Beginning of our Trek-
Lynne decided not go with us and headed back to Kunming. Its a good thing, you'll find out later why. She probably would never have spoken to me again.
Wow! What an amazing journey! Our guides are basically crazy Tibetan alcoholics. They stayed up super late drinking the night before we left, until about 4 am. For the most part, they weren't the best guides, but they sufficed. They carried our shit, which I probably wouldn't have been able to do, not being a mountain person by nature.
They spent most of the day either way behind us or way ahead of us, but either way, they were drinking quite heavily. In fact, the most boisterous one, Jason, gave his bottle of whiskey to Evan, just so that he could not drink any more. ha.
The guides at one point decided that we needed to get off the road and walk straight up a steep incline. Personally, I think it was a stupid idea. Why?
1) Wet grass and 2) it was a lot harder and didn't save and time at all. Ho-hum. Fuck. 3) It gave me soggy foot for the next 8 hours.
However, the scenery was good. Evan handed me a piece of fruit, which tasted like some sort of lemon wine vinegar concoction. I couldn't get that nasty taste out of my mouth for two hours. Thanks, Evan.
We stopped for lunch and ate slightly cream filled cookies and flat bread. Thanks to the two awesome Chinese women who were on the trip with us, we got to eat some starburst and cola candy - fizzling in your mouth goodness, and finally some almond chocolate mother fucking kisses.
Jesus Christ - oh shit that reminds me. I had this great idea for a Biscuit-cracker idea. Its Called Jesus Christ crackers, supplying alternative competition to Saltines and Ritz. Commercial is simple--we just show people taking a bite of a cracker and then they get all wide-eyed and emphatically state, "Jesus Christ, those are good." And then they just sell like hot cakes.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Summer 08 Yunnan Tibetan escapades Intro
Today, after a hard sleep, we got up and ate some hard boiled eggs and mianbao, which is basically a giant piece of steamed bread. After that we went to the local Church, whis a Catholic-a bit strange for a Tibetan Mountain village. The churche service was quite different from other church services I have experienced. There didn't seem to be any one person in charge.
Many kids or younger adults were taking turns reading from the Book at the front. maybe 3-5 minutes apiece. Then everyone would chant "Amen" or some other words I didn't understand. Then everyone would sing a kind of song that almost sounded like a chant. Actually, it was a chant. Then back to the reading. Another person would come to the front and read, follwed by more singing. Back and forth like this for over an hour. A few times all the women would sing/chant a few lines.
I didn't realize it until I was sitting there for a while, but i noticed the women sat on the left side and all the men on the right. Curiously, though, i noticed a few of the women sitting on the right side, but still near the center. However, no men sat on the left.
The atmosphere was very relaxed, but also seemed really ritualistic. Everything was done without thinking almost. Very repititious.
I wondered what they thinking. I wondered how their view of Jesus and Mary and God, and alll that bullshit was different than in the West. why did they come to church?
Seems like the church serves as a community unifying process more than anything else. The outside of the church looked every bit like a rundown third world church, except for the two dragons on either corner poking their heads out. Also, hanging inside were two chinese style lanterns.
I asked our host, A Luo (that is his mandarin name), about marriage processes in the village. BAsically, i asked him if its easy for men and women to meet in this village?" There is about 3000 in the village.
He said that now it is pretty easy, but before (some years ago) it was rather hard, and that the families would give introductions. You couldn't just meet anyone you wanted.
I also noticed that for some reason a local pastime is kicking the shit out of a dog whenever they get close to you. The dogs here are hard, man. They have been beaten and trashed most of their lives. They look pretty rough.
Many kids or younger adults were taking turns reading from the Book at the front. maybe 3-5 minutes apiece. Then everyone would chant "Amen" or some other words I didn't understand. Then everyone would sing a kind of song that almost sounded like a chant. Actually, it was a chant. Then back to the reading. Another person would come to the front and read, follwed by more singing. Back and forth like this for over an hour. A few times all the women would sing/chant a few lines.
I didn't realize it until I was sitting there for a while, but i noticed the women sat on the left side and all the men on the right. Curiously, though, i noticed a few of the women sitting on the right side, but still near the center. However, no men sat on the left.
The atmosphere was very relaxed, but also seemed really ritualistic. Everything was done without thinking almost. Very repititious.
I wondered what they thinking. I wondered how their view of Jesus and Mary and God, and alll that bullshit was different than in the West. why did they come to church?
Seems like the church serves as a community unifying process more than anything else. The outside of the church looked every bit like a rundown third world church, except for the two dragons on either corner poking their heads out. Also, hanging inside were two chinese style lanterns.
I asked our host, A Luo (that is his mandarin name), about marriage processes in the village. BAsically, i asked him if its easy for men and women to meet in this village?" There is about 3000 in the village.
He said that now it is pretty easy, but before (some years ago) it was rather hard, and that the families would give introductions. You couldn't just meet anyone you wanted.
I also noticed that for some reason a local pastime is kicking the shit out of a dog whenever they get close to you. The dogs here are hard, man. They have been beaten and trashed most of their lives. They look pretty rough.
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