Crazy Farang! by Harry Potter
Prin didn't want to go into the cave. Everyone knows that caves are the hang out of especially nasty ghosts and devils. But the strange farang wanted to look at the drawings on the wall and the Tambon head had appointed Prin to be his guide.
Prin clutched the talisman around his neck tightly, before wai-ing to the Buddha at the entrance.
It was very cold in the cave and the shadows were very scary. Of course Prin was used to house ghosts - but house ghosts were friendly ghosts of the ancestors. He knew for a fact that the ghost of his grandfather lived in the upright column on the SE corner of his home - and this had brought much protection to the family.
The farang laughed at Prin when Prin told him about ghosts - why were these farang so ignorant?
Phra Sirisawatsi had told him that farang would never understand important things because they only understood things with their heads and everything had to have 'facts', which meant they could never see or understand the important things of the soul or of the heart.
This worried Prin because Prin had a very nice farang friend called Mike but Mike too always seemed to misunderstand about friendship and love and family. He kept telling Prin that he should go back to school so that he could have a better life. But what could be better for Prin? He had a big family - grandmother, mother, father, three sisters and two older brothers and a younger brother as well as his grandfathers ghost. He had friends in the village, he would soon be monked to make merit for his mother and he had a sexy farang lover - one who he liked very much.
If he went to school, his farang said, he could get a job as a waiter or work in a 7eleven, and then he wouldn't have to work in the bars in Pattaya in the tourist months. But Prin didn't want to spend 12 hours a day in a 7eleven, or bringing food to sour farang who always complained. He was happy as he was. He spent half the year working with his father and two brothers and the other half working in Pattaya to earn money to help his mother and pay for his youngest brother and sister to go to school. And anyway his two best friends worked in the bar with him and they had good times together.
'Ah, but' Mike always said, 'think about tomorrow'. Crazy farang - how can you think about tomorrow. Where is tommorrow? What shape is it? What does it taste or smell like? Maybe it will never happen.
Also farang always say 'I love you' - even the customers in the bar who only wanted to have sex with him for half an hour say 'I love you'. What is love, is it B1000? Prin didn't think farang knew what love means, and always they ask him to say he loves them. But for Prin and Thai people love is not just something you say. It is something you feel, it is in your heart and your spirit - it is not in your mouth. Even Mike always asks 'do you love me?' Why couldn't he know? - Prin did love Mike, but if Mike couldn't feel the love what good did it do for Prin to say it? Always they want words. Always they think about things - perhaps they read too many books and forget to listen to their heart and spirit.
When Prin left the cave he felt relieved. The farang had shown no respect to the ghosts and Prin knew that it was only because he had the talisman blessed for him by the monks that something bad hadn't happened.
Next week Prin was going back to Pattaya. He would meet Mike and stay with him for two weeks and then he would work in the bars for a few months. Mike hated him working in the bars, he even sent Prin money so that he wouldn't have to work in them. Mike always said 'if you love me you wouldn't want to work in the bar and be offed by customer'.... he thinks too much! When Prin is with Mike he makes love, when he is with customers he has sex. Why can't farang know this? Why can't Mike feel this?
Ah well, Prin knew he would never understand farang ways, he would just have to accept that they didn't know how to feel, maybe because they eat too many potatoes. Prin laughed to himself, now he was becoming like a farang and thinking too much too.
Just then he saw his friend Gun, chasing a dog away from his chickens. He laughed and called out to Gun, and leaving the farang cave man he ran, jumped the stream and he and Gun laughed together. The sun shone, the mangoes were ripe, he could smell his mothers cooking and see his little brother playing hide and seek. Think about tomorrow? Crazy farangs! Prin's heart was too full of today to think about anything - he felt happy. His spirit was Thai.
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