This is my life story.

I am from Sisuket, near the Cambodian border. This is in the northeast part of Thailand, known as the Isaan region. The area has many plateaus and mountains. There are twenty provinces where people speak the Isaan language

I was born into a poor family. I had two brothers and two sisters.

My mother got married to my father when she was 14 years old and dad was 19.

This marriage happened because grandma thought my father was a good man and could make her daughter happy. My mother obeyed.

She became a very good mother. She took good care of her babies and was the leader of our family. But her life was very hard. She worked like a man. I never saw her happy.

Everyday we had to find something to eat. We did not have money to buy food. Sometimes we went into the forest to find mushrooms, or anything else we could eat.

I didn’t have time to play like other children.

When the planting season came, I helped my mother grow rice. I had to work in the sun all day. From our home to the rice field, it was 5 kilometers.

Mother had to wake up early every day — me too. We had to walk all the way there.

Only my mother and I worked because most of the time my father was drunk. When he drank, we had problems — he liked to hurt my mother and me.

I hated him. When he beat me, my mother always tried to protect me.

Often, my mother took me to stay at grandma’s because my father had kicked us out of the house. I was always happy to see grandma and my cousin. I could play with him.

My grandmother lived in another town. She had four children: three girls and one boy. My mother was the eldest child. One grandson lived with her. She took care of him while his mother worked in Bangkok and sent money home.

Grandma had a big rice field. When we left her place, she always gave us two large bags of rice. We were always sad to leave.

We travelled between our house and grandma’s by bus. The journey took almost all day.

But I liked riding the bus. We would get on and try to find two empty seats so we could sit together. If there was time, my mother would go back out to buy some water and boiled eggs for us to eat. She knew I liked eggs — and sitting by the window!

When we got back home, my father would be standing there waiting for us. He smiled and seemed to be happy to see us. But after a few days, he started drinking again.

Our house had two floors and was built from wood. We lived on the second floor and had two buffaloes on the first floor.

Every morning we would take the animals out of the house. Then we had to find a place where there was a lot of grass and a tree. We tied the buffaloes to the tree so they could feed. We gave them water at midday, and took them back home in the evening.

I liked my buffaloes. Sometimes they let me ride one of them, but my mother always warned me to be careful.

Because our family was poor, everyone had to leave home after they finished school and find a job, just like me. My big brother and big sister moved to Bangkok.

My younger sister was nice and kind. She was married and her family lived in the same village as us.

After she had her first baby, her husband changed. He began sleeping with other ladies and not taking care of his family. He broke my sister’s heart.

So she divorced him.

Later, she met another man and they decided to live together. He was very good to my sister, but they were poor and had to work hard.

She had three children with him.

I remember he was good-hearted and helped me when I had a problem. He died when I was fifteen.

My younger brother was also good-hearted and a very quiet person. He was six years older than me. He protected me at school when another friend bullied me.

After he finished school he left home, and got a job in Bangkok.

He is still single.

• Her Life Story