007 | Journal

Nong Bua Ngo is a village in the Kalasin province of Thailand, it has about 100-120 houses and as such I guess is a typical village in Isaan. I have long wanted to visit Isaan and see what ‘village life’ is all about and yesterday was given a peek.

Any village, anywhere in the world, will always be a tightly knit community where people know each other. But what I saw yesterday was taking this a step further, a few steps even. The people that live in this village are one big family. Everybody knows each other and more importantly, everybody trusts each other. It magnified one of the key values on which Thai society is based, the building of personal relationships, and unmistakably underlined the importance of family in the life of any Thai person. One might even be tempted to say that the lines between family and villagers blurs in such a community.

Many of the people that live in this village have lived together their entire life. The taxi driver who took us from the main road to the village, who didn’t even live in Nong Bua Ngo, recognized Nat even though he had not seen her in years. As we were walking up the road to the house, people were talking to her (and each other) left and right and of course came out to get a glimpse of the farang that people had been talking about. The way I was welcomed and never left alone when I visited. The fact that the night before the event I’m told there were more than 20 people in the house eating together and at the same time packing the things for the next day. And this was a social gathering, not a chore to get done. The way Nat, who really doesn’t live here anymore, knew many of the kids and told me many stories about people in the village. Even something small as how people would be getting a drink or some food at somebody elses house without asking or being offered. It all shows an unbelievable community bond, unlike anything you’ve ever seen in the west. Anywhere.

But as romantic as this all sounds, life in this village is hard. On a tour of the village, I saw houses that in the west wouldn’t even be deemed worthy of housing a few bicycles. The people of Nong Bua Ngo work hard every single day of every year, getting up at the crack of dawn and returning home from tending their crop or selling at the market only when the setting sun prevented them from doing any more work. There is no such thing as ‘luxury’ here, it is life brought back to its utter basics. All the more surprising is it then, to hear laughter and joy everywhere you go.

After having finished the main event of the day, it was great to just hang out in front of the house and watch the people go about their daily lives. I was sat on a wooden construction covered with a bamboo mat, which was in front or under all houses. And from there, I could see little groups of people gossiping together. Kids were returning home from school and went out to play. At sunset, cows were herded down the road (“she has 5 cows, she is rich!”) and motorcycles returned people from their fields. The only thing I would constantly think was “sabaaj sabaaj”, which is the Thai word for being comfortable, feeling good, relaxing.

On a tour of the village, Nat and I walked onto a road and a small kid yelled “farang!” …. a pre-cursor of what was to come. Nat told him to come along and this kid, named Oat, was a little bundle of energy. He could only run or jump up and down when he was waiting for us to catch up, at the same time staring at me. Somebody actually asked him if he had talked to me, to which he replied “no, i have no idea what he talks about” … as I was speaking English. We walked through little winding paths, lined with wooden houses (and not of the quaint French village style) that had cows in the front yard. We later ran into a few boys who were trying to catch lizzards so their mom could prepare dinner with them later. I also met a girl who was at the school I visited, she showed me a bucket of clay from the fishpond and later saw her sitting in front of her house making little animals out of them. I’m guessing those will be sold somewhere. This is play for them, not chores. People have found how to make the things that need to get done into fun things for kids to do. I saw people preparing food, calling people from across the street over, etc. Nat showed me some crop fields, the fish pond (people were sad to learn I was not staying for a week, as a big event would be held at the fish pond on the 24th). The temple by far was the most beautiful building of the village, as are most temples I have seen. It is not just a religious building in a community like this, but the center of all communal activities and as such of course something to be looked after with great care. The tour of the village was awesome and Nat was a great tour guide of the area.

One of the most amazing acts of trust I witnessed, was when I was leaving and the truck was driving through the village towards the main road. One of the kids on the back yelled the name of her friend, who didn’t even look at her mother and just ran and hopped on the truck to go to Kalasin City, more than an hours driving away. And mom? She just smiled. She knew her daughter was in good hands.

It is certainly not for me, this village life. I guess if you like the easy life and have the money in the bank to do it, this is the place to lounge around. But I’m a city boy as we all know. I could see myself having a good time there for a couple of days, maybe even sleeping in the actual village if there was a way to get rid of those pesky musquitos. But living there? Not for me.