I'm back. Back to my new apartment in Korea. It's 12:47am and I sit here quite awake. Why, you might ask? Take a wild guess. I'm thinking about China. Rolling it around in my mind. Missing the kids. Missing everything about that place. Daydreaming about the future. My body might have left, but my mind is still there. And now that my body is here (and my mind better hurry up and follow!) I will once again fall in to being content with where I am. After all, that's how it should be.
How can I sum up 3 weeks in China? It's impossible. But I'll try. During these last 3 weeks, God has shown Himself over and over and over and over
again. And more than that. I prayed so hard before I left. I prayed that I would be safe, healthy, that I would not get lost, that I would learn about Him, that I would be changed, that I would meet people whom I could turn to in the future, that I would learn much about running an orphanage, that God would grow my faith in Him. It all happened. He answered all my prayers with a yes. And more. And do you know why? It's because He's God. He's good. He loves me with an unfathomable love. He wants His perfect will for me, and I want that too.
I love Him more. It wasn't a cloud nine everything is fine kind of trip. No, there was pain, there was frustration, there was days of not wanting to do certain things. There were less than desirable conditions, dirt, an overwhelming amount of bug bites, allergies, scrapes, tiredness, But God saw me through. In spite of all the things that I could look at and complain about, I didn't view them as negative. There really wasn't much that I viewed as negative on this trip. Some of my selfish emotions were negative, but life was just good. Being with the kids in China was more that I could ask for.
I realize that what I've written so far might not really make sense or be organized logically at all, but I warned you that it might be impossible to explain. Here I go again.
I wrote daily updates, so now I'll post some of them. It might be long, so read what you want and skip the rest. Haha.
August 2
I don't think I get so many stares in Seoul. It's so funny that I laugh outloud everytime they nudge a person and motion to me 'subtly' it cracks me up!
True love: wiping your girlfriend's sweat with a tissue.
So sweaty and muggy. Everyone glistens delicately. A
lmost no one wears their hair down. Me neither! Only some times.
About 10 year
s old. Male. Mother wiping his sweat while he does Kung Fu moves.
East Nanjing road. No idea which way to go. Time to start walking. I walked down a bunch of si
de streets until I found the masses. And I do mean more than the Trevi fountain masses. Much more. Like so man people. Anyways, the construction was gone and there was an beautiful view of the city from across the water. Just
what I was looking for. I held my spot on the railing in order to take some night shots (I got a few.) while I waited for the darkness, I had many stares of course. At one point I wanted a lady (who had ju
st not so subtly taken a pic of me) to hold a sign while I took a pic of her holding it. She didn't understand and refused and all of the sudden people started forming a circle around me and so I asked them. The circle starte
d growing and I didn't want to draw attention (yeah right) so I booked it outta there.
When I was standing by the railing, a lady stood by me and her husban
d not so subtly took a pic so I smiled and gave the peace sign. While he was posing his camera, I could see a smil
Grow on his face when he realized I was posing for the picture. Little did I know...I tallied 8 people in the space of like 5 mins that saw them take a picture and asked me to take one with them. I kept score as they said "sank-you.".
Then along came Carol. Her English name was Carol. She was from another province and came to shanghai for 2 weeks to study as a linguistics student. Her English was very good and we talked and then walked in the overcrowded streets. She was very easy to get along with and at one point the conversation turned to other things and she asked if I believed. I said yes and we talked about that for a bit. No details of course. Anyways, we ate dinner together and got contact info so I hope to hear from her again.
Made it back in one sweaty sweaty sweaty mess to the hostel. Eating yogurt and drinking water water water after I swet sweat sweat. Yes, I prefer to not be able to understand the conversations around me.
Old Chinese proverb: it difficult to get on escalator.
August 4
It might not seem luxurious to sleep across metal chairs separated by
6 inch gaps on top of your bag with light overhead and announcements
blaring on the loud speaker. People miling arous, smoking and
laughing, children screaming and mothers matching them. The smells of
strange foods wafting through the air. It's not. When leaving Korea I
almost ALMOST didn't bring my pink blanket. I thought it might be
cumbersome. At the last second I decided that it has served me well
and that it would accompany me on this magical mystery tour. And boy
was that ever a good choice! The shanghai train station proved to be
a rather nice alternative to a hotel. At least I didn't have to pay
anything. I just had to get up in the morning and get on my train
(which proved much easier than I thought.)
Now I'm on my way to Zhengzhou. Sitting next to a man who smells
niiiice and smokey. I've got my water bottles, pepsi to keep me awake,
and ramen for that time when I get hungry. I also have my trusty
tissues for the squatty potty which is really a metal basin in the
ground that no doubt emptiest onto the tracks. Ok, so they might not
be THAT primitive.
Once I get to Zhengzhou, I have to figure out how to make it the last
leg of my journey to Gongyi. That'll be exciting.
The train smells strangely like lemon scented urine. Maybe I'll study
Chinese if I don't get motion sick which I most likely will.
I wonder if this car has aircon. Cause we sure as shootin ain't
rolling down the windows. The train is actually really nice. Three
seats, an isle, and 2 seats. Looks almost like a plane except for the
addition of the large windows on either side, added leg room, and no
inflight movies or stewardesses. Oh and the overhead compartments have
no doors. Good thing I didn't pack any bricks in my carry on.
Child 1 is talking. Child 2 is screaming. Mom 1 is sweaty and eating a
bun. Mom 2 is nowhere to be seen. I smell. Man 1 is fanning him self.
Man 2 (mr. Smokey next to me) is breathing. Loudly. Luggage rolling,
voices mumbling in Chinese, candy bar wrappers. It's like an
orchestra. It seems like the first thing people do when they sit down
is put their tray table down. Aren't I observant. Just thought I'd
bore you with useless facts. No doubt man selling things will be
coming through the isles soon yelling and bumping me with his cart
(yep, got an isle seat.)
And we're off! It smells like oatmeal with the sounds of a rather loud
video game. It's a fair for the senses.
Just in case you wondered, it is ok to put steaming coffee that might
fall and scald you onto the tray table but make sure you don't put
that 15kg weight that you carry onto it. It might break.
About 2 hours out of Zhengzhou. I slept a lot. I THOUGHT I grabbed the
non drowsy Dramamine, but I guess not. It was a welcome relief. I woke
up to the kids literally screaming. Playing some game no doubt. I am
literally surrounded by children. They're lucky they're so stinkin
cute. Once I get to Zhengzhou I have to try to find a bus or a train
to gongyi. Should be interesting. No one in shanghai knew where gongyi
was. Even the guy who booked my ticket and he books tickets all the
time. This had been a very uneventful train ride thankfully. I should
get up and stretch my legs.
I made a little puppet with a face from the sanitary bag in the pocket
in front of me and gave it to the two screaming kids. The girl liked
it and laughed. Then the mom took it, looked at it for a minute, and
set it down. It fell on the floor and got trampled underfoot. Well, at
least I tried haha. About 1h20m left. This ride has passed by pretty
quickly. I must have been out for a while.
It's amazing. All the kids just passed out in their parents arms at
exactly the same time haha. Mouths open, parents sleeping as well.
I'm here and I walk in the door and a child took my hand and wouldn't
let go. This is it!! This is so it.
Dinner consisted of cucumbers in a sort of soy sauce, a 4inch round
flat bread, and a millet soup. I got all the water back that I sweated
off tonight. There wasn't an inch of me that wasn't covered in sweat.
I didn't even try to fend it off. I played badminton, UNO, hide and
seek, and just played. I love it already. Life here has no frills. Ok,
well I have curtains, but that's about it. Time to hit the hay and try
to get a good night sleep in spite of the heat so I can get up bright
and early.
August 7
In one week we leave for camp! I'm excited to meet the other 2 HOH's. Should be a good old time. Then after camp I head back to Shanghai and then on to Seoul.
Woke up this morning and pulled myself out of bed. I like the mornings here. Everyone just sits around outside on the stone benches eating their breakfast and chatting quietly. Morning birds are chirping and there's usually a slight breeze. I wear my sunglasses because I go from my dark room to the bright outdoors. I Say goodmorning to everyone and grab some breakfast.
Today was half yum half very strange. It was a muffin that was just plain but quite sweet and yummy and a bag (think Capri Sun only with no structure and strawless that you rip open with your teeth) with room temperature "milk" which tasted more like lemony milky...something. What's with the lemons? Anyways, not wanting to be rude, I drank it all up. Everyone else loved it. Slurping and smacking away (which, to my delight, is perfectly acceptable because they have almost no table manners here *grin*) Maybe I just need to get used to their version of milk. Or maybe it wasn't milk. I'm hoping it treats my stomach ok. Now I'm tempted to accidently fall back asleep for a bit.
Speaking of table manners. It's perfectly acceptable, if not expected, to:
Slurp A LOT
Put your elbows on the table
Talk with your mouth full
Put your face down to the food and shovel it in your mouth
Be on the phone during meals
Burp
Spit food out
Many other wonderful things
I did accodenty fall back into a sleep. It was lovely. When I woke up, the babies were on the lawn sitting on cardboard again, so I joined them. We made crowns of weeping willow branches and put them on the babies and on me. We took many a picture an had lots of laughs. It's amazing that we can find tons to do and many thing about which to laugh when we don't speak the same langauage.
So far I've been called anda, annie, Andy, Anna (pronounced ah-na- this is most common) Angie, and amma. How could 4 letters be so difficult to say haha. I should record how many times they say my name in one day.
A while after lunch we went into town. One of the older girls, Rena, and 4 boys ages 8-13. The city of gongyi is pretty run down and has lots of shops for all kinds of trinkets, clothes, shoes, and bags. We went to the grocery store because I wanted to buy candy and things for all the kids. Rena kept protesting that things were too expensive (a 3 pack of Oreos was about 3 bucks) and I really wanted to get them stuff so I bought it anyways. I knew she was just being kind. I also learned that Chinese women don't shave. I went to buy a razor and Rena wasn't sure why. The shop keeper said "sorry but these are just for men." I told him it was ok and that I use ones for men in America. He said "oh but it only has two blades . It's a Chinese brand. If you want
Gillette it's over there." and I insisted that it was ok. They tried several times to change my mind and I was like NO! Haha well I didn't yell or anything but I just took it. And that was that. Te razor worked great, by the way. I shaved off like 50 layers of dirt and dust. Now my mosquito bites look more prominent on my even whiter legs. :D the kids have been comparing our skin colors.
I heard tong hua at a store and sang along and smiled.
After the super market, we went to a very overgrown park that was still pretty. Old men flying kites and women sitting on the dirt hill under the trees fanning themselves to keep cool. The kids climbed some stone things, and we were on our way. They didn't want to walk up the big hill, so we piled 6 of us into a three wheeled car designed to hold 3 passengers. It barely made it up the hill, but it did and we happily paid 1yuan each. On the way up I noticed that I had a small rash in both of my elbow pits. It didn't itch and it wasn't bumpy, just small red spots. It's still there bit not spreading and I don't feel anything. And it's only in those two spots. I thought maybe some plant at the park gave it to me. If it's not gone by tomorrow I'm going to get some cream
Or something for it. Strange. Haha not that anyone cares to hear about the rashes of others. Don't be rash now.
I also learned today that you shouldn't play basketball with 5 competitve boys when you barely
Know how to shoot the ball. They all wanted me on their team, but I didn't know how to say "that's not a wise choice" in Chinese. It went down about how I thought it would. Although, I did score my teams only basket. It was our only basket because of me too. We got nice and sweaty.
They're stealing my heart. All of them.
August 8
I woke up at 7 today to be in time for breakfast, and my room was actually nice and cool when I woke up. Amazing. So I said forget breakfast and went back to sleep. I woke up at 9:30 feeling very rested, so I ate oreos for breakfast. Then I got up and played UNO and Sorry with the boys. They came knocking on my door insistent that I play with them.
Now they're swimming. It's been quite eventful. Joy scratched her leg, Calvin finally went swimming. He was so happy when he finally jumped in after days of watching. It made me smile too. :) then someone peed in the pool which caused quite a stir and no one would fess up. So I said drop it and of it happens again, we get out. Haha I love kids and their problem solving which is really yelling and fussing. They found a frog and were, of course, torturing it until I rescued it. Now it's probably dying drying up in the sun. Oh well.
Played skip Bo and it was magically time for dinner. Dinner was tofu and what are those long green things called...oh yeah, celery. In some oil and maybe soy sauce. And then the water and some kind of rice stuff. The end. It was yummy with the ever present steamed bun. Lunch...I won't even try to explain it. The only thing I recognized was green pepper. If you don't know what it is, it won't gross you out. It looked like slices of light pink grooved hot dog stuffed with something brown and translucent potatoes that tasted like something I have no idea. It was good though with rice.
I'm saying some more Chinese phrases. We communicate just fine. Our latest funny is taking a piece of food, saying (in Chinese) that it's someone (e.g this is Rose) and then eating it and saying (in Chinese) it's very delicious! Haha then everyone does it. Tonight people started saying things like "this is the table" then eating it and gagging. Haha I laugh all day.
I helped take the wheelbarow of trash down to the dump which is just next to a corn field. That was interesting cause of course everyone stared at the foreigner pushing the trash. I think one old lady didn't think I could dump it so she started babbling loudly and pushing the trash out with her water bottle. Anyways, that got done and I got my share of stares.
Picture a red blow up bouncy thing that looked like a table perched over a stage. Women in short skirt and heels singing techno songs with men. A pot of ashes burning in front of a shrine. A big red tent with all those cheap looking Chinese decorations hanging from the edges of the tent. And a casket under the tent. A Chinese funeral. I experienced my first one. Small wooden chairs were set up in front of the stage. A man holding a baby who was naked except for an apron. A woman swaying to the music and people milling around or sitting on the chairs trying to keep cool with enormous oriental fans. The strong smell of incense. The kids covering their ears because the music was so loud. Huge gaudy flower arrangements with ribons no doubt expressing sadnes over the loss of this man and red flashing lights flooding the scene. As the sun was setting, there was a funeral on a hot, muggy Gongyi
night. I wonder who died.
It was a good thing when the two boys who were mad at me earlier sat by me on the stairs and rested their heads on my shoulder.
Well, that's all for tonight. Time to take this sweaty mess to the shower and wash some clothes. All I can say for those moms who do laundry by hand is they must have no feeling in their hands and really strong backs!
Those are just a few of my updates. I have plenty more. My eyes are getting scratchy and heavy as the minutes pass. One thing I'll end with is this: while I was there, God confirmed in my heart over and over and over that it was China and it was an orphanage. This is it. I've heard many people say it can't be done, you're too young, the government wouldn't let you, it would cost too much, and on and on. But I say: God can do anything, "do not say "I am a youth," God can work in the hearts of the government, God owns all the money in the world, and on and on. See a common thread? If God wants it to happen, it will happen. If He can die for use, rise from the dead, and save us, He can help me start a small orphanage in China. With God on my side, I can win. It's not going to be easy. It's going to take a lot of time, hard work, dedication, faith, and prayer, but I won't stop pushing until I get it. Or until I die, which ever comes first. So, here I sit, in Korea. Not in China. Why? I don't know. God needed me here first. But the love for China only grows stronger as the days pass. It never fades. And that's God because I know that in my own strength, this selfish rotten human heart would never love a single soul. So pray. Pray that I continue seeking God's will. Pray that He makes it all clear. Pray that people come along side to help. Pray most of all, whether it seems good to us or not, that HIS will is done. Not mine. Not anyone else's. God's perfect will. On that note, I say goodnight. Much more to come tomorrow. Peace.
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