As I write this we have water again! For rather more than 24 hours the village has been without any, despite the amounts falling from the sky. This morning the village well was a popular meeting point, although I was spared that chore by having some buckets and bowls of water ready on standby. I don’t think the things are connected, in fact, but we have not had as much rain this week as I would have expected. We went about 5 days without any, which made everyone hot and sticky and a bit irritable.
So that the vegetables don’t get squeezed out again by lack of space, let’s turn to them now.
The chillies, have gone a bit straggly and are losing their leaves. I think that the margarine tubs in which they live are maybe not large enough. The basil is doing brilliantly, though I have no idea what to do with it all. The same may become true of the coriander, although that is coming along more slowly. I planted some beans 5 days ago; well we all know how fast they can grow! They badly need re-potting already. With the aid of a couple of glasses of wine and the failing light I am just about able to see them grow I think. The next crop of tomatoes is a bit slow off the mark but the peppers just grow and grow with no indication of when their flowers will turn into crops. The lemon is limping along and the lime seeds that I planted a week or 2 back are yet to make a mark.
I have my camera back, but as expected, it has not proved possible to buy a battery here. So no photo this week, nor for a week or three I expect. Also, sadly, Khamphone had downloaded his photos onto his laptop and cleared the memory card. And, of course, his lap top was stolen as part of the same theft. Onto other Hmong issues, someone asked for a bit of an update about the case of the murdered girl. This is what I have established. She and her killer were in a genuine relationship, and she was not a lady of the streets, despite taking to a guesthouse for an overnight tryst; something shocking in itself. The compensation fee of $10,000 was reduced by the police as being ‘excessive’ and limited to $8,000. However they imposed their own ‘costs’ of $2,000, so essentially, they just took a 20% cut.
The money has been paid, and the boy is now back at University having suffered no other penalty apart from 3 or 4 nights in jail. It was raised through the sale of livestock and land. Had it not been possible to raise it, then I am advised that he would have spent the rest of his life behind bars. The issues here are so stark that no comment from me is necessary.
This week’s other Hmong story relates to the activities of the shaman. According to Khamphone he saw him cure a boy who could not walk. The hospital tried, failed and gave up. But after the shaman interceded with the spirits, he now leads a wholly normal life and is able to attend school. Now, what does one make of stories like these ? In the absence of independent witnesses and medical notes it is hard to suppress my normal doubts. But when an intelligent and articulate person tells you that he has seen these things, how do you respond?
Although I have good reason to be irritated with a Hmong guy (some of you will know who I mean), it is difficult here to articulate such a feeling as it is so easily swept up into a casual assertion, that all Hmong are dishonest, secretive and rich. To be on the losing side in a civil war is never to be recommended, but the attitudes towards the Hmong exhibited by many Lao people is unattractive and unworthy of such usually warm people. Not that the role of the Hmong in the war was without reproach, but any generalisations of that kind are unfair at best.
Dr Alan’s clinic continues to deal with minor cases, despite his own medical ignorance and the lack of conviction of the part of his patients. This week it was Kheak with a sprained ankle…again. This is the second time in 3 months, which makes me wonder if he may not have some congenital weakness of the bone structure, possibly caused by malnutrition. Or maybe it was just a co-incidence. I gave him some pain killers, created a support bandage and advised him to put as little weight on it as possible. So he went off to join his friends at a football match. ! He seems to be the goalkeeper. Next day he came back. He had carefully cut the bandage into 2 pieces. One wrapped round the ankle, one round the instep, thus ensuring that it provided virtually no support. However, he was just calling on me on his way out to see Granny, who he thought would be able to fix his ankle with her usual combination of magic, herbs, superstition and bloodletting….and probably has.
Another query was raised this week, about to what extent Lao people were interested in falang culture. Without wishing to give offence, I think that I can say that for the most part, their interest is limited to President Obama (seen universally as a ‘good man’) and English Premiership football. I have shared this before with many of you, I know, but some years back when I asked some novices whom I was teaching if they could name another UK city apart from London, the only one they could think of was Arsenal! I was surprised that they were not aware of the large city called Manu. Teaching them how to pronounce Norwich next season may not be necessary if as one suspects, their spell in the top flight is limited to the one season.
Lao people seem not naturally curious. But then maybe a diet of Buddhism and Communism is not one designed to foster a spirit of enquiry or a need to know how or why things are. Poverty too will play a hand I suppose. With the main objective being to get some food on the table for tonight’s dinner, pondering about how many angels can dance on the end of a needle maybe be not high on the agenda. Sadly, somewhere along the line I have lost my photo of Thong ‘enjoying’ his introduction to Spaghetti Carbonara and Chianti; but sophisticated Lao people are usually ready to experiment with falang food even if the western food available here is not always the finest cuisine.
Since my last blog we have had National Children’s’ Day, Tree Planting Day and International Environment Day. I imagine that they all provided Ministers and party hacks with a platform to speak at length. I participated in the second of those to the extent of planting 2 trees outside my house, just on the school playing field. Two dead trees had been ripped out when they put up the new fence. The barbed wire strands of the fence ,by the way, are set elegantly far apart so that they provide no barrier to the football, nor to the to the children wishing to climb through it rather than go around it.
Work on the neighbouring house has really stepped up, even though I do not recall the builders ever having had a day off. As I write, there must be 16 people at work, including several women. Maybe a bonus or a financial penalty is around the corner? Just for the moment I cannot see the dog……..
Oh! But in the last few minutes the most amazing monsoon has hit us; my balcony, despite having a run off for water has about 2 inches of water settled in it….and the builders are still at work! I think they are trying to rescue the cement that they were mixing just moments ago. I went out for 30 seconds and was drenched to the skin. I am not sure how much wetter you can get. No, it seems they are mixing more cement; have just decided, I guess, to ignore the rain.
I think we can leave it there for this week. See you again soon.Alan
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