Something different

I have mentioned it before that I do at times watch Al Jazeera. They do have great short documentaries.
This is one I was watching today. It is about life in I think northern China.
I can only guess because they were of the Muslim faith. This doesn't detract at all from the story. According to Al Jazeera they had complete freedom in making this film.
It started with the parents of two daughters preparing the ground after the winter. It then showed the children going to school after the winter. It was not free however. The parents were discussing how they could afford to send their youngest daughter to school. I guess she was about 6. Her sister looked about 12. The man told his wife they could not afford to pay for the books that allowed them to go to school. The wife, as almost all mothers would, insisted that she MUST go to school as she must not stay where they were and must have a better life. This meant that she must have her education. The next clip showed the husband with the youngest daughter attend the men who take payments. The man told them he had no money but would pay as he did last year. The men in charge informed him that this year was different and the payment had to be paid up front. After a lot of pleading and haggling, they agreed that he could pay later. His daughter had a big smile on her face for the first time.
Returning home, the husband told his wife that he would have to go and find work as he has done in previous years. I must mention this they lived high in the hills with very few other people near them. well to cut a long story short, his wife agreed that he would go.
Off he started to walk along a dirt track and others joined him. There were about 10 when they were all together. One suggested that they would never get to where they wanted by walking and suggested that they get the 3 wheeler. another said that they would have to find money for petrol but the next thing you saw was this contraption. I don't know if anyone has seen a small sort of wagon. We have them at the seaside for gardeners. It was the size of an estate car but with small sides to it and no roof at all. It showed a longshot of the road, which looked good. The next shot showed the 3 wheeler stopped by the roadside with the rain lashing down and all were huddled in the back some complaining that they were getting soaked.
The next shot was of them being stopped at a check point. The road was again great. The policeman there was telling the driver that his superior would be there shortly.
This officer firstly informed the driver that the maximum people allowed to travel in a 3 wheeler was 3 and the rest would have to get out. e then told him he would go and look at the vehicle. He informed him that he had no disc, no number plates on it and it wasn't safe.
Anyway the next thing you heard was the officer telling him to go and he didn't want to see him again. Round the next bend the other men got on the contraption again and off it went to the valley. This was where the work was available. I found out that these men were going to gather wheat, as it was ready several weeks earlier in the valley than where they lived.
They arrived in the town where there was lots looking for work. As there was 10 of them it was not so easy to find work. Eventually work was offered at 20 Yuan an acre. I do not know what the value of a Yuan is so I am in the dark as to how much their work was worth. It turned out that they were there to cut wheat by a sickle a back breaking job. One of the men went missing for a few minutes and it turned out he was looking at a combine harvester, on returning he just told his colleagues that the combine harvester was a lot quicker that they were. They did manage to harvest 4.5 acres at 20Yuan an acre the man said that was 90 Yuan. Gave him 100 and asked if he had 10 change.
Back near his home he called on his eldest daughter. She was in a boarding school as she, like all the other children over infant class had to board out. His daughter said she was O K. However a couple of weeks later, she came home for the school holidays and told her parents she was worried she had failed her exams.
Her mother seemed concerned about that and asked her what she would do if she failed. She told her mother she would retake exams. You then saw her, with her parents fathering the wheat by sickle, it looked so hard. The commentator then said that they said that they would stay there and farm in the traditional way but almost certainly their children would travel to the city for a better life. It was said that almost half the farming community had already moved away from the hard life. Finally it then informed us that the daughter had in fact passed her exams .
It finished there, I just thought we are in the 21st century and that family were still in the middle ages. There was no electricity and no amenities at all. We have a lot to be thankful for.
Hope I have not bored anyone but I found it enlightening. More soon
P.S. A couple of days mice free.