Leaving river town

I have just finished two weeks in this river town. The skies are beginning to get hazy as the rainy season ends and the annual smoke season is about to begin. People I talked to about the smoke all seemed unconcerned about it. They seemed surprised that it affected the next island over. They knew a neighboring country had been complaining in recent years but seemed unaware that it affected anybody else. In fact they talked bout times when they couldn’t see a meter in front of them with the same sort of pride that people in the first of my worlds would boast about it being so cold their spit froze before hitting the ground.

The event I was helping with was attended by people from three local ethnic groups. One thing I appreciate about people in these areas – they are not inhibited. They are who they are and don’t seem to angst over not being like somebody else. They may be envious over somebody else’s acquired goods, but not over others’ talents. If someone can sing, great! If they aren’t so good at singing, it doesn’t matter, they sing anyway.

At the closing ceremony, one older man prayed an incredibly long prayer. It must have lasted almost half an hour, and he covered everything! I don’t think there was one thing he didn’t pray for. Some folk in the audience were starting to smile as he would take a breath and start in on yet another topic. But he was very, very serious. In fact he was pacing back and forth facing away from the audience as if he were in God’s very presence, oblivious of the rest of us.

As we parted, most of the folk were facing two days of travel to get home. This province is more or less flat but is crossed by 7 parallel rivers flowing from north to south which have no bridges. So in order to travel, you have to go down to a big city on the coast and then go east or west to the river you want and then up the road (if there is one) or up that river. So they would take a 5 hour bus trip to the big city where they would spend the night. Then the next day some had a boat trip to their river, others could take a bus which would cross the rivers near the coast and then turn north to their home village.

I too had a two day trip to get home, zigzagging around southeast Asia following the air route hubs. I spent the night in an airport hotel in a small country in between. But my travel was by air and definitely much more comfortable than travelling by bus. (Plus, that airport has a wonderful English book store!)