It’s been about a week since I first arrived at this Thai village outside of the main city core of Chiang Mai.
I can tell you, its definitely NOT what I expected a Thai village to be like.
When we were told we were going to live in the rice fields, I pictured huts with no running water and not much electricity.
The reality is that we have running water. Lots of it. And electricity. We even have a tv in the house we’re staying in. And the 7eleven is a 10minute walk away.
Yes. There are rice fields.
And no one really speaks English. There are a lot of hand gestures and by the end of this I think I’ll be really good at charades.
But what I really want to share is that I’ve noticed there are some people missing here. Demographics missing. There’s not a lot of teenagers. There’s not a lot of people my age, twenty-somethings, or thirty year olds. There’s some children. And a lot of older people. My host mom and dad are probably in their 50’s. And the people around the village are all around that age. So where are the missing people?
And I’ve also noticed that its women that are missing here.
I don’t know. I don’t speak Thai and I can’t ask them. Some of my speculations…
Some of them probably have gone to university. Some of the richer people in the village that are able to afford to send their kids to school do so.
Some of them probably moved out of the village and into the city where there are more opportunities.
And a sad possibility is that some of the women are working in the city as prostitutes. Human trafficked to bring money back to their family.
I don’t know. I’ve never been able to really ask anyone here. These are just speculations but I think there is some truth to it.
