Wednesday, January 03, 2007

China Post 4

Wednesday 3rd January
Today was a bit more relaxed. After breakfast and devotiones we headed around 10am to a Miao village. It was very cold today - only about 1 degree when we left the hotel.
The village we visited performs cultural dances and singing for tourists but it was still an authentic Miao village. We paid 500 yuan for the 30 of us to see the show. The villagers greeted us as we arrived and offered us rice wine from horns (which is their tradition). We were told not to touch the horn with our hands or we would have to drink the whole horn full but if we let htem touch we horn on our lips we only had to take a sip. There were a number of different musical items and dances and after they finished they had handicrafts for sale and if it wasn't for the rain I'm sure we all would have bought more things from them. We bought small versions of traditional Miao instruments which are a cross between trumpets and pan flutes for the boys and silver bracelets for Kate. When Annette and I initially asked a price for the bracelets it was $100- but Auntie Alsie bargained them down to $10 (about $1-50 Australian). When the villagers saw that we had bought something they mobbed us and we had to escape through a back door.
When we got back to Kaili we visited the sports stadium which would hold about 25,000 people. The rest of the afternoon was free so Annette and I took the opportunity to catch up on sleep. The chef in the hotel cooked a special "western" dinner for us tonight - roast chicken, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin and pumpkin soup.
Tomorrow we're working again doing some medical work in a village, interacting informally with the village children, and performing some of our concert items.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

To Kate.
I haven't seen you in any of the pictures. I hope you're OK. I can't wait for you to come home. Your Dad has done lots of funny things. I have enjoyed your letters that you have sent to me. It sounds like a lot of fun over there. I am sorry to hear that you are not allowed to talk about God. Travel home safely.
From Emma Mc

Pete
Aus just wrapped up the Ashes 5-0.

Anonymous said...

To Tom & Matt
How are you going? I've heard you are doing well in China. I heard about your Dad drinking Coke and ladies throwing him in the air. I thought that was funny? I hope you are taking lots of photos for us to look at. Do you enjoy the food. Is it different to what we eat here? I hope you continue to have fun in China. See you when you come back home.
from Jamie Mc