At three pm, Soom and Lek left Craig to his beer and his writing and took the food to Lek’s mother’s to start the serious work of preparing for the party, even if it was only a small one. They stored the meat, fish and fowl in the fridge and began cleaning; peeling and chopping herbs and vegetables to the sound of Thai popular music and occasional glasses of lao khao for Lek, as the other two never touched the hard liquor.
The sound of music, laughter and the pounding of pestles in mortars was coming from nearly every house in the village as sons and daughters who worked away arrived home to wish their mothers a happy day.
Mothers’ Day was one of the biggest non-religious Thai national celebrations.
However, preparing for a party was when women could let their hair down in almost exclus
