Sheepies...

No jerboas today because there was a big rain storm last night. It actually started as a tremendous dust storm - quite a problem in this part of the world with an infinity of sand to the north. I was sitting peacefully at my desk yesterday evening when it suddenly sounded like the end of the world outside and I turned to see that day had turned to brown night. I feel sorry for the folks who were out in a fields at that time. But the wind ushered in a big rain at around midnight that calmed down the particles in the air, and today was quite a lovely day. But since the sky was falling right around jerboa catching hours, no animals...

We made good use of the day though. After much effort, hair wringing, and gnashing of teeth, I convinced Shaoyuan that we should make contact with the people who collected 5-toed jerboas for us last year and start getting them thinking about doing the same again this year. So we walked into town this afternoon and asked a driver to take us to the home of a nearby Kazakh family. They're sheep herders and also get paid by the government to monitor the lands for illegal activities. It's all public land, but there is some illegal poaching and harvesting of wild herbs. So the government pays local people to monitor the land and also lets them raise their own animals. The guy said they sold 300 sheep last year. He has no formal education of his own, but he's done well enough to be able to send all three of his kids to good schools. That's another thing about China - there is the "one child" policy, but it applies primarily to the Han Chinese. Members of many (if not all) of the ethnic minorities are exempt from this policy and are allowed to have multiple children.

We sat and visited in their house for a little while, and then his oldest son asked if we wanted to go see the sheep. So we drove out further into the desert to a place where we had to scramble over a sand dune and walk down a little valley to a flat clearing where there was a corral full of baby lambs and a yurt. The adult sheep are grazing freely, but they keep the babies closer. Then I guess the adults come and go to nurse the little ones. And they have a horse for herding the sheep when they're off grazing. The oldest son came on horseback to meet us at the top of the dune and let Xiao Lin and I take turns in the saddle for a few pictures. And his mother invited into the yurt to sit on carpets on the ground and have salted tea with sheep's milk. Awesome. I know folks at home have trouble with the concept of salted milk tea, but it tastes great. Especially in the hot desert when you're feeling a little parched all of the time.

Speaking of feeling dehydrated...I have a cold. Blech. It was great to get out and get some sun, because my energy is a lot better now than when I woke up this morning, but I've been drinking liters of water and it all seems to be coming out my nose. I have a good feeling this won't last long though. It's just an ordinary cold - not another case of the Chinese Green Nasties.