This is a picture of the village leader’s brother (second to the youngest of the five).  We were welcomed into the village leader’s home where we were served tea (pretty salty) and a scrumptious dinner.  The Hat people eat a lot of mutton and noodle dishes.  They served a lot of fresh bread during our stay as well.  Yummy stuff.  We are sitting on a kang in this picture.  A kang is a raised platform with a fire built (or hot coals burning) underneath.  It works for eating (when a small table is placed upon it as seen here) and also for sleeping.

Since I don’t know much Chinese and even less Qinghai dialect, most of my time was spent staring at brother number 4 over to the right there…and of course, I ate a lot, too.  The reason we brought so much mutton with us (by the way) was 1.) for hospitality sake, and 2.) because we knew that the village would go "all out" and serve us elaborate meals.