WHAT A TRIP

Thanks to the Communist Party's 60th anniversary and Mid-Autumn Festival, we got a week off of teaching and traveled to Southern China (Guizhou Province) with a dozen other BYU China teacher couples. We mostly visited Miao Minority villages, an ethnic group who were driven out of the flatlands into the mountains years ago. They still live in their mountain villages, growing rice on mountain slopes to sustain life. As our bus drove day after day through these winding mountain roads, I never tired of looking out the window at the constant flow of terraced rice paddies. These people use every inch of ground and it's a sight to behold. I snitched a few photos from the web as our camera couldn't capture the grandure of it all. Hope you get the idea.

AND HERE ARE A FEW SHOTS OF OUR VILLAGE VISITS. SOME WERE VERY TOURIST-ORIENTED WHILE OTHERS WERE VERY "DOWN-HOME". THIS HARVEST TIME OF YEAR, EVERYWHERE YOU GO YOU SEE CORN OR RICE SPREAD OUT TO DRY ON THE ROAD OR ON FLAT ROOF TOPS, ETC.









DAVE COULDN'T RESIST WHEN HE SAW A FEW VILLAGE CHILDREN PLAYING CHINESE CHECKERS.



THIS BEAUTIFUL VILLAGE WAS VERY TOURIST-ORIENTED




ALTHOUGH WE LIVE IN CHINA, WE WERE AMERICAN TOURISTS AS FAR AS THE LOCALS AND OTHER TOURISTS WERE CONCERNED. ALMOST WITHOUT EXCEPTION, WE WERE THE ONLY CAUCASIONS SURROUNDED BY CHINESE TOURISTS. IT SEEMED STRANGE TO BE SUCH AN ODDITY. CHINESE FREQUENTLY ASKED IF THEY COULD TAKE THEIRPICTURE WITH US.



THE LAST MIAO VILLAGE WE VISITED WAS VERY BACKWARD, ISOLATED AND POOR. (WE TRAVELED THREE AND A HALF HOURS TO GET THERE.) THE BIG YARN HAIR YOU SEE ON THE GIRLS IS TRADITIONALLY WORN TO SCARE AWAY DANGEROUS ANIMALS. THEY HAVE LONG LOCKS OF GRANDMOTHER'S HAIR WOVEN IN WITH IT. WHEN WE FINISHED OUR VISIT AND WERE ABOUT TO BOARD OUR BUS, ONE MEMBER OF OUR GROUP PULLED OUT HIS UKULELE AND SANG TO THE VILLAGE KIDS BEFORE LEAVING. THEIR EYES WERE GLUED ON THAT UKULELE.




AS WE WALKED ALONG A RIVER I REALIZED WASHING CLOTHES IN A WASH MACHINE OR WASHING HAIR WITH INDOOR PLUMBING ARE LUXERIES NOT EVERYONE ENJOYS.


SOME OF THE MOUNTAIN ROADS WE DROVE OVER WOULDN'T PASS MUSTER IN THE USA. (I STUCK MY HEAD OUT THE BUS WINDOW FOR THIS PHOTO.) OUR TOUR BUS BARELY MISSED AN ACCIDENT THAT SENT A TRUCK IN FRONT OF OUR BUS CRASHING INTO A HOUSE NEXT TO THE ROAD. WE DON'T KNOW IF THOSE HIT SURVIVED. FROM THAT DAY ON, WE OFFERED A PRAYER FOR PROTECTION EACH MORNING IN THE BUS. WE PREVIOUSLY HAD NOT DONE THIS BECAUSE OF THE PRESENCE OF OUR CHINESE BUS DRIVER AND TOUR GUIDE. (IT'S ILLEGAL FOR US TO SPEAK OF RELIGION IN FRONT OF CHINESE.) WE RESOLVED THE LEGAL ISSUE BY ASKING OUR DRIVER AND GUIDE TO STAND OUTSIDE THE BUS UNTIL THE PRAYER WAS FINISHED.