Day 8 (Wednesday)

Today was another village day. Usually when I lived here we would only go out to the villages once or maybe twice a week. The rest of the time was spent working on language and meeting with people in town. The driving down dirt roads, around mountain passes, and hours in the car (or worse, a bus) just wears on you after a while. Because our time here is so short and there are so many people we want to see, we've been going out to villages more than usual. 

Today we went out to a village where we planted coffee. It wasn't a bad trip, maybe an hour and a half to get there. The drive there is beautiful. It is down on the river, which is the lowest (and therefore warmest) place around here. When I lived here we would go there once every week or two. 

When we arrived our friend was happy to see us. He is a funny older guy. He is very animated and jokes around a lot, which makes going to see him fun. We arrived there about 2pm, and it quickly became evident that we were going to be there a while. When we called to let him know that we were coming he killed a chicken for us, so we were going to be there at least until dinner. Village etiquette dictates that you must stay if they have killed something for you to eat. 

Since I moved away, our friend started up a new business. He has started getting unique looking rocks from the river and selling them to people in a big city. Apparently business is good, because in the last year he has added a new wing to his house, complete with a big screen tv and really nice living room. It was by far the nicest village set up I've ever seen. We went around and looked at his crops and all of our coffee here had died. It is too cold in the winter for the coffee there (which is why you always plant a test plot to see if it will work). We also planted shade trees for our coffee and those were still there. In two years a couple of them had grown to over 15 feet tall, so at least we got some good coffee information from being out there. 

While talking to our friend, he's started talking about a village about an hour away and how it probably had some people that my friend was looking for. Instead of a just sitting around until dinner, we jumped back in the truck with our local friend and drove out there. Not only was it a great opportunity to scope out a new village, it was a chance to spend a few hours restabishing a relationship with a brother and encouraging him. The village we went to was amazing. It is tucked away in a valley and has huge granite cliffs. In the next five years I'm sure it will become a huge tourist destination, but for now it is nice to see it as a sleepy village with only a handful of houses. 

We returned to our friends house and ate dinner with his family. They must have cooked eight or ten different dishes for us. Between the five of us and his family, we might have eaten 1/4 of it. After dinner we headed out and arrived back in town about 9pm. We were pretty tired. Tomorrow we're switching off and will probably stay in town a little more than we have the past week. 

Day 6 (Monday)

So when I was here I focused a lot on a certain people. Now that we're back for a visit I'm also tagging along with another friend that focuses on a different people for our first few days. Many of them speak the same language as I learned when I was here, but because several hundred years ago they were enemies of the other people in the area, they were run way up into the mountains. Because of this their villages are usually hard to access.

Today we went to visit one of these villages with my friend. It wouldn't have been that far away except we hit a traffic jam in the road that caused us to be stuck for almost an hour. After the traffic jam we jumped on a dirt road and headed straight up the mountain (about a 40 minute drive). We had a truck full of people so Joie and I had to ride in the camper in the back. It was pretty rough on the dirt road and we had to lay down in the back so we wouldn't wreck our backs or hit our heads on the ceiling. I definitely did not miss that part of living out here.

After we arrived in the village, we walked around for a while trying to find a place to visit with people. We came across a family that my friend had met before and we stayed there for lunch. We spent about 3 hours there and talked to them for a while. My friend was able to share with him, but they did not believe. Apparently some people had come through before and shared with some people. A small fellowship was started there, but later a cult came in. Cults here are different than in America. Here they are very aggressive. They will often come in to an area posing as believers and then start talking about teaching that is not in the Bible. Because most people here do not have access to a Bible in their own language and they cannot read, they believe these cult members. The cults end up stealing a lot of money and convincing people that they should not use medicine or go to a doctor. Apparently this is what happened in this village and some people had died from sickness and had money stolen. Whatever had happened, we did not have a very warm reception from them.

After we made the bumpy trek back down the mountain we went into Old Town and treated ourselves to $7.50 massages. We felt like we earned it.

Day 5 (Sunday)

I feel like we've spent all day being around old friends. That is definitely one of the major reasons we're here, and it is what makes going here different than just taking a trip or going to help out in another country.

We had our morning "fellowship" with our foreigner friends this morning. It is definitely a switch having church in a living room with eight other people instead of being in a church building with several hundred people. There was no music leader (we sang with music on the computer), no projectors or screens, no order of service, and not even a live preacher (just a podcast). Even without all of the normal elements to a church service, there is something very intimate about it. It is definitely different, but it has some elements that the American church has a hard time capturing.

For lunch we went and met one of my local friends here. He was probably my closest local friend while I lived here. Now he is married and wanted all of us to have lunch together. On the way to the restaurant with them, he told me that he knows another one of my local friends that I shared with a lot while I was here. I guess my friend called him, because when we arrived at the restaurant he was waiting on us. It was a good surprise because I was not sure how I would find him and I wanted to reconnect with him while I was here. He told me that he has been going to a local church over the past year and that he might go with me when we go later this week.

For dinner we met with another one of my local friends. He had us over to his house, and his wife cooked us dinner. She is an amazing cook, and we had a great time catching up on things. He is a strong believer and would go out with me on most of my village trips when I lived here. We ended up spending a good hour and a half after dinner just sitting around talking and encouraging one another in what we've both been doing.

It was a great Sunday and tomorrow we're going out with a friend to help him in one of the villages he focuses on.

Day 4 (Saturday)

Well we had our tourist day today. We spent this morning out in Old Town. Old Town is the part of town that is around 1,000 years old. It is all cobblestone, canals and storefront shops. Old Town is great, with the exception of the 4-million Chinese tourists that come here every year. We beat most of the crowd by going in the morning and getting out of there by lunch.

We're styling in an apartment that my friend used to live in. It hasn't been lived in for almost tow years, so there we some minor repairs the landlord needed to come by and fix. Because this is a third world culture, what should've taken thirty minutes ended up taking two and a half hours. So the afternoon was pretty much gone after that. Someone needed to stay there all afternoon and make sure it got done, so I like to look at it as our work for the day.

This evening has been pretty relaxed and has just been spent with friends. It is nice coming back here and being able to spend the evenings with people we know.

Day 3

We made it. The best way to describe the travel out here this time is uneventful. Normally there is some sort of hiccup or long layover or something; not this time. It was smooth the whole way. We arrived in LJ about noon yesterday and basically hung out with friends all day. It was a good chance to catch up on things and hear about what has happened since I left. Really the only news is that there are a few new roads, some more foreigners moved out here, and some restaurants opened or closed. Really that is about it.

The biggest thing that I've noticed about being back is how normal everything feels. It really doesn't seem like much time has passed at all since I've left, even though it has been over a year and a half. There haven't been any of the weird culture moments or even anything seeming out of place, well except for having Lindsey with me (that minor detail). Really though, that doesn't seem strange either. It just all seems to fit just like it used to but even more so now. And she seems to be really enjoying it so far (or else she is a much better faker than I give her credit for).

It is early in the morning so we are about to go and see Old Town before it gets crowded. It'll be a nice touristy thing to do.

Day One (and sort of two)

Well we've been doing the planes, trains, and automobiles thing. Actually over the last 24 hours we've done all three. I'm sitting on our final flight right now and very much looking forward to being there in another hour. Lindsey has been a trooper though. I thought I was going to lose her to jet lag last night on the subway, but she hung in until we made it to the hotel. Here's a rundown of where we've been and what we've done over the past day or so (it is hard to keep time straight with that pesky international date line).

-flew to Vancouver: 4 hours plus a 2 hour layover
-flew to shanghai: 12 hours plus a 2 hour subway ride to our hotel and spent the night
-flew to LJ 4 more hours (and swearing I'm not getting on a plane again for another 2 weeks).

China has this amazing tension of beauty and chaos all at the same time. Admittedly, I usually remember the beauty a lot more than I remember the chaos. Three things about the chaos I've remembered since we got here:

1) There are a lot of bad Chinese parents out there. And I know the same can be true for Americans, and I know I shouldn't criticize when I don't have kids, but there was this kid on our long flight next to us that was nuts. I'm talking screaming, kicking, rolling in the floor because he didn't get a window seat - nuts. And mom was just like 'please don't do that' and then she changed to another set on a different row for the rest of the flight. I'm not gong to lie though, I did laugh when he got his head stuck in between the seats in front of him. He had it coming. All I know is that the girl sitting next to him had the patience of Job. Every time I looked over he was hitting her or screaming in her ear.
2) There is a lot of garbage in China. It is one of the details that gets lost after you live here. I guess I got so used to it I didn't notice it anymore. All I know is that there is a lot of garbage in Shanghai.
3) The economy of things here is crazy. For instance: we had steamed dumplings last nights for dinner and coffee before we flew out. Dinner for 2 cost just under $1. Coffee for two, just under $10. I now remember why I avoided Western hangout spots.

Like I said before, Lindsey has been a complete trooper. This has definitely been the smoothest trip here yet, but it is still a long one. She has been adventurous enough to eat off the street and wanted to take the subway instead of a taxi when we landed. And she insists on carrying her own backpack, which is also a plus (she keeps talking about having to haul a backpack through Italy with a broken elbow and saying this is nothing compared to that). I'm looking forward to ditching those big packs once we land though.

Resurrection II

Okay, so totally disregard the post from January about resurrecting the blog.  That lasted for about a week.  I've realized, I'm much better at writing about the randomness of life in Rural Asia than I am about living in Surburbia.  Somehow being surrounded by houses stifles my creativity (I'm looking out my window at my neighbors nice brick wall as I type).

With that being said, I am resurrecting the blog AGAIN.  This time I'll actually stick with it, since Lindsey and I are heading off to Asia for two and a half weeks.  The game plan is to go back to the town that I lived in for eleven days, then head down south for four days.  We have a basic plan of what we're doing, but all that could go out the window once we get there.  

On a side note: My old Filipino roommate, Joie, is going to meet us over there.  If you don't know Joie, he's full of fortune cookie wisdom and was the brains behind all of our coffee projects when we lived there.  So Lindsey will get to meet him on this trip (maybe a good thing, maybe not...).  Joie going with us is strategic, but more on that later.

Our basic game plan is that for the first half of the trip we're going to help out with the work that is continually going on there.  We'll go out to some villages, probably help with some ag projects, catch up with local friends, and try to share whenever we can (even though my language is very rusty).  This will also be a time where Lindsey gets to check things out and finally get to see what I've been talking about over the past year and a half.

The second half of the trip is going to be a little more business.  We're going to travel down south where some people we know are growing coffee.  We'll meet with them and talk about the possibility of partnering up with them in their work down there.  We'll help them out with some of the coffee that they're growing, and we'll scope out some possible living/working situations for Joie.  The hope is to have Joie living out there sometime in the first half of next year (for more on that see www.undergroundcoffeeintl.org).  We've both been down there before and have friends there, but we've never looked at it as a place to live.  It'll be a busy few days there, but we'll be enjoying some fresh mangos and pineapples, so I'll be just fine.

With that being said, I'll try and update this regularly over the next few weeks (assuming I can find a place with internet).  The posts might be a little few and far between, but I'll try and keep things up to date.  And I promise I won't do the American thing and only post about getting massages every day and taking pictures of the weird things we eat; however I'm expecting there to be quite a bit of both.