Da He Bian: Real China

When people hear that I have settled in China to teach, the first questions posed to me often revolve around where I have been in China. I suppose I cannot help but be a bit sarcastic when I reply that this question is like asking someone who immigrates to New York City if he or she has been to Los Angeles yet. China's borders stretch to similarly expansive distances as those of our own United States. Therefore, to see much of the country requires either flying or taking long, sickening bus rides--like parts of Montana, eight hours in a vehicle may not even get one outside of your own province (state).

This said, I truly would like to see Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tibet. I desire to visit the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Lhasa, the Terra Cotta Warriors, etc.. However, travelling in Europe taught me something about myself. I enjoyed both Amsterdam and Prague--cities I recommend anyone to go see--but I fell in love with places like Maastricht (NL), Karlovy Vary (CZ), and San Marino (IT). These much smaller cities invited foreigners to come see what other things Holland, Czech Republic, and Italy have to offer outside of what everyone can see in an Encyclopedia Britannica. China is not different.

As part of an all-high school service project, the entire secondary student body and about ten chaperones travelled ten hours on a sleeper bus, then one-and-a-half more hours in smaller, 19 person buses to a small village in southwest Yunnan. Near the Laotian border, Da He Bian epitomizes the rural lifestyle of China.The picture above was taken as we returned from a 'hike' (more like a forced march) into the densely forested hills surrounding Da He Bian. We had actually arrived in the village to do work for the local school. Like most rural schools, this tiny educational institute housed all its students, because most people live in small communities spread out in the various valleys. On weekends, those students living within walking distance of the school return home to see family. Otherwise, students remain at the school throughout the academic year. Our school sat on a level piece of ground just up the hill from the main portion of Da He Bian. We slept on the floor of classrooms and in tents set up in their small dirt courtyard.
Upon our arrival, we had essentially been sitting for about twelve hours. However, I thanked the Lord that these tiny students offered us their benches on which to sit. Every place in the village came equipped with either a tampped-dirt floor or a concrete floor covered in dirt. Therefore, if one desired to stay relatively clean, one required some sort of stool or bench, or one must know how to squat, which I am still incapable of doing. As I rested on these small benches, I noticed the students who had brought them to us. They filed back into their respective classrooms where they stood for the entirety of their learning session. Watching them stand while I sat made me feel so selfish. We would later return the benches to their classrooms so the students could sit during their lessons.
Because service is the primary objective for this annual trip to a village, the KIA teachers attending took the time one evening to wash the feet of the students in a small stream about half-an-hour walk from the village. Most of the students appeared very awkward. Some did not even allow us to serve them, but it certainly was a highlight of the trip; it makes me wish I had some better photos of the event. I will admit that the trip itself seemed a bit unorganized. We had planned on painting, but the village had failed to purchase the paint prior to our arrival with the money KIA had given them. Therefore, we were left with three other projects which failed to spread our students out enough, leaving some to suffer boredom as they waited to see what they could do. This caused much tension amongst the students and between the students and faculty. However, on this one evening, we all set aside that struggle and the adult leaders were allowed to serve our student followers.
Even with our lack of resources, we did accomplish some work. One group of students managed to level a piece of ground in order to build a shed roof extension to the school's kitchen. Because Da He Bian is so far south, it never really gets cold. Therefore, brick walls with simple roofing sheets comprise all the buildings of the school. Windows have bars but no glass. In other words, one fears mosquitoes much more than a chill. This addition, while it will not be walled in, extends the patio area where much of the food is prepared before being sent to the kitchen to be cooked, and where the food is served. The students actually take their food back to their beds or to their classrooms to eat. And for all you construction guys out there, this simple shed was built with out so much as a single line to denote level.
The group of students I spent my time with received a project that was an exercise in near futility. We became stewards of a pile of rough cut 4x4s and rough cut planks. We were to build new desks. However, with only four saws of the type you see in the photo, two simple planes, and a handful of hammers and chisels, we were left to figure out what to do until the carpenter arrived. So we measured desk tops and leg lengths and started cutting lumber. We attempted to plane the edges. All of this being done on a sunny baskeball court. When the carpenter finally arrived with a tiny table saw and an electric planer, we were thrilled. However, his tablesaw could not cut through a 4x4. Therefore, we had to cut these pieces of wood lengthwise before he could work on them. It took nearly half-an-hour with a dull saw to cut half way through the length of one 4x4. When we finally completed a cut, the carpenter would use the table saw to create four 2x2s for legs. Then he would plane them with his electric planer and tell us how crooked our cuts were. This left some of the students very angry and frustrated, especially when they saw the shed roof the other group created.

I returned to Kunming dirty, tired, and tanned. I thought to myself, I really want to see certain places in China. However, I am forever grateful that I received the opportunity to see a part of China that does not show up in the tourism brochures. Da He Bian is really China: canal toilets, mosquito netting, true free-range chickens, banana and rubber trees, and people who love people. They thanked us for what little we did, and the children smiled as we taught them new games in an effort to teach them English. I really should have made this three entries, but the year is coming to an end, and the experiences to write about are not.