Farm Boy
Posted by Stuart at 09:41 AM on May 17, 2003"When I go back Isaan, my mother want to know why I so black. She say, 'When people go Bangkok, they become white, but you black now.' I drive motocy every day for my boss and so I very black. But that ok. I have job. I send half my money to mother and father and baby brother one year old. I love him very much."
The conversation I had last night was full of little gems like that. I was chatting with a friend of a friend and he gave me a little window into his world. He now lives and works in Bangkok (as a motorcycle driver delivering Catholic newspapers written in English, of all things) but grew up on a farm in Isaan and was plowing the rice fields with buffalo by age seven.
"My farm we have rice and rambutan and banana. I have 10 buffalo. I love my buffalo. We go walk every day. But my mother and father sell them when I go Bangkok."
Bangkok is just a temporary place for him. He will start night school next month and when he finishes that he hopes to get a job so that he can make enough money to return home. "My dream is to find someone to love. We can work in the fields together and take care of each other somewhere quiet." (I assume that is translated as "somewhere other than Bangkok"!)
I couldn't help of being reminded of the book (Founding Brothers) I just finished reading. It talked about how the Virginia aristocracy (Washington, Jefferson, etc) always dreamed of retiring to their plantations where they could grow old peacefully as they tended their fields. All my life I have lived in cities and so I have never really entertained that thought.
But now the more I think about it, the more I can see the appeal of living your life in accordance with the cycles of the earth. In bed at sundown, up at sunrise, take a nap when it gets hot. Now you plant, now you tend, now you harvest. Has this been ingrained into our culture after thousands of years or is it just human nature?
Life story of my fellow Lao Isarn, which I can totally relate to. Yes, I send money home every month to take of my mom who has no retirement plan or pension whatsoever. Thanks to Western Union that makes money transfer so efficient - from the US to Laos in minutes. I feel so much closer to home. Every morning in Michigan, I read Vientiane Times newspaper, find out the weather in Vientiane and the currency exchange rate of the day, listen to Lao music, call mom in Vientiane if I miss her at that time for 15 cents a minute - cheaper than calling Detroit (30 miles away). Thank God for everything.
Yes, God is good!!!
I think it's human nature to those of us who take enough time to slow down, stop and smell the roses. Those of us who have an appreciation of life and nature and know not to take either for granted. Those of us who are able to find where we are the happiest and the most joyful.
What has been ingrained into our culture is the hussle and bussle of the American Dream - for some, for many ---- riches and fame and success and worldly glory -- they are so caught up in what they are attaining materialistically that their cycle with the earth resolves around how much they accumulate and me, me, me, me....... "it's all about me" mentality ....
ho-ho, little grasshopper -- how much you have yet to learn!! :-) hehehe
I have yet to figure out what makes me tick, but I do know it's neither what I'm doing right now, nor where I am in life. But just as your friend looks to the future, I do the same, and just as your friend, where I am is temporary.
Love you!!