Journal Entry #10: Sunday, May 23, 2010

SUNSHINE!  Finally a bright and beautiful day!  Sunday morning was full of anticipation.  For me at least, the arrival of a group of dignitaries from Harding was exciting to say the least.  The visitors were

Dr. Cliff Ganus, Chancellor of Harding; Dr. Larry Long, Vice President of Academic Affairs for Harding; and Dr. Milo Hadwin and his wife Karen, who are Harding’s directors of the Chinese Student Services.  Along with them were Mark Wang, a Bible teacher at Harding, and West Ling, a recent graduate and new staff member of the Harding Sino-American Studies program.  Because I live on the second floor of the apartment building and everybody else lives above me up to the eighth floor, it was decided to have our weekly Sunday family meeting at my apartment so that the 87-year old Dr. Ganus would have an easier time climbing the stairs.  I tried to set up enough chairs and tidy up the place.  Mary and Sarah made blueberry muffins and I served coffee, tea, water and orange juice.  The orange juice here is more like “orange drink,” sort of a Sunny-D.  It’s OK, but it’s not the OJ that I like.

We had 17 for assembly here.  That is a record attendance for them!   I had been asked to speak and I gladly took that assignment!  I chose to speak on Luke 2:52 where it says, “and Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” The Gearhart's were in charge of Communion.  They served the wine in individual miniature ceramic goblets (communion sized).  They’re pretty cool!  The singing was great as well.  It was a good meeting.

After our meeting we went to dinner at a nice restaurant that Edwin had pre-arranged.  The room and the round table were large, but the table was not large enough.  It was crowded and only held 15 of the 17 of us.  As much as I tried to do so myself, Mary and Edwin insisted that they would sit at the side table.  The food was great, and a lot of dishes.  At one point I ordered some water.  They brought steaming hot water in a glass for me.  Edwin had ordered the food to be ‘not-so-hot!”  But, the Hunan restaurants just can’t seem to do that.  Some of it was mild enough, but again, “HOT & SPICY!”  Dr. Ganus even joked at lunch about how much I was sweating with each additional dish they brought.

The Harding visitors had a van, which they took to the restaurant, but the rest of us walked.  It was hot and I was sweating profusely before I got there.  So, on the way home a few of us wanted to take a Taxi back to the apartment.  It was Sarah, who was in heels, and Aurelie, the French teacher, and me.  When we arrived at the apartment, the driver wanted what Aurelie thought was too much.  ¥20?  She told him no, that was too much, and she offered ¥5!  He told her no, ¥20!  She told us to get out – she left the ¥5 on the seat, and we scurried off quickly.  She’s French, and she’s a little brash, so I let her handle that one!

After a Sunday afternoon nap, I decided to venture out on my own simply to take pictures of people and things.  I took what I believe are some of my best pictures to date.  The photos had nothing that related to our mission, but everything about the lifestyle and people of the Hunan province.  I was particularly trying to get photos of children. I put on my telephoto so that I could work from some farther distance and so that the backgrounds would be softer.  I also noticed (as I have been all week) the amusement of the transportation here.  So I tried to get photos of that peculiarity as well. I didn’t get five on a scooter as I had seen earlier, but I did get a family of four.  While I was out taking pictures my phone rang from a number that I did not have in my address book, and it was my Harding student Mia calling from Guangzhou.  We made arrangements for me to meet with her next weekend and she told me her parents are really excited about meeting me, too.  They can’t believe that I would actually come to see Mia and the other Chinese students.

When I returned I sought out the team and we went to dinner along with Mary and Edwin.  We went to a Korean restaurant.  At first I thought, “No, we’re in China, not Korea,” but I was glad we did.  The food was good, served in a big bowl, and a SPOON!  I’m OK with the chopsticks thing, but I was ready for my standard eating utensils.  The food was steamed rice, grilled beef, veggies, and bamboo shoots all topped off with a fried egg.  It was almost like a breakfast skillet.  It was good, and I think for the first time since I’ve been here, I was full when I stopped eating.

The most surprising part of dinner was a young woman that I chose to sit with to eat.  There were seven of us for dinner and they only had a table for six.  The restaurant was small and crowded. I very jokingly said to the team that if the woman that was sitting alone at the table next to us would have me I would sit and eat with her.  To our surprise her English was good enough to hear and she invited me to sit with her.  You know me, I know no strangers, only friends I haven’t met yet!  I sat with a delightful young Chinese woman named Eileen!  I started to converse with her as much as I could and she explained that she was a former student at the University and had Mrs. Gearhart for her English class, but had little or no opportunity to actually use her English after her class was over.  So I engaged her in small talk and she seemed to enjoy that.  She finished before we did, paid her bill and then announced to the whole team that she was so glad to speak with me, and hear us all talk and laugh, that she had already paid for all of our meals!  It still amazes me how much these people just want to listen to us!

After dinner, we did what the Chinese custom is after the evening meal – go for a walk.  That may be why there are so many people on the streets in the evening.  We stopped at a store that sold eyeglasses.  The girls seemed to be enamored with the different eyeglass styles, so they shopped and found out that for about $45 American dollars they could get a new pair of glasses made to their prescription!  Sarah, Carey and Edwin ended up getting new glasses.  I may go back and get some myself.  While Will and I were waiting for the others we stood outside the store and watched people stare at us.  A lot of them wanted to say, “Hello, how are you?” because it’s the only English words they know.  When I tried to persuade them to stay and talk longer, some of them did so, and some of them scurried off, seemingly embarrassed that I spoke enough Chinese to at least encourage them to continue. 

I got back to my apartment about 9:00 p.m. and my phone rang again.  This time it was Amber, one of my student hosts here, who just wanted to make sure we survived the weekend and that we didn’t need anything before the week started.  I talked to her as much as she wanted, then I went off to bed for the night!  

I have an English (Friends Speak) class Monday morning at 8:30 a.m. with three students: Faye, her roommate Helen, and Sue.  One of the other teachers here had some “John Friends Speak” material that we made copies of and that will be my curriculum for the day.  I also have my regular Oral English (speech) class at 3:00 p.m.