China

The ride from Kunming to Ganhaizi village was a long one. We packed into a small bus that traveled over poorly paved roads that winded up into the mountains of northern Yunnan province. We arrived in the small town of Shilata which had a main street that was lined with a few shops and restaurants. We spent the night in a boarding house and got up the next morning to have a traditional Yunnan breakfast: soup noodles with spicy pork and boiled eggs. After breakfast we hiked to Ganhaizi village. You can see that the hike was breathtaking—a beautiful landscape of rolling mountains and terraced farm plots.

The villagers greeted us as we entered the village. They were Miao people, one of the ethnic minority groups that live in southwestern China. They farm corn, wheat, beans and tobacco and their way of life revolves around planting, growing, and harvesting these crops in line with the comings and goings of the rainy season. Habitat has been working in such farming communities by giving the villagers the opportunity to build brick houses that replace the more traditional and less efficient rammed earth houses. Our job was to help build a foundation for one of these houses and this entailed carving a foundation out of tough earth (one student commented that it was worse than Carolina red clay). As you can see, the work was difficult. Some students hacked at the earth with picks and hoes while others carted the loose earth off. On the second day the Habitat coordinator, Jerry Li, gave us a break from the digging and had us clean up around an already constructed house.

We also had a good deal of time to work with the villagers. The future homeowner and his friends worked alongside us and the Miao women cooked us lunch every day. After lunch on the second work-day, we played the villagers in a fast-paced game of basketball. Needless to say, the villagers spend a good deal of time practicing! They raced up and down the court with one fast-break after another. After the game, many of the villagers came together and sang songs for our group. It was clear that they also spent much time practicing their singing as well. It was a joy to see the Miao women performing in their traditional clothing.

We left the village tired and with a sense of accomplishment. Indeed, it was hard to say goodbye to such earnest, hard-working, and friendly people. Many of our students were saddened to leave our new-found friends behind.