"It's good to work in Israel because the wages are good and the cost of living is relatively low," he explained.

Vorawong, who sent many of these workers to Israel, has also profited nicely from his work. From time to time, he pointed to assets he owns - here a small building, there a building site. He said that since the early 1990s, he has sent about 20,000 workers to Israel. His manpower agency is one of many in Udon Thani, the capital of the Udon province in northeast Thailand.

Work abroad is the main source of income in the agricultural province of Udon: Some 80,000 of its people work in Singapore, Taiwan, Brunei and of course Israel, sending millions of dollars to their families at home each month. Some 15,000 Udon natives are currently working in Israel, according to figures from the Thai labor ministry; they represent about half of all the legal and illegal Thai workers in Israel. Two residents of Udon have been killed in the Al-Aqsa intifada, both in the Gaza Strip. In late June, Weerachai Wongput, 37, was killed in Kfar Darom, and last Tuesday, Chitralada Thab-Asa, 20, was killed in Ganei Tal. The third Thai casualty of the intifada, Kam Partif Nanug, 24, who was killed in early October in Kfar Darom, is from a neighboring province, about an hour away from Udon.

At the entrance to Long-Han, Thab-Asa's village, about half an hour's drive from the province's capital, the difference between the fortunate ones who work abroad and the less fortunate ones who remained behind is immediately evident. The former have homes combining stone and wood, while the latter live in houses on stilts with tin and asbestos walls. Vorawong says that the income of the village farmers can be as little as 600-800 baht ($20-$30) a month, and each family has three or four income earners. The Thai labor ministry mentions higher sums that would place the country above the shameful "dollar a day" line determined by the United Nations, but even their more optimistic figures make do with only about $150 a month.

With such figures, Thab-Asa's journey to Gush Katif was almost a foregone conclusion. She grew up in the village to parents who were farmers. In 2002, she began to correspond with a young man from her village, Long Sukoy, who was working in Ganei Tal.

"We fell in love through pictures," recalled Sukoy.

In the summer of the same year, he went home for a visit and they decided to get married. In the wedding pictures, Thab-Asa, an 18-year-old bride, can be seen wearing traditional garb, gazing at her groom with a mixture of love and adoration. Their honeymoon in the village lasted a month, and when it was over, they divorced so that Thab-Asa could join Sukoy in Israel, because Israeli law forbids married couples to work in Israel. Thab-Asa landed in Israel in October 2002, and they set up home in a small house near the geranium hothouses of Ganei Tal.

Getting used to war

Because of the great demand for work abroad, the manpower contractors in Udon do not put ads in the papers; instead, they simply circulate rumors in the towns. The news travels like wildfire through the villages and the company is inundated with applications, sometimes many dozens for each available job. Vorawong said that because the work involves strenuous agricultural labor, he wants to be certain that his workers will be as industrious, hardworking and professional as possible, and consequently, his staff checks out the background of each candidate with family members and friends.

After the initial screening, the candidates are sent for medical tests. The lucky ones chosen to leave for the Promised Land are required to pay an agent's fee to the manpower agencies in Israel and Thailand ranging from $7,000 to $8,000, an exorbitant sum that swallows almost their entire salary for the first year. The brokering fees continue to rise as Israel makes it increasingly harder for foreign workers to get permits, because the circle of contacts needed to obtain the permits widens. This is a continual target of harsh criticism from the Thai government and media.

"What can we do about this?" asked an official of the Thai labor ministry. "There is far more demand than supply, and people are willing to pay a great deal to improve the quality of their lives in the long term. When they come to us and ask about it, they usually lie and say they paid half of what they really put out."

Vorawong said that despite the three Thai casualties in the Gaza Strip, there is still a demand for jobs because of the wages. Inside the Green Line, a worker will earn NIS 91 for an eight-hour day and NIS 10-12 for each additional hour, whereas in Gush Katif, he will earn NIS 115 per day and NIS 15 for each additional hour. Vorawong added that in the wake of the visit by Thai Labor Minister Uraiwan Thienthong and her call to the Thai workers to leave the Gaza Strip, eight of "his" 45 workers in Gush Katif have left Israel and five others moved inside the Green Line. "They get used to the war. When I visited my workers, they even showed me the casings of mortar shells that they collect," he said.

Nevertheless, workers in the Gaza Strip said that some of their employers are holding onto sums of money owed to them to keep them from leaving; if not for that, more of the 400 workers there would leave. The Thai labor minister protested against this practice in her meeting with Minister of Industry and Trade Ehud Olmert.

The director of the foreign workers department in the Thai labor ministry said that his ministry set down a clear policy regarding work in Gush Katif two years ago, but due to "understanding of the area's sensitive state," an outright appeal to workers to leave the area was published just a few months ago, and the minister repeated and underscored that appeal during her visit to Israel.

"We explain to the workers and their families here about the situation in Gaza, and if the worker wants to remain, he has to inform our embassy," he said.

The official complained about the retention of pay by employers as a means of preventing workers from leaving and says that a Thai worker in Israel has almost no way of forcing an employer to pay.

Unfinished house

The home of the Thab-Asa family is one of the wood and stone houses on the red dirt road in the village, but it is not yet completed, perhaps because of the relatively short period that Thab-Asa managed to work abroad.

Her parents, Tungla and Baniam, received the Israeli consul in Bangkok, Yaakov Dvir, at the entrance to their home. The father had dark circles under his eyes and the mother was crying. Dvir, a colonel in the reserves and a "graduate" of the Lebanon war, expressed his sympathy for their loss and told the family of the efforts to save their daughter's life, of the military helicopter sent to evacuate her and the medical teams that fought for her life.

A relative supported the mother, and the mourners in the tent next to the home moved in closer to hear the translation into Thai. "You can be assured that we will provide you with any help we can, just like any family in Israel injured by a terror attack," promised Dvir. The parents thanked him and invited him inside to view the coffin, decorated with gold, surrounded on all sides by wreaths and chains of colored light bulbs, and adorned with pictures of Thab-Asa, one taken in the hothouses of Gush Katif. Next to the coffin, the mourners inserted paper money into a green branch and burned incense.

The mother told Dvir about her last conversation with her daughter, five days before she was killed. She was homesick, but she liked it in Israel. The widower relates how they came home from the day's work to rest a bit before doing some overtime. When the mortar shell fell, he was watching television, just a few meters away from Thab-Asa, who was standing in the kitchen, where she was hit by a spray of shrapnel. He put his wounded wife into a wheelbarrow and ran with her to their employer, Shlomo Wasserteil, who called the army. One of the paramedics who tried to save Thab-Asa told her husband to move away and let him care for her. She died in the helicopter.

Sukoy said he wants to return to work in Israel, but not in Gush Katif. The mourners pass around the album with pictures of the young couple doing what young couples do all over the world: a trip to see snow, a party at home, an embrace in the hothouses and a messy bedroom. "How beautiful she is," said Sukoy in Hebrew.

Grief and money

When the local press interviewed Dvir, the first questions were about the money the family will receive from the state, and Dvir promised that they would receive what Israeli law provides, with no discrimination compared to Israeli victims.

"But how much is it?" insisted one reporter, and suddenly a large proportion of the mourners leaned forward to hear the answer. Dvir said it was difficult to say, because each case is debated on its own merits and may be quite different from others. Those present appeared disappointed. One reporter asked if in the wake of the couple's fictitious divorce, Sukoy will be recognized as a widower. Dvir answered that the matter will be decided in Israel. This question, it emerged, is a hot topic in the village.

The preoccupation with material concerns so close to the funeral is not considered poor taste in Thailand. On the contrary, support for the family is viewed as assistance that should be made public for all to see. The representatives of the Thai government and manpower agencies came to the funeral, not only to show respect, but also to give the family support money. The "giving of envelopes" next to the coffin was photographed by the local media.

But in the terms of the Udon province, the Israeli allocation is a huge sum; this could place intense pressure on the family, even to the point of threats and blackmail. The widow of the first Thai victim, Weerachai Wongput, was also present at Thab-Asa's funeral, together with their two young children. She approached Dvir and thanked him for taking care of her after her husband was killed. Dvir repeatedly emphasized that all financial matters are between her and the State of Israel and that she must not let anyone interfere.

As evening fell, it was time for the funeral prayers, and a long line of monks from the local wat, wearing orange robes, approached the home. When their monotonous chanting could be heard emanating from the house, the mourners clasped their hands together and closed their eyes. The monks departed after the prayer and the official guests from the city hurried to catch the last flight to Bangkok.

In the nearly-completed home on the dirt road, the family remained alone - with a coffin decorated with gold and broken hearts.