This is a Thailand land deed. I will provide a cliff notes version: if the Thai emblem at the top of the document is transparent, you have a lower title, followed by the emblem being colored in green which is a higher title than the transparent one. The highest title you can have is stamped in red as shown above and is called a Chanote. Of course you could suss things out in the open streetfight of Por Kor, non titles, squatter’s rights, informal family transfers and the like but the Thais not likey Cheapskate Charlie too much. Just know that if you seperate she will get everything.
I planned on taking a break for the weekend but I actually do have business I wanted to attend to here in Isaan. We have land in my husband’s name which I hadn’t laid eyes on in 10 years. It’s currently a rice paddy and all I remembered was that the distinctive stand of palm trees in the middle at least set it apart from the surrounding farmland. It looks the exact same as it did 10 years ago:
Build it and they will come?
The rice is almost ready for harvest, which happens in November:
The man who lived across the way is selling some nearby land which mostly comprises a bog as pictured, for 100,000 baht or around $3000 USD. If you are not a Thai national, however, there’s a lot of legal hurdles to cross to actually own land here. I have no personal experience with that:
“This is a time in which things are moving in very fast time for me.” I explained to my daughter Jasmine some days ago. “All that is hidden will be revealed.”
“Do you think you’re going to have a problem with the whole brothers thing?” Jasmine asked me.
I sighed. “I don’t know. But you know who doesn’t need to be read in on the whole story? The Sukwan family on the Isaan land. Here is what they saw through my facebook posts in 2018. Oh no! Our nephew/cousin/adopted son Oh has tragically died in a motorbike accident in Phuket, leaving behind his American wife and five year old daughter. A few short months later what were my facebook posts about? Oh my. Apparently the farang widow is now with our nephew/cousin Ka, who is Oh’s brother. I could try to explain but I’m not. We’re well past that. Either they’re okay with it, or not. It will probably be varying levels of acceptance.”
“Well good luck I guess.”
“I keep on telling Eliza that I wish I was bored and doing homework!” Ahh to be a kid again.
Things are good here. Mother Phorkwang, which was Oh’s adoptive mother, has graciously offered us a place to stay and has been providing us with food. Uncle Santichai Sukwan has loaned us a small motorbike, which is more than we have in Phuket right now! He’s interested in buying our land as he owns plots on both sides and wants to build something on it. I don’t want to sell the land nor does Ka, but building anything on it might be a bridge too far in this week.
The shop owners remember me and always ask where my daughter is. This is a type of Thai area where you might not lay eyes on a white person for months. Oddly they treat Ka seamlessly, like he’s just the Thai husband who married the rumored American woman and had a child with her, as though my first husband didn’t exist at all. I’m not quite sure how I feel about that.
I do know that the experience of being forcibly seperated from my husband with no communication and the disappearance of Sprout has cemented something in my thinking. I replayed every scenario imagineable that night as my husband did on the other side of the border. I didn’t know if I’d ever see him again. People don’t come back after they die. There’s always hope when they are alive but injured for recovery, but the sums of money being spent on vaccine injury are almost entirely being paid by the families of the victims.
When hopes for tomorrow turn into harsh lamentations about what you did wrong yesterday, everything changes. There will be no complying with this ridiculous Satanic Covid vaccine jab mandate. I don’t want to be seeing my husband die in front of me. I don’t want to be damning to Hell some panel physician for their compliance with this evil system. I don’t want monetary compensation over an urn filled with ashes that will never sleep with me again. If Ka dies of something I need to be able to take it up with God directly.
I understand that some people get placebos and that there are various ways to maybe mitigate the damage. But why would I put my husband in jab roulette over some bureaucratic midwit’s decree? They are worried about their life and their family and their money. I need to do likewise with my own.
Yesterday we were looking for a print shop in Thad Phanom to put up posters of Sprout the cat. Many people have offered their assistance, but so far we haven’t found him. Wat Thad Phanom had some sort of festival going on. Some people were offering to take pictures for 100 baht of us, which is about $3. At first I declined as the lighting was very harsh in the late afternoon sun. But I thought about it as I went around and remembered my father’s lamentation: “Take lots of pictures. That’s all you’ll have when they’re gone.”
I approached a woman and asked her to take a picture of me and my husband together. I was embarrassed because my shorts level was between cheeky and provacative which is not appropriare for a Buddhist Wat. I thought she’d just take a picture on my phone of us or something. Instead she took a professional photo which corrected for the harsh lighting and printed out an 8 by 11 of it. This was all for $3. It’s probably the best picture of me and my husband that I have:
Cherish and protect what you have. It’s a sacred duty. Round two coming up…
The way you respond to challenges encourages me. I’m looking for your focus and patience to reward you in ways better than you can imagine. This post reminds me of the 5th chapter of the book of James: “See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm.”
that’s a very lovely photo of you & your husband & sprout’s portrait… have spent a lot of time with photo albums after every loss