I woke up feeling everything but fresh and perky, but there were no mirrors around so what to do? The secret wish for a warm shower became even stronger when I stepped outside to be greeted by rain, cold winds and mud. Oh happy day! After a brekkie consisting of mangoes and lychees (Vance had some biscuits, -driver perks) we headed off to Daxi pre school.
The school was pretty small and there were only about 10 kids aged 4-7. None of them spoke a word of English so I didn’t have to worry about neither small frogs nor badly drawn rabbits. Those kids were actually so shy and small that I almost felt sorry for them. They were sort of sitting in their own dirt, dressed in their small jackets and shoes and they looked so scared. When we arrived they were practicing mandarin, drawing pictures and Chinese characters on the black board. Lotta later explained to me that the reason why they are so small is because their diet doesn’t consist of enough nutrition. They don’t necessarily eat too little, but they eat too little greens and nutrition and that’s why they grow so little and sometimes not at all. But YID is having health seminar to improve the diets.
The rest of the day plan became a bit messy, due to nature taking on a very messy (read: muddy!) look.. After the visit to the pre school we were supposed to visit the women of Daxi that were (supposed to be sitting in the sun and) making handicraft. But, there was no sun, and definitely no women around. Therefore, we ended up in a dirty house where one kind lady offered to do some embroidery just so I could take some photos. I tried to interview her, but that was almost as hard as it was to catch her face in the photograph. A very shy lady indeed! But Vance stepped in and offered to tell me everything I wanted to know about the handicraft project that he had actually organized and started.
We chatted for about half an hour until I saw a dog sneak in and curl up in front of the fire. Awww… how cute I thought and was just about to get close and cozy with the adorable fella when Vance pulled me back. ‘Don’t. He’s a creature of fleas,’ he said, and that sort of made me back off from ever trying to pat an animal during this trip again.
After almost slipping on cow-shit on my way to an overflowing toilet (nothing for the sensitive soul! Mind me for being too specific?) I was safely seated in the back of the car, and we started driving towards Xingping country. We were supposed to go to the village Wa Bei Guo and visit more farmer that had received micro credits. However, after getting stuck in the mud three times, both Vance and Lotta seemed genuinely exhausted, and me and Panda almost jumped of joy when they said that we would go down the mountain as the roads were obviously getting too bad.
About 3 hours later we pulled up in the town Xinhua, a place full of well-dressed people, men and women on motorbikes, shops, and streets made of concrete. In other words: a pretty civilized place to me!
We had a well-deserved lunch (those lychees and mangoes were long gone) and all of us probably ate too much, as not a word was said once the food arrived, and it was hard to get out of our chair after scraping the last rice grains out of our bowls.
With heavy legs we went to meet the area leader of Wa Bei Guo, at the Government’s house in Xinhua. I was looking forward to interview the area leader as he looked very kind, nice and humble, but my enthusiasm was crushed to the ground when it turned out the Xinhua Government also rocked up for a chat?!
All my question went like a ping pong ball from the left (where the area leader sat) to the right (to the Government officer) and then back to me. The officer was a very outspoken man, and spent almost one hour turning my interview into his personal prayer where he kept telling YID that they needed more money and more support so they could grow more tobacco. I couldn’t help feeling stepped over, and eventually asked if he thought the tobacco industry communicated the wrong message. He then lit a cigarette, blew out some smoke, and said he hoped the young would never start smoking. According to him it was impossible to stop.
Even Vance (that was a smoker) looked a little bit smoke-intoxicated when we eventually got up to leave. You can just guess our surprises when the officer’s wife (?) suddenly appeared in the doorway and invited us in for …dinner! Yes, that’s right: more food!! I felt my stomach turn as I had just gotten over that first sick feeling you get from eating too much too fast (also called overeating -I try not to practice it too much) and we all looked at each other with forced smiles (except for Panda who looked like she was about to start crying). Buuuut… there was nothing to do but politely step in, sit down, grab a rice bowl and dig in.
Fortunately for me, the only things I could eat was rice, melon and potato, so I didn’t have to make too much of an effort (and, believe it or not, but that potato was delicious?! I almost had to stop myself from going too crazy and bringing my stomach back to a bloated state). After politely declining a session of water-piping we went to the Xinhua hostel where we were going to spend the night.
I was rather nervous about the quality of the room, as the stairs were climbing gave the impression of being on the edge of breaking down, plus, it stank of something old that I’d rather not write about.
But, talk about being fooled by looks, because when we finally saw our room I was greeted by a bed that looked clean and a floor with no dead bugs. Oh Heaven here I am!
The area leader had joined us to the hotel and I got a chance to chat to him without cigarettes or water pipes, and I actually conducted a fairly rich interview, considering the fact that all the Shansu people I had met so far, had been very short of words. But this guy actually said A, B and C, so I was both satisfied and happy when I eventually thanked him and went back to my room.
Lotta had big plans for the evening: she’d dropped her mobile phone in a pool of mud and it had been stubbornly rejecting her since, so, eager to catch up on her lost text messaging she was going out to find someone that could fix it for her. I was asked to join, but as my feet were crying for being left out of my moist, muddy shoes, I declined and decided to spend the evening in bed, and catch up on my writing.
I had time to type something like ‘Yunnan is a very different place indeed’ before my eyelids became way too heavy to keep up. Isn’t it amazing what south of China is doing to me? I have never been more tired. Last thing I remember hearing is Panda complaining about the loud karaoke singing outside our window, then I went into la-la-sleep-land.
Text: Jonna Wibelius