I am still staying in Xincun, although I have had a side trip or two to Sanya and Haikou, and I’m becoming attached to the village. My favorite part of the day here is around eight pm when all the lanterns on the water light up, ice cream stands, fruit stands, and “fried ice” stands appear in every walkway, all surrounded by pink plastic chairs, and we have a break (usually the one and only all day). My favorite treat is the “fried ice,” something that America tragically lacks, where you choose two (fresh off the tree) kinds of fruit, and they blend them up with sugar and condensed milk and then place the mixture on a special cold plate. They work the slush with two paddles until it sets up, mound it into a bowl, and drizzle more condensed milk and peanuts on top. It’s the best!
Every person in the village has to tell Mandy (the other intern) about how bad her sunburn is every day. I’m looking forward to when I inevitably get one and get to be reminded constantly but clucking Chinese ladies that my face is neon pink. The stores that we frequent most always know what we like best, especially the two restaurants that we have a deal with here, and I do feel like a special part of the community. Sometimes though, being special means getting stared at and bombarded with constant “Hello!”s, but I don’t mind so much anymore because it’s mildly endearing. People really like that I speak Chinese, too, and I know I’m starting to speak more fluently.
Some highlights:
Xiao, a local Chinese worker, doesn’t speak any English. Or at least he didn’t until we were out on the hospital late one night waiting for a boat taxi. We had spent the evening trying to build a baby crib, which involved Mandy figuring out how it should go together, me translating to Xiao, and Xiao trying to build it. As you surely know, these things are arduous at best, and add a tiny floating room that’s getting increasingly dark to the situation, and there you have it.
So once we had finally assembled something that looked kind of like a crib, we stood out waiting on the deck, playing with the dogs and joking around. For reference, Xiao is my age, spends all his time flipping his hair, likes to wear low-cut tanktops, and is difficult to understand even for Chinese people because he talks so fast and with so much island slang. He’s absolutely hilarious to be around because he’s utterly ridiculous. When we finally heard Taotao coming for us in his boat, Xiao started yelling “我的天！”at the top of his lungs, and I taught him how to say the English equivalent “Oh my god!” Now when he calls Mandy and wants to talk to me, he refers to me as “Oh my god!”
One night after feeding the dogs who live in a house near the outside of the village, Mandy and I came out to find a monsoon destroying the “roads.” Water rushed everywhere, so deep that in the dim streetlights it almost looked like it had snowed because sidewalks, roads, and even store entrances alike all reflected back the same murky quality. The cold water rushed around our feet, and pounded on our umbrellas like there was no tomorrow. All the stores had either shut down, or just peacefully continued about their business. The few places that were still open had people relaxing and gambling with the rushing water tearing at the feet of their pink chairs as if it were no big deal.
I waded across the calf-deep water to get some dumplings from our place, and the ice cream people in front of our house gave us a wry look when they saw how utterly soaked both of us were, clutching our useless umbrellas.
I finally made the pilgrimage to the infamous “Monkey Island,” although not the theme park part of it, just around the peninsula (it’s not an island.) Once we clambered up the beach where the boat taxis drop people off, we entered the rain forest and started walking along the paved road that skirts the mountain. Under the cover of the canopy, the flowers and insects and freshly filtered air create a different world. We walked down the road and around the tip of the peninsula to the sandy beach and looked out over the bay for a few minutes before heading home.
On the way back we heard a noise and a rustle in the trees just to our right. I stopped, although we thought it may just be a bird, but I had that feeling and we waited for a few more minutes. In the gloom of the evening rain forest, we started to make out bigger movements than a bird would make. Then, a family of three wild monkeys crept through and peered at us curiously between snacking on fruits and jumping around!
Today was a huge day for the organization because we released the juvenile whale shark that has been out in the bay, and two turtles! I was looking forward to the event because I hadn’t seen the whale shark yet, but I didn’t realize how exhausting the whole production was going to be. For example, I found out at about eleven pm last night that I would be introducing the present important people in Chinese in front of a crowd of about fifty people! Fortunately Frederick came down with the godsend of two British girls who grew up in Hong Kong, one of which speaks better Chinese than me, and also a Chinese woman called Elaine, who is one of the most organized and efficient people I have worked with yet. We divided up the page-long speech we had to give, and Clarissa (the girl who speaks awesome Chinese) and Elaine helped me with the words I didn’t know.
This morning I tried to back out because I was so nervous, but there was no chance that would actually happen. I am so proud of myself for doing my parts, and it helped that the microphone wasn’t the best so I know people probably couldn’t tell if I messed up a little bit. (haha)
When we got out to where the whale shark was, I was astounded by its grace and beauty. I have never seen such a gorgeous, gigantic animal, and it’s only a juvenile! It was all I could do to keep from diving off the yacht into its enclosure to swim with it.
We dropped off our two turtles, Bill and Albert, who I will miss at the hospital, and we could see them speeding away into the ocean. My heart was pounding as I watched them go, and I hope they live safe lives out in the world. Attention then turned to the whale shark, and although its net was dropped it circled several more times before swimming out and then back in, circling again and again, and finally setting off and out in the right direction. I can’t really describe how I felt being present at all of this, but I can say that now the strongest feeling I have for them is hope.
(As a bonus there is a video of our program releasing Bill and Albert available online: Click HERE to watch adorable sea turtles and see if you can spot me in the clip!)
Some photos for you:
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| Who takes a water taxi to work everyday? I do! |
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| The street view from the balcony of our apartment! |
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| The view of the Floating Village (also taken from our balcony). The lighted building you see is the Police Station. |
