a knock at the door

There's a young migrant kid who works in a cafe we frequent, waiting tables. They seem so grown up even though they're only a child, it seems more like they're a childish adult, than the other way around, as though their personality has already reached it's maturity. Yesterday morning Danielle offered the Thai owners to teach him english for free. This can sometimes be a sore point for employers we've read, but this morning as we were paying for breakfast they excitedly told us the kid wants to do it and where would be the best place to hold the tutorials?Danielle decided our old guest house was the closest location, so they agreed on that and then we went to ask permission of the guest house manager. 

When the manager saw us, he told us he'd not slept the night before because he was worrying about our motorcycle and that he had sent a tuk tuk driver around to check that it was locked properly, as many things go missing around there. So it was him! We'd thought it was the guy who'd rented it to us who had come to check up on us. He would have paid the tuktuk driver to do it too, which was really nice of him but a little strange too. He said we didn't even have to ask about holding the tutoring sessions there. So it's sorted. 

We were supposed to go swimming but the day was overcast, which we didn't mind, it was a nice change. The temperature only drops to one that is more bearable anyway. We got a burger and spicey thai fries from Daves for lunch, the fries are cooked with chillis and onion, they were ok, and the burger was kind of like a giant meatball in a bun. We slept for a lot of the afternoon. Abacus has been wearing us out still, even though she somewhat better at sleeping than earlier on, she still wakes up really early, and there are still two feeds in the night. We haven't slept properly in 8 months. 

Aferwards, we went on a long walk along the highway and out into the Mae Sot suburbs. The entrance to the suburban street was flanked first by cheap accomodation and then the familiar makeshift wooden shacks with rusted roofs (weird, I thought rooves was a word, like hooves). The shacks were haphazardly scattered over greens grass amongst trees, through which a creek ran. And amongst the fallen tree branches was rubbish that stray dogs picked at, while a woman sat out on her porch, an old woman, cooking something over an open fire, there was something strangey appalachian about the whole scene. The shacks gave way first to abandoned housing and then to the well kept properties of the middle classes. Around the corner there were men working out. There was out door gym equipment, which was housed last time danielle was out this way, but now the housing had gone, leaving the contents exposed, not that people weren't using it, they were doing exercises using their vehicles and a low fence or just running, as though the area itself embodied some power and the gym was merely a shrine to its energy. Our business in the suburbs didn't last long but it was getting late so we walked all the way out to the other end of town for dinner. On the way to the suburbs we'd seen a neglected puppy, shaking feebly by itself, while it's healthy siblings played near their mother. So on the way back Danielle wanted to find it, to maybe help it, but when we got near, the "protective" mother wouldn't let us near it, so we had to abandon any idea of intervention.

Along the way, we ran into a whole lot of people at various points who we'd gotten to know during our short stay in Mae Sot, probably more people than I would run into in Wellington, after living there 4 years. By the time we got home, we'd been out for four hours, of which Abacus had slept about 2. She's been sleeping in our bed lately, as it's easier to keep her asleep, but we trialed her cot again. Soon after we'd gone to sleep, there was a knock at the door, I opened it to an unshaven backpacker who was looking for the reception. Abacus however, woke up after two hours of sleeping, at 3 in the morning, so we decided we would let her cry, as all she wants is to suck on her dummy - which puts her to sleep - which causes her to drop the dummy - which wakes her up. She cried for ages, but we were confident - as everyone incorrectly refers to her as a quiet baby - that no one would be able to hear her, but then came a loud knock on the door. After the owner had told us about the scooter, and closing the door too hard the night before, we really didn't want to be told off about our crying baby, so we ignored the knock and ceded to abacus demands, putting her in bed with us, for one of the worst nights sleeps we'd had in a long time. The next morning though, when i went out, I saw a tent pitched right outside our door, no doubt the backpacker from the night before, and as the knock had been so similar to the one earlier in the night, I figured it was him who had knocked to complain - which was pretty annoying - I wished I had answered the door, what could have happened ? Would he have liked to tell Abacus not to cry ?