We still try to do something here in Kunming, but things don’t get easier overnight. Sadly, the experience of organizations hanging up the phone, or offices hidden in some impossible to find backstreet remains associated to China non-governmental organizations. But of course! The government is doing everything here. We’ve learned that in Chengdu and wonder what we are doing here.
We have a last straw: the “windows on Yuanyang”, a beautiful destination for travellers and photographers in a quest to capture one of the most stunning agricultural sights: the ricefields around the hill village of Yuan yang. Now this is supposed to be a small organization that helps needy families and enables their children proper education to get out of the circle of poverty.
We check out and drag our backpacks through the heat. A last minute arrangement blesses us with the company of another CS member who joins us for lunch and tells us about his volunteering experience. It’s a nice exchange and the highlight of the day; we have to take an urban bus, wait at a pole for another one to get to the south bus station.
The bus station is huge, and a friendly English speaking woman helps us to locate our sleeper bus to Yuanyang. This is the first time for me to be in a bus with berths rather than seats. There is not much space to get cosy, but the road is fine and we arrive without bruises.