Dark Duck Village

It was an early morning on Sunday as we rendezvoused outside of the Zhanjiang Normal University for a trip to the nearby Dark Duck Village.

One of Kevin's former students, Kelly, from the Number Fifteen Middle School (not much creativity in naming schools and buildings here usually), had invited us to visit her home. As we rode in taxis, we passed back through MaZhang (where our school is located) and began to weave through some of the back roads until we had passed out of the city and were traveling alongside farm fields. A few moments later, we had arrived.

As we walked back to Kelly's house through the narrow alleys between the other village homes, we discovered that while Kelly had invited us a week earlier, she had not mentioned to her parents we were coming until we were already on the way. Despite the surprise visit, the family was very gracious in hosting us, but needed time to prepare for lunch.

In order to give them room to work, Kelly led us on a tour of the village and surrounding farms. The homes in the village were all constructed close together and most were built with brick, which you usually don't see inside the cities. Many of them were built in the traditional courtyard style, where the courtyard acts as the central location to the house and the various rooms for cooking, sleeping, etc. all branch off of the courtyard.

The village itself probably had no more than fifty homes total. The edge of the village bordered the start of the farm land. Here most of the families owned and worked a plot, growing eggplant, sugarcane, tomatoes, greens, rice or any number of other crops. As we walked through the fields, Kelly explained to us how most of the farmers sell to a person who then in turn sells to outdoor markets and supermarkets. The markets generally charge three times more than the amount the farmers are paid. It left me wondering why more of them don't skip the middle man and sell directly?

On the other side of the fields, there was another neighboring village and also the elementary school that Kelly had attended. We visited both before returning. Probably being the only time in history that four foreigners had ever visited Dark Duck Village at the same time, we drew big crowds.

After that, it was time to return to Kelly's house for lunch. The family had managed to put together quite a feast in the two hours that we had been gone and everyone was gathered around to eat. Kelly's younger brother and sister (in the more rural areas, the enforcement of the one child policy seems to not be quite as strict), two cousins, parents and grandparents were all present to host and dine with the foreign guests (us). It was a good meal and quite an interesting experience to visit the village, even though it is one of the more "modern villages." The further you venture into the countryside, the less modern the villages tend to become.

From the village, it was less than a ten minute ride for Janet and I to reach our school (I told you we were on the outskirts of town) and after such an early morning and a big meal, it was definitely time for my afternoon nap.