Today...

All of a sudden I have had a leap in my understanding of the Thai language! The accent here is more like the textbook Thai that I learned and it is so much easier to understand! I feel so smart. ;) In Isaan, the accent was strong, and for many people Thai was used as their second language. So now that I understand and can be understood better, I am a lot more talkative.

Today, I went to a store front shop to buy a special pot to make sticky rice. I had a nice chat with the owner. She was kind of impressed that I was wanting to a sticky rice pot (not all foreigners like it). I told her that I used to live in Khon Kaen with the Isaan people and that my family was used to eating it a lot. Her and I were squatting Thai style pointing at different pots laid out on a rice mat. I asked her some questions about how exactly to make the sticky rice. Soak it for how long? Put the rice in here? The water in where? For how long? etc. Then she said, "Oh, your housekeeper should know how to do it. She can show you or make it for you." I told her I didn't have a housekeeper. She looked at me funny, because it's common for foreigners and Thais alike to have domestic help.

Then she called a young girl up from the back of the store and told me that this was her housekeeper/ helper. The girl lives with her and she helps her with the house, with the children, and at the store. This girl was very young. I was surprised that it wasn't her daughter. I introduced myself and then asked her lots of questions because I was just so curious. She answered that she was only 13, from the mountains and her parents have her come and stay in the city to work. She doesn't go to school so she can help her family make money by working (uniforms are expensive). She was a very sweet girl and seemed very comfortable and happy in her arrangement. The store owner told me she could get me a helper too, if I wanted. It would only be 3500 baht a month equivalent to about $115 USD.  (no, thanks.)

When I walked out of the store, I kept going over the conversation in my mind thinking that I must have misunderstood, but I knew I didn't. I was in shock at how quickly and easily she offered to get me a young girl! I just kept thinking of all the wrong people who would take advantage in that situation. It grieved me so deeply to understand that kind of thing happens often here. A parent allows their child to go with strangers for a job and then some never return again. And all for only $115. A poor family needing money and a greedy wicked person desiring money and all at the expense of a young girl (or boy). (sigh)

The rest of my day I was heavy-hearted. I can't think too long or too hard about what goes on with my Thai people, it can be incapacitating, a burden too big to bear.

Another amazing thing about God...not only does He know all things, but He has the emotional capacity to bear EVERY burden of EVERY person. (wow) And He has a plan!