Spring Festival!
As some of you may know, the Chinese New Year just passed. Well, in China New Year's is the biggest holiday of the year, and really consists of about 3 or 4 weeks of all sorts of festivities. We've been enjoying the nice break, and have been able to explore the city a bit more with all our freetime. So, here's some pictures and stories for everyone to enjoy... : )
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Celebrating the Chinese New Year just wouldn't make sense without fireworks...I used to think that I was a pretty big fan of explosives and fireworks, but after spending the last few weeks here, I realize now that all along I was nothing more than a mild spectator to this sport in comparison with these explosive fanatics! Seriously, for nearly 2 weeks straight, you could hear fireworks going off at all hours of the day. So, being obligated to assimilate into the culture a little bit, we went out and bought a few fireworks of our own. : )
For the pic, I had to get Patrick in there, since he was pretty much our bargaining man.
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As I said above, with all of the extra free-time we were able to run around the town more and get a better feel for Haikou. We were able to find some restaurant's we really liked, which is where these pics were taken. We ate at this place like 4 times one week.
They must have started getting too used to us, 'cause this guy decided he wanted to try on my hat... In case you were wondering, this guy is technically "Chinese", in that he is from China, but he is ethnically entirely different, being from the far west of China near areas like Pakistan.
They must have started getting too used to us, 'cause this guy decided he wanted to try on my hat... In case you were wondering, this guy is technically "Chinese", in that he is from China, but he is ethnically entirely different, being from the far west of China near areas like Pakistan.
It was on New Year's Eve that Rudy and I were finally able to see a little more clearly the true heart of China. In a land of such vast economic horizons there lives a people who, by-in-large, are nothing short of impoverished. In the grand scheme of the world as a whole, this is not at all surprising, since the majority of the world's population lives in conditions about equal to these. However, I suppose it is in the stark contrast to the major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, etc., with their blaring lights and colors and modern marvels, that villages like this really stand out. We stayed with the family of our friend Betsy for three days, from New Year's Eve until the following Friday. During that time we experienced just a tiny piece of what about 60-70% of Chinese people live like. It was a great eye-opening experience for sure.
This picture is of an elementary school in the village. It's the only school in the village. If parents wish to further the education of their children, they have to either send them to a boarding school or take them to a town some ways away.
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I thought this was pretty cool. I never got a clear answer from Betsy, but I think these Pool tables were owned by a "convenient store" next to them, and that you have to rent them out. It was fun watching the young guys play Pool, Rudy and I only wished we could speak the language so that we could have challenged them.. : )
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We were walking around in this lady's fields, so when she came up to me and started trying to talk to me, I just smiled and motioned that I wanted to take a picture of her. It was crazy though, because when she came up she was smiling and kind of laughing at the foreigners, but when I went to take the picture, she suddenly got really serious for the shot...maybe it's a cultural thing??
Above, a massacre of fireworks. The picture of the flame I took after the candle on the house "altar" fell over and was burning out one night. Like many people of the far east, this family was praying to the spirits of their ancestors, and did so with candles and some other things. They did this to ask for prosperity, blessing, and health in the upcoming year.
We were walking around in this lady's fields, so when she came up to me and started trying to talk to me, I just smiled and motioned that I wanted to take a picture of her. It was crazy though, because when she came up she was smiling and kind of laughing at the foreigners, but when I went to take the picture, she suddenly got really serious for the shot...maybe it's a cultural thing??
Above, a massacre of fireworks. The picture of the flame I took after the candle on the house "altar" fell over and was burning out one night. Like many people of the far east, this family was praying to the spirits of their ancestors, and did so with candles and some other things. They did this to ask for prosperity, blessing, and health in the upcoming year.
More fireworks!
Here's a Chinese game called Mahjong. It was definitely the most widely played game in the village New Year's Eve. I guess it's a tradition to stay up late scarfing down treats and playing Mahjong. It was really funny because even these young kids and Betsy (who's not as young) were in the gamling spirit, and were playing for Mao (tenths of a yuan, only cents in US equivalent)
Here's a neat picture from the biggest hill near to Betsy's village. That water below is actually rice fields.
This was written on a building near the entrance to the village. Betsy said that it's basically the law about having only 1 child. It literally says something like, "Create a culture of a new kind of village." There is a big problem in China with people in villages having more children than they can take care of, resulting in all sorts of other problems. There is a "reeducation" policy under way trying to change the way the people in villages think about planning for families, and trying to get these people to fall under the 1 child policy. Having this displayed along the main road through the village is ironic, however, since most people in the village can't read it.
And here's Rudy with his water buffalo friend. It was neat getting to see water buffalo around the village. On average they were pretty friendly.
And here's our wonderful little Betsy. Betsy is the house cook and takes care of most of the meals in the house. She makes amazing food and I know that we would all be lost without her. It was funny though because we came to find out that her family actually won't let her cook when she's at home. Her family really doesn't like the way she cooks things, and so they rarely let her near the food. I took this picture the last day we were in the village because she was cooking up some food for Rudy and I over the wood-burning Wok. While she was cooking, there must have been 4 other ladies in there who were just watching and criticizing her while she cooked. Crazy Crazy. But we're sure glad she cooks for us. : )
Here's a Chinese game called Mahjong. It was definitely the most widely played game in the village New Year's Eve. I guess it's a tradition to stay up late scarfing down treats and playing Mahjong. It was really funny because even these young kids and Betsy (who's not as young) were in the gamling spirit, and were playing for Mao (tenths of a yuan, only cents in US equivalent)
Here's a neat picture from the biggest hill near to Betsy's village. That water below is actually rice fields.
This was written on a building near the entrance to the village. Betsy said that it's basically the law about having only 1 child. It literally says something like, "Create a culture of a new kind of village." There is a big problem in China with people in villages having more children than they can take care of, resulting in all sorts of other problems. There is a "reeducation" policy under way trying to change the way the people in villages think about planning for families, and trying to get these people to fall under the 1 child policy. Having this displayed along the main road through the village is ironic, however, since most people in the village can't read it.
And here's Rudy with his water buffalo friend. It was neat getting to see water buffalo around the village. On average they were pretty friendly.
And here's our wonderful little Betsy. Betsy is the house cook and takes care of most of the meals in the house. She makes amazing food and I know that we would all be lost without her. It was funny though because we came to find out that her family actually won't let her cook when she's at home. Her family really doesn't like the way she cooks things, and so they rarely let her near the food. I took this picture the last day we were in the village because she was cooking up some food for Rudy and I over the wood-burning Wok. While she was cooking, there must have been 4 other ladies in there who were just watching and criticizing her while she cooked. Crazy Crazy. But we're sure glad she cooks for us. : )
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Well, that's all for now. Sorry about taking so long getting this post up. I hope you all enjoy.
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Things have been going great and I think tomorrow I'll be going in to the Police Station to see about extending my visa. I haven't been able to get my student visa yet, due to some complications with the school, so please keep me lifted up with that. If things don't go well, I'll probably be flying to Hong Kong in the next couple of days. : )
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