Faces of China
A little over a year ago we started a personal collection of photographs we have titled the “Faces of China.” From time to time we will include some of those pictures here just to let you get a feel for the people and customs of China.
Be sure to check back to this particular page from time to time as we will continue adding snapshots that are NOT directly related to the Home of Hope. However, this page will not be the opening page in the future so you will need to pull it up from the archives.
To the left are a couple of our neighbors. The one on the right thinks he is about 95 years old but he is not sure. He told us he was old enough to remember enough about China to fill many textbooks.
These two men are brothers and they are walking home after a long days work in their mountain wheat farm.
We would like to point out the obvious friendliness of the Chinese people. None of these people knew me at all except in the above picture of my neighbors. And yet look at the smiles of acceptance.
Even this shy, elderly lady who wasn’t at all sure what this big foreigner wanted… had a smile for us. Especially after she learned she didn’t have to pay the foreigner for him to take her picture.
Another man heading home in the drizzling rain after a hard days work on his little farm. The average size of one of these farms is about 3/4 of a “mu”. A “mu” is equal to about 1/6 of an acre.
All the work is done with hand tools. It is very rare to see any farm machinery at all where we are. There are times when migrant combine operators come through with very, very small combines to help harvest the wheat. There is one large farm behind the Home of Hope… large in that it covers about two acres. They do harvest that wheat crop with the tiny combines.
China is a country with 56 different ethnic groups or ‘nationalities’ as they like to say.
Some times these different groups get together and “dress up” so to speak. They dress in their traditional garb and maybe have a street dance or prepare for some type festival or another. It is often very interesting to see.
Visit to an unfortunate Village – October 2007
Children are children everywhere. All children love to play… to explore… to learn new things… even blow ‘soap’ bubbles… But the children in the next series of pictures, although the same as children everywhere, have a major cross to carry.
They are ‘aids’ victim children.
Some have aids, some are HIV positive and some are only living in this aids village because their parents or in some cases, their entire family was taken by aids… whether infected or not, they all have something in common… all are some what shunned by society because of their historical connection to aids.
These first two children (above) are NOT infected.
This little guy is HIV Positive. (above) This little fellow has Aids.
The situation is something the Next Towns Foundation and the Home of Hope would like to help change. We know we are not equipped to help the Aids or HIV Positive children but we would love to set up a new Home of Hope near this village for the children who are not infected and by our presence and actions teach the general public that these are people too!
This gentleman (left) contracted the Aids virus while selling his blood to get a little money to feed his family. (A common practice in some of the poorer villages.)
We will let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves.
We were told the infection ratio in this village was close to 85%
Around the Home of Hope
This is the road leading up to the Home of Hope. The Home of Hope is located in what is called LiGou Village. Most of the people in LiGou village are farmers with a few that go into the city of Gongyi to work.
This is one of the main streets in the city of Gongyi. Notice the contrast with the ancient buildings in the background and very modern cars driving on the street.
It is not uncommon to see Audis or Benz automobiles driving along side a wagon being pulled by donkeys.
These are a group of people who live right around the Home of Hope. Our neighbors so to speak. When the Chinese people reach this age they generally sit together outside either playing Mahjong or just discussing the local current events. (Gossip!)
Some Street Scenes from around China
The Chinese call this eating “Little Food”. It is really fun to go out on the street and partake of some of the “street” food that is always being prepared…. just about anyplace you go! You can find just about anything you want as well. Everything from BarBQued Squid to smoked Sparrow…. from snails boiled in soy sauce to deep fried locusts. Much fun!
Here you can see this out door cook is just about ready to start presenting her delectable dishes…. (not sure what this was but it looks a little like sweet potato pancakes) and then the lid is off and this one lady is already waiting to be served. Expensive you ask? Not really… one can fill up for under twenty Yuan…. about $2.60 US.
Posted: December 11th, 2007 under China Tidbits.
Tags: , China, Gongyi, tidbits