“On that day there were three spirits that we made offerings to,” said Palan, my next-door neighbor. The ceremony was done to ask the spirits to bless their harvest for the coming year and protect the workers from misfortune.
My interview was happening in the midst of shucking the brittle shells off tamarinds. Crack. Crunch. Thud. Palan and three other ladies were sitting around a mound of makhaams (tamarinds) as I asked questions about the ceremony I videotaped last year.
On the way home from dropping Gwen (kid #3) off at Thai school this morning, I saw Grandma Taan sitting in her yard eating breakfast.
“Where did you come from?” she asked.
“I dropped off Gwen at school,” I answered.
“Have you eaten?” she asked.
“Not yet,” I said.
Our conversation centered around small talk for five minutes more.
I end the conversation with, “I’m going home to eat.”
I’m currently learning the flow of thought of a ghost story, a spirit possession story, and an account on stashing wealth.
One pattern that continues to be apparent is introducing the main thought at the beginning of a story and then ending the story with the same main thought. For example, the account on stashing wealth was started off by saying, “There wasn’t any banks to make deposits in. So my great-grandparents hid the money in the ground.” Then he fills in the detail of the stories and then concludes by stating, “My elders hid the money, because there were no banks.”