Last night I woke up at 1:30, 5:00, and 6:30, not too bad for a home stay. I must say I’ve really enjoyed going to bed early and waking up to the crowing of roosters.

It’s hard to imagine what village life is like without being there. I can say that when I voted for the WildChina trip with home stays, I couldn’t anticipate what it would feel like to be there. Last night Jessica and I were wandering around Dali after dinner, when we saw a 9-year-old girl standing outside her house and looking at us. We started to talk to her, and then the father appeared and invited us to come in and eat. We obliged, happy to chat with the family and eat some bayberries. The family was sitting on 1/2 foot stools in what I’ll call the living/dining room, a plate of fish was on the table and the TV was on in the background (this was the scene in just about every house we passed).

So far just about everywhere we’ve gone, we’ve been shown incredible hospitality. One more example – on the way to Dali we stopped at another Dong village, famous for its drum tower. I was wandering with Miryam and Alyssa outside the school, when the teachers invited us to come inside. They brought us to the teachers’ lounge and insisted that we eat watermelon, which we did. We chatted a bit about their school before we had to return to the bus.

WildChina has been amazing – I can’t believe that the farewell dinner is tomorrow. Though I’m also looking forward to arriving in Jishou in a couple of days and settling down.