I meant to check out some old couples in the village who used to help looking after my land for years ago. The old gentleman was the head of the village in his younger years and he played a big role in building local roads and helping villagers to have land deeds for establishing their families. He told me he used to be in the volunteer corps for defending the border security during the period of aggression from communist regime in Laos. These volunteered villagers were trained in fire arms and how to spot insurgents from the other side of the river.
I didn’t know before that Nongkhai was in the red zone of communist expansion into Thailand. In fact it was quite easy to stage guerrilla warfare in Nongkhai as insurgents could easily cross over the river at night. My neighbour told me that she had to dig bunker on her land as bullets and artillery could be heard coming across the river. I couldn’t believe that life could be so exciting and dangerous at the same time in this quiet town by the river. I was glad that Laos was no longer a communist country and both countries have been on friendly terms.
The old man had lots of stories to tell as he’s now the oldest person in this village. He used to be quite well off with many plots of land. With limited education and information, he didn’t know about financial or economic issues. He just wanted his children to go to colleges to attain higher certificates so they could have nice jobs. He had to sell his land to support his children. Unfortunately most of them let him down by quitting colleges.
It’s rather difficult for country folks to achieve academic success as the local schools didn’t have the high standards of academic excellence as those expensive schools in big cities. These local villagers were mostly farmers so they could never become rich as the pricing system was under the control of big businesses and corrupt politicians. Luckily, his daughter was successful as a teacher who taught traditional Thai dance and classical performing arts. So, she became the bread wi you the whole family. She got promoted to high ranking civil servants with lots of social benefits.
The old man and his wife continued to work on their land, they had a fish pond and sold organic vegetables. They continued to work hard, the old man would go fishing when the water level began to rise. These days, they had to look after some old relatives’ land. They could grow bamboo and clear the untidy land to create a vegetable garden. As one local villager got evicted from her vegetable patch in a flash of an hour. The old man had started the new project to clear some land so the poor woman could have a new vegetable patch to earn a living.
So, the old man had no time to rest as he took it upon himself to solve the problem for this villager. Perhaps, he still felt he was the head of the village who had to help villagers in times of difficulty. I always liked his straight talking style and honesty. This couple became my friends and connections to other people in the village. Through them, villagers knew about my work and attitudes. Whenever I had free time, I would visit this old couples to enquire about their health and to see their fish pond.
These days they would be spending daytime at the new plot of land under the old wooden house. They had done a lot of clearing with lots of fire wood for cooking. There’s still a big chunk of adjacent land to be cleared. They expected that the land should be ready for cultivation after the rainy season. So, I could expect green vegetable gardens with three people working hard to earn their income in two months’ time. So, I could get lots of organic vegetables this winter months.
I tried to bring some sweet biscuits as gifts to the old couple. They just loved this type of biscuits and they finished the small packet in five minutes. It would take me three days to finish these with my daily coffee. I hoped they would stay strong and healthy for several years as they were the anchor for me in this little village.
Local people tended to respect the elders in the village and they would listen to the old man. So, in this village there wouldn’t be anyone older than 85 years old in the future. The population in this village would change drastically in five years as more older and vaxxed people gradually pass away. I just hoped that younger couples would have more children so that the village would remain lively and noisy.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.
#beautifulsunday created by @ace108