My name is Yatika Cotterill. This is a story about my life. I grew up in my home town Ro-et in Issan, North East of Thailand. I grew up with my family in a farm, in a small village in the countryside. Sometimes we were happy and had fun. I was young and there were 9 people in my family: mother, father, 3 older sisters, one older brother, one younger brother, one younger sister and me. My family farm was very big and there we grew rice, which we harvested every year. This became very difficult because it was very hot and all the family came together to help as we didn’t have many machines like they do in England. My father also kept some cows in the land. He also had two big dogs which surprisingly helped in taking care of the cows, the same as sheep dogs do in England. My father always liked to take care of many animals in the farm; chickens, ducks, fish and had a crazy bird that made too much noise early in the morning. I tried to get rid of the bird, so every morning I opened the cage door to get the bird out but the bird always came back. I think he came back because he liked my father very much, as he always took care of them and loved animals. I think all the animals in the farm sensed this. At one point, a long time ago, my father used to be a vet but later in life he had to stop. This is because he had and illness in his hand and couldn’t give injections to animals any more. So now he just takes care of the animals and all the animals love him.
One day my father had an idea to bring ducks into the farm. He bought 3000 ducks and we were very excited. We all helped my parents in the farm. Two months later the ducks started to grow up. My father counted how much money he could get when he sold the ducks. I saw my father walking to examine his ducks. He had a smile on his face. That night my father told us: ‘We are having a special dinner’. We started to eat the meal and my father started asking what everybody wanted, when he had money after selling the ducks.
We had same ideas for example we wanted a new home. After I finished my dinner I went to bed and had very sweet dreams. When I woke up in the morning I heard a sound. My father was sad about what happened in our farm so I went and looked in the farm, and many ducks had died. My father was sad ‘Oh, NO this is my family’s future! What’s happened to my ducks?’ My father went out and found somebody to help and told him what happened. He came back with the vet who started to check the ducks. About two hours later he told my father that the ducks had Bird Flu, and they needed to kill all the ducks. I looked at my father’s face and he was shocked and sad. ‘What does that mean?’ My mother started crying and she was sad. We had lost everything. I felt sad for my family because we worked very hard, taking care of the ducks. After that time my family and I learned that we can’t be lucky all the time but you must stand up when you have something bad happening to you. Two years later my father started keeping ducks again and everything was ok.
Sometimes I think about what happened before and I know life is never easy and luck never stays with you forever. Bad luck stays with you all the time; it comes easily but doesn’t go easily! |
