Trip to the Village

Last weekend, our family went to visit some friends in their village.  It was both eventful and uneventful, in good ways.  If that makes any sense at all.  It took us about 8 hours to get there on Friday, counting lunch and checkpoint stops.  This was the first time for us to be in a village as a family of four.   Nick goes quite often, but it always seems like so much trouble to pack up the whole family...but I think we will try to make this a regular thing from now on.

After the 8-hour drive, we arrived just in time to eat dinner.  Sadly, Mayah was cranky from being in the car all day and cried for an hour an a half non-stop, before crashing for the night.  All of the old ladies in the village wanted to hold her, but it just wasn't happening!  Thankfully, Abigail was not opposed to anyone and everyone holding her this weekend.  She fell asleep while we were watching Brittney Spears karaoke videos (don't ask!) and this lady really wanted to hold her.  She strapped Abigail on her back and carried her for a couple of hours.  Abigail slept soundly through it all!

This lady was really excited to be carrying around the foreign child.  Our friend told us that several people in the village thought my children were baby dolls because their skin was so white!

If you look closely, you can see Abigail's little feet dangling down behind the lady's stool.  In the picture above, she is completely covered by the blue blanket.  It was kind of cold that night, and apparently that means every inch of your child's skin should be completely covered, including her face!

Abigail woke up just in time to see the performance that the villagers put on, from 10:00 pm until midnight.  We got to see lots of minority dances, hear some live music, and even hear some drunken karaoke.  A little bit of everything :)  When we left at midnight, everyone was getting ready to do more minority dances together.  

 This is the home we stayed in.  

 The walls and ceilings of our bedroom were lined with tarps.  This provided some insulation against the cold concrete walls, and protected us from the cats and roosters that lived in the rafters!  We all slept in this one bed, dressed warmly and covered in blankets (It was probably about 40 degrees that night but we managed to stay warm).  

 Washing up in the morning with a bowl of boiling water!

 This was the youngest granddaughter of the family we stayed with.  She was just over a year old!  I kept trying to talk to the kids but they didn't speak Chinese--they only spoke their local language.  Often, kids in villages don't learn Chinese until they start school.  

 We spent the morning with their family, and then after the 11:00 meal, we got back on the road.  9 hours later, we were back home!  All in all, it was a great trip.  It was fun to take our first road trip as a family of four.  We look forward to many more!