It was our last day of touring local Miao villages today- we visited a village where they make batik. I had no idea how difficult batik is to make! The lady in this village had many awards for her batik. George bought an awesome batik shirt. :) Batik is made by putting wax onto fabric, and then dying the fabric and removing the wax. it's a common thing for African villages, and I had no idea it was also made in China. After this last village we had our final local lunch, which included one dish that had pig intestines in it! Not for the Western pallete- in case you're wondering it's very tough and chewy with not much flavor, but what little flavor it has is like liver. I didn't much care for it but ate it enthusiastically anyway. :) We spent a lot of time driving back to Guiyang, where we visited a flower and bird market. I bought locally grown tobacco (boy is it strong smelling) and we saw lots of interesting Chinese herbs.
Last night on the way back to our hotel from a big Miao village I was thinking about how night is the same everywhere. An odd idea, but despite all our cultural differences, food, music, clothing, houses, we all experience nighttime. As we drove past villages with teeny lights on and TVs in distant houses, I thought about how people are people everywhere, and some things are universal. I thought of my own small village way off in Michigan, of my road and my neighbors enjoying the warmth of their homes and the light, and thought about how glad I am to be from a village. Like most young people I was eager to experience a bit more of the world again (having seen quite a bit traveling as a child), and the young people here are also keen to leave their villages and rural life and live in the cities. But many find that city life is still leaving them poor, and their quality of life is lower. I hope that as they get older they will remember their villages and return to them. Village life can be difficult because everyone has to live together and work together. But the friendly sense of belonging and connection that comes from that life is something precious that city folks don't experience. I can't help that I was born with an adventure bug, but I know eventually I'll find myself back in a village somewhere enjoying a quiet self sustaining life- growing my own food, and spending the cold winter evenings with friends.
Goodbye for now Guizhou- we had a lovely visit to a rural life that is quickly changing, to a China that is quickly developing, and I look forward to another visit in 5 or 10 years.
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