In May, 2008, Amy Tan wrote a lengthy article for National Geographic about the DiMen village in GuiZhou Provence. This village is about 30 minutes from Liping, and has received great attention as a result of the article. Her article is detailed and beautiful, with wonderful photos. Here's the link to the article:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/china/guizhou/amy-tan-text
Jake will be taking me to this village on Wednesday, if the weather cooperates. I am delighted to get out to a village and witness this remote life first hand.
Saturday, April 9... In Liping
Last night we went out to dinner at a beautiful Dong restaurant to say goodbye to one of the teachers (and a good friend of Jake and Monica's) who is moving to a new city
where her husband works. There were 9 adults and 5 kids there, and we had our own small room. A typical dinner out consists of many dishes (I think we ordered 10 different things) placed onto a large lazy susan in the middle of the table. Tea is provided for everyone (apparently the price of tea in China is $0... it's served like water in restaurants) and one large container of rice is brought to the table. Everyone has a small bowl that they put the rice in, and takes bits of the dishes from the center of the table and puts it on top of their rice.
Instead of having their own dishwasher at the restaurant, many places send their dishes out to another business that sanitizes dishes and chopsticks. For a few cents per place setting, they are cleaned, packaged an wrapped in plastic, then sent back to the restaurant.
Saturday morning, Jake and I took Creed to the school (Liping Language School, or the Wei Xiao {pronounced way-shaow}). Creed obviously doesn't need to learn english, but he goes because his friends attend and he provides a good opportunity for the kids to practice their English. The class has about 10 kids in it and lasts for about 2 hours on Saturdays.
In the afternoon, we went to pick up an order of western-type foods that Jake had ordered from GiuYang. They were glad to get stocked up on olive oil, pasta, parmesean cheese and butter! On the way home, we stopped at the market and bought lots of fresh fruits and veggies, then came home and 'jikked' the fruits and veggies. When Jake and Mono lived in Kenya, the brand of bleach they used to clean everything was called JIK (pronounced jeek). They started calling the cleaning process 'jiking' and it's stuck. I'll go home and think of cleaning my kitchen sink with bleach as 'jiking' the sink. ;-) One of the funny things that I'll take home with me. Jikking consists of soaking everything in a solution of water with a couple drops of bleach in it to kill all the 'stuff' that is floating around in the street and all over the stuff laying out for sale.
Sunday, April 10... in Liping
We started our day off by listening to the NCAA National Hockey Championship game on the computer. The University of MN Duluth (where Jake and I are from) WON the national title in overtime at about 10am, Liping time!! It was a great way to start our day. We had some praise time and study time on Sunday morning, then had a quiet day around the house. Jake and Monica went out in the afternoon to have a meeting with their colleagues and I hung out with Creed and Chloe. We went out for dinner in the evening with friends again on Sunday evening. Though it sounds like we eat out a lot, you need to remember that each dish cost around $2.50, so the meal for 4 adults and 4 kids came to around $20. A bowl of noodles on the street cost around 4 Quai, (the exchange here is 6.5 quai to the american dollar), so around 60 cents. Not too bad for a big bowl of noodles! A wedge of pineapple from the pineapple lady is 1 quai, or about 15 cents. The fruit is unbelievably inexpensive... we brought home 3 grocery bags of fresh picked fruits and veggies on Saturday and paid about $5 for all of it. Good grief... I pay that for one bag of apples!
Monday, April 11... in Liping
Wow... the city awoke early today. At 5:30, the construction guys working on the other end of the apartment building started assembling a crane behind the building. Because the building is made of concrete, the sound carries beautifully the length of the block to my apartment. Jake and Monica are right beside the crane assembly, so were treated to even louder banging! The puppy across the street appears to be having his first day of confinement, and started yelping at around 6am and hollered continuously until I left home at 9. I'm wonder if it would have been quieter to be in the apartment with the dog, instead of across the street!
Monica and I went out to see Old Town Liping this afternoon. This section of Liping has been preserved for the sake of history and tourism. The buildings are very, very old... some built in the late 1800's and early 1900's. There is an old ch.u! rch that was built by German m'snaries long before the country closed to that kind of work. Those people had to leave China during the 2nd world war, when Japan and Germany were allies, but Jake has met the son of one of them at a conference in LosAngeles. (begin humming "it's a small world" now...)
When we are out in the city, we often run into Jake's former students. I am impressed, but not surprised, at the great affection with which Jake and Mono are greeted. It is obvious that they have built deep relationships with these people, and that they are respected by the people in the community. Though I appreciate Jake because he's my brother, this has really opened my eyes to the great gifts of language learning and relationship building that Jake and Monica possess. It's been amazing to witness them at 'home' here.
My time here is fast drawing to a close. I will visit the language school Tuesday morning to visit in English with the students, and Jake will take me to DiMin village on Wednesday. I fly to GuangZhou on Thursday afternoon, then to Taipei and on home on Friday. Funny... I leave Taipei at 11pm on Friday and land in San Francisco at 7:30pm Friday. I believe the flight is 14 hours again, so I expect to be pretty discombobulated for several days after returning home!
If any of you have any sure-fire remedies for jet-lag, DO SHARE!!
Thanks for reading, wish you were here...
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