The Village
May 17, 2006
Video Below
Tricia and I were getting ready to walk out the door for breakfast this morning when we heard a knock on the door. It was Allison saying that it looked like the weather was going to hold off so we were going to go to a country village, and that we were loading in about ten minutes.
This threw both Tricia and I into a bit of a panic as we hadn't packed any baby food, cameras, or had breakfast. So we moved swiftly and hurried downstairs to quickly shove some food down our gullets.
We loaded the bus and were off. About three blocks away Tricia asked me to show the photos of Grace smiling to our guide. I pulled out our camera and realized that in the rush I had forgotten to put the memory card back into the camera. Aaargh! This is the trip I had been dreaming of for photographs. Rural life in China in an ancient village and I didn't have my camera. I consoled myself with the fact that I had my video camera.
After an hour long drive down very rough roads we arrived at the village. About twenty people in this village of about 1,000 were there in the one and only parking lot staring with strong curiosity. It's a rare thing for them to see people like us.
We walked the small corridors and passage ways around town and I was struck by the conditions these people lived in. The smell in areas was very strong and unpleasant. Most every material possession was in poor condition and very old.
It was a wonderful experience as it is very possible this is the kind of village that Grace came from and would have grown up in. A village where the majority of people earned their money by farming rice. Rice fields were everywhere with men and women laboring by hand to farm it. Water Buffaloes wading in shin high water as they served by turning up the ground underneath and other chores.
I saw a little lady who appeared to be very old with a bamboo pole across her shoulder with two large buckets of water on each end. As she walked I could not help but imagine the life she had lived as you could tell she was very strong but that these duties had taken a toll on her body.
The other thing that was constantly in my thinking was the thought that the gospel message has probably never been proclaimed in this place. People living here for hundreds of years with no light.
We are back in the room now and we've ordered Pizza Hut, but there is no sign that is going to come (we ordered it about an hour and a half ago). In a short time we are going to go have Grace's name done in calligraphy. I'll post a photo of it later.
The top video is the same as the bottom video but smaller in size.
