What is this life?

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WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?— W H Davies

I don't think I mentioned Miss Moon a fellow traveller we met during our adventure with the infamous Pink Lady. It was a brief encounter, we discovered she was from Philadelphia and was working in Japan. When we met she had “done” Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and was passing through Yangshuou for 24 hours before heading for Guilin to meet friends and head off for sights elsewhere in China. In 7 day hits she was on a whirlwind tour of all points south and east of Japan determined to tick every country off of her list; I imagine so she could look back and talk with some authority about those places when she got back to the States.
It reminded me of a conversation I had with my friend Tony Bennett; we were talking about Hong Kong and he said it was horrible, wet and expensive during the few days he was there.
I had had the luxury of visiting several times and the weather was always warm (and I was living on company expenses) so we had different views particularly in terms of timescale. I had discovered the MTR and bus system; having learned how and where to go.
When you have the time you start to see your environment in smaller scale; the closer you look the more there is to see.
When I lived in Liphook I knew my garden intimately; the exploding flora and the invading fauna presented continual event horizons that stimulated many an otherwise dreary day.
When you read about Yangshuo you read about the Li River but if you are here for more than a few days you discover the Yu Long river but then you get to talking to more experienced residents and locals and another layer is revealed, secret but intrinsic to an understanding of the true nature of a tiny corner of this immense land.
There is of course another fundamental to consider; the human element. Catch me on a good day and I'm a bundle of laughs, looking for the next fun thing to do; conversely I can be insular and more interested in the written word than the spoken; the song than the sentence.
There are so many people here they are used to living their lives within inches of each other. Consequently they show no inhibitions in going about their daily lives watched idly by everyone else. It is one of the things westerners find most difficult to deal with.
Our students have emerged from a sea of faces to identifiable characters we recognise when we arrive at the school and who even recognise us. From initial dismissive disregard or apprehensive quiet has developed curious participation and excited cacophony. We try to make the lessons fun with plenty of games, introduce new words and sentences with erratic success. We grew fond of them and tended to forget their age and home environment until Sue introduced stickers (stars or cartoon characters) as rewards for good work and they were pounced upon and paraded as prized possessions, by everyone from grade 3 to 6 from 7 years old to 10.
When you look at them closely you start to see the range of poverty reflected in their clothing. Nobody is pristine. Some children wear colourful if grubby ethnic style tops over jeans or ¾ shorts and trainers. Others have grubbier western style T shirts and cheap plastic shoes.
Then there are the urchins in ill fitting oft-repaired hand me downs with shoeless feet.
" This little girl was adorable (albeit i have never seen such a black neck or hands) and wanted me to join her in whistle blowing, unfortunately i had to decline, if you had seen the state of her whistle you would understand. We've both been lucky and got away without any illness yet! i think its waiting for us in India."

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Photos

Girl and whistle
She'll get by with a little help from her friends

Comments

[Steve]

Happy Birthday Gordon
Many happy returns, you're older than me again!