Life Among A Smiling People

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30739, 1 May 1965, Page 12

Life Among A Smiling People

(From GUY .HANNERI.VG in Pakse. Laos) 'THIS morning while it was yet dark, but approaching the time of dawn, I woke to the sounds of wildly-crowing roosters and when they had settled, to the soft footfalls of sandals and bare feet on the dirt roads of Pakse as the people moved into town for the market. By the time the sun was up there were so many traders established in the paved square that I wondered who might be left to make any purchases. Down tree-lined country roads had come girls and women with peppers and pots, noodles and limes, lemons and octupus, beef and live cicadas. There were in the cane baskets hung from their shoulder yokes needles and thread and cloth and pencils, cigarettes and coconut. There was nothing, it would seem, that was missing. A stupid thought crossed my mind as I watched them fill the market place. . . . “How many people can you fit in a telephone booth?” Each one having chosen a place would squat surrounded by her wares and take up no more room than an arm chair. Shoulder to shoulder surrounded by their patterns of garlic and lettuce leaves and onions and live catfish and dead meats. Even though this was a national holiday the market goes on. Army Day It is the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Laos army. It is Army Day. Smartly turned out commandos drilled to delight the crowds and paratroops were dropped over the open-air stadium from helicopters. The steady cross-breeze was no deterrent. Of the nine dropped one landed exactly in the silk square marked out in the arena, the others falling amongst the closely-built residences surrounding the field, amongst the stacks of

ACROSS I—Mental nurse on duty? (6) 4—Got round vehicle—a kiddy’s toy (2-4) 9—Tobacco plant? (8,5) 10— Could be suitable in verse. (5) 11 — Notice cinders make a difference? (7) 12— Bed in a ship for some Britons? (5) 13— go in all directions looking for beast. (5) 18—No longer quietly learning in order to probe. (7) 20— Records for non-U sporting implement (5) 21— There’s many a yarn to be had from one. (8-5) 22 Divers bask to get dry. (6) 23 Deals in ultra designs. (6)

fuel drums, and in the case of two less fortunate, one in a wireless aerial system and one eventually cut from his harness after being hung up on a flagpole on the perimeter of the field. The delight of the crowd was as boundless as the response of a Rugby audience in New Zealand. Pakse, a small country town on the banks of Mekong and nestled against wooded hills, is at this time of year a warm place by New Zealand standards. Temperatures which are still rising towards summer are already in the high 90’s and the humidity increases until it simply turns into rains which will commence falling in May or June. The great slothful river almost half a mile wide wanders down a silty course in a trough under the town and has a calming and very peaceful influence on those who live along its banks.

The heat in the moist atmosphere makes a permanent mist which lingers day and night. It will take the

DOWN 1— Clothe in singlet (6) 2 Keen applause for heated party? (4,9) 3 Dress Martine made. (7) 5 Algerian movement is for the desert watering-place. (5) 6 A halo’s place is incomprehensible? (5,4,4) 7 Theft is attractive to some. (6) 8— Dramatist sounds wayward. (5) 14— One word we have for a man bereaved. (7) 15— National figures form the body of one? (6) 16— There will be a small number only at the feast. (5) 17— Afterthought on poor relief in holy book. (6) 19—He has. (5) (Solution, page 3)

first rains to clear the atmosphere and start to swell the volume of the river through the feeders of tributary rivers.

The Mekong is a huge river. It is one of the main drains of Asia. It is twice as long as the whole length of New Zealand. ' At present the flow is about 29,000 cubic feet a second but at the height of the rainy season it will carry almost three-quarters of a million cubic feet a second and rise more than 30 feet in the half-mile bed. Friend And Foe The people who have raced to its banks to plant their rice when thp rains started may by September be fighting the river for their lives. About 21,000,000 people are affected by the river and are dependent on it for their food. The control of the vast resources of this river is the concern of the Mekong Committee (Committee for Coordination of Investigations of the Lower Mekong Basin). Twenty-nine nations are involved in this programme to which New Zealand has been contributing since 1959. The latest gift from New Zealand is four jet boats which will be invaluable in the collection of hydrological data so necessary to the project of dams for hydro power, locks for navigation by big ships at all times, and barrages for irrigation control. At low-water stages propeller craft have great difficulty with rocky and sandy stratas within the river bed, boats have been lost in the swirling water of rapids, and worn out because of collision with the under-surface obstructions to which propellers are so vulnerable. Pakse has been chosen for the site of the training programme for jet-boat drivers who will eventually use them over a distance of more than 1000 miles of river and in four countries through which it passes. Rapid Training The course which will take two months began on April 1 when the candidates from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos arrived in Pakse. The boats have been carried over hundreds of miles of rough roads to reach the river ferry beyond the border of Thailand. Downstream of Pakse lie the Khone Falls, the site eventually of a large dam which will make navigation possible in this stretch of the river, and upstream the rapids of Khemerat which are negotiable only in high

water to craft other than the jet boats. These rapids are included in the training course for drivers.

The river traffic, which is considerable on the Mekong, consists of a varied fleet of junks capable of carrying up to 80 tons, and barges and lighters of all kinds. These craft have all been built on the river from forest timbers and the small craft are the long dug-outs made from a single tree and nowdays powered by long-shaft aircooled engines which are mounted on the transom. The propeller may be lifted over obstructions.

They are known as “longtail boats.” The loads carried in them are staggering and it is not uncommon to see a second storey added to increase their capacity. Loaded with melons and pineapple and earthenware they look from a distance like crocodiles in the water and they have practically no freeboard.

The sounds of engines and the haze of two-stroke smoke lies everywhere along the Mekong. Above the clay banks, which are terraced for vegetable gardens, lies the light forest growth and amongst these trees are the villages, one after another, of the peoples of the Mekong, peoples of the river rather than of countries. Common Dialect Thailand lies on one side and Laos the other in the stretches of the river in which my operations occur. The languages of each country have met and fused into a common dialect which is understood it would seem by both Loa and Thai. It is a chattery language, full of rising tones and inflections which are very difficult for a European to follow at first with one word appearing, it seems, very frequently in all conversation, the word “mae” pronounced like “my” with many variations. It can mean “no” or can be a query or perhaps “brand new” depending on where it is used in the sentence.

I spent one day last week in a village on the banks of Mekong near Savannakhet and enjoyed the privilege of talking to a grandfather of the village, a grey-haired old man who sat crosslegged on the ground in front of me. We conversed through an interpreter. He smoked a European cigarette I gave him and smiled but showed no great pleasure. He prefers his own tobacco grown on the banks of Mekong, but this he would not admit. He ate a bread roll I had

brought from the nearby town with a smile, but I doubt if he enjoyed it We spoke of many things and I took photographs with his permission until he asked, “Why do you want to take us in these primitive circumstances to show to your people in their fine houses how poor we are?” I could have but one answer for him. —“lt is a pleasure to meet and record the smiles of a people who are as happy and self-contained as yourselves. You have great peace and happiness in a quiet land. I record this to show my friends that they have forgotten something on the way. especially how to smile.” Four Countries For the next two months 1 will live in this quiet stretch in the middle of a land New Zealanders regard as “war torn” with the students of four countries who will together develop and extend the international spirit shown by smiling people who live In one of the greatest and to New Zealanders least known riverlands in the world.