Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Working With Child

Saw something yesterday I thought would be worth mentioning when I was leaving the slum. I decided to go to a nearby mall to let an hour pass before trying to get a taxi. To get to the mall I took motorcycle taxi, the motorbike driver was a women (rare) what was stranger and something I had never seen before was that she worked with her young son maybe 4 years old. When we were about to leave the young boy came over and jumped on to the front of the motorbike after his mother called to him. I asked her if he was her son and she said yes. I guess what happens is because she does not have any kind of child care she takes her son to work. He crunches down in the front of the motorbike without a helmet holding onto the steering wheel. It was almost like a baby kangaroo in his pouch. It must be quite a thing to do this on a daily basis, to have your child on your bike as your weaving through the pollution and the cars of a Bangkok traffic jam. I must try to get a portrait of the 2 before I leave.

When I heard a sex tourist farang tonight bitching about the Thai motorcycle taxi drivers, I thought about this woman and her child. The woman did not talk much and  she seemed very depressed, her life must be very diffiuclt, what future will her son have?