Yunnan - Yi Village

DAY 2 (Sunday, February 3^rd, 2008): Shaochong Mushan Village – The Yi People

The bus ride from Kunming to the village was BUMPY. When I say bumpy, I mean it – it was like a carnival ride that wouldn’t end and I think we all kind of wanted to barf after being on that bus ride. It was impossible to read/write/sleep, etc and you pretty much had to just sit there and try not to puke. The mountain roads were dangerously winding and narrow for a big bus, especially considering that there was often opposing traffic. We passed a market and village on the way and everyone outside was in complete awe of the three huge buses carrying loads of ‘white people.’ They all stopped what they were doing and watched intently, so we waved as we passed. When we arrived at the village they welcomed us with a traditional song and a dragon dance: two Yi ‘specialties.’ As soon as we got off the bus we realized: We’re not in Beijing anymore. The skies were bluer than blue and the air was clean and fresh. The land was green and lush, and the sun was bright and warm… like I said, NOT in Beijing anymore. The Yi people fed us lunch – not so good. Then we met our host families and they took us to the houses we’d be staying in for the night. The house I stayed in was nice; it had an open courtyard in the middle, which appeared to be the typical style of Yi homes. The rooms were nice, but the straw mattresses did a number on my back, that’s for sure. After stopping in at our host homes, we all ‘hiked’ up a huge mountain – which literally destroyed me. It was a very steep climb and I felt dizzy and ready to pass out and vomit for the entire ascent (You’ll see why later…). When we finally reached the top, we saw a huge lake, by which we camped for the afternoon. The Yi women from the village performed songs and dances for us, and I took videos that I will post. Yi women sing in very high voices, but I think it sounds pretty. They then taught us their Dragon Dance routine – these girls are the national Dragon Dance champions, by the way. We were fed dinner up on the mountain, which turned out to be leftovers from lunch. Let’s just say I didn’t eat any but some Ritz crackers that day…I have pictures of the food if you don’t believe me when I say it wasn’t edible. There were many times during the Yunnan trip where once you saw the food, you weren’t hungry anymore. Your stomach learns not to expect food anymore after a few days in villages, and you lose interest in food. The village ‘party’ was okay, except it dragged on forever and as soon as the sun went down, it was freezing cold there. We were all frozen as we walked back to our host homes in the pitch-black darkness. Going to the bathroom in one of the community outhouse squatters was bad enough during the day (trust me, it’s BAD), but going at night is just a bad idea altogether… you can’t see anything and you really need to watch where you step. Sleeping was a challenge, between the most painful sleeping surface in the world and being frozen. We had no electricity in our room for the night, so a lady from the house lit a candle and allowed some of the wax to melt on the wooden dresser before standing up the same lit candle in the puddle of wax. Fire hazard if I ever saw one. Two people had to share one bed and the lady was laughing at us because we were all ‘so huge’ to her… She was about the size of grade-schooler in the US.

The villagers slaughtered a pig right in front of us right after we had finished eating. Not cool. The poor animal was squealing in agony as it was tied down and brutally murdered. I didn’t watch, but apparently they just shoved a knife into its neck and let it slowly bleed to death. It was the most awful sounds ever - I covered my ears and felt sick. It took forever for the poor animal to die, and I was so angry because so many people raced over with cameras to watch the entire slaughter process. There are so many pictures and videos of that poor pig’s death circulating around TBC now… I don’t agree with that. I don’t think it’s right to photograph something being tortured and dying in agony, but I guess a lot of people find that entertaining and photo-worthy. I eat meat, I just don’t want it to be tortured and its suffering made a spectacle.

But back to my stories. Sleeping was difficult if not impossible, and we awoke for breakfast sore in places we had never felt before. We then waited around the village for awhile because there was to be a wedding ceremony later and we were waiting to witness the groom coming from another village to get his new bride. We had seen the bride at the party the night before, and she had looked MISERABLE. Poor thing – I wonder if she had ever met her groom before the wedding day? While we waited, we climbed up on the rooftops of the Yi houses; you can walk from house to house because the Yi build their houses close together and kind of like steps (there are pictures on Photobucket). After that, we finally left because there was no sign of the groom and he was already very late. We then rode the bus down yet another winding bumpy mountain road, of to our next destination, Jianshui.