-June 24, 2017-
Good morning!! It’s 11:08AM (China time š) and I’m on the road (again) from HaiYan back to Taishan. My mom’s uncle (I believe? The way we Chinese call each other is very very complicated. You have to really “delve into the family tree” and whatnot haha!) chartered us a car – very nice one, mind you š – to get us back. The driver was fairly young, 30 or so, and was willing to try listening to American music. He turned off his own beatboxing/ hip-hop music and replaced it with my Bluetooth-ing tunes.
As The Fray and TSwift filled the car, I watched the rolling green rice fields and sun-tanned, hard-working men and women who were harvesting their crop, skillfully handling their reapers with ease. The mountains – some gleaming with sunlight and some cloaked in fog – created a contrast with one another, as picture perfect as you could get it. It was very Microsoft-wallpaper, if you will.
That morning, we had done a bit of catching up with our extended family. Conversation had flowed freely, smiles and thundering belly-roars aplenty. They had an accent since they were from a different place than we were – Haiyan rather than Taicheng – but this was my second day speaking and conversing with them, and humbly, I think I was getting better at talking and understanding them āŗļø.
After drinking morning tea – the direct English translation from “é„®ę©č¶ā (aka having breakfast dim sum, Guangdong-style) – my mom decided she really wanted to explore the neighboring villages, so that’s what we did.
We took a route that circled the fields (shown above) and entered into the village. My eyes raked over the willow that was casting its growth over the villagers who were taking a lunch break from their daily routine of hard work. They were trying not to stare impolitely at us, foreigners. Most of them were elderly, for their sons and daughters had gone to the big city to seek bigger opportunity and money.
We see a brick layer, a stone mason, an elderly woman with dentures who was busying herself with cleaning and sorting through a pile of green, fresh Chinese Bokchoy, perhaps to make her grandchildren lunch? A little boy in his pajamas must have been feeling not so hot, for he had an ice pack stuck to his forehead as he pushed a little stroller around, playing adult.
I tuned back in to the car convo when the driver said: “try eating toad, mice, and snake.”
Don’t worry, if I find some, I will.
Love, C xx
Stories by CCindyx 