We made it down to JH. It was a bit of an adventure getting here (and not the fun kind of adventure) but we made it.
Our flight from LJ to here left at 8pm and was supposed to arrive at 9. I was even telling Lindsey about how this would be a nice quick flight compared to all the others. The flight down to JH was pretty bumpy and the pilot took a lot of hard corners. We think he was new. He flew all the way down to JH, started to go down and then at the last minute pulled up and kept flying. They came on the announcements and said the weather was too bad to land so we were flying up to the provincial capitol.
There is a concept here of saving face, and it is the idea that people will do just about anything to not be embarrassed or embarrass others about things. What we think happened is that the pilot missed the runway, and instead of trying it again and everyone knowing he missed, he decided to blame it on the weather and fly an hour and a half out of the way. I know it sound ridiculous, but considering we almost landed and there was no rain, it was probably the case.
So we landed in the Capitol, got off the plane, stood around confused for about 30 minutes while they decided if we would fly or stay the night (while there was lots of yelling in Chinese), and then got back on the plane where they fed everyone weird sandwiches before we took off, and then made the 45 minute flight down there. We landed at midnight.
Other than the delay, it wasn't all that bad of a trip. We spent the day going around with one of our friends, caught up on what has been happening down here, and ate some good South Asian food. We spent the afternoon at a coffee shop talking about helping with planting. We were also able to roast some coffee. Tonight we went to the night market and looked around for a while It has been a much slower pace down here than it was up in LJ.
Tomorrow we will catch up with another friend and see the ag work that he is doing here. Then we start heading back on Friday.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Day 14 (Tuesday)
I'm writing this one a little early since I'm not sure when I'm going to have Internet again. Tonight we're getting on a plane to head down south to do some work with friend and look into some coffee things. We should be there for 3 days and head back home.
Today we've run some last minute errands, packed, and visited with friends. Other than that, it has been pretty slow. I'll be honest, I love it here, but I'm looking forward to some warm weather and tropical fruit. The mangos and pineapples where we're going are pretty amazing.
If we have a chance to update while we're gone, we will; otherwise we'll see you all when we get back go the States.
Day 12-13 (Sunday-Monday)
Well we went and hiked The Gorge and no one died. It wound up being pretty great weather the entire time. It was fun getting to do my favorite activity (hiking) in my favorite place (The Gorge) with my favorite person (Joie, just kidding...).
We had a little set back the first day because they're doing road construction. On Sunday we hiked about six hours and then another two on Monday morning. There were some clouds at the tops of the mountains, but other than that it was great. Oh yeah, and we got rained on for only about twenty minutes. There is this one part of the Gorge called the 28 bends. It is a set of 28 switchbacks that go up and up the mountain. Lindsey and I got to about bend 24 and it started to rain. By the time we scrambled to the top it was pouring down rain. There was a small lean-to at the top with an old man sitting in it, so we ran under it and waited out the rest of the rain.
Other than that, the hike was pretty uneventful. On the way out, we waited for a driver to come by so we could hop in his van. After waiting a while, the owner of the guest house told us we should walk about 15 minutes up the road because a lot of the drivers stop there to turn around. We made the hike up the nice newly paved road and rounded the corner to find out that a huge boulder had fallen and wiped out about a 30 yard section of the road. All that was left was a small goat trail around the side of the ridge. After some debate if we should do it (and watching 3 Chinese guys push a motorcycle across it) we walked across and got a ride back.
It was a fun trip and a nice break from all of the running around we have been doing. Tomorrow we finish off our time in LJ and head down south for some coffee work.
We had a little set back the first day because they're doing road construction. On Sunday we hiked about six hours and then another two on Monday morning. There were some clouds at the tops of the mountains, but other than that it was great. Oh yeah, and we got rained on for only about twenty minutes. There is this one part of the Gorge called the 28 bends. It is a set of 28 switchbacks that go up and up the mountain. Lindsey and I got to about bend 24 and it started to rain. By the time we scrambled to the top it was pouring down rain. There was a small lean-to at the top with an old man sitting in it, so we ran under it and waited out the rest of the rain.
Other than that, the hike was pretty uneventful. On the way out, we waited for a driver to come by so we could hop in his van. After waiting a while, the owner of the guest house told us we should walk about 15 minutes up the road because a lot of the drivers stop there to turn around. We made the hike up the nice newly paved road and rounded the corner to find out that a huge boulder had fallen and wiped out about a 30 yard section of the road. All that was left was a small goat trail around the side of the ridge. After some debate if we should do it (and watching 3 Chinese guys push a motorcycle across it) we walked across and got a ride back.
It was a fun trip and a nice break from all of the running around we have been doing. Tomorrow we finish off our time in LJ and head down south for some coffee work.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Day 11 (Saturday)
Today was kind of a slow day for me, and instead Lindsey had more to do than I did. This morning we caught up on sleep and I spent a couple of hours talking to Joie about future work and coffee. It was good to finally sit down and go into a lot of details face to face with him.
Lindsey met with a couple of girls for lunch. It was an opportunity to encourage a local girl and have a chance to do some things a little more on her own instead of being with me all the time. I spent lunch babysitting and trying to get some things set up for another guy that used to live here and will be coming back to visit in a few weeks.
After lunch, Joie wanted to meet up with a local girl's husband. We knew her but had never met him before. He runs a shop in a village about 20 minutes away by bus. It is a quick drive and a very historic place to visit. So we went out there and spent a couple hours with them. He is a Tibetan who is a former Buddhist monk. We sat around listening to his story about how he became a believer a few years ago. I also got him to write out some scripture for me in Tibetan, which is kind of a hard thing to find, even out here.
This evening Lindsey and I caught up on some things we needed to do around town and decided to call it an early night. We bought bus tickets to go and hike The Gorge tomorrow. We're not sure if we are going to go or not, it depends on what the weather looks like. If we do go, it'll be a day and a half hiking in a valley with two 18,000 foot mountains of both sides. It is quite possibly my favorite place in the whole world.
Lindsey met with a couple of girls for lunch. It was an opportunity to encourage a local girl and have a chance to do some things a little more on her own instead of being with me all the time. I spent lunch babysitting and trying to get some things set up for another guy that used to live here and will be coming back to visit in a few weeks.
After lunch, Joie wanted to meet up with a local girl's husband. We knew her but had never met him before. He runs a shop in a village about 20 minutes away by bus. It is a quick drive and a very historic place to visit. So we went out there and spent a couple hours with them. He is a Tibetan who is a former Buddhist monk. We sat around listening to his story about how he became a believer a few years ago. I also got him to write out some scripture for me in Tibetan, which is kind of a hard thing to find, even out here.
This evening Lindsey and I caught up on some things we needed to do around town and decided to call it an early night. We bought bus tickets to go and hike The Gorge tomorrow. We're not sure if we are going to go or not, it depends on what the weather looks like. If we do go, it'll be a day and a half hiking in a valley with two 18,000 foot mountains of both sides. It is quite possibly my favorite place in the whole world.
Day 12 (Saturday)
Today was kind of a slow day for me, and instead Lindsey had more to do than I did. This morning we caught up on sleep and I spent a couple of hours talking to Joie about future work and coffee. It was good to finally sit down and go into a lot of details face to face with him.
Lindsey met with a couple of girls for lunch. It was an opportunity to encourage a local girl and have a chance to do some things a little more on her own instead of being with me all the time. I spent lunch babysitting and trying to get some things set up for another guy that used to live here and will be coming back to visit in a few weeks.
After lunch, Joie wanted to meet up with a local girl's husband. We knew her but had never met him before. He runs a shop in a village about 20 minutes away by bus. It is a quick drive and a very historic place to visit. So we went out there and spent a couple hours with them. He is a Tibetan who is a former Buddhist monk. We sat around listening to his story about how he became a believer a few years ago. I also got him to write out some scripture for me in Tibetan, which is kind of a hard thing to find, even out here.
This evening Lindsey and I caught up on some things we needed to do around town and decided to call it an early night. We bought bus tickets to go and hike The Gorge tomorrow. We're not sure if we are going to go or not, it depends on what the weather looks like. If we do go, it'll be a day and a half hiking in a valley with two 18,000 foot mountains of both sides. It is quite possibly my favorite place in the whole world.
Lindsey met with a couple of girls for lunch. It was an opportunity to encourage a local girl and have a chance to do some things a little more on her own instead of being with me all the time. I spent lunch babysitting and trying to get some things set up for another guy that used to live here and will be coming back to visit in a few weeks.
After lunch, Joie wanted to meet up with a local girl's husband. We knew her but had never met him before. He runs a shop in a village about 20 minutes away by bus. It is a quick drive and a very historic place to visit. So we went out there and spent a couple hours with them. He is a Tibetan who is a former Buddhist monk. We sat around listening to his story about how he became a believer a few years ago. I also got him to write out some scripture for me in Tibetan, which is kind of a hard thing to find, even out here.
This evening Lindsey and I caught up on some things we needed to do around town and decided to call it an early night. We bought bus tickets to go and hike The Gorge tomorrow. We're not sure if we are going to go or not, it depends on what the weather looks like. If we do go, it'll be a day and a half hiking in a valley with two 18,000 foot mountains of both sides. It is quite possibly my favorite place in the whole world.
Day 10 (Friday)
Today was our last village day for a while. We got a bit of a late start on things today, but we eventually headed out of town a little before lunch. Our plan was to meet up with a village family that I had planted corn with when I lived here. I'd also spent a week living with them (one of my not-so-fun thrown in a village for a week excursions). Actually, I really enjoyed the time that I spent out with this family. The grandfather and I hit things off and I was looking forward to seeing him again.
When we arrived in the village, it was market day. I'm glad that Lindsey got to experience this, because it is a pretty authentic village experience. Basically everyone from all of the surrounding villages comes to this one village every couple of weeks to buy and sell goods and produce. Essentially you're surrounded by a few thousand villagers all buying things. We ended up finding our friends there and eating Liang Fen (another local thing I'm glad Lindsey was able to experience) with some old grandmas that were just hanging out at a table.
After the market we headed up to my friend's house. It is a good ways up the mountain and the view from there is amazing. When I lived with them we would go out hiking around the mountain to chop down trees to feed to the goats. We caught up with grandpa and spent some time sitting around the fire talking to him. I'm pretty sure he was drunk, since he didn't have a shirt on and his fly was open the entire time (and he didn't seem to care), but it was good to talk to him anyway. He has said he believed before, but I think he isn't really clear on what we're talking about most of the time. Either way, it was a great day of catching up with him.
When we arrived in the village, it was market day. I'm glad that Lindsey got to experience this, because it is a pretty authentic village experience. Basically everyone from all of the surrounding villages comes to this one village every couple of weeks to buy and sell goods and produce. Essentially you're surrounded by a few thousand villagers all buying things. We ended up finding our friends there and eating Liang Fen (another local thing I'm glad Lindsey was able to experience) with some old grandmas that were just hanging out at a table.
After the market we headed up to my friend's house. It is a good ways up the mountain and the view from there is amazing. When I lived with them we would go out hiking around the mountain to chop down trees to feed to the goats. We caught up with grandpa and spent some time sitting around the fire talking to him. I'm pretty sure he was drunk, since he didn't have a shirt on and his fly was open the entire time (and he didn't seem to care), but it was good to talk to him anyway. He has said he believed before, but I think he isn't really clear on what we're talking about most of the time. Either way, it was a great day of catching up with him.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Day 9 (Thursday)
As the locals say here, "My heart is warm." I just finished up meeting with a group of local believers for their mid-weekly study. It was a pretty amazing thing to be a part of and see how much things have changed over the past year and a half.
Before I left, a few of us started meeting with a handful of local guys on Wednesday nights. We'd sing a few songs and do a little teaching. Back then we'd have usually two or maybe three guys show up and most weeks it was pretty inconsistent and rough. Eventually the wives and some girls wanted to start coming, so it changed shape a little bit. Over the past couple of years, it has changed and grown into a full on fellowship that meets twice a week and is entirely led by locals in their local language. This is the first one of these that I know of and there were about 14 local people that came.
We started off the meeting with some singing. The last song they sang was one they wrote the week before in their local language and in a local style. We then had a message from one of the guys. They have started rotating who speaks each week so that they all have experience in how to write a message and share with others. Reproducibility and the ability to multiply is a huge thing out here. The message was out of Nahum. I can't really tell you the last time I heard a message out of Nahum, but it seemed to work for them. Because these are city people, they can all read so we read the entire book (3 chapters) and then the spent about thirty minutes going over the content and contrasting it with the message that Jonah had for Nineveh. The language was way over my head so I could only catch bits and pieces of it, however everyone was engaged and taking notes though. It is amazing to see the passion of people who have never heard the Word before.
After the study part of the meeting, one of our local friends started a language lesson. The local language here is an oral only language, which causes a lot of problems when you want locals to read scripture or other things. A friend has spent the last decade or so developing a writing system, but only a handful of people can read it. I'd guess that when I left, there were probably 10 of us in the world that could read the language (and about half of that was foreigners). Now there are probably 25-30 and many of those are locals. While we were sitting in the language lesson, I leaned over to my friend and told him it was strange watching people try to read when they already had the vocabulary. I would read trying to discern meaning, they read trying to understand the sounds the words made and already knew the meaning once they could get the sounds. It is a pretty rare moment in history to be there when a culture moves from oral to written. I'm sure it will be a slow process, but it is important for the Word to go forth here.
We also had a great morning out here. Lindsey (yes, she's been with me this whole time, and no, she hasn't fallen off a cliff or wanted to kill me yet) and I went out with some friends to a bluff on the ridge and had a picnic overlooking the city and talked about the work here over the past eight years. It was a good time. When I went to the study tonight, Lindsey decided to spend some time with my friend's wife and his girls. I figured I wouldn't make her sit through a local meeting. It is hard to follow even with language and incredibly boring if you don't know what anyone is saying for an hour and a half. I think the girls had fun doing their own thing. It was a good break day and we're heading out to the village again tomorrow.
Before I left, a few of us started meeting with a handful of local guys on Wednesday nights. We'd sing a few songs and do a little teaching. Back then we'd have usually two or maybe three guys show up and most weeks it was pretty inconsistent and rough. Eventually the wives and some girls wanted to start coming, so it changed shape a little bit. Over the past couple of years, it has changed and grown into a full on fellowship that meets twice a week and is entirely led by locals in their local language. This is the first one of these that I know of and there were about 14 local people that came.
We started off the meeting with some singing. The last song they sang was one they wrote the week before in their local language and in a local style. We then had a message from one of the guys. They have started rotating who speaks each week so that they all have experience in how to write a message and share with others. Reproducibility and the ability to multiply is a huge thing out here. The message was out of Nahum. I can't really tell you the last time I heard a message out of Nahum, but it seemed to work for them. Because these are city people, they can all read so we read the entire book (3 chapters) and then the spent about thirty minutes going over the content and contrasting it with the message that Jonah had for Nineveh. The language was way over my head so I could only catch bits and pieces of it, however everyone was engaged and taking notes though. It is amazing to see the passion of people who have never heard the Word before.
After the study part of the meeting, one of our local friends started a language lesson. The local language here is an oral only language, which causes a lot of problems when you want locals to read scripture or other things. A friend has spent the last decade or so developing a writing system, but only a handful of people can read it. I'd guess that when I left, there were probably 10 of us in the world that could read the language (and about half of that was foreigners). Now there are probably 25-30 and many of those are locals. While we were sitting in the language lesson, I leaned over to my friend and told him it was strange watching people try to read when they already had the vocabulary. I would read trying to discern meaning, they read trying to understand the sounds the words made and already knew the meaning once they could get the sounds. It is a pretty rare moment in history to be there when a culture moves from oral to written. I'm sure it will be a slow process, but it is important for the Word to go forth here.
We also had a great morning out here. Lindsey (yes, she's been with me this whole time, and no, she hasn't fallen off a cliff or wanted to kill me yet) and I went out with some friends to a bluff on the ridge and had a picnic overlooking the city and talked about the work here over the past eight years. It was a good time. When I went to the study tonight, Lindsey decided to spend some time with my friend's wife and his girls. I figured I wouldn't make her sit through a local meeting. It is hard to follow even with language and incredibly boring if you don't know what anyone is saying for an hour and a half. I think the girls had fun doing their own thing. It was a good break day and we're heading out to the village again tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)