Gansu Care: Field Visit to Maria's Family

Lanzhou Jingcheng Public Service Center is located in Gansu Province and mainly serves the disadvantaged groups in society, helping them renew their confidence in life and build up their self-reliance. Services include: 1) Care for the rural children left behind 2) Care for children after surgery 3) Concern for the old public service areas 4) Carrying out a variety of public training, consulting, and advocacy activities.

Getting to Know the Locals' Living Conditions

On October 11, 2016, Gansu Care officially launched the beginning of the water reservoir project at Zhengjia Elementary School. (Zhengjia is located in Dongxiang County.) While we were there, we took the opportunity to visit four families in the area. From them, we learned a lot about their living conditions, including their drinking water, family health status, students' schooling, and crop harvest. Through the understanding of these situations, we could have a general understanding of the present situation and future difficulties. This was all done for the preparation of our future new projects.

Maria's Family

Maria's family is the first family we visited. Maria's father said that he and his wife had never taken a picture together in their lifetime. So, during this exploratory trip, I took the opportunity to take family photos for them, hoping that these photos could help them retain some memories. 

Currently, four people live in the household: the parents, brother, and Maria. Her two older sisters had already gotten married about ten years ago, so they did not live in the house with them. 

The father is 63 years old and the mother is 57 years old. Both of their bodies are very healthy without any major pains or illnesses. In the village, if they can still walk up and down the mountain, they are in good shape.

However, the decay of the father’s teeth is very serious. Just from speaking with him, one can tell that he is missing his front row of teeth. Two years ago, the mother broke her right arm and has been disabled since then. Although there are no present problems with it, she does not have any strength in that arm. She is unable to do simple tasks. When they are cooking and there is a task that requires some strength, the father will be the one to do it. Since the mother can only do simple tasks, she is unable to help with any farm work. 

Maria's House

​The head villager was the one who took me to Maria’s house. Since he introduced me to the family, Maria’s family treated me very kindly without any worries. They allowed me to take pictures of their home and openly talked to me about their family condition.
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Maria's house, from the front, looks good. On the roof are faintly visible red brick red tiles. The walls of the house have white tiles with cement on the steps. Through the front, we can see that the house has a brick and concrete structure that the family probably worked very hard to obtain. The photo on the left with red bricks is the family's cellar. We will be focusing on that later.

This is the interior of the upper room. It is very simple with a big hole (kang) dug out from the soil, a heating stove, and some simple furniture. The TV is in that room; it shows that it is the place where the family regularly gathers.

The large wardrobe is the best piece of furniture this family owns.

The side room and the kitchen are connected. The red door in the corner leads to the kitchen.

The family owns simple kitchen furnishings. Besides their daily necessities, such as pots and pan, they do not own any modern cooking equipment, such as a rice cooker or microwave oven. In the middle of the kitchen is a big oil pan that they use for cooking. (It was not until I visited the latter two families that I found out what the pan was used for.)

Please note the ground that is dug out and covered with nylon bags and plastic.

This picture is the most authentic appearance of Maria's house. Unless you climb over the house and look at the interior, you will not see the true appearance of the house.

Now that there are many rural families, they cannot build new houses. Thus, the adobe wall will adorn the appearance of the actual adobe. They will consider their own economic capacity within the house to modify the front. From the outside, the adobe houses will always look better than they are.

The Cellar

Although it is just a hole it the ground, we generally call it a "cellar". The cellar and water cellar are the same thing; they use it to store things, but this cellar does not store water, only potatoes and cabbage.

​This is very common in the rural Gansu mountainous areas. During the cold, winter weather, people put potatoes outside to slow down the rate of consumption by digging a hole. Each year, when the weather is cold, families will prepare for the winter by placing cabbages inside the cellar. The storage time will be from November to next year in May.

​Cellars in the rural family play a very large role as they are equivalent to a homemade soil refrigerator. It is both economical and very environment-friendly. 

​Of the two cellars I observed, Maria’s was the best. Why? From the left side of the shredding cement, we can clearly see the original construction of the cellar. The host family has top-coated the soil with a thin layer of cement to do simple protection work and slow down the decay better.

I mainly said that this is the best one I have seen because I compared it to another one I saw. The other one I saw had a crack, allowing soil to get into the water at any time. On the left there was also a big bug. I found this after looking over the picture. This is probably a spider because there are webs in the well. 

Farming Corn and Potatoes

Maria’s family has ten acres of mountainous land. In the picture is the corn they collected for this year. For two acres of land, the amount they get in return in very little. This is probably because the drought this year is affecting them greatly as well. 

In the picture are the potatoes that Maria’s uncle sent. This year’s drought affected many farmers drastically. ​Potatoes are a specialty here. Due to the drought and soil with a certain small sand, the potato starch content is high and very consistent with the taste of Gansu. Whether the potatoes are cooked or made into noodle soup, they are very flavorful.

Maria’s father used his fingers to show me how big their potatoes are. Like their neighbors' potatoes, their potatoes are too small. Yet, they must take it from the ground because there is nothing to eat in the house. 

Raising Sheep

Maria’s family has four lambs. Four years ago, a local bank was lending money. A family could borrow up to 20,000 yuan; the first two years were without interest. Two years later, if they did not return it, interest would be added.

At that time, the price of sheep was at their peak. The family bought ten sheep with the loan. Less than two years later, the raising prices fell to the bottom. The family lost a substantial amount of money. Now, with only four sheep at home and the price not moving, the family leaves the sheep at home for later use, like for a holiday. 

Transportation and Marriage

​There is currently road construction going on just beyond the village. Due to this, all the families in the village, including the schools, are happy.

Maria's brother, 27, worked at a site in DunHuang. Usually, by this age, he should have been married with a few children of his own. However, due to the remote village, traffic inconvenience, coupled with the family situation in general, Maria's brother is still single. The family's biggest problem currently is how to plan on getting Maria’s brother married. 

In addition to there being no suitable partners, the local wedding ceremony costs a minimum of 100,000 RMB. That money is a huge sum to the family and the village. Maria’s father said, if the second road were to be opened, bridal prices would be at least 40,000 RMB less.

Maria's Uncle

​Maria’s uncle lives very close by. When I was talking with Maria, he came over after he heard our voices. I suggested that he take a photo with his brother. He agreed and quickly adjusted his outfit. This was the first photo they have taken together in all these years.

Hope for Change

After visiting Mary 's family, I felt a little depressed because of the amount of problems the family faces. 
First of all, the parents are older. Their labor force is decreasing year by year, and going out to work simply does not help. Family members with a low labor force will experience a direct impact on the family income. Poor family income and living conditions will not be good for living in the village. 

Second, the brother’s issue of being single. He is one of the many families experiencing such an issue. Finally, Maria is now a fourth-grade primary school student. She finished her six-year primary school and will now have to go beyond the village to continue her education. 

​Hopefully, the second road will open soon in the remote mountain village and bring a certain economic change.

Original article written by Vivian Wang, translated by Nina Chen, edited by Carolyn D.