Love the ferry!
Shelly, Tom, and Natalie enjoying the ferry ride.
When we arrived in the village we noticed these large red papers hanging on the wall. Our guide said that they had to do with some sort of disaster.
We soon discovered that the disaster was a fire. We had seen so many signs on this trip warning people about fire and here it was a reality. One couple we talked to said they went to another village for two days to visit family for the holiday. When they returned their house was gone. This village lost homes for 20 families.
The fire was caused by some sort of electrical spark. The villagers have some money that is available to buy new appliances but the wiring is very poor and they do not know how to make it safe.
The fire happened just a few days before we arrived and they were already rebuilding temporary shelters for the homeless families.
We discovered that one of the read papers was an apology from the family where the fire started. The other red papers were names and donations from other villagers to help rebuild.
This man is the trusted "accountant". All the donations are very public to make sure the money is accounted for and that each family receives their share.
This women invited into her home
Her home was quite nice and had beautiful windows.
This is her court yard where she "suns" her plants.
More sights in the village
There are some very old and strange buildings in this village.
There is a mystery about these buildings because no one knows who built them or who the owners were.
The biggest mystery is the column of letters. It might be a code for something but no one knows. The Dong and Miao language is only verbal. Nothing has been written down because they do not have a written language. And...each clan has their only dialect so it is even hard to communicate from one village to another.
Back on the ferry and now just a short (5 hours) drive to Kaili
We were sooooooo happy to be back in Kaili. Heat, diet coke, clean beds, western toilets! Life was good again! We ate dinner at a Miao restaurant. This is a traditional dish.....fish hot pot. The fish is raw when it is put into the soup and then it cooks at your table. For a minute I thought it was still alive because the fin was sloshing in the soup water. AAAHHHH!
After dinner Sven played the piano for us. He is sooooo talented. Oh and did I mention he speaks fluent Mandarin.....and German....and English!Just another day in our adventure in China
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