Barefoot Youth

Day23, Barefoot youth

When it was daybreak, I put a rough map and checked the route I had taken yesterday, and I realized that I had walked 50 kilometers through the darkness. Luckily it was a flat field road, and if it had been a paved asphalt road with no cushions, I imagined I wouldn’t have gotten up today.

 Still, walking on a dirt road wasn’t as easy as I thought, and I couldn’t help but feel very tired, but no matter what the circumstances, if it was 50 kilometers, I think it was pushing my limits.

 In the wee hours of the morning, when the darkness had not yet fallen, I rubbed my eyes at the sound of the dawn knocking and stood up, still exhausted. It was only when I came face to face with the young host, and began to say a few words with a good morning,

 To their surprise, the owner and his wife were about the same age as the 19-year-old, and they had a baby who was just over a year old. I couldn’t help but see the two of them again, but I could only say exclamations about how young men and women were living in such a mountain village.

 Before I knew it, the busy city of Sae-Sakshi served me a hearty breakfast, but there was nothing but glutinous rice, salt, and water on the simple table. I’m sorry that I was in a hurry early and couldn’t even prepare the usual greens,

 If this is the reality here, then this is also sensible, what more can you ask for? It’s just a side dish for the market, and I’m grateful for it, so I take a few chunks, dip them in salt, soak them in a sip of water, and swallow them.

 Then I had no choice but to pick up my mess and hurry on my way with only drinking water, but I was still grateful and put the small number of sweets in the baby’s hand, but he refused to accept it, and I wanted to give him a small greeting on my altar.

 I was doing it every time, and I was embarrassed to just turn around, but the lady who was hesitating shyly hid her smile and offered me a solution, “If you really want to give me something, I want you to take off the T-shirt you’ve been wearing, rather than money.”

 No, no matter what, I asked for the clothes I was wearing, and from the look on their faces, I couldn’t help but confirm that it wasn’t just a passing remark, and that the truth was that the couple had only a shabby outfit and a spare set of clothes.

 No matter how much I washed my eyes and stopped by, I couldn’t see anything in the house, let alone a closet, and there were no other clothes everywhere. It was obvious that everything was being worn. 

 I wondered if she wore any underwear, so I thought I’d ask her about it, but I thought maybe she would ask, but it must be no panties, so I decided to skip it because it would be rude to ask any more.

 No, no matter what, how do you live with only one or two pieces of clothing? I couldn’t help but ask, “Siri, you wash it in the evening while taking a bath and put it back on in the morning, or do you mean you don’t wear clothes at night?

 Eh~gu I can’t even imagine it anymore, so I’m going to skip it one more time, and I thought I’d have to answer it, but even though it’s the clothes I used to wear, compared to the clothes they’re wearing now, they’re definitely like new clothes, and I don’t have to think about it anymore.  

 He quickly took out a spare T-shirt, pants, and two pairs from his backpack that could be worn by both men and women and handed them to me to wash and put on. Her face and mouth bloomed like a flower in the new color, and what she really liked so much was beyond naïve and adorable.

 Even though they don’t have anything, they love each other without losing their smiles, and they live their lives with little happiness in their lives. It was so pure, so clear, so beautiful that I couldn’t help but hide the pain in my chest and take a step that wouldn’t fall.

 It had been a long time since I had left the neighborhood, but the afterglow was still fresh in my mind, and I was walking with it etched in my chest as if I would never forget it. It was so heavy, but I took a refreshing step and fixed it to its original posture,

 When I took out the map and checked it again, I found that yesterday I had to go to Bualapa, which is deep in the mountainous interior of the central and eastern parts of the country, because the map was not well marked, and I found myself on an endless grassland on the way to Cybertong in the middle of the middle field heading to Tagek in the central west.

 It was more than 20 kilometers away from the road we were supposed to take, so luckily, we were able to take a shortcut and cross the river about 8 kilometers away by boat, which would shorten it by about 15 kilometers. They had to pay money to cross a road that they didn’t have to take a boat on.

 What can I do! This is also my good fortune, and I walked diligently until I arrived at the river, but the river I had imagined was nowhere to be found, and it was not a river, but rather a large stream, and two small boats were waiting for me.

 We waited a while to cross the river, but after another eight kilometers we reached the fork in the road to Bualapa, where I wanted to go, it was a diligent walk of at least two hours. The pain in my toes from yesterday’s strenuous march was so bad that I was wondering if I could continue in this state.

 Luckily, when I looked at the ground, I thought that I could walk barefoot in the fine mud, so I took my slippers in both hands and sang the popular song “Barefoot Youth” by Choi Hee-jun, “Swallow all your tears and sighs~”, and challenged the muddy road.

 After three hours of barefoot youth, we finally reached the three-way street that separates Bualappa, Cybertong, and Vilaburi. I could breathe a sigh of relief that I had finally found my way.

 I took a sip of water from my thirst for a moment, and I didn’t forget to touch my feet,  and I set off again, but I couldn’t go barefoot anymore, and I couldn’t go more than three kilometers, and I sat down on the ground of the road, whether anyone saw it or not.

 But when I sat down, I thought I wanted to lie down at all, so I looked around and saw my, but I didn’t know where I was going, where did I appear, what was the beggar, I was sitting there!

 I didn’t even wash the dirt properly yesterday. Today, in the sweltering heat, sweaty, barefoot, I gave up on lying on the ground, but I was so comfortable right now, no matter who saw it or not, I had no choice but to sit there for a long time.

 And then it’s at least 70 kilometers from here to Bualapa, and after thinking about it, the sun is still in the middle of the sky, but that’s it for today… I asked for help from a nearby private house and decided that I had no choice but to rest, so I set out to find a place to lie down again.

 As the saying goes, “Heaven helps those who help themselves”, it was not long before I  saw a village nearby, and there was always a hole at the entrance of the village, so I decided to get drunk on the coolness of a cup of Coke and wrap up the day even though the sun was still in the middle of the sky.

 With the help of my family husband, I decided on a bed and breakfast at a reasonable price, and when I finally took a shower and finished my meal, I felt as if I had already been relieved of all my fatigue, and my body and mind were light, and I felt like I had fainted for about two hours, and I fell into a nap like honey.

 I had to wake up from my slumber when I heard the faint voice of the landlord’s wife  ,  and as if in a dream, two uniformed policemen were waiting for me. 

 They reluctantly asked me if I was a foreign tourist and told me that I could never go to Bualapa from here, so I should either go back the way I came from and go to Biliburi or Cybertong. The reason is that the path I want to take now is too rough and dangerous.

 It is only open during the dry season in January and February every year, and it is absolutely closed to traffic, especially during the rainy season like now. “Oh, I’ve gone through all this trouble and come this far, but I’m going to go back the way I came.”

 Still, I understood that the police officer couldn’t go as far as exercising his official authority. There was no choice but to do it. But my face was that I was going to go, and the police officers weren’t happy about it.

 “He will take me to Vilaburi tomorrow morning on his motorbike,” he said, “and he left a message saying that he would come back tomorrow morning. I had no choice, but I couldn’t think of a good idea.

 “I don’t know!” I said, first of all, I woke up from my nap and had a good night’s sleep,  and then I thought about tomorrow’s work tomorrow, and then I dug into bed, and the famous “Tomorrow the sun will rise again!” I muttered.