Yunnan! The Yi Village
One thing that I got sick of in Yunnan were noodles. Frankly, I am a noodle girl, I think I like them more than rice, but when we got them for breakfast, it gets a little ridiculous. Anyway, we went to a noodle place for breakfast. The next village (on 2/11) we went to was the Yi village, the ethnic minority I’m doing my project with. The day before, there were some villagers from the Mushan village (the one we were heading for) singing the Seaweed （海菜）song for us. So we gave them a ride to back to their home, also partially because then they could show us the way. It was lucky for me because I basically got a two hour private interview with the women asking them about their life in the village. When we arrived, you could tell that these people had seen tourist before. They had two sets of dragon teams and they were waving them when we were pulling up in the buses. It was pretty to see these cloth dragons glittering in the sun. We climbed up a small hill to a flat plateau shaded by trees where we had a short meeting with the village head to ask questions about the culture. After, we went to a small courtyard to have a group lunch, with pretty mild and filling food. Next, we were herded off into our host family groups. Our house was actually very nice with an indoor bathroom (quite a step up from the Hani village!) with a porcelain squatter with running water. Our family also owned pigs so they were quite rich (pigs are only for extra income). It was four of us, Nina, Stacey, Lindsay and I, staying in the women’s daughter’s room which had two beds. After we settled in, we headed back to the basketball court (there seems to be a trend here) to meet up with the rest of the group. We originally were supposed to walk up a hill to see a lake of importance, but the village insisted on taking us up in cars. I ended up in a small pickup truck with a canvas covering the top with benches on the side. There was a giant dump truck that took probably 20 people. But this ended up being a long ride, almost an hour. No wonder they didn’t want us to walk. At one point, our car couldn’t take all the weight and a bunch of guys were forced to get out and walk an especially steep part of the hill. It was so bumpy, my end of the bench was practically broken so I preferred to stand and surf it out. Once we made it to the lake, it was calm and tranquil in comparison to the bumpy road. I sat with some local girls and we chatted a bit and the let me try on their beautiful headdress. I looked pretty ridiculous, but it was nice of them. All of their costumes are handmade, so none are the same, and have many colors representing flowers. It takes them 3-5 years to make them so it is a sort of a ritual for women. We had to wait for everyone to get there (which took a while because of the road conditions) and when everyone finally arrived, they showed us their traditional dance and song. They are quite acrobatic about it, and they contort themselves to look like ants, monkeys, etc. I can’t really explain it, one has to see it to believe it. Next, they showed us their dragon dance, which won the national Chinese competition in 1997. They invited us to try it, and it’s a lot harder than it looks! You really need coordination with your partners, and a lot of arm strength. While people were taking turns trying it, we began preparations for dinner. We went to the woods to collect pine needles and created tables on the ground out of them. That dinner was the best that I had in Yunnan thus far. The rice had a bit of pork and potato in it, green leafy veggies, peanuts, amazing tofu, pumpkin, bacon like pork, and a slightly spicy pork dish. After satisfying our hunger, Garrett and I hopped on a caravan while others walked. At one point, we were in the car with the village head, and we asked him about his thoughts on modernity, and he responded “you cannot stop the steps of history” which was quite poetic and surprising response from him, an older man. After a while, we switched off and began to walk back with just us and four other Yi women toward the village. When we returned to our headquarters (the basketball court), we played a little bit of soccer before our “party” with the villagers where they preformed for us, and we preformed for them. I got to practice my “long fist” form to techno music on the stage. After the show, we had an impromptu dance party and I invited some young Yi girls to dance with us and we just jumped around. Later, the Yi villagers insisted that we eat again and served us, noodles. After we ate our full, which didn’t take long, we headed back to our host family’s home. We tried to interview our host mother which ended up in a lot of gesturing, and a lot of laughing. It was a good way to get to know her a little better. Because we had a really early start the next day, we had to say goodnight to her and go to sleep.
Unfortunately, a rooster started crowing at 4 am, then another started up, and at 6 a third joined in though we didn’t have to be up until 6:30. It was quite frigid inside the room, so it was a fitful night’s sleep. We woke up, but no one else was up, so we left our gifts on the coffee table and snuck out of the house. At 7 we had our scheduled group breakfast (noodles, yet again) and we were supposed to leave at 8. At 7:30, we went climbing on the roofs of the town. They are all flat (for drying vegetables) and all connected. Most houses have a courtyard in the middle of them, so on the roofs, one could just look in. It seemed a little Bourne identity-ish up there, but it was fun to get out a little bit. We couldn’t go around too much since we had to get on the bus at 8, but it was fun all of the same. We then began our bus ride to Jinghong. We passed over the tallest bridge in the world (of its kind) which is measured from the water to the top of the bridge. It was about 12, and we stopped a park. At this point, we had crossed the tropic of cancer, and it was burning up. Climbing up some stairs, we were able to get a clear view of the bridge and see the cars go by. Since it was about lunch time, we had a DIY BBQ where we had some nicely seasoned beef, pork, and other veggies. After a leisurely lunch, we watched a cock fight. Ok, that sounds illegal, but it was the normal one where they wear knives on their claws and try to kill each other, but instead there is a mini arena that looks like a small boxing ring. The winner is the rooster who is able to knock the other off the platform. It’s usually quick and supposedly they don’t get hurt. They did look a little scrawny, so I don’t really believe it though. After watching, I went to go find the bathroom, which was up a hill. I ended up having to sprint for the bus which already started to back out of the parking lot. That would have sucked. Anyway, the bridge and the roofs were the most exciting part of my day since the rest was sent on a bus. It was supposed to be an 8 hour trip, but because of lunch and all of the breaks the bus made for water (since it was hot, going down a lot of hills so had to use the breaks a lot so used a lot of water), it ended up being 13 hours. Exhausted, I didn’t even have enough energy to get food, let alone explore Jinghong. So all I did was take another nice hot shower, and sleep.
Unfortunately, a rooster started crowing at 4 am, then another started up, and at 6 a third joined in though we didn’t have to be up until 6:30. It was quite frigid inside the room, so it was a fitful night’s sleep. We woke up, but no one else was up, so we left our gifts on the coffee table and snuck out of the house. At 7 we had our scheduled group breakfast (noodles, yet again) and we were supposed to leave at 8. At 7:30, we went climbing on the roofs of the town. They are all flat (for drying vegetables) and all connected. Most houses have a courtyard in the middle of them, so on the roofs, one could just look in. It seemed a little Bourne identity-ish up there, but it was fun to get out a little bit. We couldn’t go around too much since we had to get on the bus at 8, but it was fun all of the same. We then began our bus ride to Jinghong. We passed over the tallest bridge in the world (of its kind) which is measured from the water to the top of the bridge. It was about 12, and we stopped a park. At this point, we had crossed the tropic of cancer, and it was burning up. Climbing up some stairs, we were able to get a clear view of the bridge and see the cars go by. Since it was about lunch time, we had a DIY BBQ where we had some nicely seasoned beef, pork, and other veggies. After a leisurely lunch, we watched a cock fight. Ok, that sounds illegal, but it was the normal one where they wear knives on their claws and try to kill each other, but instead there is a mini arena that looks like a small boxing ring. The winner is the rooster who is able to knock the other off the platform. It’s usually quick and supposedly they don’t get hurt. They did look a little scrawny, so I don’t really believe it though. After watching, I went to go find the bathroom, which was up a hill. I ended up having to sprint for the bus which already started to back out of the parking lot. That would have sucked. Anyway, the bridge and the roofs were the most exciting part of my day since the rest was sent on a bus. It was supposed to be an 8 hour trip, but because of lunch and all of the breaks the bus made for water (since it was hot, going down a lot of hills so had to use the breaks a lot so used a lot of water), it ended up being 13 hours. Exhausted, I didn’t even have enough energy to get food, let alone explore Jinghong. So all I did was take another nice hot shower, and sleep.