Out Country People

Ha ha, seems legit.

This is a really interesting and beautiful look at China’s recognized minority groups. China recognizes 56 distinct ethnicities (although many of them are kind of arbitrary, and naturally there’s a lot of dispute [including some fascinating information about how the Han--the largest "minority"--should be divided into at least two distinct sub-groups]), including the Han, who comprise about 96% of the people. In our area of Gansu, common minorities are the Hui, Dongxiang, Tibetan, and Zhuang people. Take a look at these cool photos to see some of the people we live with!

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/12/06/family-portraits-of-all-56-ethnic-groups-in-china/

So, I never got around to posting about Bangkok – the last leg in out Southeast Asian adventures. Suffice to say, it was amazing, save the hippies.

Bangkok was full of amazing-looking food, only a few of which did I actually get to try.

For example, here we have what in Chinese we call the zhenzhu naicha 珍珠奶茶, except in China it has no whipped cream, and certainly doesn't have any sparkles.

The side effect of being in a tourist hotspot - dreadlocks. This is on Khaosan Rd., a.k.a. "Dirty Hippy Central," a.k.a. "backpacker ghetto." Only Westerners would come thousands of miles to get dreaded on the street while thinking they're officially off the beaten track - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaosan_Road

Ronald McDonald even meets you with "Namaste" or "Wai" in Thailand.

Oh my God! Thai landsharks! We're all doomed!

Bangkok is divided by the Chao Phraya River (also called the River of Angels). Barges are constantly passing by and it appears people prefer to just live on them.

These are the ferries, Bangkok's most bustling public trans.

And the famous Pat Pong market. Basically, it's just another market, except they sometimes always try to sell you sex, as well.

These fuzzy little things are a delicious fruit related to the lychee, called rambutan. Native to S.E. Asia and frequently devoured by Davids.

While visiting Wat Pho, Thailand's holiest place (as decided by King Rama VIII), we found the dapperest monk.

Another shot of Wat Pho and its cloisters.

Wat Pho is famous for it's reclining Buddha; largest in the world and made of gold and mother of pearl. Here's a snippet.

Also at Wat Pho, non-Thai red people (demons?) who steal things.

Another cloister shot.

This one was actually the strangest for us. We found it on one of the water taxies inviting people to check out this company via social media. Of these social media sites, every single one is blocked in China; we hadn't seen advertisements for them in one and a half years.

Our hostel was on the boarder with the red light district - ergo this sign.

One of VA's favorite S.E. Asian fruits: the mangosteen. Way too much work, and way too little fruit for the money you pay, in my opinion. You can never eat them. They have a shelf-life of three days and cannot be frozen or preserved. Sorry.

The final Bangkok meal - Pad Thai and seltzer. I think the whole dinner cost $0.10. I seriously miss this country, its people, and its food.

Now, the Pad Thai was good, but be careful when you ask for spicy. In China, I ask for spicy everyday and have never had a problem. Even in Sichuan, I can eat without a problem. You may be familiar with Thai salads from your local Thai place, but I declare, VA and I almost died every time we went out for Thai food. Pad Thai is the mildest thing in that country, presumably because so many foreigners eat it. It was fantastic, though.

-DK

Recently, our English Resource Room had its grand opening ceremony, which was a big event for the students, for the school, and for us. We’d been preparing for it for several months, but—as with all Chinese planning—it all came together at the last minute.

The ERC is David’s and my secondary project, which means it’s what we put all of our free time into. We developed it as a space where the students could come and practice speaking English, but also as a space where they would have access to authentic English materials (what little they already have are usually textbooks [in Chinese] about learning English, or at best, bilingual dictionaries). We’ve received a lot of help from our families (lots of Oprah magazines) and a couple donations from excellent organizations (Darian Book Aid and Karen’s Book Barn), but by far, our biggest source of funding has been applying for RELO (Regional English Language Organization) grants. RELO is a subset of the US state department, and we’ve been awarded five grants from them, totaling about $2500 in all. That’s bought us about 400 books, and with donations from other people, we’ve managed to collect almost 500 books, magazines, and newspapers in the two years that we’ve been here.

During the opening ceremony, all of the important officials came, David and I gave speeches (full of talk about our “harmonious cooperation”), and the school pledged to support the ERC even more in the future.

After that, all the students freaked out at talking to the tall foreigners. I mean, books are great and all, but the students have more important (tall, blond) things on their mind than reading.

Here’s what the school’s website had to say about it:

4月6日下午，学校美中友好志愿者援建外文资料室揭牌仪式在第一教学楼隆重举行。党委书记、校长陈彪，党委副书记何春海出席揭牌仪式。美国志愿者代表Ms.Virginia Lee Conn主持仪式。教务处、学生处、外语系、对外交流合作处负责人及师生代表共80余人参加了揭牌仪式。

揭牌仪式上，陈彪为美中友好志愿者援建外文资料室揭牌。

美国志愿者代表介绍了外文资料室的筹建过程以及美中友好志愿者的使命，并对学校的帮助表示衷心感谢。

何春海在讲话中对我校两位美国教师的辛勤工作和对外文资料室所做的工作表示感谢，希望外文资料室充分发挥作用，完善管理机制，让学校广大师生都能分享到这一资源。他表示，学校将逐步加大投入，把外文资料室办出特色、办出水平。（对外交流合作处/供稿 宣传部/摄影）

“On the afternoon of April 6^th, the opening ceremony for the English Language Resource Center—founded by the school and Peace Corps—was held in the first classroom building. President and party secretary Chen Biao, along with deputy party secretary He Chunai, attended the ceremony. On behalf of the volunteers, Ms. Virginia Lee Conn presided over the ceremony. The Office of Academic Affairs, Student Affairs Office, Department of Foreign Languages, the Office of Foreign Exchange and Correspondence, teachers, and students, were represented among the more than 80 people attending the ceremony.

Chen Biao inaugurated the foreign language reference room. Speeches included an overview of the resource room, the mission of the Peace Corps, and many heartfelt thanks.

In his speech, He Chunhai thanked the two American teachers for their hard work in creating this reference room. He said that the foreign language reference room should play a full role in improving skills, so that the school’s teachers and students can all share its resources. He said that the school will gradually increase investment in the foreign language reference room in order to make it of top quality. (Office of Foreign Exchange and Cooperation/Propaganda Department/Photo)”

After spending a week on Pulau Langkawi, David and I took a speedboat to the Thai island of Koh Lipe. Koh Lipe is nominally part of the Koh Tarutau National Park, but it has some jurisdiction issues due to the island being home to the Chao Ley people (better known as the “Sea Gypsies”). The Chao Ley people maintain and develop most of the island, and one thing in particular about them was great: most Chao Ley are fishermen, so every day they would spend the day fishing, and at night they would bring their catch to the restaurants. Buckets and buckets of shrimp and squid and fish and crab and mussels (and the occasional shark or swordfish)…I was in seafood heaven.

Koh Lipe was beautiful, but it was also the place where we ran into our first (and only) real problem on the vacation: because it’s so small (you can walk around the entire island in under an hour), the only accommodations bookable online are the big, expensive villas. Since David and I didn’t exactly have the budget to spend a few hundred US dollars a night on a hotel, we decided to take our chances finding a hotel when we arrived.

BIG mistake. When we arrived, all the hotels and huts were already full to capacity and booked for the foreseeable future. I won’t bore you with a detailed description of the long, frustrating hours we spent trekking through piles of hot sand with heavy backpacks on (even that sentence is laborious reading), but eventually, a kind government worker who clearly wanted nothing to do with the situation put us up in the island’s Fisheries Department–with the solemn promise that we would leave immediately the next morning. It seemed skeevy, so we were happy to go, and the next day, we got lucky and happened to find a bungalow with an opening for only one night, and after that, we were able to book a bungalow for the next six consecutive nights. Whew! I don’t know how so many people just pick up and go without planning ahead–it stresses me out. Once we knew we were secure in one place for a long time, we were able to get on with our pleasant vacation: i.e., swimming, eating, sleeping, and repeating.

In the mornings, the ocean was still cool from the night before, and we would swim for a couple hours and then walk into town for lunch. During the heat of the afternoon, we would usually relax in the shade with a book and some Thai iced tea or coffee. The island was full of dogs, and they would take naps all over the island, too. We ran into a few other Peace Corps China volunteers while we were there, but for the most part, we spent our time relaxing and enjoying how beautiful everything was on the island.

One day, we rented a kayak and paddled out the nearest island. The water was so clear and shallow that we probably could have walked it, but it was both terrifying and awe-inspiring to look down and see all the ocean things below us (sea urchins, fish, unidentifiable terrors).

Also, at night, animals would crawl into our bungalow. Mostly hermit crabs, but also a few lizards. We would wake up in the middle of the night and be like, “was that seashell there before we went to bed?” And then it would crawl away, answering that.

The semester started in mid-February, and since then, we’ve been dealing with all the work that typically comes with the school year (plus all the paperwork we need to fill out, since it’s our last semester). We still need to update about the end of our trip through southeast Asia, but before that, I wanted to share a story that really exemplifies (for me) one of the reasons it’s worth it to be here.

Like I’ve mentioned before, almost all of our students come from the countryside, and their worldview is incredibly insular. They haven’t had much exposure to cultures or experiences outside of their province (sometimes not even their hometowns), and frankly speaking, most of them won’t ever have the chance.

Last semester, a company came to our school to recruit translators to work in their African branch. China has a huge presence in Africa now (mostly mining and resource development), but going there is seen as dangerous and terrifying by most people in this region. The company only wanted to recruit boys, all of who turned it down. This, honestly, made me furious. At least four of my top female students said they would have jumped at the opportunity if it had been offered to them, but the company won’t even consider hiring women, and they’re all expected to get stable jobs back home and take care of their families. For some of the boys, I understood why they refused: one wanted to go to university, one had already signed a contract with another company, etc, but there was one student who–even though he said his goal in life was to be a translator and tour guide–refused to go. When he asked me about it, I told him, truthfully, that I thought he was making a mistake that he would always regret.

Flash forward to a few days ago. This same student came to English Corner and told me that he had recently accepted a job as a translator and tour guide for a company working out of the Maldives. His contract is for two years, and he’ll be working with both Chinese and western tourists. He told me that what I had said had really affected him and made him reconsider his future, and that he appreciated that I had pushed him. He wanted to know what to expect, and I said that he should expect to learn not only about other cultures, but about his own as well.

I’m so proud of this student, and so happy that he’ll have an opportunity like this. Initially I felt bad that I had been so blunt with him about thinking he made a mistake, but it seems like it worked out for the best. Travelling isn’t necessarily important just for all the good parts (new food, new sights, new experiences, etc.), but I think it’s equally important to experience firsthand real, intrinsic differences in culture and worldview. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned and re-examined about American culture by being forced to compare it to Chinese culture, and I’m so incredibly happy that this student is going to get the same chance.

Here is Pulau Langkawi. It’s a Malaysian island off its northwestern coast. It’s mostly known for European tourists, an assortment of different kinds of food, and incredible beaches. Now, Virginia and I managed to find the quietest beach on the southern most point of the island where the food was PC budget friendly. Also, the entire island is duty free, so unlike in Kuala Lumpur, Virginia and I could afford a cocktail when we snuck into private beaches.

Before we left, we had to have Dr. Fish! These fish are eating all the dead skin off our feet. It tickles at first, but then it feels so good.

Tom Yum soup. Eat it. Do it now. Find your local Thai place and ask for the sourest bowl of Tom Yum soup they can make you. This was my first dinner on Langkawi.

This is VA's first meal on Langkawi, fresh crab.

And unlike China, Malaysia and Thailand have cats. These cats wanted our most delicious first tropical island meal. Moochers!

This is what I'm living off of. This is Malaysian iced coffee: coffee, ice, sweetened condensed milk.

Once, though, VA and I decided to shell out the cash and eat at this fine establishment. Best steak of my life... at least that I can remember... and it has been more than one and a half years since I've eaten steak so I'm not sure how far that recommendation goes, but it was good!

The view.

The jellyfish, whose particles were still in the ocean stinging people. Delightful gent.

Be careful now...

These monkeys like to steal bags of food from people. It's so bad, that on some tours the park service has forbidden people from bringing food as, "the probability your being attacked becomes most assured."

And these monkeys don't give a ---- who you are. They will eat all your food.

Meanwhile the crabs will just watch on with indifference.

Not even the weird googlie ones could care less.

And that is how Langkawi operates. Long story short, VA and I woke up around 9 or 10 everyday. We had brunch and went to the beach. We read and had coffee or a cocktail or swam in the ocean until the jellyfish particles became too painful. We returned, ate dinner, and proceeded to sleep like the dead.

Next to be blogged: Koh Lipe

Toodles,

-DK

Even though China and Malaysia are part of the same continent, they couldn’t be further apart in many ways. For example, I’m typing this right now without using a VPN to access the internet. I can check Facebook–it’s not blocked. Today, we saw some tourists taking pictures with police officers (in China, we’re forbidden from photographing anything government-related) and some monks (ditto anything that could remotely be considered political). Yesterday, a local guide told us that the former prime minister was on trial, and if we saw any protesters, we should just “take some photos and try not to get in the middle of it.” Protesting anything–much less the government–is completely forbidden in the PRC, but here, no one thinks twice about it. It can be…different.

This is a coach for ladies only. Everything is pink, of course.

Other than having our minds blown by all the unexpected freedoms of southeast Asia, we’ve been busy doing everything there is to do in Kuala Lumpur. Yesterday, we bought tickets for a hop-on hop-off bus that took us to all the major tourists sites in the city, a lot of which we never would have known about on our own. We even went to an art museum! Today, we bought tickets to go to the skybridge and the top floor of the Petronas Twin Towers, and then also got lost in “Little India.” We stopped by a side of the road restaurant to get a chai, and the owner was more than a little surprised to see us (see title).

Fresh fruit on Petaling Street, hopefully not covered in pesticides.

Water lilies! As if we don't see them enough in China.

David got this close to a red dragonfly and lived to tell the tale.

Tree vines at the National Orchid Garden. It (the garden, not the vines) claimed that it grew the rarest orchid in the world, but we didn't see any evidence of it. Also, because I saw half of the movie "Adaptation," I assume the rarest orchid in the world is the ghost orchid, whether that's true or not.

Did you know there are two different kinds of orchids? Some grow from the ground, but others require the life energy of other plants. They grow on them and suck them dry, so the orchid garden had a lot of dead trees lying around for the orchids to consume.

This is the Kuala Lumpur National Conservatory of Islamic Music, as seen from Titiwangsa Lake.

Petronas Towers. This is the tallest twin structure in the world, and when you go inside, it's all a big advertisement for how great the oil industry is.

View from the 41st-floor Skybridge.

View from the 86th floor. A hologram told us how to get here (really).

On the 86th floor they have these high-strength, high-focus binoculars that allowed me to see the mist rising over the mountains outside the city, two people getting in a fight over some garbage, a dog almost being run over by a bicycle, and a lady taking off all her clothes and lying down in bed to watch TV.

Anyway, soon we’re going to need to think about more mundane things, like where to do laundry. But before then, we’re going to an elephant sanctuary tomorrow!

Some of you might already know, but when you work for Peace Corps, you get two days of vacation for every month you work. Seeing as I have never had a job with paid leave before, this alone was more than I expected. Needless to say, VA and I were not used to this. As a results, we’ve had over 40 days of vacation left. PC regulations define vacation as any time we’re away from our sites and state we can’t use these during the first or last 3 months of service, so we needed to use as many as possible this winter vacation. Thus began our adventures in Malaysia and Thailand.

Lanzhou is cold. Recently it’s been about -3°F in the morning and around 20°F during the day time. Now we’re in Kuala Lumpur. The temperature today was 90°F. I have to wear sunblock and a hat. Honestly, I won’t even get into the ways Chinese and Malaysians differ in terms of multi-ethnic tolerance, worldviews, or development, but suffice it to say VA and I have been enjoying ourselves immensely.

Here is the view of the entrance from some bushes. Why was I hiding in the bushes and photographing the entrance? Why, to make a friend, of course.

This was our friend, an obviously gregarious duck. We did not name him.

After departing from our dear unnamed duck-friend, we found ourselves at the entrance. Quite imposing!

VA actually complained later about not being scared and how the trapdoor spider was, in fact, hardly the rarest spider in the world.

"I really hope that was water."

The second of our many animal friends, this monkey, who stole/accepted food from any- and everyone.

These monkeys occasionally kept the less content company as their families roamed about the shrine.

Please, click on this image and look at it in full screen. It's rather pretty, I think. By the way, it's at the entryway to the shrine.

Said shrine

People around the shrine.

The last of our animal friends, two random roosters in a Hindu shrine. Nope, no names. Nor reasons.

There comes a moment in every persons life when you realize you don't know anything about Hinduism, apropos cow + breasts + lady face + wings.

VA notes, indeed, that this is a hard lesson to learn.

Whatchu know 'bout Hanuman?

That’s all for this lesson, children. Questions? In other words, I’m too tired to keep typing. Good night!

-DK