Singing for Your Supper

When my friend Gail was here we went ‘grocery shopping’. This involved the pair of us hopping onto my motorbike and riding through the windy roads to the market- which is wooden tables set up under a tarp, the center full of spices and sauces all carefully packaged in plastic bags filled with air and tied tightly with an elastic band. There are crates of eggs and buckets full of eels swimming around in water, waiting to be bought. We bought our goods there,but decided to buy the eggs closer to home (so they wouldn’t bump up against the other items we had purchased and crack open on the ride). Pulling into a shop, I asked the old man at the counter (who looked delightedly amused to see two faraung girls walk in) “Khun me khai mai kha?” (do you have eggs, no?). Looking unsure, he asked me again what I was looking for. I repeated my question again, confident in my word choice as I have long known the word for egg. Again, he looked confused. Not sure if it was my accent that was confusing him or if this was a Thai versus Northern Thai incident, I hesitated, unsure as to how to proceed. Apparently Gail did. She marched forward and said “Egg!” and then continued to perform the most remarkable chicken impersonation, complete with chicken sounds, I have ever witnessed. The old man and I nearly fell over laughing. He called for his daughter and wife to come watch the performance. Gail obliged with a second showing. Still laughing, he told us he didn’t have eggs there but the store down the road on the right did. We thanked him and turned towards the motorbike. I told Gail I was impressed with her ingenuity and determination to get us eggs. Strapping on her helmet she said “Sometimes D you just have to do what you have to do.”

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you do.
Attitude determines how well you do it.”
~Lou Holtz

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