July 5 - Arriving in Bijie

Ni Hao from Bijie!

There is an old saying that cities, no matter where in the world, always give a more favorable impression when you enter them accompanied by sunshine. If that is indeed the case, we had most unfavorable conditions upon entering Bijie yesterday. It was nearing dark and raining quite heavily. The road coming into the University was under construction and a muddy quagmire. Carrying our luggage made us nearly sink up to our ankles in the mud.

We had been told that Bijie was under quite a bit of construction, and that it rained a lot up in these mountains. However, the bleakness we saw upon our arrival is really impossible to describe in words. Imagine a plummeting feeling in your stomach, accompanied by a feeling of being overwhelmed by mud, and perhaps you will have a notion of what I was feeling. Nancy and I had the good sense to be able to laugh it off and keep up our spirits about the conditions, but there has been so much that has been disheartening over the last two days.

We are about 4 hours north west of Guiyang, the capital city of the province. We are in a most remote site of the teaching program. Our facillitator here, who is in Foreign Affairs, told us that the Bijie prefecture is very much third world... and that this is the third world of any other place in China. The poverty here is breathable and very sad. This is a small area (about the size of 2 Michigan counties combined) that most of you have probably never even heard of, and yet it is home to over 7 million people.

The Bijie city downtown and marketplace areas are very utilitarian, focusing on basic food and living needs. We stayed in a hotel last night , as our apartment was not ready. We were going a bit stir crazy in our hotel room, so we ventured downtown for a little exploration . We wandered into the market, which is a series of twisty streets filled with colors and sounds. The vegetables are just beautiful...