But five years ago, after going through days with only soy sauce to eat, she left her village for a better job in the city. Pompen and Sompyet followed their older sister the next year Ohon- Shee came to Bangkok, and so did Somudi last year. The three sisters got a monthly pay of 900 bahts on their first jobs at a cheap restaurant. Unable to send any allowance to their family in the village on that income, they chose to go on the streets. Now they earn an monthly average of 3,000 bahts, sometimes getting as much as 5,000 c a substantial amount considering Sompyet, a construc- tion worker, gets only 1,700.
Prostitution is the only way for the elementary graduates to get as much as a college graduate.
Their mother came to visit her children the day I visited Ohon-Shee. With the draught and the floods, we could barely crop from half of our planting and we are even buying rice for our own meals. Our buffalo broke his leg in April and we ran into a 5,000-baht debt. Our old house is falling down because of termite, we've got to built a new one. The supper was ready.