| Subject: Maggie's farm |
Author:
taxi driver
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 16:15:56 08/09/03 Sat
I had already have a mental preparation before I came to Chongqing. The first time I was here was a total disaster and I wouldn't be surprised if anything worse could happen to me the second time I'd been to that city.
"I've already rented a place that could be used as storage of the goods and our living quarter. It's very close to our stand and just few steps away from where my grandparents live. It costs RMB 300 per month, but it will save me a lot of time and money traveling from my home to Chao-tien-men everyday. And it would be safer if we keep our goods in the place we live than just lock them up in the stand overnight. Don't you think so?”Iris said excitedly at the outdoor food stand.
"Oh, yes, it's a good idea! But are we going to stay there tonight?”I was worrying how bad our living quarter was going to be.
"It's rather late now. We better stay at a cheap hotel for the night and move in our new place tomorrow morning,”she suggested.
"Fine with me, you're the boss,”I replied.
I thought it's about time to let Iris make some decisions by herself, otherwise she would never learn anything when I wasn't here. But I didn't realize that letting her to be the decision-maker would make me give up most of the comfort and luxury of my daily life in the following month. My original plan was to stay at a cheap hotel when helping her out in Chongqing, and two weeks should be the enough time to teach her what I knew in operating a small business. It turned out I over-estimated her learning ability and under-estimated my tolerance of the harshest environment I had ever been to. I ended up living in a literally shit-hole for six weeks.
After saying goodbye to the modernization, we went to Chao-tien-men the next morning.
First, we checked out the stand she rented. It's located at the second floor of the building that's mainly for women clothing. With the limited area of the stand, the only way we could display our merchandises was to make the bracket as high as possible. And there's only a tiny space left for two persons to take a rest. Anyway, what could I expect when the rent for that stand was only RMB 500 per month.
We then went to visit her grandparents.
According to what Iris told me, they had been living in the small room that used to be the quarters of Seamen Union almost all of their lives. Both of her grandfather and uncle (her mother's young brother) had worked in the ships sailing up and down the Three Gorges all of their working lives.
"How are you? It's so nice to meet you,”Iris's grandfather, by then 70 years old, was already retired and bed-ridden. He was trying to get up from his bed to greet me.
"You're such a good person to help my grand-daughter out,” her grandmother grinned. She had poor vision from cataract and would lose her eyesight if she couldn't afford to perform the surgery in the next few months.
"Come join us for the dinner tonight!”Jiu Jiu (Uncle) said. He was in his early forties and just laid off by the ship company a year ago. He's living with his wife and their 8 years old son on the makeshift upper deck of the room since half of their place was rented to someone else's for storing the goods.
And the whole family of five persons was living on the meager rental income of RMB 200 plus the subsidy of RMB 50 from their former work unit.
After visiting her grandparents’place, I finally realized that our living quarter wasn't that bad at all. Although it's just a filthy place without washroom, kitchen and any window but a public toilet as our neighbor, we could at least have a much larger place than most people living in that area. And if the smell coming from the public toilet weren't that strong and stifling, it'd be actually quite convenient to have a toilet next door.
"How's that?”Iris asked.
"Hmm…..it's alright. But where can I take a shower?”I answered.
"There's a public bathhouse not far away from here,”she said.
Might as well forget the daily shower I used to have when I was in HK, I said to myself.
To be continued.......
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 