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Sharing rice lightens a burden - by the Lahu team |
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| Scene 1 | |
 It
is the dry season and not everyone has enough rice to eat. The village
has a rice bank from which people can borrow rice to get them through
times of shortage. Bouasai and her husband borrow rice. Most other
members of the village, especially those with large families want
to borrow a lot of rice, but there is not enough to go round. |
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| Scene 2 | |
| Bouasai cooks and eats breakfast alone. Her husband
is still in the sleeping room smoking opium. Her husband has rarely
shared a meal with her in the last few months, nor has he helped her
in the field. When the couple who own the neighbouring field ask her,
where her husband is, she usually makes some excuse, but it makes
her feel sad to watch them working together. They are always finished
their work quickly and return home, while she remains in the field
until its almost dark. When she arrives home, her husband is still
lying in the same place where she left him in the morning. Today on returning home, something in her snaps, and she starts to shout and shake her husband. She grabs his pipe and throws it away. Then they have a quarrel. The couple who own the nearby field who live in the same village, come to visit them and overhear them arguing. Bouasai feels very ashamed and pretends everything is alright. She is very surprised when her husband invites their male neighbour to share an opium pipe with him and he accepts. She would never have guessed that he used opium. She and the neighbour’s wife quietly discuss opium smoking and the problems it can cause, while their husbands are smoking. |
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| Scene 3 | |
It’s harvest time, but Bouasai is still working alone in her field. The family field has produced a very low yield while her neighbours have a very good harvest this year. The rice bank committee calls everyone to a meeting in the evening. |
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| Scene 4 | |
| The rice bank committee announce that it is time for people who borrowed rice to pay it back with interest. One family after another lines up and hands over rice to be weighed. But Bouasai family doesn’t have enough rice to give any back. This is also the situation for another addict in the village. A woman from the village with a large family protests that she needs to feed her family, but there won’t be enough if people don’t pay back their loans. The committee and other members discuss this case and decide to give the family a chance to pay it back after the next harvest, on the condition that Bouasai’s husband and other opium addict in the village go to take part in a community based detoxification session in a nearby village. | |
| Scene 5 | |
| The addicts, huddled together in a group in the purpose
built hut, are suffering from withdrawal symptoms. They have stomach
ache, their limbs hurt and are finding it hard to fight their craving
for the drug. Bouasai’s husband cannot bear it anymore and tries escape but his friends catch and comfort him. Then to distract themselves from the pain, the addicts tell their own stories. At the end of the detoxification session, everyone has come much closer and share the common aim of making a fresh start. |
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| Scene 6 | |
| A vision of the future to the sound of a song: Bouasai
and her husband acts out what they would do, if he manages to keep
away from drugs and they make their dreams come true.
Together with other villagers, they raise animals, become local
traders in non timber forest products, open their own shop, build
a new house for their family... |
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