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Published: October 5th 2013
Living in the apartments has its challenges. The guy who starts hacking things up at 6:00 a.m. every morning (on the dot!) is a real source of conversation. There’s also the girl who lives on the 6
thfloor who wears heavy heels and pounds her way down the stairs at an early hour. It sounds like someone is knocking on the door and a lot of us fell for it the first few weeks.
Of course, there are also benefits to this living situation. One of these benefits has been getting to know May. She’s a wonderful young lady who is my next-door neighbor. She is the person who picked us up from the airport, took us for our medical exam on the first day, and later took us for our foreign residency visas. She also loves to have Ava visit her and gives her plenty of noodles and yummy cookies. May is really sweet and we all love her.
Today, we had the pleasure of visiting May’s hometown. It’s about 45 minutes from our campus if we travel in the opposite direction from Nanchang City. May has two family homes here. Her family built a
second home about 5 years ago because the land near her first home kept flooding. This wasn’t surprising once I saw the soil in that area. It is made up of mostly red clay. Honestly, it’s surprising that much of anything grows there.
After we arrived at her family home, she took us to a local temple near her family home. It was a cute little temple in the middle of nowhere. The monk and other people there were very interested in us. They told us all about the temple (In Mandarin) and the area around it. They led us though an abandoned part of the old village and pointed out trees that were thousands of years old. They gave us bracelets that are supposed to ward off stress, medallions with the Chinese calendar symbols on them, and CDs of the chanting they do in the temple there. It was really neat and I think that we all felt blessed to feel so welcomed and to learn first-hand about Chinese culture.
We also walked to May’s first home. There are a few people who still live in this area, but it is very underdeveloped.
It was obvious that having a large group of foreigners walk past their house was a unique thing for the residents there. We have actually decided not to call ourselves a "group" but instead to call ourselves a "murder". You know, like a "murder of crows"? It does seem at times that people might think we are there to murder them, so it seems fitting. They all asked May why we were with her and where we were from. She smiled and answered them politely every time. Her patience is remarkable!
After walking through the old part of the village, we walked for quite a while to get back to May’s new family home, where her mother had lunch waiting for us. It was delicious and we were all very hungry. May’s nieces and nephews clambered around us, watch the foreigners eat with chopsticks. They were all so cute!
After lunch, we found out that we still had about 2-3 hours before the driver would be back to pick us up. I asked May if there was a place we could buy a couple decks of cards and her mother purchased some for us. For the
next 2-3 hours, the 6 of us played cards. Except, of course, SPOONS is not a card game. As Lauryn pointed out, it’s a sport! J While we enjoyed our card games, Ava played with the kids. She gave them all hugs goodbye when we left and has been asking when we will go back.
She also mentioned that it reminded her of visiting Jayna’s village in the Czech Republic. It’s funny how we saw all the beautiful things in Prague and traveled to 2 other countries, and yet the thing that she remembers most fondly is visiting a small village. I have to agree with her that visiting Jayna’s village was a major highlight for me too. I think that it’s the little things that help you not only to feel more human, but to remember that life occurs on a daily basis. Taking part in someone’s daily activity and seeing how they truly live is an amazing part of travel that package tours cannot duplicate. May, thank you so much for sharing your daily life and your family with us. You have blessed us beyond measure!
Ava Playing with Kids at May’s House:
https://vimeo.com/76188455 Ava Goofing Around:
https://vimeo.com/76188456 Strolling through an Abandoned Neighborhood:
https://vimeo.com/76188457 I'm sorry this video is so short. I ran out of memory :-( Guy Making Lunch
https://vimeo.com/76138147
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Jingjing
non-member comment
very touching countryside tour
Kirtland, I am glad that you got to experience traditional Chinese culture first-hand. It's always touching to have such a devoting friend. Your tour shocked me as I even haven't seen places like that before. I think it was a huge deal to them that you guys all came and visited. Their hospitality is guaranteed. I am happy to see that Ava is so mature in dealing with all this and still remember the most beautiful things other than anything unpleasant. It must be interesting for other kids to get to see and play with her. You guys brightened up other people's life and I am sure May would be able to cherish even bigger dreams as she is influenced by you guys as well. I am happy for you all. PS: I noticed on FB that Lauryn's birthday is coming. I highly suggest that you guys go to buy a Chinese birthday cake at that good-quality bakery you mentioned before....I just feel like Chinese birthday cake tastes different as here. :-) Make sure you guys do a lot of fun things on her birthday and keep nourishing your beautiful experience in China. :-D