Fieldnote_0329_Naluwan_ANNABELLE

We sat in groups with some elderly from the Amis tribe in the activity center, and I had the opportunity to sit with a pair of sisters and their close friend. The three of them were very tight and comfortable with each other, bickering and laughing. When we first started talking to each other, the elderly women were not hesitant to start sharing their personal stories.

One of the elderly was Ivan's mother, Ivan being the tribe's leader for the past few years. Each of the elderly women has led a very different life. Ivan's auntie (his mother's sister) is slightly older than her sister and went back to Taidong a few years ago to look after her family member who had a tumor. She could have stayed in Taidong, but she did feel that the economic opportunities in HsinChu is better for her and her family. Her family also decided to bring their sick member back to HsinChu due to the hospital being closer proximity to their house in HsinChu compared to TaiDong. Thankfully, the tumor went away and that family member is healthier now. Both Ivan's mother and auntie's highest education level was middle school. Thereafter, they had to work in order to make a living and support their younger family members. Both of them married within the tribe, and have children. I guess when they've only known the people within their circle, it's harder to form relations with people outside the Amis people. 

Ivan's auntie had 5 cows to herd and would look after them on a daily basis. Sometimes, she would sing songs and make up random lyrics when she was bored, singing to herself in the fields while herding her cows. She was afraid of people listening to her singing, yet she loved to sing a lot.

Their close friend, on the other hand, had to go out and work when she was way younger. She had little education, stopping at elementary school. Since her family was poor, she was forced to work even though she didn't want to. She really wanted to be educated, but felt that she was not given the opportunity to do so given her family's financial background. She was a babysitter for the Chinese, and she couldn't speak any Mandarin at that point in time. She only knew the dialect that was spoken within the Amis tribe and had difficulty communicating. Thankfully, the family that hired her as a nanny was kindhearted and taught her how to speak. But because she was uneducated, she could not write or speak well. After becoming a nanny, she worked at a convenience store/mini supermarket under the Chinese. Although she missed her family dearly and would cry wanting to go back, she eventually learned how to enjoy herself and live her life to the fullest without looking back. 

One of the most memorable conversations I had with them was when they told me they used to sing and have fun, and all these songs would be made when the Amis people would sit down together, eat and drink alcohol. They would sing and create their own tunes and gibberish songs, which would eventually form real songs that they sing together. One of the songs was on the sadder side, where they would sing it when they left their family to go fishing in the deep sea. The sea is a very dangerous place, especially because they had to leave their families in the wee hours of the morning to collect the fishing nets, under crazy weather conditions that could cost lives if they weren't careful. The song had a happy tune, and the Amis people were smiling while singing it, but they told us that if they were to sing it to themselves while they were alone, they'd probably be tearing up and crying since the lyrics were so sad. It went along the lines of, "farewell my family, take care of yourselves. We are going out to do a dangerous job and it's scary that we might not be able to come back, so please take care if anything happens to us."