I was at dinner with my cousins and their kids last night.
Kids are age 19 and age 15.
Although the oldest has finished high school and the younger is still attending, their parents do not earn enough to send them on to college.
College graduates by the way, only earn a starting wage of 15,000 thb a month, which equates to years and years and years before the tuition is ever paid back.
There are no jobs, so those lucky enough to attend college have to move away to find a job and are lucky to visit home once a year.
As in many villages across rural Isaan, these kids we have no future as we know it.
We being, me, married to an American with a high income for this area.
Even with a skill or a trade, jobs are extremely competitive, as everyone else the last 50 years didn’t go to college either and works doing jobs that do not require an education.
Every child, no matter what age, has things they want, things that cost money.
We are not talking about basic necessities here, we are talking about things needed in day to day life such as toiletries.
My husband was shown a video of the 15 year old working her tail off loading heavy sugarcane with her father.
He asked, how much do you pay her?
The answer from her mother was that she gets food to eat.
And that is exactly what life comes down to here in rural Isaan.
A place to sleep and food to eat.
I am lucky I have a loving and willing husband willing to help out.
But I know, as I was once like these 2 girls, growing up with nothing and looking at a future of extreme poverty and struggle.
My husband and I were at the house, when the younger girl asked her mother for money for skin cream, since she was out in the hot sun all day loading sugarcane.
The mother did not have money for this and my husband reached into his pocket to give her a couple hundred baht.
It is a very small gesture, but an important one.
We must try to do what we can within our means to help out.
It is very sad, but that is the reality for most of the families that live here.
It hits close to home when it is your own family.