毡匠老马一家

老马是毡匠，手艺父传。他生活在“贫瘠甲天下”的西海固地区海原县一个贫瘠山村。
十年九旱，这几年又连年大旱庄稼无收，吃水要花钱去拉。他们只好去打工，抓发菜，去矿区砸煤…
娶儿媳妇欠的高利贷让老马一家喘不过气来。
作为穆斯林，虔诚的信仰就像空气一样到处伴随着他们。
然而贫困就像一个无法摆脱的魔鬼，他们的生活异常艰难。儿媳妇就要生了，胎位不正，进不起医院，他们只能把母子平安托付给命运…

The Xiji, Haiyuan and Guyuan county in Ningxia province is always famous for its title ‘champion of barren’. Lao Ma and his family live in a mountain village in Haiyuan.

The Lao Ma’s family, in total 7-8 members, work desperately on the dry-barren soil while the poorness follows them as a shadow.The lack of money forces he to go into debts in all kinds of situations, such as transporting water, seeing doctor and so on. The usury he owns for the marriage of his son drives him almost crazy: ‘I can just kill myself’. Lao Ma and his sons go out to work on the construction sites, go into the mountains to pick up black-moss and go to the mine to collect leftover coal.

However, as Muslims, their faith in Islam is very devout. At the moment, Lao Ma’s daughter-in-law is going to give birth. However, the fetus is not at the right position. Since it is impossible to afford a treatment in hospital, they are praying for peace and hoping the fetus will turn to the right position by itself…

多年前来，西海固抓发菜人的形象时时呈现：一辆辆由木棍加长加宽的手扶拖拉机上或躺或坐三四十人，包裹着土色的被子，木棍下吊着熏黑了的锅和灶具。他们是抓发菜的。
我知道他们都来自以“贫瘠甲天下”闻名的西海固。但他们从哪里来，要到哪里去，平日他们怎么生活，他们怎样看别人，他们怎样看自己… 这些问题时而清晰时而模糊，挥之不去。
无法战胜自己，我去了他们的家乡，去教了一年小学，认识了他们很多人，认识了老马，知道了他们很多，不知道的还很多。想起他们心中依旧茫然，却多了惆怅。

Several years ago, the image of Xi Hai Gu people who grasp the hair moss often appeared to me. On a tractor, lengthened and widened by wooden sticks, thirty to forty people are sitting or lying down, they are covered by quilts with the color of soil; their pans, which are blackened by smoke, are tied on the wooden sticks. They are the very ones that grasp the hair moss.
 
I knew these people are from an area called Xi Hai Gu, which is famous for its barrens.  But from which place are they exactly coming and to where are they precisely going, what are their daily lives look like, how do they look at themselves and other people…? These questions were sticking to my mind, sometimes clear sometimes vague, I could not remove them.
 
Couldn't repress my desires any longer, I went to their hometown and became a primary school teacher. During my teaching year, I got familiar with a lot of local people including Lao Ma. I have known a lot more about them but the unknowns are still too much. Nowadays, when I think about these people, my heart is still vacant but turns more disconsolate.

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