I mentioned in yesterdays post about the illegal cock fight in the village and that there were devastating consequences when the police broke it up and all the participants scattered into the bush to evade capture. Well one man it seems aged in is fifties decided the river was the best option.
He wasn’t seen for two days after that and his family for the first 24 hours assumed he was still hiding from the police. After two days only about 50 metres from my house his body was found floating in the river by some neighbours.
This necessitated a third trip in as many days by the local police (10kms away) and the story ripped through the village in just minutes. It was so sad watching the mans wife and kids turn up about one hour later just after the body had left and to be told that they needed to go to the local morgue to identify him.
I asked someone where the ambulance was and they looked at me a little funny and said that he is dead, why would we need an ambulance? Stupid western logic coming though there I guess! What happened next did shock me though.
The police car left and was driving past my house when the person I had just asked where the ambulance was said “look, there is the body” and sure enough in the back of the ute they had placed the deceased man and not bothered to wrap it up or anything. Thank fully all I could see was his arm protruding and I heard Ariya exclaim “look daddy, an arm!”
The look on my face caused an enormous outburst of fits of laughter by the locals who thought it so curious that I was shocked by the site I had just witnessed.
This police car had to drive through about 4 villages and then the main street of town en-route to the morgue with the body if full view of anyone who dared look.
Although the man did not live in the village he came from a neighbouring one and was well known here.
Yesterday was a productive day. I managed half an internet connection from home for a few hours so did some work from about 6am – 8am before brother in law Somboon turned up with his tools so that we could continue hanging blinds. By 2pm and a quick break for lunch we had managed to do half of them and decided that was enough as the kids were going to sleep and the electric drill boring through plaster and brick is not really conducive to sleep. After helping Seerung clean the rooms that we had just trashed I took the kids down stairs to play while I cooked spare ribs.
I had bought them 2 days ago while in Ubon, and had marinating in the fridge since then. It was rather relaxing sitting over my little coal bbq at the end of the day when the village comes alive with people returning from the farm and kids coming back via bus from neighbouring schools.
Moo Yung (Pork on coals)
They tasted pretty fantastic as well! The crowd in the back ground include Seerung and her sisters looking at the catch of fish her uncle across the road had just brought home. We had them for dinner with the ribs.