Local ingenuity
 

Local ingenuity
Writer: YVONNE BOHWONGPRASERT
Bangkok Post


I caught this man, Chai, and his toothless grin on camera while he was weaving strips of bamboo trying to make a chicken coop.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/media/con...0806/57295.jpg

The amiable 75-year-old grandpa uses his free time, after having tended his vegetable garden, to create bamboo contraptions of various shapes and sizes. Now less mobile, he tasks his neighbour to sell the products he makes at tourist spots in Muang district of Nakhon Nayok. He uses the income thus generated to support his grand daughter who lost her father a couple of years ago.

Chai is a resident of Hubmoey, a village of 200 people, mostly children and the elderly. He chose bamboo because of its natural elegance, easy availability and malleability.

When asked to describe what he thought was the most challenging part of weaving bamboo products, he gazed towards a clump of bamboo trees near his house and said: "When the bamboo stalk is cut the strips are razor-sharp and people like myself have to be extra careful to make sure we don't get hurt in the process."

Some people never retire, good on him for still working.