PATTAYA, Thailand (Pattaya Daily News), February 10, 2008: Meet an elderly lady, Mrs. Yupin Popan. We saw her pushing a heavy cart loaded with coconuts, up a hill on Sukhumvit Road. She works very hard, every day, to support herself and her twenty-one year old granddaughter who lives with her.
Late afternoon Sunday she was struggling to push her cart filled with coconuts, up a hill on Sukhumvit Road. The woman, Mrs. Yupin Popan and her granddaughter, live in a shack in Moo 4, Sattahip.
Passersby would walk to her pushcart and buy the coconuts for 15 Thai baht apiece. Usually, customers give her 20 baht and not ask for the five baht change. Her cart had a reflective sticker attached to it to reflect the light when it became dark outside.
Yupin pushes her cart with one hundred coconuts, along the road for ten hours every day. Intrigued by the sight of this feeble, elderly woman struggling with her cumbersome cart to make a living, we interviewed her. She said she had two sons. Sadly, one passed away leaving a daughter in Yupin’s care. Her surviving son’s living condition is no better than hers, she regretted.
Yupin and her granddaughter live in a shack, from which they could be dispossessed at any time, she was afraid. Quite some time ago, she had an accident which caused injury to her spinal column. As a result she cannot stand upright.
Granddaughter Dolaya Nong Bell, 21, did not finish primary school and is unemployed. She stays at home and takes care of the house and her grandmother’s pet rabbit. She says that she wants to work, but her grandmother doesn’t want her to work at night.
“Grandma said it’s very dangerous outside. You can’t trust anybody. I want to help Grandma, but there's nobody to take care of the house. I feel sorry for Grandma. She has to push the heavy cart for more than ten hours and over ten kilometers everyday. My grandma says even though we are poor, we never want to be beggars," the young lady told us.Story and Photos by Nattaphumin
Translated by Sirithanon
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