Some things I may not have mentioned,

The story of this trip is that we're a group of type A idealists who want to see the inequalities in the world in order to use the experience as a catalyst for action. I've learned to take the hurt and the disappointment and be ok with it and work with change. I've learned some things about power in numbers, and about the universality of kindness, patience, and good intention.

We manage to keep extremely busy here so there is no loneliness. Tai Chi every morning, next a Chinese lesson, followed my speakers, visits to hospitals, a little bit of dry tourism here and there. Mostly it is just an all encompassing cultural experience. My host father here is a chef, amazing, but I have to say that one can get sick of Chinese food. I'm about to go write my final China paper about stigma and AIDS and the importance of family and the economic implications of all this. Ready, go!

My parents climbed 15 km of the great wall in a day only to return to their spa for a foot massage. My rural visit forced me to look for the face behind the "saving face" of China. What I mean by that is that our experience in China has been tailored for westerner students. We've only been told and shown the paramount order, progress, and development of China, only to find ourselves frustrated and asking--where is the poverty?
Is this an overpricledged question that we can ask? Yes, but we want to se truth so that we can do something about it.
I heard the village compared to "pleasantville" and "the truman show." It all seemed contrived, but I couldn't ignore the deepset wrinkles on my host mother's hands, the captivating smiles of the old women dancing and old men druming, the generous tea salesman and his trendy nurse wife, the tender tomatoes and flavor filled cucumbers, and the people riding their bicycles to their organic fields.
Before our 30 ride back to the city, I met a Mao impersonator, a hairy camel, graceful ostriches and noisy peacocks and some mating albino rabbits. I'll never forget how excited Vivian was to dance with the women and seeing Roshni's picture dancing on the front page of the paper the next day.
China, almost goodbye. 3 days till South Africa.