| Subject: Maggie's farm (Part 20) |
Author:
taxi driver
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Date Posted: 16:19:01 08/09/03 Sat
In reply to:
taxi driver
's message, "Maggie's farm" on 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.......
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