Transcript
Rainjita & Her Mother – Digging for Crabs & Meeting Her Uncle – MD 5, CD 5
Recording by Rainjita Geesler
Date: Summer, 2004
1 CD, 2 Tracks, 1:15: 39
TRACK 1 – 27:43
WIND
MOTHER: No water, tide went out.
RAINJITA: Where are we?
MOTHER: I don’t know. It’s the ocean, Ocean, ahh. Ocean, no water, tide go out. Go in there, get mud. Take your shoes off, go in there.
KOREAN
MOTHER: The boat over there, they’re fishing right now because the water went out they can get a lot of them. Once the water comes in, they have to come back. Tide went out, the tide comes in. what is it? First of the month, tide goes out. When the tide comes back they come back in.
RAINJITA: What are those little girls doing?
KOREAN – W/ LITTLE GIRLS – SCRAPING
RAINJITA: You got them?
KOREAN
BROTHER: House.
RAINJITA: Walking house.
MAN MAKES SUCKING NOISES
RAINJITA: Snail. You eat it. Two girls are in a puddle looking for crabs.
MOTHER: Tide goes out.
RAINJITA: Are we going out? Me and you?
MOTHER: I’m not going out there.
RAINJITA: I am.
KOREAN
WALKS ON SHELLS
3:35
RAINJITA: Are we going to go out to the ocean?
3:53 TURNS BACK ON
RAINJITA: We’re at the ocean. People are digging for clams at the ocean.
PEOPLE TALKING
KOREAN
RAINJITA: What’s going on here. Tell him to talk about what’s going on here. About the clams.
MOTHER: MAN SPEAKS KOREAN
Crab.
MOTHER: KOREAN
YOUNGER MAN SPEAKS KOREAN
YANG: People are, people catch crab. KOREAN Digging. Digging the sea. People catch the crab.
RAINJITA: Why? To eat.
YANG: Eat or eat and experience. Sea experience. KOREAN Family, children, father, mother, together. Sea experience.
RAINJITA: We’d better start digging then.
YANG: KOREAN
RAINJITA: What’s that? What are you doing?
YANG: Tool.
RAINJITA: Utensil. Tool!
YANG: Tool. For catching the crab. Tool. Its name is homee.
WALKING
YANG: The women are digging the sea. The tool is homee.
RAINJITA: The tool is a homee.
YANG: Use the homee and digging the sea. Digging, digging, deep, deep.
RAINJITA: That’s cool.
WIND
YANG: KOREAN Digging digging, continue digging. The deep sea the crab catching.
DIGGING NOISE
RAINJITA: Is she finding things?
8:55
YANG: She catching shellfish.
RAINJITA: She catching shellfish.
VARIOUS KOREAN
MAN SPELLS ‘SHELLFISH’
RAINJITA: Is she finding a lot?
MORE DIGGING NOISE
RAINJITA: What did you say?
YANG: Look at the woman digging the sea. Catching the shellfish. Go home, either eat shellfish or sell the shellfish.
RAINJITA: Bye.
10:35
RAINJITA: Hi, baby.
MOTHER: KOREAN
RAINJITA: Hi, baby.
MOTHER: Goo goo goo.
MOTHER: I got one…I got a baby one. Ah! POT SOUND
RAINJITA: How’d you get that?
MOTHER: It crawl and I pick it up. I stole some poor kid’s bucket. No, I found that.
RAINJITA: What?
12:02
BROTHER: KOREAN
MORE NOISES
RAINJITA: Eat it. There’s a little one. Baby.
YANG: Turban. Small turban.
RAINJITA: Oh, crab. Wow. Look at all those walking.
YANG: This crab is a…crab.
RAINJITA: Hermit crab.
YANG: Okay, okay.
RAINJITA: Walk. That’s cool.
KOREAN
RAINJITA: Korea?
BROTHER: Cool.
YANG: This is a kind of clam.
RAINJITA: Clam. Souvenir.
YANG: Oyster.
RAINJITA: Oyster.
YANG: Korea is your eat a roll.
RAINJITA: Eat a row?
YANG: KOREA
RAINJITA: What’s he saying?
MOTHER: This is an oyster honey. It’s a baby oyster. Oyster
RAINJITA: Oh, it’s an oyster. Put it in there. It’s in there?
MOTHER: It gets bigger it gets oyster. It’s small. This is going to be a big one.
BROTHER: KOREAN
RAINJITA: Oyster? Oyster. Lots of oysters. What’d you get?
MOTHER: Kind of a crab. Kind of a
INSIDE OF BUCKET
RAINJITA: What do the crabs sound like?
INSIDE OF BUCKET – MUTED ECHO
MOTHER: Bucket.
BROTHER: Gobi.
YANG: Without her language translator, that’s good.
RAINJITA: Gobi?
YANG: Gobi is a sort of fishy.
RAINJITA: Yeah. Crab. Look at them. We’re getting lots of them. PLUNK
16:45
MOTHER: Boy, they’re fast. What are you going to do with that? Get rid of them, give them back to ocean.
DISTANT VOICES
RAINJITA: Got it. Mom, here you go. Getting big.
WATER NOISES
MOTHER: Look at the clam. Look at it. They’re digging the clam.
DIGGING NOISES
WIND
MOTHER: Take all day to do one meal. This is the fun of a kid to stay out. And eat lunch. That’s it. I leave that cane…let them go. I don’t want…uh oh, these things stuck. Yeah.
WOMAN SPEAKS KOREAN
MOTHER: You’ve got to have shoes.
WATER
18:51
MOTHER: I’m ready to go eat.
RAINJITA: No, mom, patience. Just hang out for a little while. Let’s go to the water.
WALKING
COMING UP TO MEN TALKING IN KOREAN
20:36
YANG: This is the east sea. In front of the tide.
RAINJITA: What sea is this?
YANG: Okay. This way is all the sea. The ebb and flow of the tide. See the…
RAINJITA: The tide comes in and the tide goes out?
YANG: comes out, goes in, comes out comes in twice a day. Come in, come out. Twice a day. This way the sea, this way people catching the crab.
RAINJITA: What is this ocean? Pacific?
YANG: This Sea is Pespie. The Pespie…
RAINJITA: Pespie sea?
BROTHER: KOREAN (fervent)
MOTHER: Oh my god, goes way back.
RAINJITA: What’s he saying, mom?
MOTHER: This is a sallow water that’s why it goes way out, but that’s deeper water over there.
RAINJITA: Can we go there?
MOTHER: No. Shallow water down there, not going there. He’s just showing you this is real shallow. But this is the only place every day no water and coming night, water. There’s another place once a year you don’t have water.
RAINJITA: What is this sea?
MOTHER: Pacific!
RAINJITA: Oh, okay.
MOTHER: Pacific right?
RAINJITA: Okay.
MOTHER: Before we leave we got to write it all down where we’ve been. What here, different city and so on.
RAINJITA: What is this city, nearby town?
YANG: This city Toshidabogena. KOREAN. Chebu island. Hasung city.
MOTHER: Chebu. Hasung City. Chungee province.
RAINJITA: Can you introduce yourself? Your name and how old you are?
YANG: My name is Yang Chegun. I’m 27 years old.
RAINJITA: And what do you do? Work?
YANG: I’m a …
RAINJITA: No work.
YANG: Take a rest.
RAINJITA: That’s good. Thank you. You’re my cousin.
MOTHER: Yeah, only cousin.
RAINJITA: Only male cousin.
MOTHER: Only one.
GIRL: KOREAN
RAINJITA: Ooh, pretty. One, two, three, four, five.
YANG: Korean name is Pajira.
RAINJITA: Pajira.
YANG: Okay.
RAINJITA: Pajira. What do you think? Beautiful? You like it?
25:00
WALKING
RAINJITA: Hi baby.
MOTHER: What’s up?
RAINJITA: Baby ate the microphone. Going to be famous.
MORE WALKING – GROUP OF PEOPLE
MOTHER: Bye, bye.
RAINJITA: Mom, stay.
PHOTO TAKEN
MOTHER: Oh yeah, that’s nice. That’s nice, honey.
RAINJITA: I need a souvenir.
MOTHER: Ooh, look at this.
RAINJITA: I don’t want to take big ones or else we won’t be able to carry them.
MOTHER: Yay.
RAINJITA: All right. Turning this off. Sunday at the beach.
TRACK 2 – 47:56
INSIDE NOISE
MOTHER: Oh, I didn’t bring my camera.
RAINJITA: Sh**. We’ve got to go back up. We’ve got to get our camera. Don’t close the door.
MOTHER: We can take it another time. Whole family. KOREAN Oh my god. You look good. Oh my god you look good. See?
RAINJITA: Hi, how are you?
MOTHER: Oh my god, you look good.
BROTHER: I’m not so old.
MOTHER: I’m not so old.
BROTHER: KOREAN
MOTHER: That’s just their hotel. So all together. KOREAN
RAINJITA: I’m recorting. Reporter.
MOTHER: She’s documenting. Hey, look good. KOREAN
IN ROOM
MOTHER: What’d I do with the key. Ah, now you know. It’s so small here. See? He’s here. I told you he’s a nice looking man.
KOREAN
MOTHER: Here you go. Put this. How you doing?
RAINJITA: Good. Should I bring the chair or the bed?
MOTHER: Bring the chair. You look good. Now you see…
MOVING AROUND NOISES
TOILET FLUSHES
BROTHER: KOREAN
MOTHER: We decide to come and see you. KOREAN we went to city hall today…they call police station, they send me to another place.
RAINJITA: In Korean. Try.
MOTHER: The city hall people.
BROTHER: KOREAN
MOTHER: KOREAN They say we’ll come and find you. Oh, I’m so hot.
KOREAN
RAINJITA: Upstate New York.
KOREAN
MOTHER: I haven’t heard from you in so long.
RAINJITA: Do you have my pictures too?
MOTHER: That’s my husband. I got two granddaughters. Kids very good. No, she don’t have. That’s Nonja.
RAINJITA: Grandchildren.
MOTHER: That’s the…
RAINJITA: That’s me.
5:57
BROTHER: KOREAN
RAINJITA: What’d he say?
MOTHER: He think he has, that’s another terrible. He has three girls.
RAINJITA: How old?
KOREAN
MOTHER: She’s out and other…
MORE KOREAN
MOTHER: I don’t work either. So I retire.
RAINJITA: Are you working?
MOTHER: No.
RAINJITA: Resting? Retired? How you say retired?
MOTHER: I retired so…
KOREAN – LAUGHS
MOTHER: How many kid?
7:50
MOTHER: How many kid you got? You got three, I got two. How many kids? KOREAN He wants to go. Want to take the camera.
RAINJITA: He wants to leave or we go with him?
MOTHER: We go.
TRAFFIC NOISE
8:20
RAINJITA: How you like it?
MOTHER: Oh, he’s doing good.
RAINJITA: Where are we going?
MOTHER: South. No, Ingine.
RAINJITA: Tell me what’s going on.
MOTHER: My younger brother, younger sister is coming tonight. We’re getting the whole family together. So. He’s got three girls. You saw. 29, 27, 2…I don’t know what he did with the key, he had a key.
RAINJITA: We don’t need a sweater or anything. Are you happy?
MOTHER: I’m so happy he’s doing good. He told me he sent a letter to Lillian. They sent it back. I don’t know why they did that. Probably…
RAINJITA: The post office probably because if noone’s living at the house then…
TRAFFIC
RAINJITA: We’ll never get out of here.
9:44
RAINJITA: Do you want to run up? Do you want to go back up?
MOTHER: I’ve got to go get…
RAINJITA: He’s got… What’d he say?
MOTHER: We’ve got to stay overnight.
RAINJITA: Are you going to run up? Can you get a shawl for me? She’s going to get a cigarette. I’ve got your toothbrush.
CAR DOOR OPENS, ENGINE STARTS.
RAINJITA: Here we go.
FAINT RADIO, RUSTLING NOISE
RAINJITA: The good news is my mom found her brother. It took us a day and it’s beautiful and now we’re going to drive to Suan where my mom grew up.
11:26
IN CAR W/ RADIO ON
MOTHER: …they got this note saying she call. I say when did you call? He goes this morning, 11 o’clock. That was pretty good, huh? We got in here and the owner. I thought oh we’re not going to find him. All these people, all this. Somebody says go to KBS I say oh… we were almost, we were going to go to Suan this morning on the train. On the train we were going to go to Suan. I say no we wait, phone call.
RAINJITA: Mom, how are you doing?
MOTHER: Good. Excited. Now you going to go Suan so you can check it out. See how different. Years ago it didn’t have nothing.
RAINJITA: What did it look like when you left?
MOTHER: We had a city but we live in a small town, but I’m not sure.
RAINJITA: That many developments?
MOTHER: Not like this.
RAINJITA: And cars.
MOTHER: No, no car. Thirty years ago, no car. And now everybody drive a car. Wow. It’s bigger than in America. KOREAN so that’s probably why nobody there and I move. They probably keep sending back. KOREAN nobody there. Then I KOREAN. I told her write it, she never did. She lost it somewhere. Remember I gave you address?
RAINJITA: Yes.
OUT OF THE CAR – HOUSE?
14:02
RAINJITA: The girls don’t live here?
MOTHER: No.
RAINJITA: They do.
KOREAN
RAINJITA: They live here? Are they going to come?
MOTHER: Yeah. They all went to work. Oh, that’s beautiful. Isn’t that beautiful? She does good.
BEEPING
RAINJITA: My style. No furniture.
BROTHER: KOREAN (ON THE PHONE?) KEEPS DIALING AND TALKING ON THE PHONE THROUGHOUT
RAINJITA: I want that dog to come over here. They’re so cute. What do you think? What’s he saying?
MOTHER: I’m very happy. I’m happy. I’m doing good. I worry about him all the time, but he’s doing good, I don’t worry about him. Doing good. Okay. He’s got a beautiful wife. Come on. I’m tired. KOREAN Oh, she don’t have. She have the same thing. I don’t wear glass either. Come on, come on sweetie. Isn’t she beautiful? I’m taking one home.
RAINJITA: Cute. So what do you think about Suan now that you see it?
MOTHER: It’s nothing like where I used to know. It all was mountain, all tore out all this housing. Big city. And nice house too, it’s not cheap. Isn’t that gorgeous. His wife must be religious.
RAINJITA: What makes you think that?
MOTHER: Because the way he look.
RAINJITA: Where are we and what does it look like? Describe where we are?
MOTHER: That’s my brother’s house. We got here, he pick us up in the hotel, drove down to Suan. His house is the ninth floor, beautiful. That’s like two little dogs, he’s got three daughters, they’re all doing good. And he’s calling people to tell them to come over and meet me.
RAINJITA: Tell me if there’s furniture here, or what it looks like?
MOTHER: This is Korean style house and Korean people doesn’t believe in a lot of furniture. So I wish it in America. They got everything they need. They don’t need all this furniture.
18:25
RAINJITA: It’s nice to see the kids outside playing.
MOTHER: Oh, no. I got one more…there you are. Ah, now I can. That’s good. He looks so young.
RAINJITA: Nice picture. Handsome.
MOTHER: It doesn’t look like you. Dark. He looks so young. Come on, good. Now I’ve got to take you and her.
RAINJITA: Okay, should I put this down?
MOTHER: Yeah down. Beautiful house. Yeah. Yes, thank you.
RAINJITA: Do you want to take one with mine too? Me and him.
MOTHER: Oh, this come out good.
RAINJITA: You’ve got to put it over on top. One, two, three.
MOTHER:I can’t see nothing, honey. Okay, one, two, three cheese. He looks good. How come I can’t take pictures like that?
RAINJITA: Do you do meditation?
MOTHER: He does Taikwondo. Everybody does taikwando here.
20:53
MOTHER: I’ve got to take more picture later. I like this picture. He thought he was old. We’re not old. We’re only fifty-nine. Fifty-nine? KOREAN
BROTHER: Yes.
RAINJITA: That dog posed for me.
MOTHER: Yeah. Same as my husband. See, I was right? About his age.
RAINJITA: Well we found your brother.
MOTHER: Yes we did.
RAINJITA: Now we’re at his house.
MOTHER: He’ll be so surprised.
RAINJITA: Who’s coming over tonight?
MOTHER: My brother, my sister, his kids, some friend, we have party tonight. He had an argument with his wife this morning.
RAINJITA: Why?
MOTHER: I said because of me, he said no. They were arguing something anyway. She went somewhere because she was mad.
RAINJITA: We’ll stay here tonight?
MOTHER: Supposed to. We’re not going to go home. We can’t drive home. That’s a long way. We’re going to go outside take some of these pictures. Beautiful. KOREAN
23:13
MOTHER: Everybody’s in the city. Too many. This is nice, you’ve got all these mountains. Look at all the building down there too. Wow. That’s what we forgot to get. The kettle this morning. Hey mommy, where’s the mommy? KOREAN they got pillow. They’ve got beds, they’re going to take it out. Look, look, look.
RAINJITA: I’ll show him my dog.
MOTHER: I’ll show him my cat. Look. That’s a bean sprout. That’s how they grow, and they pull them out. Look. This building is nice.
BROTHER: KOREAN
MOTHER: See? We’ll never get away from Suan.
RAINJITA: My dog.
HE ADMIRES PICTURES
MOTHER: Her boyfriend.
RAINJITA: Nice picture, huh? I look pretty there too.
MOTHER: Yeah, that’s nice. That’s mine. Hard to see.
26:26
NEW TRACK
RAINJITA: Can you ask him how he feels about seeing you after so many years?
MOTHER: Want to know how you happy, smile, cry, how do you feel? She want to know how you feel?
BROTHER: Korea KOREAN. You go.
DOOR OPENS
MOTHER: Hi!
KOREAN
MOTHER: Youngest one. I haven’t seen him in 33 years!
RAINJITA: Okay, keep going.
MOTHER: I left in ’72. she want to know how you see me is happy or not happy.
THEY DISCUSS IN KOREAN.
MOTHER: He don’t know what to say. All these years and I still wonder, he still alive or dead? I don’t know. LAUGHS We just don’t have nothing to say. We’re so heavy. Don’t know.
KOREAN – MAN & WOMAN – RADIO OR TV IS ON IN THE BACK
MOTHER: Because I come here they fight. I hope not.
KOREAN
MOTHER: She don’t have to worry. I’m not that bad.
RAINJITA: Why were they fighting?
KOREAN
30:50
MOTHER: He didn’t change at all. I got old, I got wrinkle. He don’t even have a wrinkle.
KOREAN
MOTHER: Give me the picture you show my brother. Oh, I’ve got it. We’re going to stay here 17 more days. So. Granddaughter.
KOREAN
MOTHER: She’s not married. That’s the other.
RAINJITA: My brother.
MOTHER: That come out of my camera. I should have gotten. He looks like her. She’s not, she’s not. See where you got the hair?
RAINJITA: The hair.
33:25
NEW TRACK
MOTHER: That’s her grandmother.
RAINJITA: Grandmother.
KOREAN
34:55
MOTHER: That’s now. The daughter. She’s doctor. Graduation a doctor.
KOREAN
MOTHER: I just got married two years ago. She took picture. She went. He was 58 he got married. She on the other side…
NEW TRACK
36:10
MOTHER: Oh my. Really? She’s young. Remember another sister we had? She died. She had stomach cancer. Same age. 59. oh my goodness, look at that. She’s beautiful.
RAINJITA: She died?
KOREAN
MOTHER: I want this picture. You got to give me copy of that. I told you he was a good-looking man. I can’t believe he doesn’t have a potbelly.
KOREAN
RAINJITA: What’s that?
MOTHER: My younger brother’s got that many kids.
RAINJITA: No boys?
MOTHER: No. We got one.
RAINJITA: That’s so big!
MOTHER: That’s beautiful.
RAINJITA: I want to go.
MOTHER: She wants to go. She loves these things.
38:26
RAINJITA: Oh, Sri Lanka?
MOTHER: No. Oh.
RAINJITA: What he say?
MOTHER: it don’t stand up no more. It fell down because a tree fell down. She loves that stuff. Look at that.
KOREAN
MOTHER: Look at that. He look like a refugee from Cambodia. Skinny. LAUGHS
KOREAN
MOTHER: That look like in San Francisco.
RAINJITA: California.
MOTHER: That’s not California, honey.
RAINJITA: No. I know.
MOTHER: That looks like the San Francisco golden gate.
RAINJITA: Where I live. Bay Area. Same.
MOTHER: San Francisco. Gate. How did you guys? Wow, you got big family.
KOREAN
MOTHER: She’d like to go see that. We got 17 days.
RAINJITA: Seventeen.
MOTHER: We leave in 18. Oh my god. Only thing missing, me. Look at that. Oh my god, I can’t believe it, that’s big.
RAINJITA: Working hard.
MOTHER: Look at the horse. You guys went vacation. Look at this? Look at that, wow.
41:42
MOTHER: Everybody got a car now here. I always say no car. Houses are all flat like this hill. Look at that. You see the snow? That’s how much snow they get. They like snow.
KOREAN
MOTHER: She don’t know much Korean. She goes: KOREAN. Isn’t that pretty. KOREAN
RAINJITA: Is this close?
MOTHER: They cut my colon, the intestine? They cut all of mine out, I’ve only got a little bit left. The cancer just so… they cut the stomach out, chopped it all up, on me. Eh, I’ve got to eat. I’ve got to watch what I eat. Nice. I can’t believe how changed Korea is. Look at that…You go get.
KOREAN
MOTHER: Who are your neighbors next door? Wow, you’ve got all the kids grown, you can go again.
RAINJITA: Mom we can take a digital picture of the picture you want.
MOTHER: So nice. She looks like her mother.
RAINJITA: Who’s that?
MOTHER: My brother’s…just the face. Look at that.
RAINJITA: Yeah. Big forehead.
MOTHER: See?
RAINJITA: One boy.
MOTHER: Yeah, that’s it. One boy. You know something, she does look like you, honey. The face.
RAINJITA: How old is she?
KOREAN
MOTHER: 23.
RAINJITA: I was born first. She looks like me.
MOTHER: Oh my goodness sake. She married, she got grandkid. She married, she got baby. Big family now.
RAINJITA: Lots of girls.
MOTHER: Yeah we got lots of girls. Two boys. You have two girls too. Maybe you get boy.
KOREAN
MOTHER: No granddaughter. Oh, you got two granddaughter.
RAINJITA: So they’re all my cousins too. I have a lot of cousins.
MOTHER: Look at that.
RAINJITA: Shall we take a picture of the picture?
MOTHER: You can go ahead.