The decision had been made and I was going for it, rubber was my out. I am a bit like a dog with a bone, I won't let go. The wife, Bell was a little less than enthusiastic about going all out in the rubber game. She was more than happy to buy the 15 Rai of Government land and plant rubber, but the idea of life in the village, had not filled her with joy . She had many valid points on her side, she was not a village girl, knew nothing about rubber, nor did her family. Rubber had only been recently introduced to this area and no one was sure if it would really be viable. I had a secure job, we had a nice car and lived in a nice house. Life for a Thai girl in Australia was good. She had Thai friends to talk to and my sisters treated her as a sister, taking her shopping and eating out. It was all fun from her side and she wanted children. In her mind the village would not be the place for babies. Australia had good schools, medical etc. I on the other hand had spent many years as a child growing up in rural Canada and felt that life in a jungle village would be magical compared to life in a city or worse suburbia. The decider was work, I said when we have a baby it will cost and she will have to work. As most of the Thai girls in Geelong work part time in Thai restaurants and have full time jobs in the chicken or fish factory. No way my wife was going to work gutting fish or killing chickens. A Buddha monk had told in when she was 16 teen. She would marry a man from far away who wore a uniform and she would live a easy life. She was sold, rubber would save her from 20 years of dead chickens.
A family conference was called, we or wife explained that we were going to try and make the big switch from visiting to living. Mother in-law was over the moon at the though her only daughter was coming home to stay. The Father in-law who by the way is employed by the Government as a county coroner [ not medical examiner ] was just happy that I said we would take over the payments on the pickup truck, as we would need to use it all the time. Now I was committed, it would be all or nothing. It was a win or die trying gamble and if you are afraid to die then you are afraid to live.