(Article originally published on Princeton Group Update)

At the end of September a group of seven students from Princeton University’s China Bridge Year Program arrived in the remote village of Bangdong, perched on the slopes of the Upper Mekong River (澜沧江) valley in Lincang Prefecture in China’s southwestern Yunnan province.

Participants in the China Bridge Year Program are Princeton undergraduates who have deferred their first year of courses at the Princeton campus in order to experience China firsthand and get intensive Mandarin exposure by living with local families in Yunnan’s capital city, Kunming. The students also take part in additional shorter home-stays and service projects in rural areas of Yunnan.

Dali Bar Co-Founder Colin Flahive and Village Progress organized the students’ homestay and service project in Bangdong through contacts made from earlier work with village schools and health officials in the area.

Below is a reflection written by one of the 2016 Bridge Year China students, Nikhita Salgame, regarding her homestay experience in Bangdong.
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Standing by the river, the Master declaimed, ‘How it flows on like this, never ceasing day and night!’

More like: Standing by our itinerary, we declaimed, “How it [this month of travel] flows on like this, never ceasing day and night!” In all seriousness, we had quite the nomadic first month here in China. Now, having been in Kunming for over two weeks, our slowly developing routines here stand in contrast to those packed four weeks. ​
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I woke up to a loud “Chi fan!” (eat!) from my homestay mother, or Ayi, outside my bedroom door. It was the fifth day of our homestay in the small tea-farming community of Bangdong, where we’d be spending the next two weeks. The strong rays that shot in through the window upon lifting the curtain made it clear that today’s “shadow day,” during which we were to shadow a member of our families for the whole day, was not a candidate for cancellation as the last rainy shadow day had been. So after a breakfast of rice and numerous vegetable dishes, I trudged along behind my 54-year-old Shushu (homestay uncle), sheepishly recovering from a couple of slips on the dirt trail outside the home and emerging onto a sloping hill face of tea leaves. At first, it didn’t look too hard. I watched Shushu sling a bag over his shoulder, position himself in front of a tea shrub, and begin picking. So I did the same, until I realized that I had no idea what I was picking or how I was to pick it. I watched again for a couple minutes- he was picking the two leaves after the bud, right? The smallest 3 leaves? The youngest?  I finally decided that proper technique would come only through observation, so I put on my baseball cap and awkwardly stood by him watching… And how his hands moved! In an almost mechanical fashion with slight disruptions to adjust body position, his hands snipped stems faster than our bus driver to Bangdong had whisked around oncoming traffic in the same lane. His pupils were connected the leaves with an invisible rope of efficiency. Both hands moved harmoniously, unruffled by mosquitos and external sounds. A couple minutes passed, and a bag was already quarter-filled!

For hours that day, I stood under the sun looking over at my Shushu’s fascinating skill. Time could not have moved any slower for me, and I’ll be honest, it took a lot of internal motivation for me to keep on attempting to pick that first day. But my Shushu was unfazed by the passage of time; not once did he look at a watch or his phone. The leaves in his bag, the rhythmic divisions of his picking- that was his clock, I soon learned.

That evening after dinner, I decided to sit next to him on the wooden table in the courtyard of the home. As opposed to my constantly smiling Ayi and energetic homestay brothers, my Shushu didn’t say much throughout my time there. The fluorescent light illuminated his wrinkles as he sat on his self-designated stool, facing away from me and towards the night sky. He alternated smoking from his cigarette bong and filling his cup of perfectly warm green tea that he drank (his two favorite nighttime activities). He didn’t move from there for two hours, occasionally opening to speak with family members but mostly fixated on the wood of the bong, the sky, or the tea. Just as it had earlier that day, time passed incredibly slowly for me watching this. I tried studying the Mandarin we’d learned that day and reading, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off of Shushu’s satisfaction doing ‘nothing’.

How could this be the same man that was so rapidly snapping stems only hours prior? In the fields, his time was a division of healthy, sellable leaves, but out here at night, it was regulated by bubbling water and thoughts. While I undoubtedly struggled with squatting toilets and language difficulties throughout our first month in China, I struggled more with the interaction of my dimension of time with those of the people whom we met. Confucius’ observation is a simple one, but it highlights a universal truth about flow- no matter its speed, it continues. We hiked for long hours over mountain passes, engaged in relaxed conservations with an unforgettable keeper of a guesthouse in Shaxi late at night, energetically shoved ourselves between townspeople on the back of a bouncing truck coming from a market in Bangdong, etc., and throughout all those experiences, we were really adjusting ourselves to paces of life.

We’re back in Kunming now, but as the river flows day and night, it’s odd to think that my Bangdong Shushu’s life will continue to do so as well. And so will those of all the faces we’ve encountered, each in their own respective manner. Perhaps you were only observing nature, but thanks for the lesson on the elusive nature of life, Confucius!

Dexin, an organization that runs two schools catering to the children of migrant workers, orphans, and the mentally disabled, often finds itself lacking when it comes to non-memorization based English learning. As a fully donor funded school, it's teaching resources are often insufficient for the children it services. With a group of eager volunteers from a two week Where There Be Dragons-run program in Yunnan, joined by five students from the Kunming-based Princeton Bridge Year program as well as the Dali Bar staff, Village Progress is in a perfect position to begin to fill that need.

With a teaching-program proven to be fun for the kids and volunteers alike, we hope to be able to continue bringing this unique blend of art and English education to needy schools for many years to come. We believe that the students and volunteers all benefit, and that it's a way to, if nothing else, leave a lasting memory for underprivileged students of a time that they truly had fun learning English.

Last week, Dali Bar 达力巴 and @Village Progress sponsored two sisters from an underprivileged family in Kunming to join a week-long outdoor camp in Lijiang run by UpKid out of Beijiing. First we geared them up with new jackets, hiking boots, backpacks and other essentials and then boarded a train to Lijiang. The sisters had never been so far from their family and the first day was difficult for them to adjust.

The other 22 children in the camp were from wealthy families, and for the first few days it was obvious how different the two world's were. The sisters had never eaten western food before, never slept in such comfortable beds, never used a western toilet and never spent so much time outside of their little home on the outskirts of Kunming.

Over the next seven days, they went kayaking in Lashi Hai, hiked Tiger Leaping Gorge, rock climbed in Shigu, played team building games, studied CPR and first aid skills and even learned how to bake a pizza. It was an experience for the two sisters that would not have been possible without the help of generous donations from people like you in China and abroad.

When we all returned to Kunming, we brought them back to their family home. They were a family of six living in the remnants of a knocked down building with no decent access to electricity or running water. The family cannot afford to provide the two young girls with many of the privileges that many of us take for granted. We plan to continue working with the family to make sure their children get the future that they deserve.

@Dali Bar 达力巴 and @Village Progress continues to work with underprivileged students in Kunming and around Yunnan to provide them with new education opportunities. Thank you all for your continued support and remember that a portion of every Dali Bar you purchase funds @Village Progress (villageprogress.com).

(We are still waiting on more photos from the photographer who traveled with the girls. We will post them as soon as we have access.)

We often become so deeply involved in managing our daily affairs and trying to advance our own positions in the world that we forget how easy and rewarding it can be to create a new and enriching experience for people less fortunate than ourselves.

This past Saturday Village Progress teamed up with Heart to Heart Community Care, TNS, and the Where There be Dragons Princeton Bridge Year Program to take a group of kids hiking in Kunming’s Western Hills, a new experience to which they would not otherwise have access.

We spent a great afternoon with students from a migrant school in Kunming, Yanhuang school, participating in fun, physically challenging activities! Village Progress is working together with The Nature School (TNS) on projects to organize experiential learning activities for groups of students from underprivileged schools in Kunming. Our mission with these activities is to make the students aware of the value of physical exercise and good nutrition, and instill in them a sense of environmental awareness. 

What we call the "first stage", or first project, of two or three projects is helping make students not only aware of the value of physical exercise but also find it fun. Little Donkey, the owner of (TNS), sets the pace with some warming up exercises, correcting the positions of the students and reminding them what parts of the body they aimed at working at that day, then briefly explaining to the students the equipment that they'll be using, guiding students through rock climbing phase, and then ending it with a bit of rappelling. 

Since our group of students ranged from ages 6 to 13 years of age we divided them into activities with different levels of difficulty. The youngest climbed in the beginners rock climbing wall, while the oldest started in intermediate, a bit more challenging, parts of the wall. Just a little while after we begin, however, both the younger and older students had gotten the hang of it and were excitedly waiting for their turns again! When it came to rappelling, almost all the kids had lost their original fear and enthusiastically rappelled down waving down to their classmates.

As much as Village Progress would like to share these experiences with every migrant child in Kunming, we only have the resources to work with small groups at a time. Picking 15 students is not always easy. Fortunately, in this case, Village Progress already had a relationship with these students. These 15 students all belong to the same English corner group, which Village Progress has been taking part in.  We thought it would be more effective to work with them despite the age disparity. These students saw the trip as a continuation of the lesson outside the classroom, which gave them more context to continue applying what they learned. We're excited for stage 2 of our experiential learning projects! 

Celebrate the passing of another year with this 2015 wall calendar featuring outdoor sports athletes from all around China in some of the most beautiful parts of the country... and beyond. All profits from this calendar fund outdoor education projects for underprivileged youths in Yunnan Province. Calendars start with February 1st, 2015 and end with January 31st, 2016. All Chinese holidays are included alongside some important dates and anniversaries in outdoor sports.

Calendars can be purchased now online on Taobao or at Salvador's Coffee House for 68 yuan.

A wide body of scholarly research has documented the benefits to children of experiential learning, especially to their confidence, self-esteem and leadership abilities. Examples of experiential learning could include teaming up with peers to make model buildings, taking a field trip to a local museum, or simply playing games that require organization and teamwork. But the unfortunate reality is that the poor children who stand to gain most from this sort of learning generally have the least access to it.

So we were thrilled to spend last Saturday afternoon providing health and wellness experiential activities to a group of particularly needy students from our home city of Kunming who come from challenging family situations or face developmental disabilities.

Donkey donated an entire weekend afternoon of his own time and the support of several of his staff members, forgoing revenue from paying customers to teach this group of needy children some fundamentals of living healthy through physical activity, basic fitness drills, rock climbing and rappelling. He also talked to the students about his own path from his youth in a poor countryside family to his current status as a successful small business owner. Dali Bar founder Colin Flahive also led the students through camping and emergency first aid activities.

Many thanks to Heart-to-Heart, TNS and volunteers from the Where There Be Dragons Princeton Bridge Year Program for making this incredible afternoon happen, we had a great time!

Last week Village Progress ran an art and English program for students at Yanhuang Elementary School, a private school in Kunming that serves students from a broad range of the socioeconomic spectrum. Yanhuang, a private school, is academically rigorous with high-performing students, but its approach to education emphasizes character-building, compassion and a broad scope of vision.

 
We had a lot of fun interacting with kids from grades one through six. After a short English lesson, local artists took the reins and taught the students how to explore their creative side making hand puppets with only a few strips of paper and a brown paper bag. As the volunteers (gap-year students, foreigners, and local artists) went from student to student offering feedback we were amazed by the creativity the students showed. Some grades had kids whose bodies had been partly burned, but these disabilities did not discourage them in the least.

 
Taking advantage of these new creations, we used the puppets to study the colors, shapes, and animals in English through role-playing activities. At the end some students named their puppets and then introduced themselves and their puppets to the class. We have more funding available from a generous supporter who instructed that it be used specifically to provide art and creative education to needy students. Anybody with ideas about deserving schools and/or projects should feel free to contact us to discuss further.

Learn more about us from a local news broadcast...
http://v.qq.com/page/f/4/a/f0133vlgi4a.html