9.28 Off on an adventure

Today I leave for the first of two week-long trips that I am leading with students around China.
Will wake up and hop into a taxi to trudge through traffic, find a group of 16 teenagers then shepard them all on to a plan. We fly to Kunming, which is the major city in the southern province of Yunnan (near Laos and Myanmar). We will be working with an organization, during this week (which is the Chinese national holiday that celebrates Mao’s founding of the PRC), called Habitat for HUMANITY. We will be working in a remote village building houses and maybe a school. This will certainly be an amazing trip.

As if that were not enough… I will be leaving again only hours after returning from that week…
China Alive is an annual trip the school sponsors for all freshmen and sophomore students. 7 trips explore various, historical, cultural and tourist destinations in China. I will be leading a trip of 60 students along the ancient Silk Road in western China… from Durban?? To Urmiqi… by train and camel etc. to the turpan pendi, a place only my students and the random person knows about, as the second lowest point on the planet (154 meters below sea level), past the singing sand dunes reported in Marco Polo’s account of his controversial visit to China during the Yuan Dynasty (1280- 1366). This will certainly be an amazing trip. I have already packed my cameras and film.

Both experiences will be incredible. I am excited and a bit exhausted already, I will load pictures onto the blog and report details of all adventures upon my return.

I will drop off the radar (more than already) in the next two weeks because I know I will be beyond internet access and mostly out of cell range. Thank goodness. There are so few cell free zones left on the planet…. Be well and eagerly await tales of adventure, sweat and adolescent brilliance, humor and growth…. And my typical wordy observations.

10.10.08
The Village rests on the far side of a mountain. The nearest road stops in a local township where we stayed in a rugged "guest house." In the mornings after breakfast we would hike over the mountain to the village where we would work with the villagers , play and eat in rapid succession.
The people of the village are ethnic Miao people. They are one of China's largest ethnic minority groups and populate large parts of Southern China. The women wear their hair up in the traditional fashion once they have children. The men wear suit coats for all manner of work: digging, farming, basketball and eating. even some of the younger boys wear them. It is an ironic image to see a muddy man with pick ax wearing a ragged tailored suit.
We worked on various projects: digging a foundation, picking and shucking corn, cooking, and then befriending the village and getting schooled on the Basketball court. The students worked with total dedication, played with enthusiasm and loved completely. I was so pleased with the work they did, the attitude they brought, the patience they showed with the projects and each other...; they were truly amazing. I presented regular challenges and to every one they approached each completely. I have not remembered being so impressed in a while.
The land we were working in spread out in front of us, below us and above us constantly inspiring awe. The air was fresh, a welcome alternative to Shanghai's din and suffocating heat and tangible air.


I have been around the world without leaving the boundaries of China. I have traveled the Silk Road in the dry desert of western China and build a house with Habitat for Humanity in the red earth of the Yunnan mountains.