Sunday, July 3, 2011

almostfearless.com

almostfearless.com

Did I Mention? Thais Love My Son

Posted: 02 Jul 2011 09:58 AM PDT

Weekly photo: Where is Cole?

Current Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand (Warorot Market)

I wish this was a better photo, but I wanted to capture a piece of our life that fascinates me. This is a typical shop in the local market in Chiang Mai, which has hundreds of little vendors like this, no bigger than a garage, often at the end of some unmarked alley, filled from floor to ceiling with a single product — in this case, plastic buckets, plates and cups with a smattering of steel bowls.  When you want linens, you go to the linen shop.  When you want a box, you go to the box shop.  And when you want a plastic bucket, you come here.  The fascinating part is the fact that within 10 seconds, the shop worker had taken Cole away from me, through some combination of smiles, miming and force of will.  I’m used to it by now, in a way, this custom of sharing my child with strangers, a ritual that we repeat in every shop, restaurant, market and cafe.  As we dig through hundreds of plastic options, they come back to check on us, we think — only to ask, in very carefully pronounced English, “What… is… his… name?”

 

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