At one of our terrace stops we began wandering down the paths. This path wasn't too easy to navigate which meant it wasn't screaming, "welcome tourists." Tober and I were making our way well down and we came to one point where there was a vegetable garden below and we needed to jump down and back up. Well, I jumped down just fine and when climbing up the other side my foot slipped. As I began to fall, I grabbed the first thing in sight which turned out to be a very unsturdy pvc pipe. Said pipe led water from one of the paddies past the garden and in to the next paddy. The pvc pipe clearly wasn't meant to hold me. It snapped and I slid into the vegetable garden about three feet down. I'm ok, just now filthy with mud. Lucky me, there was a lovely Hani woman working in the vegetable garden below. To say she was displeased is an understatement.
I climb back up as best I can, and Tober, from the other side, grabs the other end of the pipe and we piece it back together. However, the clasp is broken so it isn't staying well and is still leaking quite a bit into the garden below.
Meanwhile, madame Hani is yelling a stream of what I assume to be profanities in Mandarin, but a dialect I can gather no words from. Of course I don't speak Chinese yet, but being in a country where it's the language I can understand bits and pieces occassionally.
Alicia and Elin were only moments behind us and saw the whole accident. Alicia said, "I heard you yell 'I'm ok,' then see you look up, point to the pipe and say, 'I broke this shit, though.'"
I feel terrible because I've just caused this chaos.
The Hani woman follows me up the side I originally came down, and the only thing I can grasp from her anger is she wants 50 yuan. This is competely understandable given I've not only trespassed, but wreaked havoic in her garden.
I point to my pockets and keep saying "meio." I point up and try to mock going to get money and coming back down using my index and middle fingers as legs on the palm of my hand. She, of course, isn't following. She has a death grip on my sweater and if I move hard enough to free myself of her, she A, falls backward into a rice paddy, or B, falls forward into a rice paddy. Either result leaves her more pissed at me and me becoming an even bigger ass.
Meanwhile, Elin has gone to get Belinda and I'm just dying laughing at this point and the entire situation. As I'm standing there, Hani woman is screaming, at what I assume to be her husband, in the paddies across the way about what has happened. This man is ridiculously enough called something like "ah su ro," which with her accent, and my ears, sounds like "asshole."
I just look to Alicia and said, "and this woman's husband's name is asshole." Alicia and I die laughing.
So there we are, she and I, standing on the levee. She continues speaking to me in Chinese and I continue saying, "dui bu qi (sorry)."
Belinda arrives and I tell her the woman wants me to pay 50 yuan, but I need to get my money. Belinda says she wants it fixed and I point to the now, barely leaking pipe and say I've already fixed it as much as I can with no clasp or duct tape.
Belinda goes back with me and together we place the two pieces of pipe together more. The wishbone stick that holds it in place, however, is not stable because of the now muddy soil underneath that used to keep it in place. I find some rocks and place it around the stick, and like magic the pipe remains together and leak free. For now, anyway.
Madame Hani still insists on 20 yuan, we pay her and bug off. I feel so terrible for A, potentially ruining this woman's livelihood. B, for dragging Melinda down to the terraces. Belinda thinks it is hilarious and we continued laughing about it for the remainder of the day. The rest of the group warns me every time we're climbing down that if I slip not to grab anything and just fall. So, I'm still terribly sorry for causing chaos in the rice fields, but I can now say I've worked in the rice fields in China. Not to mention, I've got one helluva story to tell, too.
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| Of course I have photos for proof. Thanks, Alicia :) |
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