Journal Entry #17: Sunday, May 30, 2010

I awoke early as I usually do.  The sun was up and I, for the first time, got a glimpse of the neighborhood in the daylight.  Jing Jing lived in a beautiful neighborhood of somewhat exclusives homes, at least for that area.  I went downstairs and sat in one of the large wooden living room chairs.  It became uncomfortable very fast.  I then realized that they did not have a single cushion in the house. ​

 Soon Luo came into the room to dust and clean.  She also mopped the floors.  I could also smell that she had breakfast started.  A few minutes later the bright and smiling face of Jing Jing appeared.  She announced that breakfast would be a few minutes later than first announced and asked would I like to go for a walk through the neighborhood?   “Yes,” I said.  I grabbed my camera and she grabbed an umbrella.  We found our shoes and we were off.  The complex where her house was located had many nice garden style paths of flowers and blooming trees.  One such tree is called an Egg Tree; because of the flower it produces, which is egg yolk-yellow in the center and egg white-white on the outer edges of the blooms.  It was beautiful! It was quiet and still and sprinkling.  I had the chance to ask Jing Jing how she was doing spiritually since she had been home.   What did her parents think of her becoming a Christian while she was away at college in America?  “Fine,” was her first answer, but I was more interested in the parental reaction question.  She went on to explain that even though her parents were not Atheists, they simply had not ever considered the concept of God, and they told her that if she wanted to be a Christian that was her decision to make.  It made me also realize that their first impression of a Christian would be their own daughter, but their second impression could very well be me.  I love Jing Jing.  She is such a sweet, unassuming, and down to earth young woman.  I’m so happy and proud that she thinks of me as her American Dad.

Breakfast was almost ready when we returned to the house.  Jing Jing went to help Luo finish getting the table ready and setting out the food.  “What was I about to eat?” I wondered.  It looked different, but it smelled good.  First was the appetizer.  A warm bowl of Soy Milk!  No cereal, just the milk.  They started ladling it into their mouths with a Chinese spoon, but soon they were just picking it up and drinking straight from the small bowls.  It had a sweet taste to it so I inquired if the sweetness was natural or if they added something to the milk.  They showed me a bottle of Vermont’s finest Maple Syrup!  It was something Jing Jing had ordered from the Internet because she now was hooked on American pancakes after spending a year at Harding!  Next was a bowl of noodles with a soup broth consisting of ground sausage and a fried egg on top.  It was the first time I had spaghetti for breakfast!  Luo had also made some homemade bread that was more like a dinner roll than a breakfast biscuit but it was delicious.  Then to finish it off they had Wife Cookies.  With my inquisitive look they went ahead and explained it was a custom for the wife to make her husband cookies and serve them at breakfast for what we called dessert.  They also said that there were Husband Cookies that a man would bring to his wife after they had a fight and he wanted to make up with her.  I said, “We use chocolate for that.”  After Jing Jing told her father what I said in Chinese he said, “Yeah, that works pretty good, too!”  The breakfast drink was freshly squeezed Orange Juice and hot Wake Up Tea.

After breakfast it was time to leave.  I gathered my things and Nick carried them to the car for me.  I made a special trip back to the kitchen and took Jing Jing with me to help express my appreciation to Luo.  She smiled with a gleam in her eye that communicated she was happy to have an American teacher of Jessica’s in her presence.  What a wonderful home life Jessica had.  I told Jessica that God had blessed her richly up until now and I thought that God had great plans for her as she was going to be a great blessing to her family in the future.

Lee, Jessica, Mia, (who had accompanied us) and I all loaded into the car to head to the Century Forest Wood Products factory that was owned by Jessica’s family.  It was Sunday and I asked if they worked on the weekends.  “Yes,” she said. “In fact they work 28 days in a row then the whole plant shuts down for 2-3 days depending on the work orders they had.”  Everybody, including her parents, worked that schedule.  She said her Dad thought if the workers had to work that schedule then so should they.  Lee was the owner and production manager.  He was an engineer by trade, while her mother was in charge of sales and marketing. I could never really hear how to say Jessica’s mother’s name, so I just called her what Jing Jing did, MaMa.  When I wanted to address her I would call her, “Jing Jing’s MaMa,” and that seemed to make her laugh.

Century Forest Products manufactures inlaid wood floor for designer floors of high-end buildings and homes.  Their work is high quality and the production process was fascinating to watch.  When we first arrived at the plant we were taken to Lee’s office, where he had a surprisingly small desk and workstation area and a very large meeting room table.  It was explained that he has meetings there with his various staff members about the daily operations.  On a shelf along the wall was a set of miniature furniture pieces that he collected.  At one end of the table was a wooden “Tea Station” that had plumbing to and from just to serve the purpose of making and serving tea during meetings.  At one end of the room was a large portrait of Mao, surrounded by several Chinese Army Generals.  It had a bit of an eerie feeling to it.  I felt like I was trapped in a James Bond Movie.  The next stop was the Customer Room.  This was a room that served as a presentation and a sample room when they had customers in to view their facilities and to take orders.  The various samples were finely detailed pieces of wood that had various patterns of design.  They had samples built right into the floor, the walls, and the furniture, even the artwork for the room.  The Customer room also had a Tea Service area.  Jing Jing knew that I like coffee and that I had consumed next to none while I had been there.  She called a staff person to come and make them some Tea, and for me, coffee.  I guess when you’re the owner’s daughter who probably will one day run and own the business, you can make a call like that, but I felt like I was making somebody do too much work just to serve me.  I said, “No,” several times, but Jing Jing just waved her hands and the two women started making coffee.  They had never made coffee in the machine they had at this station, only Tea.  They were pulling out the instruction booklet to see how it was done.  I went over there and showed them how to make coffee and soon we had a few fresh cups of black brewed coffee.  Besides the McDonald’s coffee from the day before, it was the first brewed coffee I had drunk in two weeks.  I had been consuming Nescafe coffee back in my apartment, but that was instant and it just isn’t the same. 

Soon Jing Jing’s MaMa had made it to the plant and joined us for the rest of the tour.  We walked through the different stages as she barked out orders to the various workers.  We saw them cutting the boards to length, gluing the top veneer to each side of the panels, and staining them all in an automatic and systematic assembly process.  I could see what each process was doing and often even explained it to Mia and Jessica.  They were amazed that I knew what was going on, but I told them, “It didn’t take a Rock Scientist to figure it out!”  They looked at each other like I was their dad making a joke!  When we made it back to the main office area, Jessica’s MaMa wanted to make us some more Tea.  We went back into the office conference area and had what I joking called, “Go to Lunch Tea.”

Soon we went to lunch.  At first I was told that the entire plant shuts down for lunch and the company feeds them.  I was very interested in being a part of that but Jessica’s Dad wanted to take me somewhere nicer with her MaMa because she had not gotten to dine with us the evening before.  So we went to another large Hotel that had more of a traditional table seating and ordered off of a menu.  Jessica’s cousin who had been with her MaMa since the night before joined us.  His name was Hi.  Hi was in training to be a part of the sales and marketing team but was going to be working in the Changsha sales office.  He stayed with us because he was going to go back to Guangzhou with me to make sure I got there OK.  I found out later he was actually on the same train I was to be on except we were getting off in Hengyang and he was going on to Changsha.  

When it was finally time to go, Jessica’s MaMa brought out a gift for me to give to my wife, Donna.  It was two different tins of tea blend.  When I was discussing that I drank more coffee, I happened to mention that my wife drinks more tea than I do, so Tea it was for Donna.  Jessica’s dad gave me a bottle of wine that I was told was native to that area and could only be purchased in that town.  I thanked them both profusely and did so again, and again!  Mia and I were expecting a ride back to the local train station to get back to Guangzhou where Mia lived and the rest of the Harding team was to meet me at the appointed hour.  Then I found out that Lee would not hear of us just going to the train station.  Lee had a company car and his driver to drive Mia and me back the two and half hours to Guangzhou.  Hi went with us, so it didn’t feel quite so extravagant. The driver took Hi and me to the train station and then drove Mia home.  Before we left I gave Lee and Jing Jing’s MaMa a hug and had Jessica tell them specifically that I would look after their daughter while she was in America.  The both put their hands together in front of them in prayer fashion and bowed to me in thanks.  I told them for me to look after Jessica was an easy and loving assignment.  We waved goodbye and I was gone!  I think Jessica and I will forever have a different relationship because of this unique and wonderful two days! 
  
Once at the Guangzhou train station I discovered how little English Hi could actually speak.  He had been very quiet during our visit at Jessica’s house, factory tour and lunch.  I just assumed he was shy or just let her family and I visit while he was taking it all in.  Other than saying hello when we first met, this was the first real conversation in which I had tried to engage him.  Nothing! Nada! Zilch! We had to wait about another two and half hours before the Harding students met up with me, so it was a lot of looking at each other and looking around.  He seemed very pleasant and wanted to help me in anything he perceived me to need.  As the students arrived I was able to make introductions and tell them he knew the way through the train station.  We followed Hi and soon were sitting in a waiting area.  Hi left.  I was assuming he was headed to the restroom or something. A few minutes later Hi returned with cold bottles of water, one for each of the entire team.  Soon after that Chinese people started engaging him in conversation. I just thought they were friends or acquaintances.  No, they were other travelers that thought he was our guide and they wanted to know if they could speak to us in English. It was the other travelers that eventually became our translators to even speak to Hi.  Soon our train was about to load.  We were told by the female attendants to line up to show our tickets and be escorted to the train cars on the platforms.  All of a sudden the attendants were calling us out of the line.  Why?  They wanted to escort us ahead of everybody else because they thought wandering Americans looking to find their place would just slow the whole process down and they wanted to get us seated before the masses of other travelers started their onslaught.

Once on the train I found my seat and soon discovered my traveling mate seated next to me was a wonderful young woman who seemed surprised that I extended my hand to say “Ni Hao.”  To an even greater surprise she thought I knew more Chinese than I did! We soon put that idea to rest when I ran through my words and phrases while counting them out on my fingers.  She laughed, at my antics and animations, and tried as best she could to carry on a conversation with me in English.  Her name was Yang Jiaping.  She really wanted to talk and I wanted her to do so.  She told me she was married to a doctor who practiced in Hengyang but they lived in Changsha, she had a 13 year-old daughter, and that she was traveling with a group of friends, whom she pointed out sitting behind us.  I asked if she wanted one of them to sit with her and if she did I would switch seats with them.  “No!” she said.  She wanted to talk to me.  “I can talk to them anytime,” she said with excitement and laughing!  We had a wonderful time talking about America, my family and what we were doing in the country of China.  When she noticed my camera, I showed her some of my photos I had taken and she showed me the ones she had taken from her camera.  Eventually all of her group came up to meet me and shake hands.  I introduced them to my group, but they were tired, and they seemed to roll their eyes at how I could just keep going meeting more and more strangers.  My new friends offered me some of their snack foods, but I graciously declined asking Jiaping to help me with my Chinese to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” As my destination was approaching we started saying our goodbyes.  She wanted to trade phone numbers so she could talk more English when she was next in Hengyang, saying she would call me to see if I was free.  I waved, and then she waved a lot.  Once out of the train car and on the platform I walked past her window when I heard a knock. She was watching me through the window waving some more!  She had a smile on her face from ear-to-ear!

The same Taxi driver that had taken us to the station and had some of us get out seemed to think he was due a return trip and he had a friend with him.  We had already decided not to call him as he requested for us to do when we returned but there he was insisting on giving us a ride.  I told the group, “He knows where we live and there should be no communications issues.”  We loaded up with him and went home!  That was without a doubt the most unique and fun filled three-day weekend in my entire life!