I get on OK with my Thai mother in law, and I think I am the only ‘farang’ in Thailand I know that does. We cannot communicate very well.
Communicating with My Thai Mother in Law
My Thai language skills are not good enough to compensate for the differences between her deep North Eastern Thai dialect and the main stream Thai vocabulary and syntax which I have picked up during my time in Thailand. This is not a problem because if I am with her my wife is almost always present, and she can translate my mother in law’s Thai into something very close to English. The one time I was left alone with my mother in law for any period of time, during a long wait outside the delivery room, other Thai people had to translate my clumsy attempts at Thai into something my mother in law could understand. I could not communicate with my mother in law but at least the other people in the waiting room knew what I was trying to say, which is something of a success.
Anyway, I digress, back to the mother in law’s visit.
Mother in Law Helps with the Newborn Baby
She came to stay because our first child had just been born, of which I shall talk more later.
I have to say I was a little reluctant to agree with this, until my wife worried me with talk of my needing to wash nappies for month until she got back on her feet. That sounded just bad enough to make a month long visit my mother in law the lesser of two consider evils. As it turned out she got back on her feet in about four days which is about the time she got home from the hospital (she had refused to leave the private room in the hospital for several days after it was medically necessary for her to be there) and this talk of my dealing with baby poo solo for weeks on end had simply been a very effective scare story.
Mother in Law Cooks Up a Tasty Treat
Anyway, my mother in law has just arrived in our bungalow and is making her self at home. We do not yet have a bed for but she is not fazed, and immediately start decanting her stuff. She was then straight into kitchen and we heard the sound of frying. Nothing unusual abut that except we did not have any ingredients for a meal of any description (we have been away for 8 days). I was feeling a peckish and looking for an excuse to crack the large and very chilly beers in fridge so her cooking away seemed no bad thing.
Deep Fried Whole Frogs
As it turns her frying activities had not resulted in anything I would remotely consider eating. And above is a picture of what she had cooked: dried frogs and fish deep fried. Yum Yum indeed. Didn’t try them but I will have plenty of opportunity as my mother in law has brought with her a whole carrier bag of these delicacies. A taste of home I guess. I wonder what else she has in large bag.
