Attitudes and Altitudes

I had wanted to write about Pin Hashim, a fellow villager who lost his leg in a harvesting machine mishap years ago. But I have already written about him in my Malay blog so let me tell you about an equally inspiring story about Li Tok Don. No, it is not a Chinese name in case you are wondering. It is just the odd naming convention we use in the village.

Li married Aishah the grand-daughter of Tok Don and now she is known as Aishah Li while Li somehow took after his wife's grandfather. There is no fixed rule of thumb though, my own late grandfather was known as Tokngah Mat Pajoh but I am not Kri Tokngah Mat Pajoh. How he ended up with Pajoh is a different story altogether. To explain that, one needs to know a little bit of Achenese. And some working knowledge of Mah Jong.

Back to Li Tok Don who broke the lower part of his left leg and his left forearm in a freak motorcycle accident a couple of years ago. Li was on his way to pick up his young son from school when he rammed into the back a truck. He came back from the hospital wearing beautiful white casts on both his left limbs.

Breaking a leg or two in a motorcycle accident is quite normal in the village. Young boys and girls with legs long enough to operate the kick starters are allowed to ride their fathers' motorcycles, sometimes with younger siblings riding pilion. But for Li, to even suffer a sprained ankle would pose as a career setback. Li is the village coconut picker -- he climbs tall coconut trees for a living.

All the villagers thought Li's climbing career had ended then. I was worried because I have almost a hundred coconut trees on the land. With more and more ripe coconuts turning brown, coming out from the house would be as risky as crossing a busy city street as the ripe coconuts would fall on one's head at the slightest provocation. Or worse still, they could mess up your new body and paint job on the car!

But Li Tok Don was not even considering a career change. He went to a traditional healer who threw away the hospital casts, applied some ointment and just bandaged the broken limbs with torn out sarong and some bamboo sticks for reinforcement. Within weeks Li was already up and about on crutches and after a couple of months, he was riding his motorcycle again.

A few months later Li could move about without the aid of crutches and poor Aishah had a tough time pleading to Li to come down from the areca-nut tree in front of their house. Like most wives, Aishah could sense that her husband was up to something naughty or dangerous behind her back. Bored and temporarily out of job, Li simply could not resist to shinny up the tree, for practice, whenever his wife was not looking. And like many husbands, he was caught red-handed a few times.

Li is now back at his old trade and he still climbs those tall coconut trees without the aid of foot braces. His broken arm and leg had fully recovered their functions seven months after the accident. It really is amazing how effective these traditional bone-setting techniques can be. I am just glad that there is still someone to bring down the coconuts even though Li makes more money from the hundred trees than I do. But he call the shots from up there as far as picking coconuts go. Li Tok Don gives a new meaning to the saying: Your attitude determines your altitude.