During the tour of Gai's water damaged house discussion turned to government help. Such conversations are always fraught with the possibility of misunderstanding. Max speaks about as much English and I do Thai. Gai speaks more English but she's like Chihuahua with a pep pill and all these semi understandable words come pouring out so that I'm usually lost in the wake. Anyway, I came away with the understanding that each family would get 2000B, ca. $60. (A little PS to this paragraph; Last night Max said she was going to get eggs, a fact for which I was happy because she makes the world's best omelette's, and I mentioned cost. "No" she said "free." Turns out, I think, that they were a form of flood relief...30 eggs.)
Max and Gai were talking about repaying me for any help I gave. When I explained that, no, it's gift not a loan and that's it's from friends and my church in America who heard about the flood, they both had the same instantaneous reaction; they both burst into tears. The worry, stress and pressure of trying to recover is so great that this good news overwhelmed them. They also mentioned all the place to which they turned for help to no avail.
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