It has been raining for two days now.
I spent the whole day Saturday transcribing and contemplated on how to present the materials. It turned out to be quite a self-searching process, searching for my own intention, my own path. My thoughts swing back and forth like a pendulum between the ideas of tradition and technology, of the virtue and limitation of each. The pivot point at the moment is my family, I miss my parents tremendously.
Sunday was rest day for these church-going mountain people. I waited until later in the afternoon to go up, hoping to talk to Ah-Ye, the young guy who attempted to learn from the musician but didn’t find him home. Around 6PM, Ah-Che went with me to church, it was raining, got some good shots of villagers going to the church but I’d need another sunny shot to go with what I had before.
Market day on Monday. I asked Ah-Che earlier to wait for me at home before coming down to the city. The little ones have already known to ask for ba-ba, anything made out of flour, whether steamed buns, fried bread sticks, or cakes and cookies, I often bring some up for them. Their diet is mostly rice. But not today, I was in a hurry coming up.
Ah-Che put the six knives in a bag and we headed down the mountain. Mists hang at the waist of the mountains, very pretty.
Sad thing about these villages is the lack of garbage processing facility. People were used to dealing with all things biodegradable, and they try to use the same methods to handle the rest. All they can do is trying to burn everything, from plastic to asphalt shingles and pile up or throw to the river those that can’t be burnt. If anything out there to transfer these petroleum based trash into energy …
Instead of following Ah-Che to the city, which I’ve filmed already, I went the opposite direction to his sister’s home. I need them to translate some dialogue I filmed before.
They live in a concrete house, an upgrade from the bamboo shed Ah-Che got. We tried a little bit of translating but their language skill is quite limited. Not until the son, a newly graduated doctor came back that we picked up some speed.
Just after noon, the electricity was out, and the son was going down to the city to prepare a friend’s wedding. Not my day. We agreed to do the rest Thursday.