The following pictures are from the summer training sessions and research (village visits) in June 2006.

Training session at Ningxia University, Yinchuan

Training session at Ningxia University, Yinchuan

This is a relatively wealthy Muslim (Hui) village northern Ningxia.

Me with the village leader and our host.

Notice the gold plate with the red hammer and sickle.  This is a Muslim (Hui) household and the “Home of a Communist Party Member”.     

This is an Islamic School for Women located in the village.

This is Shi Yaojiang (good friend and director of the NSDRC) "teaching" Abaric at the women's Islamic school.

Village Mosque

Inside the village mosque

Bathing room next to the mosque: the bathing before afternoon prayer

Wealthy village near the Yellow River in North Ningxia

Poorer Hui Village in South Ningxia

Elementary school: This village has an elementary school, but it only serves grades 1-3. Students complete grades 4-6 in another village. Currently in rural Ningxia and Shaanxi there is a move to combine elmentary schools among several villages. One of the reasons is due to fewer children (success of the Family Planning), and other reason is fewer resources because of the Tax-for-Fee Reform.

This is a dry "run-off" well. There is no ground water and wells are fill with run-off from the rains, but this area has not had rain in THREE years. Water is trucked in from the county seat once a month.

Ironically, the only eatable crop is “kucai” or bitter grass.  Here the villagers are separating the roots from the greens.  The little boy is wearing a coat with a large round button that reads “I Love Rock & Roll”.  No one knows what the words mean.  The reason they bought the coat was not the “foreign words”, but because it was cheap.  

The village is occupied by mainly women and children because most of the men have migrated out of the village for work. They return once a year. The vast majority of men have left for a single construction job in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. During our field visits we bring a Polaroid camera so we can take pictures and immediately give the photos to the villagers.  The Polaroid pictures take a few minutes to develop and the village women are fascinated by the process.  Despite the conditions of the village, the most of the women we talk with maintain a great sense humor.