Celebrations in Shan Shi Ping

Last night was a long night. I went to bed before everyone else, so when all the girls came in they woke me up enough that I didn't sleep well the rest of the night. Finally, when I was starting to fall asleep they started getting up. I think it was around 6:30am. Then around 7:30 they told me it was time to get up. So much for sleep for me. After getting up I was watched very closely while I brushed my teeth. I found it a little bit strange. A woman sat in her window and stared at me the entire time. I would have thought she had never seen someone brush their teeth but a bunch of girls, Chinese, had all brushed their teeth right before me. I don't mind them looking at me, as I know that I am strange and different and they may have never seen a white Westerner before. However, brushing teeth is kind of private. I don't really want someone watching me spit tooth paste. I guess there are other things that I would have liked less. And I should say that the villagers were really very nice and wanted to make sure that I was comfortable and had everything I needed. I appreciate the warmth they showed me and I should not let my discomfort with being watch while brushing my teeth overshadow the feeling of warmth.

Once up I had some bread and a granola bar for breakfast. Matthew and I decided to go for a walk across the river from the village and further up the dirt road. We crossed the swinging bridge and started up the hill. They told us that events started at 10 and we should be back by then. The dirt was really red and very dusty. In places it was 2 inches think and when you stepped it would billow up around your feet. I think it would be kind of like walking on a red moon. At least that is what I imagine it to be like.

Like the other side of the dirt road going up to the main road, this side had a very steep drop down to the river. There were some pretty white butterfly bushes growing along the edge, and on the hills were mostly Jack Pines. Everywhere except by the river is still very dry. We had some nice views of the village from across the river. I did not realize that it was as big as it was. Yesterday Matthew got a tour of the village while I was trying to play the Erhu. There was a school in the village at one point but right now there are not any children of the right age to attend school. There are kids from the village that are in college but I don't think there is anyone over 4 and under 16 who actually lives in the village. It is a little bit strange to have an entire generation missing. from the population.

We headed back to the village to get ready for the events. There are supposed to be about 200 people coming today to take part in the celebrations. When we got back to the village I decided that after yesterday riding on the bus with the window open my hair needed to be brushed. I normally don't bush it unless it is wet but it was really knotted. Brushing only helped a little. Matthew and I put on lots of sunscreen as it is sunny and we will be sitting watching events.

When we got back to the village there were already many new people sitting and waiting for the events to start. Matthew and I went and sat in the back with Alyssa so that we could have someone tell us what was happening. At first the sun on my back felt good after the cool morning. Then they asked us to move to the front. I get the feeling we were guests of honor. However, this was really in the sun and after I took off layers and there wasn't any more layers I could take off I sat there and sweated.

At first I really enjoyed the performances. I didn't understand some of the skits because there wasn't someone who could translate for me all the time. After performances there were traditional dances from the Chinese minorities.The women from these dances wore the traditional clothing which was very interesting. They even came around and gave us straw hats. This made it much better for about 15 minutes and then I was back to feeling like it was really too hot and that I was going to get sunburn through my clothes as well as on any bare skin. So I put on more sunscreen. Matthew and I thought that there were only 2 more dances so we stayed.

About this time Jinpeng came and got us to tell us that because some officials had come the police had also come and when they heard that there were two Americans there they needed to see our passports. About this point I was thinking that it was a really good thing we brought our passports. We had almost left them in Kunming so that they would not get lost or stolen on the trip. We only brought them because we thought we might be staying a night in Dali. They looked at our passports and wrote down the information. While they were doing this one of the police officers, who I guess had never seen two white people, was taking pictures of us. I am alright with people taking my picture if they ask. If they ask there is a good chance that I will say yes but when they don't ask I just want to give them the "good ol' American" finger. I'm told that some people will understand while others will not. I always try and ask before I take a picture of a person here and that gives them a chance to say no. However, I am not given this option.

We were saved from having to sit in the sun by them wanting to look at our passports and when we went to sit back down we went to the shade. It was so much nicer sitting in the shade but I think I got a little too hot as I was not feeling really well. The events went over by a lot and by the time lunch came around I was not really hungry because the heat had really gotten to me. I ate some rice and radish.

After lunch I discovered that I had some bites on my hip. I didn't really think much of them as they didn't itch. So I went in the room I had slept in and rested for a while. After a while I got up and went and sat outside on the bench. I talked with Jinpeng. I asked him about the graves on the mountain side. He said that the villagers were minority people and thus they could bury their dead. For the Han majority they have to get cremated. This goes against tradition which says that to come back for the next life you must be buried to keep your possessions. I asked if Jinpeng cared about it and he said that no, he didn't, but that his grandparents might. He also said that in many families there is tension among the elders and the younger generation as they do not want to be cremated but want to be buried. They think it is the responsibility of the children to have this wish carried out. Thus there are many places which will say that the body was burned so that they can actually bury it. The government feels that there is not enough land to let the people decide and thus the Han majority must follow the rules. Jinpeng seems to be less bothered by this than I would have imagined. I like the option of choosing for myself. But he doesn't seem to question. I'm a little bit surprised because he seems to question other governments but not his own. I wonder if part of this isn't because of when he was born and the fact that he has only seen the rise of China.

There wasn't anything else planed until around 4 in the afternoon. Everyone kept telling us that there were really pretty rocks across the river so after resting we set out to look for rocks and see if there were any nice ones. Again I was really grateful for the straw hat as it kept the sun out of my eyes. I was having to try and keep it from blowing off all the time but it was still very nice. We found some nice rocks. A dog also adopted us. It swum the river from the village and when we went to go back we walked across the bridge it stood and watched us go. There was no way that dog was going to set foot on the bridge. I think the dog might have had some common sense as the bridge would have been a long fall and the river was not that deep.

Back on the other side they were planting fruit trees. Planting trees involved digging a hole by the river and then chopping off a branch from a fruit tree which was already established and sticking it in the ground. I wonder about the success rate for this method of planting trees. I have my doubts that it works very well. By the time we got back to the village the dog had caught up with us. It was not welcomed into the village either and all the dogs, puppies really, started barking at it.

I watched a group villagers of four play a card game. I have no idea what the rules were, to me it just looked like they were putting cards randomly down on the table. The goal I think was to get rid of your cards first, however, I really don't know what it was they were playing or if they were really doing anything more than throwing one card at a time onto the table. The view out of the village was really very pretty at this time of day.

Before dinner Matthew and I went and took some more pictures from across the river. It was really pretty right about sunset. When we came back three Chinese girls went out on the bridge to take pictures. While they were up there one of their hats blew off. Matthew chased it down and pulled it out with a big stick. For his reward he got asked to have his picture taken with her and the very wet hat. When we got back to the village we washed up a little. We were asked to sit with the leaders for dinner.

As it was the last night we had mostly the same thing for dinner as for lunch and as the night before. However they ran out of radishes so I ate rice and some spicy potatoes. During dinner I felt like I had a bug in my shirt so I looked and there was a flea. About this point I started feeling itchy all over. And I was more than ready to pack up and leave. I only had about 4 bites at that point and I knew they would just get worse. Somehow I managed to eat dinner and not get up and run screaming for the river like a mad woman chased by a pack of hungry fleas, the fleas are the size of wolfs in my imagination. Matthew had a bowl of beer. I think to start with he thought it would just be beer but then people started coming over and toasting. When people toast you have to stand and toast back. This is for men mostly. Alyssa and I did not have any beer so we didn't have to participate. She was telling my how China has a culture of drinking and you have to drink to get a better position at your job. She thinks it is really horrible. And seeing some of the men walking around with bottles of hard liquor and watching them drink almost the entire bottle themselves I understand why she doesn't like it.

After dinner there was more dancing. There are a couple of dances which they really like. One of them is to an English song which has a really repetitive beat and says something like "left, left, right, right, forward, forward, turn around. Jumping, jumping everybody jumping." They all line up and follow the instructions of the dance. It is really kind of funny and they all really like to to this kind of dance. I tried to learn it but didn't do very well. They played a waltz so that Matthew and I would dance. It was like a free-for-all, and most of the time I trust Matthew as a lead but tipsy Chinese don't keep a predictable course which then can be followed. It was a little like bumper car waltzing with a big fire in the middle.

I went to bed soon after as I hadn't slept well the night before and it was going to be an early morning. Around 7:30 is when we are leaving.