Well, it has been a bizarre few days. Beginning last Monday, when my Monday night tutoring student (60 plus years old) told me her internationally educated son is marrying a rice farmer's daughter because she is pregnant (these are her words.) Our tutoring session turned into a long winded tearful conversation about growing up and looking for approval from parents, and trying to give approval to offspring. This hit close to home with both of us, and I saw her off on Friday as she headed to the rice village for the ceremony, at the end of which, the young woman will be moving in with her, probably for the rest of her life.
Thursday I got a call from Rin while I was at school telling me our friend had given birth to a little baby daughter, and we spent that night trecking to Chinatown to see the new baby in all her glory.
Saturday morning our phones were acting up and we somehow missed a call from Rin's cousin which was urgent. (This guy never calls.) Bluntly, he came out and said that Rin's younger cousin who was probably my first friend in Bangkok and who spent many train trips with me going back and forth to Chumphon, met my friends from the states and spent a night with them partying in a big suite at a posh hotel on the river, sleeping on couch in our old apartment and making me feel at home when I was at Rin's (he is from the same village) had been shot and stabbed, and was now very much no longer alive. Twenty years old. I still don't really believe it, and either does Rin. We spent yesterday planning on how we were going to go down there with all the hectic things going on here, ie, Mother's Day, making a lot of work at school as we prepare the kids for a show on Thursday. We decided Rin would go on his own, which is hard, not having spent a night apart in almost two years. He called me last night telling me his bus was delayed because another bus going to Chumphon had been in an accident and lots of people died. Just what you want to tell a worried girlfriend. Last night before we left, we were inches away from two colliding cars at an intersection because of careless old ladies.
And so now, Rin is on his way back on an overnight bus, and we will go down together in November to take part in the 100 day ceremony (Thai funerals last 7 days, on the last of which the body is creamated, and then 100 days after the death there is another ceremony.) It is all a lot to take in right now. I don't know a lot about what happened. Apparently Aig (Rin's cousin who passed away) was at a concert at the beach, and his friend got into a discussion with someone else, and Aig hopped on a motorbike to help his friend get away, as well as another friend, and all three were shot, Aig was the only one who died, and he had nothing to do with it. To add to the mess, Aig was planning on getting married, as his girlfriend lives with his family, and is pregnant.
Horror. The story was in all the Thai newspapers, but it has yet to reach English ones. I will post if I see anything.
Rin and Aig at a hotel visiting some of my friends from the states. I posed this photo on this blog in March, 2005, right after we moved to Bangkok.
Thursday I got a call from Rin while I was at school telling me our friend had given birth to a little baby daughter, and we spent that night trecking to Chinatown to see the new baby in all her glory.
Saturday morning our phones were acting up and we somehow missed a call from Rin's cousin which was urgent. (This guy never calls.) Bluntly, he came out and said that Rin's younger cousin who was probably my first friend in Bangkok and who spent many train trips with me going back and forth to Chumphon, met my friends from the states and spent a night with them partying in a big suite at a posh hotel on the river, sleeping on couch in our old apartment and making me feel at home when I was at Rin's (he is from the same village) had been shot and stabbed, and was now very much no longer alive. Twenty years old. I still don't really believe it, and either does Rin. We spent yesterday planning on how we were going to go down there with all the hectic things going on here, ie, Mother's Day, making a lot of work at school as we prepare the kids for a show on Thursday. We decided Rin would go on his own, which is hard, not having spent a night apart in almost two years. He called me last night telling me his bus was delayed because another bus going to Chumphon had been in an accident and lots of people died. Just what you want to tell a worried girlfriend. Last night before we left, we were inches away from two colliding cars at an intersection because of careless old ladies.
And so now, Rin is on his way back on an overnight bus, and we will go down together in November to take part in the 100 day ceremony (Thai funerals last 7 days, on the last of which the body is creamated, and then 100 days after the death there is another ceremony.) It is all a lot to take in right now. I don't know a lot about what happened. Apparently Aig (Rin's cousin who passed away) was at a concert at the beach, and his friend got into a discussion with someone else, and Aig hopped on a motorbike to help his friend get away, as well as another friend, and all three were shot, Aig was the only one who died, and he had nothing to do with it. To add to the mess, Aig was planning on getting married, as his girlfriend lives with his family, and is pregnant.
Horror. The story was in all the Thai newspapers, but it has yet to reach English ones. I will post if I see anything.
Rin and Aig at a hotel visiting some of my friends from the states. I posed this photo on this blog in March, 2005, right after we moved to Bangkok.
posted by isobella at 9:06 PM
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