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09/20/2005 Entry: "A Short Letter Home"

Hamburger Lad is spending a year or two in China (his wife is teaching English there) so he switched to a different blog: A Short Letter Home. So far he's doing well at keeping up on the posting! I especially liked his story about getting some whole wheat bread baked in the rural village they are living in:

We arrived at the mill--a large barn-like building--and climbed out of the truck. A group of soldiers were sitting on the ground nearby and were giving us that typical "who let the big noses in here" look. I imagine I would do the same if I saw a foreigner in such an out of the way place. In one sense, the mill is nothing exciting. About an eighth of the building is a grain bin, and on the other side of the building are about five or six milling machines. There were two guys (or was it three? I really should have bothered to count) working the machines, and one lady who seemed to be in charge. Thad discussed things with her and eventually she brought out a handful of flour. Joan and Thad inspected it (They showed it to me, but what do I know about flour?) and deemed it acceptable. The mill lady then provided us with a nice pile of flour (10 lbs, maybe?) in a huge sack. She seemed to want to refuse payment, but Joan tried to pay her 20 yuan. (that's $2.50 US) The mill lady balked vociferously and finally accepted 10. Thad later suggested that her generosity stemmed from the fact that Thad's mother-in-law is a noodle manufacturer and a customer.

(tags: blogging, china, hamburgerlad)