The other day, my gardener told me about the story of her friend who had a vegetable garden along the dirt road. She was evicted from the land with less than ten hours notice. The owner of the big house opposite the vegetable garden claimed ownership of this land by referring to the land law. In the old days, villagers bought and sold land without official papers or land deeds. They relied on honour system and mutual agreements in front of the head of the village. So, the vegetable lady just rented the land from an old owner who had possession for many years without official papers.
The old owner had a negotiation with the aggressive incumbent owner of the land who wanted to take possession of this land immediately. The old owner couldn’t win a court case as his family didn’t have the land deed. Luckily they could settle for a compensation and everything ended peacefully. But the vegetable lady no longer had a place to grow vegetables for the local market. She didn’t get any compensation at all and had to take all her belongings out before the tractor arrived to bulldoze the land. So, I was curious to see new changes to this piece of land. I heard many trucks loaded with red earth which people usually used for filling in the land to gain same level.
I went cycling in late afternoon to check out the sudden change to the landscape. I was surprised by the speed of the landfill trucks. The person who decided to take this daring action was the new husband of the widower who inherited the house from her previous American husband who died of liver cancer several years ago. Her new husband had taken control of the house and cut all old trees in front of the house to allow better view of the river. He even set up a company at the house and had several new ideas about making material progresses. We agreed that it’s his idea to seize hold of the land and challenge the old owner to fight in court. At least he gave the old owner some compensation. We would have to wait for the new changes to this piece of land.
I took some photos to record this change to this narrow dirt road. The previous day, I cycled to check out the new location for the new vegetable garden. The elder in the village had offered to help finding land for her cultivation. The elderly couple were clearing the land so that it would be ready for the winter season. Many local trees which people used for firewood had grown quite densely in this area. So, it would take about a week for three people to clear the whole area. They would certainly gain lots of firewood.
I did get them some cold drink from the village store, just to give them some moral support. The elder was well over seventy years old and shouldn’t be doing such hard work. His nephew who knew how to use the motorised chainsaw was too lazy to help the elderly couples. My gardener dropped by to help them in the afternoon. It’s a relief that the owners of this land were happy to have some reliable villagers to take care of their land. They were quite wealthy with lots of land and several houses for rent in town center. These were local people with lots of old money.
I couldn’t help thinking if these villagers knew about blockchain and Bitcoin, they could have a much better lifestyle in the future. But they could hardly cope with complex issue so the learning curve would be too difficult for them. I cycled towards the riverfront to see the river and check out the water level. Recent rainfalls had made the river looking much more cheerful despite cloudy weather. I took some more photos of the leveling of the previous vegetable garden.
This was a sign of other forthcoming changes to this sleepy and quiet dirt road. I was a bit anxious of future changes which could be unsettling for local residents. But the local land spirit would look after us and wouldn’t let bad things happened in this area. So long as the elder of the village was around looking after the land, I could rest more at ease and pray for good things to come in the future.
The windy storm last week had collapsed many banana trees and my gardener was complaining about losing so many young bananas in the banana groves. I was grateful to the land spirit that the house was still intact and saved from very strong winds. Several nearby towns and villages had roofs pulled off and several big trees fallen on to cars and electricity poles. This year the damage reports were quite extreme and unexpected. Luckily we didn’t have tornadoes or hurricanes around the country.
I was so glad to have planted lots of banana trees. They have become very useful to local villagers as they needed banana leafs for making decoration in temple, wrapping snacks for distributing after funerals. Some important religious days and ceremonies, while banana trees were used to decorate the temple. This year these humble bananas could help to pay for my water bills. My next project is to get some underground water for emergency, s borehole project has been launched. I did ask my old building team leader to find a good company for this task.
I could feel something different in the air, even the atmosphere around the river has changed. But I couldn’t tease out the details of these strange messages. I just have to keep being alert and receptive to changing vibes. It’s important to me to do the right things all the time. I have to be steadfast and persevere even though I didn’t feel like being nice to some people. Life’s getting more challenging for me spiritually to test my commitment and compassion. It ain’t east but I would have to get this right in this life time.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.
#wednesdaywalk hosted by @tattoodjay