Back to China

After a nearly 5-year hiatus, I'm happy to say that this blogger is back in action. Starting on Saturday, I'll be chronicling my sophomore trip to China - this time to Sichuan Province. For the first half of the trip, I'll be working with a team from Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild homes that were destroyed in the devastating 2008 earthquake. HFH is something very near and dear to my heart, so when the opportunity to volunteer with HFH China came along, I eagerly signed up. I'm really looking forward to working alongside families as we build, brick by brick, safe and sturdy homes.

After the build, I plan to head up into the mountains of Sichuan to Kangding, the gateway to Tibet. I'll spend a few days exploring the area, then it's back down to Chengdu, Sichuan's capital, for pandas, face-changing opera, giant Buddha statues, and lots and lots of kung pao chicken and dan dan noodles.*

Leshan Giant Buddha (source: yangtzeriver.org)

It is my hope that this blog helps spread the word about the good work Habitat is doing around the world. As much as I would like to update this blog everyday, we'll be in some places where internet access is spotty or non-existent, so posts may be intermittent. Stay tuned!

Finally, I'd like to say a great big 谢谢 (thank you) to everyone who generously donated to HFH China. Your support made this trip possible, and is helping hundreds of families in China have a "simple, decent place to live."


*According to Wikipedia, Sichuanese food is so tasty, UNESCO declared Chengdu to be a "City of Gastronomy" in 2011. Or to put it another way: Sichuanese food is "the Spice Girl among Chinese cuisines, bold and lipsticked, with a witty tongue and a thousand lively moods" (so says chef Fuchsia Dunlop, in an interview with NPR).