Village Life
read about life in a typical Esarn village

On a recent visit to an English primary school in a Staffordshire village, one of the children asked Ajahn Laow "Is your village like ours?"

It's very difficult for any Westerner, let alone a small child, to imagine what rural North East Thailand is like. Even those who have spent holidays on Thailand's famous beaches have little or no idea, as it's like a different country.

Driving along any of the main roads in Esarn, the landscape is dominated by rice paddy fields (the main subsistence crop) populated by water buffaloes and their calves.

Then you come to a side turning, and several kilometer into the countryside........................ you come across the village street.

The street is lined with wild bougainvillea, and it is very hot.

This is a composite village, photographs taken at various locations, but they are all typical of the Esarn countryside.

Houses and hayricks are often jumbled together, with exotic coconut palms as a backdrop

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The houses are invariably constructed of wood, with roofs of either corrugated iron or palm thatch, sometimes a mixture of both. Everywhere you go, chickens seem to wander about at will.

Running water at home is rare: often there is a collective water reservoir in the form of a huge pot: this one sits outside the village sala (meeting hall) and people come to draw water from it.

In addition to supporting children, the Foundation provides funds for capital projects - a number of local villages have been provided with water through this scheme.


The kitchen is invariably outside, where cooking is done on charcoal stoves, using the simplest of implements

In every village of any size there are monks, who, as well as being spiritual advisors, act as local magistrates, mediators, counsellors, medics and any other job that a community needs.

Where there are monks there is a shrine hall, which acts as the focal point of the village, along with the village sala.

This is the sala and shrine hall in Ban Nong Rang, Ajahn Laow's village.


Ban Nong Rang is too small to have its own school, but there is a kindergarten for the local children

Whenever we visit even the poorest, smallest village, we are made very welcome: mats are brought out for us to sit on, and the whole extended family gathers round to join in.

This is Somsri from Jangwad in Buriram Province. She is sponsored by Margaret and Walter Steinmann from Switzerland, who joined us for the 2004 grant giving so that they could meet Somsri, seen here with her mother and aunt.

Margaret and Walter are the two farangs in the top right of thephotograph below, taken as we sat and talked with Somsri's family.

 
Margaret has written an account of their experience of seeing at first hand how the Foundation works. Although not strictly an account of village life, she wrote:

"We heard of the Anglo-Thai Foundation about 3 years ago on meeting Phra Maha Laow in Lucerne, Switzerland, where we live. Since then we have been sponsoring Somsrii Sunprakone from Ban Kruat (Jangwat Buriram). We have been corresponding with her on and off and, on our annual trip to Thailand in February this year, we decided to go and see her at her home, as she had requested in her first letter. We heard that Jean and Wilson Young were going there for the grant-giving at the time of our intended visit so we were delighted to join them.
Our feelings were rather mixed…..excitement at meeting the teenager to whom we had been writing and a certain trepidation at the idea, partly because we had heard that the people in that area did not speak Thai among themselves but Lao.
We met Jean and Wilson together with their two Thai friends at the hotel in Buriram in the morning and set off in the Toyota minivan. On our arrival at the school where the ceremony was to take place, we were surrounded by eager young children…they couldn't have been more curious and welcoming if we had arrived from outer space.! We were offered a very good meal, ….nice and spicy! And then the proceedings began.
There were various speeches by the headmaster, the monks and Jean (The latter being the best , we thought…….short and to the point!)……then each child was called out to receive his/her bank book, exercise books and writing materials. At the end all of us were presented with gifts ,A little embarrassing for Walter and me as we felt we had done little to deserve them.
After many good-byes we all, accompanied by Somsrii and her class teacher, climbed into the van to drive to Ban Kruat . We visited the school and then went to Somsrii's house. Her mother spread coloured straw mats on the ground and offered us drinks…Of course, being Thailand, various cousins and \other relatives gathered round and we got to know them all. As we made our farewells mother handed us some brightly coloured straw floor mats and a length of material….isn't it wonderful how those who possess very little are often the most generous?
What a wonderful day…..an opportunity to share a little in the everyday life of those delightful children…..pictures of laughing little boys, saffron robed monks, ,the excitement of the children, our sitting together with the Thai family…. .so many memories to carry through the years and to encourage us to continue to give to these grateful and happy people. It certainly left us with the knowledge that even with a small monthly donation one is able to bring hope of a brighter future to people who otherwise have very little to look forward to."
Margaret Steinmann, Lucerne, March 2004

 
If you would like to sponsor somebody, just as Margaret & Walter have done, there is no need to go to Lucerne in the hope of bumping into PM Laow. All you have to do is click the link to the sponsorship page.