Home a month

I can't believe it's already been a month since we've been home! Just like that we were swept back into our busy lives and the tide has pulled us back out to sea where we are just trying to stay afloat. I kind of knew that would happen-but I pray that the excitement and relationships won't get lost in the shuffle.

I wonder if that is why sometimes God wants us to leave home and go serve. It isn't just for the people we are serving....it's for us too. We step away temporarily from the hustle and bustle and get to see the world from a different view point. A friend of ours posed the questions as we were fund-raising..."Isn't the money you are raising better spent here at home or wouldn't it be better to send the money to people who are already there so that you aren't having to incure travel cost?" I can see his point. On the other hand, God sends eye-witnesses to go serve and then come back and share, all while strengthening the faith of those who serve and are served. While I was in China, my new friend couldn't quite grasp the concept of "volunteering". She initially thought that I was being paid to come teach English. Over the weeks, she kept asking the question in a different way because serving for nothing didn't make any sense to her. It was the last few days that she finally got it "Oh, so you make enough money to be able to come over here are try to make people's live better". Close enough.

So last night our church held a banquet to celebrate the kick-off of our 125th year, the retirement of a large debt, and to showcase the outreach that we have been a part of this summer. I put together a short movie to highlight the trip to China. It was a real pleasure to be able to come back and report of the amazing work God is doing there. I enjoyed reliving the experience and am beginning to let my mind dream of the future and how we might be able to go back. If it is God's will, let it be so!

Title: Rolly's recipies and More Goodbyes

Today was time with the team to reflect on the events of the last month. Since we've all been doing different things, we hadn't heard all of the stories. It was fun to go over some of the new ones. Mom and I were both happy to hear that one of the trainees in the adult class was extatic to get to take the Christmas tree home. We left the lights and the kids decorations on it and she apparently ran around the room like "Rocky" after winning a fight. I don't know if she wanted to use it in her class or take it home, but whatever she had in mind-she was SO happy! How awesome it that!

We also went through some of the natural feelings we might have when going back home. As you can imagine, we are all excited to see loved ones. I can't wait to hug Brian, Alex, Jake, and Jinmei. I miss them so much! But we have been on a "high" for a month with BIG things happening almost daily. It might take a couple days or a week to get back into a rythym of normalcy. The organization we came with has done a good job in preparing us for those feelings and given us some ways to make it easier. I imagine that someone who has done this for more long term would probably really need that re-entry counseling more than we will having only been gone a month.

In keeping with the saying goodbye theme, mom decided to have her hair washed. We pass about 4 salons everyday as we walk back and forth from the center. We always make a point to wave and they all come to the window and wave back. Sometimes they will be playing an American hit and of course mom has to stop and dance in the window. The salon boys laugh at that. So Mom decided she wanted to let them wash her hair to "say goodbye". They got a real kick out of us coming in. They all got tons of pictures and spoke Chinese with me. It turns out they are all between 16-18 years old. So young! I included a picture of that today!

We were treated to a big lunch today by two of the adult trainees. Fanny and Sunny took us to Fanny's favorite restaurant. They ordered 11 different things and we had a ton of food on the table. They wanted to treat us as a "thank you". Fanny also said that she had a secret suprise for us. She opened a bag and came over and gave me an ornament with jade on it since she knew I liked jade. Then she gave each of us special embroidered ornaments that she ordered from Beijing. It was so thoughtful! We said goodbye to them and shared email addresses.

We had promised Rolly and Judy (the two 14 year old girls we taught on Saturday evenings) that we would meet them to say goodbye at 5pm. By 5:30 I began to wonder if they weren't going to make it. Judy called and said her goodbyes over the phone, she had come earlier in the day and we were out. Rolly came in at 5:45 and said "What a pity! I have such regrets! I wanted to print out the pictures but I ran out of time" She had taken the time to translate 4 Chinese recipes into English for us. We read through them and she asked if they were "acceptable". I thought that was so nice of her! What 14 year old would do that? She then had a very sad look in her eyes and wanted to know when we would come back. Even though I have a feeling it will not happen for us to come back to Jiangmen, I told her that I would like to again someday. She really looked like she was going to cry. I gave her a hug and I told her I would email her. Another very sad goodbye. Mom and I left and commented to each other that we only met with those girls twice for 2 hours each time, and yet she felt such strong feelings.

I can't remember if I mentioned the balloon story. We had put a little note in about a dozen balloons last Saturday. They were on the floor of the classroom and during the break, Rolly and Judy were pushing the balloons together and getting photos with them. We then told them the game was to pop each balloon without using their hands. When Rolly heard that she said "Oh no! They are so beautiful! Do we have to pop them? Can't we take them home?" That kind of stopped me in my tracks. I never thought of a balloon as being anything special and yet to them it was. Just a little balloon. That is all it took to make some one's day. Just a balloon. We sent them home with a handful each!

This evening we said our goodbyes to the team. Another hard goodbye. It is amazing how we are all so different with different gifts and yet we came together as strangers and we leave as friends-forever bonded by this time together.

I had an unexpected phone call from my new friend Suphie when we got home. She had taken me for a foot massage last night and I thought that was our goodbye. I gave her my American T-shirt and a special coin with a neat message on it. I went down to the lobby and she had her arms full with gifts for me to take back to the family. I thought that was so kind of her. I really hope to keep in touch with her. So yet another hard goodbye.

Todays pictures: Mom getting her hair washed, The foot massage with Suphie, Lunch with Fanny and Sunny, ornaments from Fanny

Title: Christmas in July

Thursday was our final day of teaching. We decided to wrap things up with a party during the each class. We spend Wednesday making stockings and Thursday we had a Christmas in July.

We have to be careful what we say about Christmas. I wish we could go through the real reason for the season, but we reminded ourselves in the morning that we are but a link in a chain. Introducing the idea of Christmas might be just the first little seed that grows a long time after we are gone.

Anyway, it was so much fun to see their faces when they looked in their stockings! It really did sound like Christmas morning! There were squeals of delight and excitement, it was great! The little ones dove right in and dumped everything out while the older kids were very Chinese in their behavior. It is common to not open a gift in front of the giver in the Chinese custom, but I could see them quickly peeking inside and trying to see if it was going to be ok to open it. We encouraged them and they finally went to it. We only had modest gifts for them. We put a pencil, eraser, pad of paper, candy, a balloon, and a couple rubber bands in each stocking. Oh, and a toothbrush. We have been collecting the toothbrushes from the hotel so we had enough to go around! It was really fun!

We also had the kids make pipe-cleaner decorations for the tree mom hauled from home. We found a strand of Christmas lights next door at the 2 kuai store (the Chinese equivalent of the dollar store) and they even blinked! I think when you see the pictures you will agree that it looked like Christmas yesterday!

After the stockings were opened and the candy was eaten, we had to say goodbye. How can you become so attached in such a short time? It was really hard, especially knowing that we will never see these kiddos again. We got hugs from a lot of the little ones, but even as we said goodbye and I told them in Chinese that we were flying on a plane back to America, they still said "See you tomorrow!" Ugh. That was hard.

Well, I will treasure these memories in my heart forever. We have been so blessed to even be a part of their lives for a short month.

Title: Top 10 minor things to be thankful for


Our time in Jiangmen is winding down. Today is our final day of teaching and tomorrow begins a time for reflection, observations, and personal decompression as we get ready to re-enter our lives back home.

I will begin that in a more serious manner tomorrow, but on this last day of teaching, I thought I would offer a little list of some of the minor things that I have been thankful for.

1. The super-sized, strong umbrellas that the hotel has let us use. (The monsoon started yesterday)

2. That the monsoon only started yesterday

3. My Chaco sandals (if you’ve been following all along-I went with that brand and have been very happy, they have a thicker sole so my feet aren’t always submerged in puddles)

4. The internet, email, and skype (being able to talk to the family has made life so much better!)

5. Napkins. They are not readily available at restaurants, but thankfully, we have always had someone at the table who thought to snag some.

6. Hand Sanitizer

7. Bottled water

8. My pocket Chinese language guide. (For some reason, people don’t always understand me when I am clearly speaking their language. I am thankful that I’ve been able to whip open the little book and point to the character and then the light bulb goes on and they repeat what I am sure that I’ve been saying all along.)

9. The washer and dryer at the center. Once a week I haul a big bag of laundry to the center where we teach. The washing machine only soaks and spins without an agitator and the dryer takes 5 times to get the load dry. But by the end of the day, I have clean and dry clothes and it didn’t cost me a dime. I am very grateful they have thought to provide that for us.

10. Lai Huang Bao. (translation yellow milk buns) Those little guys are so delicious. I really don’t know how I ever lived without them? Oh, Lai Huang Bao…Where have you been all my life? Mom and I grab one from the street vendor and eat one almost every day. They will be missed.

Title: Macau Wow

Yesterday was another exciting day! Mom and I were thrilled to find out that we had multiple entry visas for China. When we found that out, we started thinking how nice it would be to take our day off and go see Macau (sounds like macow).

Macau is a SAR (Special Autonomous Region) of China. China has two others that I know of, Tibet, and Hong Kong. What that means is that if you are a Chinese national, you have to have a visa to get in and out. For foreigners, you don't have to have a visa to get into Macau, but you must have a multiple entry visa to get back to mainland China. Up until 1995, the Portuguese controlled Macau and had so for over 100 years I think. But the influence in the architecture and food has remained. We were excited to go see the beautiful island and eat some Macanese/Portuguese food. Oh, by the way, it is also known as "The Monte Carlo of the East" but we didn't take part in any gambling.

We were prepared to work our way through buying our bus tickets and getting through customs on our own, but were more than thrilled when my new friend offered to go with us and drive us there. It just so happened that because of her work, she already had a visa. Yeah!!!! In hindsight, I can't begin to even tell you how good that was that she was with us. We would not have had the slightest clue how to get from point a to point b without her there! However, I was excited that the menus were in English and our waiter spoke English so that was nice for a little change.

We left at 8 in the morning and went to visit Suphie's company. Are you thinking "Wait, I thought her name was Suzy?" Yes, it was. When we got in the car she explained that she had looked over English names and found a name she liked so that we could be a little different. She liked the name Sophie. But she still wanted to keep the "Su" part so she has chosen to make a new name "Suphie". OK. Mom made a comment that I was thinking, "What is the point of picking an American name if you are going to pick one that sounds Chinese? Why not go with your real Chinese name?" But we are going with Suphie.

It took us close to 2 hours to make it through customs so it was after noon by the time we sat down for lunch in Macau. I ordered Portuguese chicken in a bread bowl, Suphie ordered spaghetti, and mom ordered a steak. It was good food. We also ordered nachos. They were different. It was Doritos with seasoned ground beef.

Next we went to the Ruins of St. Paul. Everyone said to us that if you see the ruins, you've seen Macau. That is what Macau is known for. It was pretty cool and it was swarming with people in the heat of the day. Mom stayed at the base and Suphie and I went to the top. It is just the facade of the front of the church. It had burned 3 times since 1540, it is my understanding that the facade is actually from the late 1600's. Exploring the history of the old church opened up a neat conversation between the two of us.

We explored the little shops and then walked around two of the really big casinos. They have a Venetian Hotel and Resort that is just like the one in Las Vegas. I hit the jackpot without even placing one single bet- I found a Starbucks in the hotel! I had given up Chai Lattes long ago-but yesterday, I gave in and had one. YUM. The other hotel was called the Grand Lisboa. It looks like a giant lotus flower and at night is lit up like no other.

We left Macau and only had to wait for 45 minutes to get through customs this time. We met one of Suphie's friends in a neighboring town for late night appetizers and then got on the road for the 1 1/2 hour car ride home. We made it back at 2 in the morning! Poor Mom! It is a good thing that we didn't have class on Monday morning, only in the afternoon.

I really enjoyed our little side trip to Macau. I think it is neat though how "you know who" set it up for us to have a ride and a guide and then gave the opportunity and right moments to open a neat discussion. I'll tell more later, but none of it could have happened if we hadn't taken a whole day to spend with my new friend in a new place.

Title: The last Saturday of teaching

After our fun night of Kareoke, we slept in-but not too long because we had to go play with George and Eugene by 10:00am. They were so happy to see us today and we played and sang until it was time to go. We will only see them 3 more times and then we are out of their lives as quickly as we came in. Poor little fellas. I feel sad for them because they are too little to understand why their new lao shi's (teachers) won't come back. Well, give them 5 minutes, they will forget us.

We explored the other side of our hotel once we got back. By the way-I can't remember if I mentioned that we are now in a little efficiency hotel. As cozy as the apartment was, we are happy to be in a hotel "taking one for the team". We have a teammate who is only 17 and she needed to move into the hotel, Mom and I were asked if we wouldn't mind moving to keep her company. Oh, twist my arm.....I guess so! Don't get any grandiose ideas, it is also very cozy. But the biggest blessing is an actual shower with hot water.

Anyway-our view from our hotel room is an alleyway with an open garbage dump. We keep waiting for the trash man to come-I don't think it's going to happen. But we decided to walk around and it is so neat that on the other side down the alleyway is a whole new little village to explore! We found a little bao zi stand, they are the meat filled steamed buns that I love. We ate that for lunch and then we walked through some flower stands that smelled so nice. Mom found out the lilies were only fifty cents so she bought us each a lilly to put next to our bed and now our hotel room smells nice. It is a good thing too because I'm sorry to say this, but the shoes my mom bought (the keens) stink so bad! They are great shoes for comfort, but they hang onto the smell in a ferocious way! But now I only smell the Lillis.

Saturday afternoon is our time with Rolly and Judy. Fly is in a cha cha competition, so she has to miss English class to practice. When Rolly found out this would be our last Saturday she got very sad. She said she has made something for us and wanted to give it to us next Saturday. We will be gone by then but I offered to meet her up at the center some evening and we set it up for Thursday night. She was thrilled then. We talked about families with them as well and made more paper doll cut outs. They are real sweethearts. I will miss them!

That night, we met up with Caroline, the 17 year old and went out to dinner. We stumbled our way through them menu and were happy to see we got what we expected we were getting. We ate at our favorite place. They have very delicious honey coated and thinly sliced pork, tasty sauteed eggplant, and garlic broccoli. It is so yummy. We now have a usual waitress there. She came up to me and said she would have to leave for a few days. She asked me to write down in English the names of what we were eating and then she wrote them in Chinese. She said that it is now taped up in the kitchen so anytime we go in they will know what we want to eat. I thought that was so thoughtful! When we left I saw the young cooks having a little break. I asked to take their picture and they got all excited, before I knew it-about 4 more leaped out of the kitchen to jump into the picture. It was fun! They just chatting and laughing it up after we snapped the picture. Yelling after us "Hello! Hello! Nice to meet you!" It is so enduring to see people try to talk to us. I told mom that after this week-our fame is over, boo hoo! Caroline said "It will be a welcome change!"

Today's photos: Our morning with George and Eugene, Bao Zi lunch, Rolly and Judy, and our favorite cooks in Jiangmen

Title: A new level of bizarre


Today capped off a wonderful week of teaching. We have a b. study everyday at lunch and this Sunday is one of our teammates 40th anniversary. We surprised him with two cakes. One "chocolate" and the other some kind of fruity sponge cake. In general, my experience has been that the Chinese have wonderful foods, but that we have very different ideas about what constitutes dessert. The cakes however, were a nice delight. They were tasty and light, covered with fruit and tomatoes. I guess a tomato is a fruit, but I don't really put it in the same category as cantaloupe and pineapple. But never the less, they find their way atop many Chinese cakes.

We all found a western restaurant for dinner and we ordered pizza. I figured 3 times a charm. It was alright, the best we've had here, but no Zio's! (Brian-that is our first stop on the way home from the airport!) The funny thing was that this place did a pretty decent job of having a bistro atmosphere. They had painted brick walls, a bookshelf crammed with English titles, American/European pictures, and the added charm of being able to sign your name on the ceiling. We were still the only westerners in the place but there was proof all over the ceiling that others had been there before. In fact, I looked up and saw "Bruce from Omaha, NE was here" CRAZY!! I know there wasn't a "Bruce" with the Omaha team that was here last week, so yet another Omahaan had made the track to Jiangmen. We had to put our name right next to his.

So where did we go from there? Let's just say we traveled deep into the pop culture of China. Mom and I accepted an invitation from my new friend, Suzy, to go sing Karaoke. I knew it was a popular past time and I had visions of what we know of as Karaoke with maybe a big bar type establishment and a lot of people watching or singing along. That would have been bad enough, but "When in Rome" right? Well, this was so beyond what I had in my head. Whoever is hosting the night, reserves a private room. You have a couple couches and a coffee table and a big screen TV on the wall with a little computer in the corner. There are two microphones and the whole night is centered on showcasing whoever wants (or is forced) to sing the next song. Suzy had invited a few of her friends and they brought a friend from Austria. I began to surmise that we might be on Chinese Candid Camera and this was "Bring a foreign friend night". So there was a total of 8 of us and before I could even get my bearings and acclimate to my surreal environment, I was handed a microphone and told to sing. My new friend kind of pushed me out of my seat to a standing position and told me to read off the TV screen. It was one of the few English songs they had in their repertoire. They were astonished that I had never heard this song. I can't even tell you what it was or who the artist was. I'm guessing it might have come from Britain in the 80's. It is apparently one of their favorites. I hated to disappoint them so I followed the lyrics and did my best to stay on key. It was a pathetic showing. So I had to redeem myself. Just my luck! They also had "My heart will go on and on" by Celine Dion and "Hit me Baby" by Britney Spears. Those were the songs they selected for me. At least I knew them.

Mom had the privilege of belting out "House of the Rising Sun", and "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Are you Sleeping, Brother John?" (seriously-that was in the line-up!) . We were then educated by a government journalist friend of someone that came that "These songs are very famous in America". Hmm, really. I didn't know that. Smile. Nod. Play along.

Then it was time for lights out and strobe lights on. Two songs of dancing (yes-still in our little room), then it was time to go.

Really, I'm confident that there was a hidden camera in that room somewhere and that someone is getting a good laugh today.

Saturday is full with the Twins in the morning and Rolly, Judy, and Fly in the afternoon.

Pictures for today: Paper doll-family cut outs, Mom on the scooter with Susan, Lee's Cakes,our restaurant graffiti, and of course Karaoke night. I put a little clip of the two Suzy's singing Celine.