A trip to the Countryside

9/9/07



It's 8:20 am, I get a phone call. We aren't leaving till 9:00. Good, time to eat an actual breakfast. Well, an actual breakfast is just peanut butter and jelly on sweet rolls, but that was better than the cup of OJ which had been the only option seconds earlier.



You see, I am going to the countryside and we need to catch a bus. Only two go directly to our destination per day, we are gunning for the second one. The bus station brings bad news, the bus is broke, can't leave till 3. We opt for two buses over the one. Nothing special one the first leg of the trip, but the second leg is the type I was hoping for. I get on the bus and am greeted two chickens, which I'm not sure if they were dead or alive until one seems to wink at me. We aren't been driving more than two minutes before we stop and some guy is throwing 10 pieces of 20 ft long aluminum piping on the top of the bus. We head up windy roads that I wouldn't dare take any car I own on. It's rained the past few days and the dirt road isn't doing so hot. But the bus goes on, weaving past terraced rice fields that accent the side of ridiculously green mountains. We pass another bus, only this bus is stuck in the mud and all its passengers are out pushing it. The bus has only been half full, but a trip through a village in the middle of market day (once every five days), fills it to the brim and I am sandwiched between a couple of old Chinese dudes puffing on cheap cigarettes who we eventually drop off somewhere in the hills to head who knows where.



We arrive in Huangping, a city of sorts, and its already 4:30, but the trip went fast, it was an amazing ride that brought entertainment in a brand new way. Nothing too crazy tonight except for accompanying a basketball court full of Chinese senior citizens in their nightly dance aerobics. They seemed to appreciate my raving aerobics. The combo of new moves and being white will captivate most any people not living in a city of 5 million+ here.



Not knowing what to expect I am not let down as Friday brings a run in with a sip of some drink that makes even the Chinese guys faces grimace in pain, three trips to schools to hand out scholarships (one of which we walk to b/c rain took out the road) and spend time with some of the cutest kids ever, and a lot of people saying "No, you can't go, you must come eat with us."



A new day, thus a new place to stay. This time in a hotel which is built on the riverside, a beautiful setting really-nothing like sleeping along the river. Also nothing like waking up to the cock-a-doodle-doos of what seems to be every rooster in the province and 20 minutes straight of firecrackers (paving the way for someone's afterlife).



A hike up a mountain to a minority village of 100 people and another forced (but also welcomed-we skipped breakfast-and you know I don't do well if I don't eat) meal later I have forgotten of my bitterness towards the roosters and am again in awe of the beauty of the countryside and the simplicity of country living. Our hike brought us alongside a water buffalo that was out for a little breakfast, past fields of peppers, and through rice fields a week away from harvest.



Funny thing is, I started the weekend not really liking hot food, but I now think food isn't served any other way-actually I kind of missed it at my next meal back in Guiyang.