Beautiful Sunday: repairing the fish pond.

The fish pond had been leaking several weeks. It started with a small crack on one side for two weeks. Then a second crack appeared on the other side of the pond. At first I thought it wasn’t serious as it had been raining frequently so it might be rain drops or dampness. But the floor started to get wet all the time and lichens appeared on the floor making it quite slippery. I had to wait for two weeks before the friendly team of builders was available to visit our house. Meanwhile we had to keep adding water into the fish pond to keep the fish happy.

I was so glad to see this team of builders and workers who helped building my house several years ago. The chief has become my good and reliable friend. His old staff also became very friendly and they knew whenever they visited our house, they could ask for bananas, papayas, bamboo shoots and other herbs or vegetables. They always left our house with bags full of fruits and vegetables. I knew they had to be very careful with their spending so these supplies would keep several workers well nourished for several days. This was a good incentive to get them to visit us as soon as practicable.

I had no idea whether the fish pond could be repaired as it was built many years ago. The location of the pond in the northeast direction meant that it was inundated by bright sunshine and rain storms. I was afraid that the building materials might have expired already. But the chief builder assured me that the fish pond could be repaired with no problems.

This was quite a laborious process as we had to transfer all the tiny fish into a big tub so the pond could be drained. These workers were very good and skillful at their jobs. It took two hours to catch those tiny fish so we could transfer them into the black plastic tub. I was quite impressed the care and attention these simple people tried to rescue all the fish especially those very tiny baby fish. They tried not to discard the green algae with tiny baby fish. They didn’t complain about the tedious and detailed work.

The chief builder also worked diligently with his team of workers. I was amazed how these people, with no proper technical education, could build houses, cut big branches, repair water pipes and repair leaking pond. In the past, I had given the chief builder many strange requirements which he could find up with original solution in a few days. For example, I asked him to put a protective guard on my glass windows. The wind could be very strong and I was afraid of big objects or branches being blown to hit the big window.

I gave some suggestion on the material which ought to be transparent and very flexible so it would be broken easily. This ‘wind guard’ ought to be like a another window which could be opened with hinges. It turned out to be very strong and practical solution at reasonable cost. I watched how he solved the problem of leakage with his worker. He explained to me why he had to use two kinds of materials for filing in the gaps on both sides of the pond. We had to wait for two days for the repaired work to be completely dry.

Luckily the rain came consecutively for four days so we could test the fish pond with rain water. I decided to wait several more days to make sure the fish pond was no longer leaking. The result was very satisfying and we got the pond cleaned up too. Then, my gardener and I spent over a hour trying to catch those tiny fish for transferring them into the fish pond. These fish were quite smart and could easily dodge our catch. We both felt the strain on our backs! But it was a satisfying task ti get those fish back into their home.

After their work, we would give produce from our garden to these workers. They liked our sweet bamboo shoots, bananas and papayas. I told them we should have some mangoes in two months’ time so they could have some mangoes too. Their wages were lower than those in big cities so they did appreciate free fruits and vegetables. One worker was very happy to get almost big twenty bamboo shoots so that his wife could sell these for some extra income. My tuck-tuk driver asked if he could come to harvest bamboo shoots this week. I told him to bring a big bag as each weighted over two kilos.

I was glad that my decision to plant lots of bamboo has been vindicated. I knew food would be very precious over ten years ago and that there would be a calamity which would shock people. So I have been warning my friends and neighbours during the last four to five years to prepare for worse things in the future. I just hoped and prayed that the premonitions I saw in my dreams would remain just bad dreams.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.

#beautifulsunday created by @ace108