I accepted a tutoring job again, this time to help somebody prepare for a TOEFL exam. The guy’s name is Tom, and he’s a 25 y.o. Chinese guy. He currently lives with his father, who is an agriculturist. Today’s the first time I visited them at their home. It was raining hard, and it took me several minutes to locate their house. I was drenched and soggy, but their warm welcome brightened me up.
I gave Tom the test I made, and while he answered it, I had a nice, long chat with his father – mostly about his travels abroad, and his job to help farmers increase the yield of their crops – specifically, Rice~ I sympathized with him when we came to the topic of an observed phenomenon: the art of farming is dying – with more and more rural teens preferring to succumb to the lure of the city and leaving their fathers – and their hectares of land behind. I remember reading somewhere that the average age of farmers in Asian countries are somewhere between 40 to 50 y.o., quite alarming, since a lot of things in farming involve manual labor.
I remember my grandfather, and my childhood days of visiting his farm, climbing mango trees, fishing in the pond, straddling his carabao, running along the borders of the rice paddies and generally having a good time with other children who have never heard of TV and whose blissful, rustic lives are mirrored in their eyes. Had I been gifted with stronger arm muscles, I would have gladly traded this city life with life on his farm – to wake up to the fresh air and the singing of birds, and to see the unbroken expanse of star-strewn skies at night.
Tom’s father is a kind man. I can see that he loves his son very much. He’s doing everything he can to ensure that his son may have a shot at success. He: the agriculturist – and his son: the Chemical engineer. It’s inspiring, really.
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