你们好 ! 

I am at the moment on a 33 hours train journey, taking me from Kunming to Beijing. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been without Wi-Fi and on my own for so long, but I was also exhausted and time flies when you nap 5 hours per day. 

After my last email I headed to DVillage, a small village near Kunming where I spent a week volunteering with YY. 

YY left her marketing job in the city 3 years ago and decided to live in this small village to take care of an orchard that will hopefully become a fruit forest. She just came back from Australia, where she spent 3 months in permaculture farms to learn some more farming techniques. She grows apple, pear, plum and peach trees as well as cabbage, onions, garlic, carrots and more veggies. She also has a few beehives and I was there when the beekeeper came to give her some advice. It was a bit scary but really cool. 

YY’s house is the meeting point of all new villagers. Everyone comes here to stay for a few days or to prepare huge meals for everyone. Because more than just a normal village, D is an eco-village where everything is made to respect nature and the inhabitants. It attracts more new villagers, mostly women, that come to live here and start growing their own food. They restore the traditional houses, left by the locals who prefer living in huge american-like mansions, and each has their own project. 

There is a “self-help shop” in the village, where everyone can leave what they make and other people can come and buy them, leaving the money in a box. They also have a monthly makers market that attracts a lot of people from the area. YY makes her own toothpaste and shampoo with natural ingredients, I was able to refill my own containers which is good for my zero-waste objective. There’s even a lesbian couple in the village, they are building a school.

A source flows down the mountain and falls in three different pools : the first one for drinking water, the second for cleaning vegetables and the third for washing clothes. This very ancient system is still used by the local people, that are mostly from the colourful Yi minority. On some of the village walls there is government propaganda posters that say that all minorities have to work for the great China. 

I am very grateful I got the chance to share a week with this awesome community, where everyone cultivates their garden in an atmosphere of peace, sharing and sorority. The only problem they might face in a near future is that the government heard about this projects and likes it. They want to take back some of the farmers lands to build a tourist complex, of course. Here in China no one owns their land, the farmers now have a 30 year concession on their land but the government can decide to take it back at any time anyway. They’ll give financial compensation and they often move the farmers to…appartments in the city. 

The villagers are worried about this project and are working in a different proposal to show the government. Hopefully they’ll manage the save the land and the authenticity of this place. 

In the meantime I helped YY restore an old house in the orchard where she wants to move. We had a lot of fun working together, and a Ukrainian friend I made in Kunming came to visit for a few days. We made a table out of an old door. I also made jam and prepared an Indian meal with dal and chapattis,  it wasn’t too bad. And then we ate, and ate more, and when we were done eating there was some more food. I got to try a lot of Chinese (very oily) specialties prepared by a local Yi girl. 

I am now on my way to Beijing where I will join a big organic farm. I am enjoying the long train ride, the landscapes are beautiful and I have no other choice but to rest. I have been reading very interesting books about a French woman called Simone Weil that wrote a lot during the Second World War about the causes of oppression, about communism as seen by Marx and about the need we have to find our roots. She says “un-rooting” populations is a white disease because white people have un-rooted themselves already. It reminded me a lot of conversations we’ve had at Navdanya and I suggest you try to find and read these books in English 🙂 

Other than that I only took some bread, fruits and peanut butter on this train trip and I feel like I need to eat something salty. Can’t wait to reach Beijing tonight to have some good Chinese food! 

Love to you all
Lucile