Hope this letter finds y’all well.
Wherever you may be in life, in the world right now, we’d like to remind you of the few weeks of summer you spent in Yunnan.
The land itself, however, need not be reminded. For a part of what is now the soil was the compost you made, and it is now home to spectacularly complex networks of life that help nurture food and, hopefully, minds, as the eco-farm continues its efforts in influencing the valley toward sustainable agriculture.
Their bread is still delicious.
The kids you played with are now a little older, growing up in the same village, except now with a slightly different understanding of the world beyond and memories of joy.
Those kids will most likely participate in festivals and events at the temple activity center in the near future, where the bricks you sculpted are now hard as stone in a solid wall.
Perhaps now is a good time to see if you still remember those Bai dance moves?
Which of the workshops & events you recall the clearest now, looking back?
We hope you still have some good pictures of those photogenic monkeys, and we certainly hope that Xi’An has not become your least favorite place on earth, for reasons that only the 29 of us who were there know first-hand.
Finally, we would like you to know that you made an impact on us as well. Inspired by you, some of us have picked up long-abandoned hobbies, others have tried new things from meeting you.
Wherever you are now in life, on the planet, we would like you to know that the changes you made live on, and the cool things you saw, tried and did, are yours to revisit.
Thank you for a meaningful summer.
—Henry, Xiao, Samara, Yi