堂弟放鞭炮欢迎我们，这还是我第一次看见。
可爱的母猪。生了不少小猪呢。
堂叔表演了摘椰子的本领。 
家中放了许多历年来的照片，也有我中学时当学警的模样。
大伙儿骑了单车到附近的海边散步。漂亮极了！
Second Day in Hainan, China – Wenchang, Wenjiao
The day started early as we had arranged to meet auntie Yung at 8.30am and have breakfast together. We also planned to go to a wholesaler's to purchase some sweets and biscuits to bring to the village when visiting grandmother.
Breakfast was at a nearby cafe in a hotel. The cafe was divided into various cubicles offering privacy and cossiness. We had meat bao, lotus paste bao, steamed pork ribs and pork & century egg porridge. After the heavy breakfast, we went to buy biscuits, 3-in-1 drink sachets, milo etc to give out to the villagers later.
The taxi ride to dad's hometown or rather home village took some 45 mins. We almost missed the turn off the main road if not for sharp-eyed mum who, uncharacteristically, spotted a pagoda at the turn to the village. After another 7-8 mins drive, the village appeared before our eyes, peaceful, old, quiet and homely. Upon our arrival, fire crackers were set off, both as celebration for the homecoming of a former village boy and also to inform other villagers of the occasion – thats what some of the biscuits are for. I also met for the first time my dad's auntie (wife of my grandfather's brother) who welcomed us eagerly, opening her arms and showing us her white and full set of (false) teeth.
Our ancestral home was clean and rather modern thanks to some renovation in the recent years. The courtyard was big and faced the main building which housed the living room, the ancestral tablets and the original bedrooms. The adjacent wing housed store rooms where rice, dried sweet potato and other foodstuffs are stored for the winter.
But first things first. My dad had to go fetch his mother who had to be invited back to the family home since she had remarried.
When my grandmother appeared, she was like a joy. She was tiny, had a wrinkled face, left a few teeth but her stoutness, optimism was clearly evident and this made her so pretty to look at. She immediately reached out for me, our hands touched and made up for the long lost years and distance between us.
The atmosphere was heartwarming. Nobody cried this round, unlike the first homecoming three years ago when it was said that my dad and his folks cried like babies, there were instead firm handshakes, warm smiles, a gentle hug for the two grandmothers and eager banter to catch up.
Of course, being conversant only in Mandarin and English, I am unable to converse with the two grannies who spoke only Hainanese. I could only smile at them, listening to them talking to me kindly continously, knowing that what was spoken was not as important as the interaction itself.
My uncle Yi Liang, now head of family, performed the ancestral rites, paying respects to our ancestors. It was touching to see the earnest respect that these simple folks have for the old ways. Because the modern world and all its complicity and confusion have not yet influenced them, you see in them respect for elders, courtesy, politeness and forthrightness. I think in Singapore, we have lost almost all of these.
Lunch was a homemade affair, the chickens were straight from the farm, the vegetables from their own land and of course the chef was one of the older uncles. Fuel for the stove was for fire wood – dried bamboo and fallen trees.
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