The Village Volunteer Logbook — German Volunteer, October 2025
Day 1 — Arrival and the First Harvest
We went to pick up Linus at the station today. The station was small, nowhere to park, so we didn’t even get a proper handshake. He threw his bag in, jumped into the car, and we hit the road right away.
It took more than an hour to get back to the village, turning and climbing through the mountain roads. Teacher Zhang was with us. I’ve been learning Enshi Yulu tea making from him these days.
Our volunteer, Linus, sat in the back, looking out the window the whole time. The road was long, but the air smelled fresh already.
When we reached the village, the first person we met was Feng, our volunteer host. As usual, every new friend picks a local clay bowl from a big basket. That bowl will be the one they use for all their meals here. When they leave, the bowl stays as a gift from the village.
After lunch, we walked around the village and took some photos by the tea garden sign. On the way, Teacher Zhang showed us wildflowers on the path. He said most of them are herbal. I’m thinking next year we can try to make flower tea from them and see how they taste.
We also stopped by to see the village mule. It was eating grass. We were guessing whose mule was that.
In the afternoon, we sat around and talked about the weather. The sky was clear, so we decided to go pick some tea leaves. Everyone heard the news fast. Chun was about to take her kid for a vaccine, and Shendi was digging sweet potatoes in the field, but both came right away. When it’s time to do work for cooperative, people always show up.
Each of us grabbed a basket and went to the tea field. Chun is the fastest picker in the whole village, so everyone followed her. This was our first time doing autumn picking. Usually we only make spring tea, and people still want to pick the soft young buds. I kept calling out, “Longer! Bigger leaves!” and everyone laughed.
We started from the field near Chun’s house. Picking looks easy, but it takes practice. Later we could even tell which leaves were picked by villagers and which by volunteers. Villagers pick clean and quick, the break on the stem is neat, almost no damage.
The tea bushes are tall now after the summer growth. Some are as tall as a person. Linus is even taller. When he stood in the tea field, everyone else disappeared in the leaves, but you could still see him clearly. Shendi laughed and said, “These tea trees must be growing for him. We can’t reach, but he can.”
The field was full of chatting and laughter. Linus didn’t talk much. He just kept picking one row after another, careful and steady. When we finished, he had picked about two jin, around one kilo. That’s pretty good for a beginner. Chun picked five kilos, and the rest of us together got twelve. Chun works like the wind.
In the evening, we sat together to decide how to make this batch of tea. We wanted to process it into Shoumei white tea. We used two methods: one batch laid out on the floor to wither naturally, and another put into the bamboo trough with light wind. Both methods were taught to us by Alex, the founder of One River Tea.
The leaves slowly softened through the night, giving off a warm, sweet smell. Everyone sat around the trays, watching the color change and talking about which field to pick next.
It was Linus’s first day in the village. We didn’t have time for big welcomes, but he worked hard, and everyone liked him right away. The day ended with the sound of crickets, a little tiredness, and the smell of fresh tea in the air.