Earlier this week I was taking a walk down one of the main roads in Jinqiao, the mostly expat housing area where we live. I was surprised to find the wall that runs all along the sidewalk in this particular block had about a twenty foot section knocked out of it. I had not really considered, in the hundreds of times I had passed this way, why there was even a wall around this property. I had not thought about what was behind the wall, but assumed that maybe it was vacant land just waiting for another expat housing development to be built on it. What I saw as I slowed to a stop by the missing section of the wall was this lovely garden being tended by hand by a couple of elderly people. Off to the right, outside of this photo, was a nice stand of corn, growing ten feet high. In the background you'll see what appears to be the blanket covered home of this couple. Their laundry is hanging neatly on a line in front of the house. As I stopped to take this photo, one of the two smiled and waved at me.
Now we've seen plenty of this type of living since we've been in Asia, some of it an easy bike ride from where we live. It's not that subsistence farming itself was a total shock. It's that these people had, by the look of their garden, been here for a while behind a wall across the street from a country club-type neighborhood and we didn't know it. And they smiled. They are happily working and living in a manner in stark contrast to those across the street from them. How shall we then live? Does this change anything?
4 comments:
Well it looks like you have some sweet neighbors to love on:)
Lisa
That is amazing! It makes me wonder who owns the land. They are making their own way and that makes them happy. Mom
I wonder who put up the wall? The farmers, or the developer of the neighborhood? It does look very pastoral.
I think the wall was put up by the city. It encompasses a large block. The funny thing is that now the wall is being rebuilt here and in several other areas... no sign of that it needed redoing, but we surmised that now that all the Expo prep and sustaining is over, they need to find jobs for people.
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