the market game and the Dai Village

So after our little raft trip down the river, we got out only to hear from Peg (our director) that we should get dried off, change our clothes on the bus if we need to and then they are going to walk us to the market to play a little game. Now since most of you know me pretty well, you know I am very competitive, but I was tired, wet, and cold and I really just am not a fan of Chinese markets. If you have never been to China, you may have heard of the the silk market, the pearl market, yashow clothing market and think why is she about to complain. Well I like those markets, I on the other hand do not like the food markets, which is where we were about to head.

So before I go into graphic detail, I'll explain the game first. We were supposed to make our own groups of like 5 or something and then they have gave each group 10 kuai (the equivalent of $1.50) and we had to buy a certain amount of 10 different food items by bargaining with the people selling. All prices are up for negotiation in this country, it's great. However, there were two groups of returners (kids here for two semesters and can speak Chinese pretty well) and so there was no point in my mind of playing because well I wasn't going to win. Not being able to speak the language at this point was really taking off my natural competitive nature. Ok so we get into the market and let me paint this picture for you-- its basically like a city block where people sell their fruits, vegetables, basically any kind of food. Well along with that comes meat, but unlike America where meat comes dyed and nicely packaged on a styrofoam plate covered with cling wrap in China it is still alive. The benefit of this is you can take the meat, and when I mean meat I am also referring to any type of warm or cold blooded animal or fish, home and have it as your personal livestock thus not having to go back to the market every day or week. If this is not the choice for you and you just want the meat not to raise it any longer, well then they can kill it right there for you.

It was this point when I nearly became a vegetarian. I like the American way of pretending meat doesn't actually come from the killing of an animal...call me crazy. So my team members are negotiating for some vegetable or another and I am standing behind them taking in the scenery and the not so pretty and clean smells. So I go to turn away from the table and about five feet away my eyes fall upon a woman who has her hand around a (live) chicken's throat and to my amazement she has a knife in her hand. Now two things baffled me at this moment 1. I have never seen someone actually hold a chicken like that and 2. this is the first utensil I have seen in China (fork, knife, spoon, I only ever see chopsticks). And then she simply takes the knife to the chickens throat like no big deal. The Chinese like to preserve the whole chicken to eat ( i.e. head, beak, claw feet things) so the slit which is now gushing blood from the chicken who is crying bloody murder is like a horror film you just can't seem to take your eyes off of no matter how much you want to. So I had been staring at this large basin type of canister thing that is pasted red earlier not knowing what it was when the woman slams the dying chicken inside (now realizing the red paste is chicken blood) and the canister rocks back and forth with eardrum penetrating screams of the chicken until two minutes later it is finally dead and can be pulled out to begin the plucking and cleaning process. It is no small wonder how this country contracts bird flu and sars because it is just plain dirty.

As we walked further through the market, past the (still alive) chickens we are pretty much walking through blood (thankfully I was one of the lucky ones still wearing closed toed shoes) when we pass tanks of fish, snakes, frogs splashing water out of the basin they are in with the mucky water hitting our clothes if we dared to get too close. Anyways that was pretty much a breaking point for me, but I have moved past it and oddly it has become somewhat normal although I can still not stand the smells of the market. Oh and as predicted, my team didn't win and then we were told we were eating lunch there before getting back on the bus to our next destination. I ate dumplings and noodles.

Our next stop was our second village stay of the trip with the Dai minority group in the Mannuanle Village. The people were really nice and their houses are made out of bamboo. The look like hanging towers and are surrounded by spacious courtyards below. The upper story, which is basically the house is two meters above the ground, which is made accessible by a wooden (and at times not so stable) ladder. When we first arrived as a sign of welcoming they spritz us with water while they are dressed in their ethnic clothing. We did not have any planned events with them for a couple of hours so after we were each settled in our house all the TBC'ers met back up at the local basketball court where we challanged the local basketball team to a game. We now know why the Chinese won so many gold medals at this years Olympics, they have endurance. We're a fairly athletic group, but every five to ten minutes we would switch subs in and our because we were huffing and puffing. The Chinese kids only switched in and out to stop for a cigarette break, I don't know how their lungs work, but I am pretty sure my life would have ended right there if I had tried that and this went on for a good two hours before our families called us back in for dinner.

The food was the best meal we had had on the trip thus far. Salted, roasted peanuts, shredded potatoes, beef, chicken, tomato and egg, soup, and a yellow watermelon and bananas from their farms. Afterwards the village put on a dance performance for us followed by fireworks and a kongming light show. Fireworks at this point are fireworks, but the kongming light show was unbelievable. It is basically these paper lanterns that are anywhere from like 5 feet to 15 feet tall that have a little device attached at the bottom that is lit on fire and floats up to heaven. I guess its simplicity is what was most striking about it. The Chinese used to use this method as a means of communication, but now continue to use as a way of sending wishes up to heaven to be granted. One of the kids on the trip made a good point by saying its a very anti-American gesture in a way because we always want to hold on to everything and keep everything within our reach because that's who we are and we like being in control of things. But this was another experience of letting go of something and believing that it could actually bring you to what you wanted rather than keeping that tight grip on things and forcing our way to be made. Probably not the best description I have given, but hopefully you will somewhat understand the thought.

Afterwards we went back to our houses and got ready for bed which was mats on the floor with a mosquito net surrounding us. In the morning we woke up to the sound of our host mom killing one of the chickens outside with the roosters just beginning their morning cock-a-doodle doos right after (probably around 5 am). After breakfast we left for our next stop which was Dali, in which we had to take an hour flight to.