Yunnan Mama II
Just like the Chang Jiang river that skirts around Ninglang but never runs through it, the money that is pumped into Lijiang to conserve Gu Cheng as well as to promote it as a tourist destination never reaches the pockets of the Ninglang's natives. Hence, even though Ninglang and Gu Cheng are separated by a mere 6 hours of bus ride, they are located at the 2 different extreme ends in terms of their levels of developments. Gu Cheng is trumpeted by China and the world as a successful model of how preservation of culture and development can be achieved in tandem. Ninglang, on the other hand, is neglected and forgotten. Some photos we took in Da Xing Zheng, the main town of Ninglang, are featured below:
That's how Ninglang is written in Chinese.
The wet market of Ninglang, especially vibrant in the morning.
The most prominent landmark of Ninglang...supposedly the statue of Hou Yi.
Hahaha...as you would have realized by now, I have exaggerated how backward a city Ninglang is supposed to be. With a statue of Hou Yi to boast of in its main town and a perfectly functionable wet market as well as a budding building material industry, the living conditions in Da Xing Zheng are, in fact, very de fine.
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The first day we arrived at Huang Ban Ping, we were welcomed by an entourage formed by the school administration as well as a few government officials of Ninglang. They showed us the place where we were supposed to stay in. It was a communal house that had been vacated. The villagers probably used to congregate there for meetings but for the next 2 wks or so, it was to be our home.
The place was in a rather dilapitated state when we arrived and in obvious need for some cleaning before we could shift stuff into the rooms. All of us were probably so overawed by the occasion that we did not quite know what we were supposed to do initially. We had not brought brooms along and we did not know where or how to start our cleaning. The primary six students of the school came to our rescue. They came, armed with pails of water and brooms and started cleaning the rooms for us. They had probably been briefed on our arrival and they looked at us, not quite knowing and understanding where we came from. To them, it was the first time they had met people from another country and they did not know what to expect.
I remembered us standing in the middle of the courtyard, all looking rather lost. I wanted to help but did not know how to take the initiative. It was like everyone was waiting for someone else to offer their help first, but because everyone was waiting, there was no one to step forward and so the waiting never ends. Finally, one brave soul took the initiative to step up to introduce himself to one of the primary six girls. That brave soul was me.
The ice was broken and more people joined in the conversation. At the same time, more conservations were initiated at different parts of the communal house. Before the primary six students left, they sang for us a song called 'nalejiubo', which was supposed to mean, in their dialect (the yi2 zhu2 yu3 yan1), 'farewell my friends'. It was to become one of my favourite songs. Below is a picture of the primary six class singing the song in front of our toilet.
(Notice that the girls were extremely shy and took cover behind the guys. Also, not all the primary six students were of the same age because they might have entered school at different age)
The photos of our home captured from different angles. The photos were taken with everything in relative order, unlike what we saw when we first arrived.
The left most room is the kitchen. The second room housed a pig, which the villagers cooked for us on the last day. There's another room which is outside this picture on the right...that would be the toilet. The pails were used for the cleaning of utensils, which we would later find out, wasn't a very wise choice to be done in front of the kitchen. This is because the leftover food we threw into the drain attracted a lot of flies, which wasn't very hygenic as we had kept our food either in or just outside the kitchen.
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After settling down and moving our stuff into the rooms (the pictures of which, I'll show on the next post), we were ushered to the school for a welcome ceremony. The whole school were gathered at the assembly area and we met our potential students for the first time. It was kind of interesting because all eyes were fixed on us. We sat at the centre of the school like some kind of exhibits with the students and teachers surrounding and examining us with curiousity.
This was from one of us who took a picture of them while they were observing us.
One of my most unforgettable experiences from the trip happened on the first day in Huang Ban Ping. The welcome ceremony did not start on time because a few members of the group were in Da Xing Zheng to purchase some necessities before joining the rest of us in Huang Ban Ping. We had to wait for them to arrive before we could begin the ceremony. Thus, the process of us observing the students and them observing us lasted quite a long while until Bernard, one of the team members, and I decided we had to go to pay the toilet a visit. The toilet was located behind the school. It wasn't the normal toilet that we were used to but that was to be expected. We didn't pee that much so that we won't drown the maggots in the hole.
After relieving ourselves, we saw 3 or 4 kids hanging around outside the toilet. We started introducing ourselves and asking them questions, trying to find out if they knew English. Apparently, they didn't. We then started a impromptu English lesson, teaching them simple phrases such as 'Hello', 'Good morning', 'My name is...' etc and getting them to repeat after us. The crowd started to build up. Some students who were in the school compound, got wind that there were 2 guai4 ren2 conducting English lesson outside the toilet and came to join in as our audience.
From 3 to 4 kids, the crowd expanded to as many as 30 and they were surrounding us, listening to what we were saying, probably half the time not understanding what we said. The experience was surreal and the attention they gave us was overwhelming. It felt great to know that they were interested in what we were teaching even before we had officially started class. Actually, more likely, it was that they were interested to find out more abt us, to know us. When Bernard and I concluded the unplanned lesson and returned to the assembly area, the ceremony was already over (either that, or it was cancelled...can't quite remember). Bernard and I trudged home, with an experience that, though not captured on video, will always bring a smile to our faces whenever we relive it in memories. And it was kind of a secret since the rest of the team did not know abt our little experience.
posted by le chye @ 11:11 AM
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