*Reader beware: this might be the longest blog ever written. So much to share : )
Liying and I spent the past week visiting the villages where CWEF will implement water systems during the 2011 fiscal year. As part of our intentional efforts to build relationships with the villagers, we drank tea in the villagers' homes, spent time with the school children, and endured many toasts during dinners with the village leaders. (talk about being immersed in the culture).
It was sobering to visit village after village and witness the hardships that so many people in rural Yunnan face. Hauling water jugs on their backs five times a day. Educated only through the 2nd grade. Homes built with adobe. No doctor. Working every day in their fields only to make a salary of USD $71 per year. Yet through it all, the villagers have so much joy in their lives; and they were so kind to welcome us into their homes. The pictures below help to tell their stories:
A genuine smile
Wa minority leaders
Village home
Kitchen and bed, side-by-side
New friends
Meeting this man broke my heart. He broke his foot last week as he was walking on a steep path outside of the village. He has not seen a doctor because there is no doctor in the village and he cannot afford to go to the neighboring town. Instead, he has attempted to treat his foot himself (see picture below) by wrapping a towel around his foot and tying a plastic bag around it. He hopes it will heal within the next 2-3 months.
When I saw this man, he had no crutches; instead, he hobbled around, gingerly placing little weight on his foot. He expressed great distress, not due to the extreme pain in his foot, but because he is unable to work in the fields. As a result, he has had to rely on his relatives to feed him and loan him money.
What a view while hanging clothes out to dry!
One of our government partners teaching me to play Mahjong (China's most popular gambling game)
This villager's foot tells the tale of years of hard physical labor
Wild lilies growing in the village
Wa villagers singing me their minority drinking song as we toasted (I almost sang them the Theta drinking song in response : )
Springtime in China is the most beautiful time of the year. The rice terraces are flooded with water and the rice has just been planted, so you simultaneously see the green tips of the rice with the water reflecting beneath it. Incredible.
A water buffalo plowing a rice terrace.
First the terrace is flooded with water; then, a water buffalo plows the field. Next, the farmer transplants the rice into the terrace.
The terraces in the background are green because they already have rice in them. The ones at the bottom of the photo have been flooded but have not been plowed.
Sweet sweet baby... before she started screaming : )
When we first met this woman, she was hauling water jugs in a basket on her back. She was making the 2 kilometer trip back from the well.
The same woman holding her granddaughter
A village school for 1st and 2nd Grade students. Once reaching 3rd grade, the students must walk 10 kilometers to the elementary and middle school. Due to the distance, the students will live in the school.
Studying hard. He was doing his math homework, writing out addition and subtraction problems.
The students and I gathered outside the one-room schoolhouse
The students' shoes piled outside of the classroom
The village leader helping me down the mountain. Such a gentleman :)
25 year-old Li Za Mu carries water from the river in these buckets. He and his sister never went to school and live together because their parents have died. They farm a few rice fields, however, the crop is only enough for them to eat. For two months out of the year, he works outside of the village, hauling stones to make enough money to support himself and his sister. When asked what he wants most for the village, he said, "I hope to have a water system that provides enough water for all of the families."
The water that the villagers drink
Carrying jugs to fill with water
A water trough that 5 families share. The walls are cement and covered in moss; sometimes there is no water, so the families hike to the river to bring water to their homes.
All of the villagers were so kind and treated us with unparalleled hospitality. This man was so generous to give me three of his prized feathers as a welcome gift.
Uneducated and over 80 years old, this man has lost his sight and lives with his son.
While eating at one of the restaurants, I heard this pig's squeals as it was slaughtered. A while later I walked by the kitchen and saw him laying in this basin. Now, is it just me, or is this pig TOTALLY smirking at me?!? I think he knows that I am going to suffer as a result of his death when I'm forced to eat slices of his fat, his feet, or his stomach....so terrible.
Homemade rice cakes that one of the villagers served us with tea as we visited her home.
Adorable!
This village home uses a tree branch as a plant stand. Love it.
Not all moments are captured by a camera, however. In the last village we visited, the people were gathering to celebrate the birth of a new baby, born two weeks ago. As I wrote in a previous blog post, women are not allowed to leave their room for 30 days after the birth (they can't shower, brush their teeth, or read. They must wear a hat and eat hard boiled eggs with sugar as it is supposed to replace the blood lost during childbirth). Liying and I had a nice time visiting with the villagers and proud family to celebrate the new baby, but let's be serious, we really just wanted to see the mother and the baby. The family was so kind to invite us into their home to visit with the mother. We left our bags and cameras outside (as it is not allowed to photograph them), and the grandmother led us by candlelight into the dark bedroom. The mother (only 19 years old!) sat on the wooden bed with a crocheted stocking cap on, rocking her first born son with a timid smile on her face. She had never seen a foreigner before, and here I was sharing an intimate moment with her and her newborn son.
We smiled at each other, and I told her that her baby is beautiful. Liying chatted with the new mother and grandmother for a little bit. We all shared many smiles as they struggled to communicate (because they never went to school, the mother and grandmother only know a small amount of Mandarin. In the village, they only speak minority dialect). After about ten minutes, enough trust was built that they offered to let me hold the baby! Two weeks old, he was such a small little bundle. He was SO small and absolutely perfect as he slept soundly in my arms. I rocked him back and forth and marveled at the gift of life He gives us. Sitting by candlelight in a village home with a dirt floor, loving on this two-week old Chinese baby boy could never be fully captured by a camera.
