Halloween at the Emerald

Halloween at the Emerald was a big deal. There were tons of kids trick-or-treating and then there was a Halloween party complete with haunted house. The kids had a lot of fun.

Allison dressed as a Miao girl in the costume we acquired in Guizhou.

Henry and Rebecca participated in a triathlon in our compound November 2nd

Lushing Festival

We went to the Lushing festival, which was like a huge county fair on a muddy hillside.
Complete will bull-fighting.
The Miao wore their bright beautiful costumes and danced around in the mud.

Market day in Guizhou

Real live snake oil salesman.
Medical care right in the market.

This was a brewery that happened to also be charring an animal under the equipment. We won't tell you what kind of animal. Very gruesome.

Guizhou continued

We've uncovered a trend of Chinese factories not sure of the order of the letters in MICKEY.

More Langde Miao

We had a great time interacting with the villagers.
We shopped for jewelry.
I was the last shopper remaining and got swarmed; ultimately had to be rescued by the tour guide. However, we did manage to score a good deal on the huge jewelry pictured above!
This is how the Chinese bring home their chickens (live)! Presumably, this girl's mother does not have the same anxiety I have about bird flu.

Langde Miao village performance

After 12 cups of wine first thing in the morning during the welcome ceremony (the last out of bull's horns) we were feeling pretty relaxed for the performance that followed.




You can see some video of Miao dancing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjc0nMmEbD8. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it inserted into this post.