Here my story of my trip to the Yunnan province to China will continue
with my visit to the Dai village. After having just survived a horribly
cold night sleeping on rough wooden boards in a room with only three
walls pulling up to the warm welcoming Dai village was very exciting.
The village is on the border between Myanmar (Burma) and China so it is
on the southern most border of the Yunnan province. It was pleasantly
warm and the fields were filled with banana trees. The village was
beautiful with tons of flowers, children running around in the sun, and
villagers sitting outside selling handmade crafts. It was so nice to be
walking around in the warm sun breathing in the clean fragrant air! My
host mother was extremely nice and made us a delicious lunch. We had
sweet sticky rice with peanuts, delicious fresh cucumber, and a bunch of
other dishes that I actually really enjoyed eating. After lunch our host
mother took us on a tour of the village, which included a rice wine
tasting. The tasting started with a “mild” local rice wine which tasting
nothing like wine and was strong enough to make a couple of the girls
with me cough. Then we tried three more wines which increased in
strength ending in a clear “wine” that triggered several peoples gag
reflexes and tasting like drinking rubbing alcohol. So after four or
five shots of progressively stronger liquor the old villager running the
tasting gave us another shot of the first yellow wine we tasted which
now tasted suspiciously good. Needless to say we all left the wine
tasting laughing happily with smiling faces. That night we had another
delicious meal prepared by our host mother and then went to the village
party where we all learned local village dances and danced around a
giant bond fire. We also reciprocated the cultural exchange of dance my
teaching all the children in the village the chicken dance. After the
party I went back to my host house with the other four girls in my group
and we went to bed slumber party style on the floor of the living room.
I feel asleep content, happy that I didn’t have to wear my coat to sleep
and happy to have a full stomach.
The next village we visited was a Bai village. Unfortunately the food
was not delicious like the Dai village. Instead the dinner my host
mother made me consisted of fish with bones and scales, lard soaked in
spices, and several unidentifiable foods that looked like organs and
worms. I tried most of the food and then tried to kill the awful tastes
in my mouth with some rice. In general I ate a lot of rice in Yunnan,
lots and lots of rice. The Bai people are known for their dances so the
village party was full of beautiful village dances. The village had a
small stage that had a band of local men playing traditional instruments
and providing the music for most of the dances. After the party we went
back to our host house and then went on an epic adventure to go to the
bathroom. We left the house and went down the windy path through the
village, we had to jump over some chasms in the path, avoid the piles of
poop, duck under the low hanging roofs, walk down a hill, go over a
small river, walk on giant paving stones across some muddy grass, and
walk to a field where there was a wooden stall with a hole to go to the
bathroom in. As I was waiting for the other girls I looked up at the
stars and then couldn’t take my eyes off them. The sky was gorgeous! It
was like being in a planetarium with every start in the sky visible and
shining bright. I could see all the constellations and more starts than
I can count twinkling in the beautiful sky. I just stood there thinking,
“Oh my God, I am standing in the middle of nowhere China in a village
staring at one of the most beautiful end to a challenging day of cultural immersion.
The final village we staying in was a Naxi village in Northern Yunnan.
The village is surrounded by mountains, some of which are the beginnings
of the foothills of the Himalayas. The mountains were absolutely
beautiful. The tallest mountain was gorgeous – caped with beautiful snow
with clouds clinging to its peaks looking like all the majestic
mountains I’ve seen on planet earth and national geographic movies.
Also, knowing that on the other side of the mountain lay the Tibetan
cultural region made me more meditative and peaceful. My host mother was
very nice and since all her children had moved to the city to work there
were twenty girls from my program staying in her house. Ten of us slept
in the attic, which was surprisingly warm since she gave us a ton of
blankets. Like all the other villages we had dinner with our host family
and then went to the village party to see traditional village dances and
share some American culture by singing old rock classics and modern
songs like “Dynamite” which Lily (one of our staff members) translated
told the villagers was a song about the celebration of life, which I
guess it kind of is.
It was strange to think that our trip was ending the next day. We had
been traveling through Yunnan for almost two weeks and it seemed like a
different world, a totally different China. Being in Yunnan has made me
rethink how I feel about China and has really changed how I understand
China. Staying with ethnic minorities, especially in their villages, was
an eye opening experience. Although many times the people and places
seemed so vastly different from home in many of the villages I was
struck by the generosity and friendship the people shared with us. And
although they don’t have toilets or heat I found that they like to
celebrate life the same way my giant polish family does back in America –
with good food, booze, and a band.
The Bai village women
Me in the Naxi village
with my visit to the Dai village. After having just survived a horribly
cold night sleeping on rough wooden boards in a room with only three
walls pulling up to the warm welcoming Dai village was very exciting.
The village is on the border between Myanmar (Burma) and China so it is
on the southern most border of the Yunnan province. It was pleasantly
warm and the fields were filled with banana trees. The village was
beautiful with tons of flowers, children running around in the sun, and
villagers sitting outside selling handmade crafts. It was so nice to be
walking around in the warm sun breathing in the clean fragrant air! My
host mother was extremely nice and made us a delicious lunch. We had
sweet sticky rice with peanuts, delicious fresh cucumber, and a bunch of
other dishes that I actually really enjoyed eating. After lunch our host
mother took us on a tour of the village, which included a rice wine
tasting. The tasting started with a “mild” local rice wine which tasting
nothing like wine and was strong enough to make a couple of the girls
with me cough. Then we tried three more wines which increased in
strength ending in a clear “wine” that triggered several peoples gag
reflexes and tasting like drinking rubbing alcohol. So after four or
five shots of progressively stronger liquor the old villager running the
tasting gave us another shot of the first yellow wine we tasted which
now tasted suspiciously good. Needless to say we all left the wine
tasting laughing happily with smiling faces. That night we had another
delicious meal prepared by our host mother and then went to the village
party where we all learned local village dances and danced around a
giant bond fire. We also reciprocated the cultural exchange of dance my
teaching all the children in the village the chicken dance. After the
party I went back to my host house with the other four girls in my group
and we went to bed slumber party style on the floor of the living room.
I feel asleep content, happy that I didn’t have to wear my coat to sleep
and happy to have a full stomach.
An old Dai village man trying to get us to drink more "rice wine".
The next village we visited was a Bai village. Unfortunately the food
was not delicious like the Dai village. Instead the dinner my host
mother made me consisted of fish with bones and scales, lard soaked in
spices, and several unidentifiable foods that looked like organs and
worms. I tried most of the food and then tried to kill the awful tastes
in my mouth with some rice. In general I ate a lot of rice in Yunnan,
lots and lots of rice. The Bai people are known for their dances so the
village party was full of beautiful village dances. The village had a
small stage that had a band of local men playing traditional instruments
and providing the music for most of the dances. After the party we went
back to our host house and then went on an epic adventure to go to the
bathroom. We left the house and went down the windy path through the
village, we had to jump over some chasms in the path, avoid the piles of
poop, duck under the low hanging roofs, walk down a hill, go over a
small river, walk on giant paving stones across some muddy grass, and
walk to a field where there was a wooden stall with a hole to go to the
bathroom in. As I was waiting for the other girls I looked up at the
stars and then couldn’t take my eyes off them. The sky was gorgeous! It
was like being in a planetarium with every start in the sky visible and
shining bright. I could see all the constellations and more starts than
I can count twinkling in the beautiful sky. I just stood there thinking,
“Oh my God, I am standing in the middle of nowhere China in a village
staring at one of the most beautiful end to a challenging day of cultural immersion.
The final village we staying in was a Naxi village in Northern Yunnan.
The village is surrounded by mountains, some of which are the beginnings
of the foothills of the Himalayas. The mountains were absolutely
beautiful. The tallest mountain was gorgeous – caped with beautiful snow
with clouds clinging to its peaks looking like all the majestic
mountains I’ve seen on planet earth and national geographic movies.
Also, knowing that on the other side of the mountain lay the Tibetan
cultural region made me more meditative and peaceful. My host mother was
very nice and since all her children had moved to the city to work there
were twenty girls from my program staying in her house. Ten of us slept
in the attic, which was surprisingly warm since she gave us a ton of
blankets. Like all the other villages we had dinner with our host family
and then went to the village party to see traditional village dances and
share some American culture by singing old rock classics and modern
songs like “Dynamite” which Lily (one of our staff members) translated
told the villagers was a song about the celebration of life, which I
guess it kind of is.
It was strange to think that our trip was ending the next day. We had
been traveling through Yunnan for almost two weeks and it seemed like a
different world, a totally different China. Being in Yunnan has made me
rethink how I feel about China and has really changed how I understand
China. Staying with ethnic minorities, especially in their villages, was
an eye opening experience. Although many times the people and places
seemed so vastly different from home in many of the villages I was
struck by the generosity and friendship the people shared with us. And
although they don’t have toilets or heat I found that they like to
celebrate life the same way my giant polish family does back in America –
with good food, booze, and a band.
The Bai village women
Me in the Naxi village
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