We also took a boat ride to watch the night fishing with Cormorant, a trained fishing bird. The fisherman gives out different calls that all sound the same to me but apparently the slight tonal variations mean go fish and come back to the (bamboo) raft. They are more successful fishing at night than in the daytime. Here are photos of both times of day:
Today we took a cruise of the Li River, famous for its beautiful mountain scenery. We got some great photos of the view. Helen is explaining to my dad about the natural scenery along the river.
Helen told us about a famous three snake wine that is very popular in this Guilin area. They have a saying in Guilin about the wine. People from Spain like to drink the snake wine. People from France like to taste the snake wine. People from England like to smell the snake wine. And people from America like to take picture of snake wine. I took a photo. ;) Eek! That below picture is me holding the jar of wine, complete with three snakes. Oh, and check out that back-of-the-boat kitchen, nice! You don't need to worry about smelling like deep fried food in that kitchen; there is plent of ventilation. :)
We got off the cruise at Yangshuo and walked through the market area to our very nice stretch golf cart (and you thought the only stretch vehicle was a limo), which we rode through the countryside. On this golf cart journey, we viewed what farming the rice paddy looked like for a natural village.
Before we got to the village, we stopped at the primary (elementary) school in the county. Students, I know you grumble about having to be at school, but you are so lucky. It broke my heart to see the school in the country. I’m not going to lie, I had to fight back the tears a few times being in this place and realizing how blessed I am and how easy it is to take it all for granted, how easy it is to complain about not getting the technology equipment I want in my classroom. These kids walk several miles to get to the school and start at 7:00 in the morning. Just look at their classroom. It is completely different from what you have…notice there aren’t any computers, no digital projectors, no electricity. Take one look at this and you will know how fortunate and blessed you are to have such great resources.
These kids were so precious, they don’t often get candy; as soon as they realized my dad, St. Nick, was giving out candy, he was swarmed. They also got a big kick out of Eli’s painted arm; they wanted to pinch it to see if it was real.
We stopped in a natural village called Luoxiang; it was 1,000 years old and home to 130 families totaling 700ish people. In its 1,000 years of existence, not much has changed, they still use a water-buffalo to plow the fields and still farm with the same methods used by their ancestors. Eighty-nine year old Mr. Zhang gave us a tour of his village. He was a very nice, old man who told us about his village. He walked us around the village center and told us about how they live their lives. First of all, you should know that the people are spread out in houses among the farmland, but some of them live in the center of the village. Each family has a well and water pump outside their house, but no plumbing (this is new village improvements within the last 10 years).
At the end of our tour, Mr. Zhang invited us into his home to have pamelo (a type of grapefruit).
On a more serious note, students, my biggest hope for you is to realize that you are truly fortunate people. You have so much to be thankful for because I don’t think anyone has experienced need like those in this village. They are happy people, even without the finer things in life and I think it should be a reminder to us all that life is good; be happy for what you have. I have certainly been changed by what I experienced.
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