A Walk Through 70 Rai

In some ways our neighborhood in Klong Toey reminds me of a college town, or a large university campus. Every house is distinct, but the few commonalities unite the neighbors. The levels of poverty are vast and hard to distinguish--

Going to the bridge on the way to the bus stop. 

Yaaj Sateem just rebuilt her entire second floor--it's even got siding. Phaa Oot has 2 flat screen TVs in one room, and a TV in every other room of the house. Several neighbors have a computer with internet. Cell phones are no status symbol, as everyone has one--it just may be recycled, a hand me down, or new. Some people--most I think, have at least one motocy, but some have a car too. Over in Lok 1, two new homes were built, and just next door to one is a shack, falling apart. 

On the walk home through Lok 3. 

This was taken about 6 months ago--now it is completely covered in trash. This water sits underneath all of the homes here in Lok 1, 2, and 3. 

Why is it like a campus? The furniture, little there is, all mismatched, a lot is broken, but they still use it. Signs from political campaigns in June or from a store advertisement serve as awnings over the street or as a nice rain-shield to place on a motocy. The street littered with trash in some places looks like the remains from a college party the night before. The people, the men, walking around shirtless with their tattoos, smoking cigarettes or a joint, drinking an energy drink or two in the morning... some going to work, some hanging around doing nothing. Urinating on the side of the street is commonplace. Others, especially the kids, walk the soi, half dressed--and the babies may just be naked. People are always eating and trying to sell food--or lottery tickets. 

Some homes in Lok 3. 

The people don't go to "class" (unless still in school) but many have 2 or 3 jobs, and the ones who have kids either stay at home, or leave the kids with grandma or an aunt or uncle. The kids find more peace spending the day on the street, hanging out at a corner store, or playing games on the computer at a cyber cafe. They often run up and down the street, eating constantly, buying snacks the neighbors sell out of the their front door.

Everyone sells food, lottery tickets, clothes... something! Laundry is always  hanging outside, and trash and broken  pieces of anything litter the ground. 

Cats and dogs, all stray and mangy, sit in the sois, leaving their excrement as obstacles for pedestrians to overstep, or they loiter, waiting for some meritorious person to feed them--which any good Buddhist would do. (I just wish I had a shotgun some nights when they are in heat sounding like a dying baby).


Music and movies blare from the house next door every evening around 5:00--that's usually music for a few hours until they put in a movie. A lot of the neighbors are young--and most of the women are grandmothers at age 50 (or less). 


We had three French guys visit last week to play some music for the kids in our neighborhood--they have been traveling around Asia since August, playing music for kids in schools and neighborhoods--guitar, clarinet, and a sweet mobile piano. Jean, Mathieu, and Etienne (blog: www.bercemonde.com). We went to get a smoothie to share before they left and Mathieu asked me what the problem is here--what is the biggest cause of this poverty? 


In this neighborhood? 


It's hard to say what the poverty is here, in terms of some concrete reality, or lack. Maybe for some it's money--yes, for most. 
For a lot of the residents? It's a community. It's home. You don't leave your community easily--especially in a city of 10 million people. You have family, friends, routine, culture, jobs, a home... 

Pii Tiim and her grandson, Ket in their  home by the railroad tracks. 

I think, it's about the kind of education--and not the kind you get in schools, but by experiences in life. The kids who are living in a split home, seeing their parents take amphetamines and energy drinks, sniff glue, sleep around... this is what they learn. Other kids in the neighborhood see some good examples--one of our friends has a university level education and she and her husband both work. Truth is, a lot of people in this city are poor--for Thais, it is expensive to live in Bangkok. With an average income of 300 baht a day, you can't afford a lot. 


Drugs, teenage pregnancy, education... you could put a lot of words on it--but it's not just one thing. Nor does it have to be. So they are poor-er than me in the US. They are poor-er than a lot of people in the world... But really? It's not the poverty that's so bad. You live here and it's what you know... There are a lot of worse problems in life than poverty--it's just that being poor brings you closer to those problems. 

Some of the boys playing on the tracks.