Culture shock (part 2)

All that's left of their stall these days...

She was to run into similar problems at her site where I met her down the road from my office in central Klong Toey. She was to last a matter of months before packing up and moving somewhere else. 

By then our relationship had also moved on, as I grew sick of their strange ways.

Robert lived with his aunt Pim at a rowhouse in the Jet Sip Rai area, about 10 minutes from where they set up shop. She had several brothers who ran their own food stalls, much like her own, including one in front of the rowhouse where they lived. 

One day I chatted to members of the family as they turned up at Pim's stall lugging supplies or equipment. First I met her partner, an amiable motorcycle taxi driver. 

Later I met her brothers, cousins, uncles, Pim’s father, and even an elderly grandmother with whom Robert, one of the youngest members of the family, had lived for years before moving in with Pim.

All arrived from Laos years ago and no one had work permits or visas permitting them to stay. Robert, 16 when I met him, had been in Thailand since he was little boy when he crossed the border with his grandmother. 

Because he lacked paperwork, including an ID card, he could not enter the schooling system. While he spoke Thai well, he could barely read or write.  

Pim could see I felt sorry for him as we chatted away, and was keen to encourage idea that Robert was a hard worker with few friends. 

It took me a while to piece together the events in his life, but I found out Robert had moved in with Pim only recently; six months before, he was still living off Chua Phloeng Road with his granny.

I could understand why he wanted to leave Granny's place. Pim's home in Jet Sip Rai offered the independence of young adulthood and a job. At granny's place he was just a kid with no income, spending his days playing football and computer games.

Nonetheless, it was a tough life. Pim paid him a pittance, just 100 baht a day assuming sales went well, but he worked 12 hours at a stretch, with few breaks or days off. 

“We are all family so it doesn’t matter. We help each other out. Apart from that, I have to keep money aside for his future,” she said expansively. Still, it looked like slave labour to me, and I told her so.

Perhaps because he was finding the adjustment to working life tough, Robert and Pim bickered often. 

Robert did not let his youth hold him back; he was outspoken and blunt with his aunt, even in front of customers. When Pim tired of his surly behaviour, she would pull in other youngsters as helpers, and banish Robert to her brother’s shop at Jed Sip Rai. When she forgave him she would let him come back again.

When Robert worked at Pim's shop I was protective of him, as I didn't like to see him exploited. He was much smaller than other boys his age - a family trait, the elders told me. "They all grow up small in our family," one said.

I helped Robert heavy items in the shop, put up the umbrella when it rained, lift the gas bottle off his motorbike after he went into the market to fill it up. If I fussed too much, he would reprimand me jokingly: "Just sit still!" 

Robert enjoyed playing guitar, he said, so I bought him one on the internet. I had never bought online before and enjoyed the experience. However, I felt deflated when someone at Pim's place broke the guitar the same day Robert took it home.

During this time I had all but abandoned my friends in the slum next to my condo.  When a youngster from that community contacted me one day wanting money, I suggested he come and see me. Nong Ton and a school friend turned up on their motorbike and I shouted them a quick meal at Pim's stall.

At the prompting of the ya dong stall owner down the way, I also gave them 200 baht for a meal at a Japanese eatery where were heading to meet friends. When they left, Pim caustically remarked: 'You should stick with us. They they just want handouts." 

Meanwhile, curious members of Pim's family were turning up at the stall to meet me, as if welcoming a new member to their family. They included the grandma on her first trip away from Chua Phloeng Road in months (a relative escorted her). It was as if I had married into the family through the aunt or Robert and everyone wanted to check me out.

now, see part 3