Travel and Service

Leaving China by train - Guangzhou/Shenzhen/Kowloon (Old Canton) to Hong Kong - we could not be more pleased by the scenery and communities whizzing by our window; views more comfortable and expected than a month ago, but still far from commonplace. Here we are in one of the most populated places on earth, 50 million people in an area roughly the size of NYC metropolitan statistical area, with industries and residential development stretching in every direction. More striking and lovely, however, is the density of community gardens. Lots of land, allocated by the government, fish farm aquaculture, fruit tree groves, water buffalo pastures, corn, beans, herbs, flowers, medicinal plants, date palms, sugarcane, tomatoes, peppers, and cabbages of every size and color. All of this life and growth is woven between bridges, canals, high-rise, medium-rise, shopping areas, markets, sports facilities, and bicycle lanes. China’s system of agricultural land allocation has forever existed inside and close to cities. However, in the past thirty years of reforms, this allocation has shifted, and two years ago those who had or would manage agricultural land were being given it in perpetuity.

What are the ingredients that make it possible for Chinese to feel so motivated by the allocation of a few feet of land with which to sustain their family and draw small profits? Of course, poverty, historical famines, and agricultural histories have all played firmly into the capabilities of Chinese to see value in what they generate with land and sweat. But there is something more: Chinese people have spent millenniums wedded to their home place. Family and its sustenance is the primary achievement for a person’s life. While we who do not have the immediacy of these simple values (as a result of our mobility, family upbringing, educational aspiration, or career paths), there is a grounding here, purposefully joyous, unpretentious,  shared, and bountiful. We leave China stirred by the desire to buy local, to eat local, and to grow our own food, all notions that can contribute to our health, our economy, our planet, and our collective future.

Everyday in China we say to each other: “Let’s not get home and lose the inspiration we keep gaining here.” Brittany is a bit water buffalo and greens obsessed. She wants to fill our lives with fresh herbs, all kinds of lettuce, cabbages, mushrooms, sprouts, and the varieties of every conceivable vegetable family which we have learned do not only belong in simple salads but which should go into soups, stir-fry’s and on BBQ skewers. I am far more southern-minded: I want the pickles, chutneys, relishes, and smoky flavors which I could never get enough of.  However, with backpacks and unexpectedly high shipping rates for USA-bound packages, all we can really bring back from China is a mental picture, a memory, experiences, some cultural perceptions, and our love of the people, the land, and the culture(s) which make it as complex as any place we have lived or visited.

Our time in China has been a lesson in needed perspective on the “privileges” we bring from our Western world. There are many ways in which a citizen of China has a quality of life which we could not comprehend in the West. There is something also to be said for the general contentment of most people we encountered or learned about here. Along with perspective, China has also helped us to reflect on and think about our goals for service and exchange. To say that we are on our ’honey service year’ never meant that we had a hard fast plan where we would arrive in a few chosen ’underserved’ or ’underprivileged’ areas. To begin from that standpoint would have done us (and the cultures we visit) a disservice in presuming that we were going to find peoples grossly less ‘served’  than we are. What we can bring forward in ‘service’ as we continue our journey beyond China is our exchanging ideas, our confidence in our good ambassadorship, our willingness to help, work, and contribute, and the expanding understanding of what a good world can continue towards. We will continue to be in service through this blog: bridging, networking, sharing, expanding, socializing, caring for the world, its people and landscapes as we encounter them. Hopefully, we are capturing and passing our experiences virtually in ways that are meaningful.

Travel has its destination, as well as its journey. Ours is a trip between lands - on our way home again. We are indeed privileged that we can come into your lives, and that we are capable and willing to be in service to our families and our communities. We are grateful to possess inclinations toward exploration and learning.

We are happy travelers, and happy to be traveling with each other.