The crowd grew as they walked, and before long, everyone had gathered in the open space before the ancestral hall.
The Village Chief sat before the ancestral hall, his brow furrowed in worry as he puffed on his long-stemmed pipe.
Several people ran up to ask, "Chief, what's this all about? Why'd you call us all here?"
The Village Chief kept his head down. "Go on now. I'll speak once everyone is here."
Bored with the wait, the crowd began to chat idly. The main topic of conversation was the ongoing drought. Several of the poorer families in the village had already run out of food and were surviving only by foraging for wild vegetables on the back hills.
They all sighed. 'How are we supposed to survive?'
Seeing that the open space was now packed with people, the Village Chief shouted, "Is everyone here?"
A smattering of disorganized replies came from the crowd: "We're here."
"Chief, if you have something to say, please say it. We still have to get back and cook."
