MAE

It's pronounced Meeaahhhh and it means mother. She was the mother I lived with. She raises silkworms for the silk thread and sews her own clothing out of it. The day I got to Prang Ku she had just started with the process and she was feeding the worms. They were the size of a dinner plate. Sometimes I would come outside and she would be up in the trees picking leaves to feed her worms. Pi Ju, her daughter would tell me she was feeding her "pets". They would get fed every 2-3 days. By the time I had left that little dinner plate had grown into 5 large bamboo platters full of worms. She then bundled some twigs together so that the worms could start spinning the silk. It only takes about 2 days. This was such a cool process to watch.

When I got sick Mae looked after me. She would often come in at night and feel my forehead and arms to check the fever. She would shake her head in wonder as to why my temperature wouldn't go down. One day she made me a bed downstairs on the tile underneath the fan because it stays cool during the day. She then got a washcloth and soaked it in warm water and would wipe my brow and arms with it. She would also grill bananas over an open fire because she thought it would be good for my stomach. Those are only a few examples of how she took care of me.

She knew 2 words in English. Goodnight and goodbye. I didn't know much more Thai than that either. While verbal communication was difficult, living with her showed me that we don't need to know each others language to be able to show each other we care. She was the person I could talk to the least, but I felt I became the closest to her. I miss this woman.