Editor;
Re: A test in cultural geography? (PM Hillary Friday, 10 May 2013) – I have to agree from experience; it is very difficult for many Thais to live in the U.S. etc. even if there is a large Thai community. In my 33 yrs. of Thai experience I have never met one farang who has married a Thai and taken her to farangland, and stayed married even 2 yrs. – besides myself and wife, now married 13 yrs. with 6 spent in the U.S.
My wife never worked or knew anything of the bar business and spoke no English. While not a country girl I had to take her to the Thai Cultural Community Association in L.A. to assure her I could not legally beat, sell or enslave her. The large Thai community in Thai Town Hollywood looked to only take advantage of her, as they knew she was new to the U.S. She was shocked at how unfriendly her own people were to her.
We lived in a neighborhood of a number of schools. With her not speaking any English and her small size, I warned her about going out alone while I worked, as she would be stopped by school police for hooking school. I made laminated cards with my cell # and our address should she become lost if she did go out alone. She did only once.
I made sure she had access to anything Thai she needed, and took her to a Thai temple in Long Beach which had an older congregation of Thais who took care of the 12 monks, and befriended her. She spent her days with the Food Network and learned to cook everything farang.
For yrs. the only contact she had was me and when I was able to take her to see friends she knew from here. She wanted to work, it was difficult to make her understand that Thai businesses would not hire her because she was legal, and her lack of English eliminated everything else.
I took her to buy the supplies she wanted and she began to make and sell jewelry. Then as she began to know my co-workers she began catering Thai food for work functions. I am a retired LAX police traffic officer, and with 800 officers there was almost always work for her.
I took her to school for English as a second language 4 hrs. every day, then to the beach to study together for another 2 hrs. We saw some difficult times, even once when I was about to lose my job, she claimed she was staying with me even if we had to live in my truck, and her parents would add room to their house for us.
As time went on she learned her way around Thai Town, and found ways to send $$$ home cheaper than by my bank. It wasn’t much, 3,000 to 5,000 THB a month, but her parents didn’t really need it.
In the last 4yrs. before I was able to retire we came back twice a yr. for a month or 2 at a time. And just as I told her from the start, we had a plan, we stuck to it, and are now living the life I promised her. We are best friends and have never spent more than 3 days apart. But I do remember a few of her friends upgrading husbands once legal in the U.S. even to the extent they wanted me to introduce them to co-workers, which I refused to do. I wouldn’t be a part of them leading someone I know to ruin. So it does work, with the right person.
Dill Pickles
