Qimei Community College Rural Workshop Series 4: Understanding Farming Families' Stories Through Firsthand Experience
On the morning of the last day of the rural workshop, the participants presented their reflections on the one-day farm experience, and Wen Ping-yuan, a farmer's son who had previously taken part in the Qimei Community College community needs and reconstruction survey, was invited to give feedback. With Lin Yi-ling, a fellow member of the community college, serving as moderator, the six farm-stay groups took turns sharing their experiences.
Group one shares: Picking guanxu cai with Brother Lai in Guanshan
The first group went to the Guanshan community in Jiaxian and picked guanxu cai (Cirsium albescens) with Brother Lai Yun-chen, gaining a deeper understanding of farmers' lives through the process of harvesting crops by hand. The participants shared with everyone that people generally find it easy to simply turn on the tap for drinking water or for daily use, but if water were scarce, would we start paying attention to whether there is a water source near our homes? That is because Brother Lai himself had to run a 1.2 km pipeline just so his household would have water. This question also prompted related reflections: when we take the things in daily life for granted, what we lose is the connection between people and the land, and we gradually lose the ability to observe the geography of an area keenly.
Group two shares: Raising chickens, ducks and geese with Brother Zhuo
The second group went to Brother Zhuo Qing-lin, who raises cattle, chickens, ducks, sheep and other livestock. The chickens, ducks and geese that had been resting scattered here and there rushed in flocks toward the food to snatch a meal at the farmer's command. The cattle looked nervously at this group of unfamiliar young people. Seeing this elderly grandfather and grandmother in Shanlin, already over eighty years old, the participants felt a sense of helplessness and reluctance, and they pondered what kind of role they should play in interacting with the farmers during this brief farm-stay experience.
(This article was compiled and recorded by Huang Qin-ru, an intern at Qimei Community College.)