{"id":344,"date":"2017-09-22T17:04:43","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T17:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/?p=344"},"modified":"2022-08-11T18:23:58","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T18:23:58","slug":"book-2-excerpt-wee-chu-fat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/book-2-excerpt-wee-chu-fat\/","title":{"rendered":"Book 2 Excerpt: Wee Chu Fat"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/strong>s the village of MaeSaamLaep disappeared behind them, Chaz heard the piercing whistles and caws of jungle birds welcoming them, or perhaps warning them. The jungle noises dissipated as the sounds of the Salaween River took over. The water\u2019s current was oddly gentle near the riverbank, yet he knew it would be dangerous towards the middle.<\/p>\n

Chaz examined their guide\u2019s wide stiff face. He found it difficult to keep from staring at the foot long hair protruding from a big dark mole on his chin. The Chinese referred to long facial hair that hung from facial moles as \u201cwisdom hairs\u201d. The man smiled back in a big, nearly toothless grin, except for one top tooth that jutted out.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do like this. Okay?\u201d Their Chinese escort Wee Chu explained how to better control the raft with the pole. They began to pick up speed as they edged farther from the shore. At the same time though, the end started to swing around.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, not up and down,\u201d Wee Chu said. \u201cUse angle and push.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaz put his pole straight down until it sunk into the gushing clay and held on, nearly falling into the water. He tightened his stomach muscles and pulled the raft toward the rooted pole.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo stick pole so deep in mud. No lean off boat.\u201d Chaz couldn\u2019t tell if Wee Chu was mocking him or angry with him. Maybe this was just his teaching style.<\/p>\n

The raft swung around until it was facing backwards. Once his pole was in proper position, he along with Wee Chu, leveraged the raft towards the riverbank. The hardest part was pulling the pole out of the grasp of the mud. He nearly lost his balance several times.<\/p>\n

Soon they were facing downstream once again. He began using his pole, more to slow down than to increase the speed or change directions. He soon began to feel confident and in control.<\/p>\n

He breathed deeply watching the dappled shadows from the scattered clouds flick over the water. Diamonds danced along the water\u2019s surface from the path of the sunlight. The sun\u2019s rays began to intensify as the day drifted lazily onward.<\/p>\n

Wee Chu pressed on a nostril and blew the contents of his nose into a small plastic cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d Chaz asked. Snot-rockets were supposed to be blown onto the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect your tradition to give honor to water spirits. Don\u2019t you Americans worship snot of your nose?\u201d He held the cup high then set it down in front of Chaz.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n

Is this another of the man\u2019s strange jokes?<\/em><\/p>\n

Wee Chu raised one hairy eyebrow in confusion. \u201cI watch your people store life giving nose liquid into embroidered white holy cloth. Then put in your pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re kidding right?\u201d Chaz didn\u2019t mean to contradict an adult, but come on. \u201cWe don\u2019t keep our snot rags.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have seen this. White women, they protect it in a cloth for later.\u201d Wee Chu flicked his wrist limply around, clearly in imitation of something he\u2019d witnessed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they don\u2019t store it.\u201d Chaz rubbed a temple. \u201cThey throw it away or wash it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy they no blow it to ground?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is to respect others and not get germs everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wee Chu rubbed his chin, \u201cAhh, so your snot is a private matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPrivate? I guess so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYour people not like discuss this?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. We keep it private to ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHmm, I thought so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaz was getting annoyed and began to zone out on what the man was saying. All around them, limestone rocks jutted above the surface of the water. Chaz figured that these rocks would have been completely submerged during the rainy season.<\/p>\n

Wee Chu turned to face the looming rocks ahead. \u201cTalk later. River very danger here.\u201d He gave a deep bow to the river and tossed in a hand of bananas. Chaz knew this was a request for the spirits to allow them to pass safely through the rapids.<\/p>\n

Chaz felt unprepared for the swirling waters ahead. He held his breath and plunged his pole into a nearby limestone pillar as the raft rushed downstream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the village of MaeSaamLaep disappeared behind them, Chaz heard the piercing whistles and caws of jungle birds welcoming them, or perhaps warning them. The jungle noises dissipated as the sounds of the Salaween River took over. The water\u2019s current was oddly gentle near the riverbank, yet he knew it would be dangerous towards the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,8,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","category-humor","category-my-books","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2096,"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/2096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}