Journal Entry #29: Friday, June 11, 2010

Friday morning couldn’t come too soon for me.  It was the day Donna was to arrive.

As planned, Mimzy and Cindy showed up at 8:00 o’clock to escort me to the airport in Changsha to pick up Donna.  As we talked on our route to a taxi I discovered that they were both missing class to help me.  When I questioned that they told me that they had never been on the high-speed train, or to the Changsha airport, and it was an activity that they did not want to miss.  They knew that I was paying for their train tickets and they wanted to go! The $25.00 each way for both of them was a small price to pay for the comfort of knowing I had Chinese speaking guides and translators by my side at all times!

When we arrived at the south gate of the campus to wave down a taxi we did so pretty quickly.  We got in and told the driver where we wanted to go.  I heard a lot of loud talking; what sound like shouting at each other and waving of arms ensued.  When the dust had settled the girls informed me that the driver first wanted ¥100 and they thought that was way too high!  They bargained the price down to ¥60 and we were on our way.  However when we arrived I paid the man with a ¥100 bill and he only gave me ¥30 change.  I asked Mimzy about what she had told me the price was.  It was ¥60, she repeated.  When I showed her the change she spoke with the driver, then Cindy spoke with him.  Then Mimzy spoke with him again and started getting louder and more animated.  When I told both girls it was no big deal (thinking in my mind that they were arguing over $1.50 American), Mimzy and the driver proceeded to start arguing even louder and yelling at each other even more.  I pulled Mimzy away and she slammed his door, crossed her arms and stomped away.  I could tell she was livid.  I approached Mimzy to assure her that it was OK and not to be upset, but she was crying!  “Why are you crying,” I asked?  She said, “He lied to us!”  It was so cute that this 90-pound 18-year-old girl was fighting for me in this manner.  What actually may have been happening was that Mimzy thought she was “losing face” with me.  I assured her that she had helped me more than she could imagine and that I did not want her anger for this taxi driver to taint the rest of what was going to be a wonderful day.  She smiled with her big eyes as she wiped away her tears.  All week long Mimzy had waited with a lot of excitement for this day so that she could be the first to meet my wife!

The train trip was as advertised, clean, comfortable, and fast.  35 minutes later we were at the Changsha Train station.  We looked for a taxi driver and unfortunately the driver we ended up with was not a legal driver.  That didn’t present any particular danger but I’m not sure we got a good price.  We had agreed on the pre-trip price of ¥100.  I realized that we got an illegal driver when he told my girls in Chinese that we needed to pay him before we arrived so that the police did not see him accepting money from us.  When they explained to me what he wanted us to do for him, I told them to tell the driver that for the price of ¥50 he could drop us off, carry our bags, and we would NOT tell the Police about him.   They did not understand I was just kidding with them because they looked at each other a bit frightened thinking that is what I actually wanted to do.  When I saw they were taking me seriously I explained that I wasn’t and they had a very relieved laugh about it all.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time for me to check a few schedules for our return flight and wait patiently for Donna.  When I finally saw her, she still had not picked up her bags so she could not cross the threshold of security.  We waved and smiled as we made eye contact with Donna. Mimzy was hopping up and down with excitement!

We thankfully had a very uneventful taxi, train ride, bus and walk back to campus.  The unique moment that I will never forget was when Cindy and Mimzi were discussing the taxi and bus options back to the campus with a couple of uniformed train station attendants.  The discussion seemed to go on for a long time.  There was lots of waving of arms and looking around, as well as pointing and more discussion.  Finally, they looked at us and simply said, “This way!” as they pointed to a parking lot that was a bus station.  All was well with the world again; I had my wife back by my side.  The past 30 days was the longest we had ever been apart in 36 years of courtship and marriage.   After we arrived at the apartment, the team and other students began flowing to the apartment to meet Donna and for some to say goodbye as they were leaving for various weekend trips knowing they would not be back before we left.  

I was still trying to keep Donna awake.  We had some important business to do with the school officials across campus.  The Chinese Government requires anyone who is not a citizen to register with the Police anytime that person will stay in a city for more than 48 hours.  Donna was only going to be there about 12 to 24 hours beyond that, but I knew this isn’t home, and the School was going to handle this for us, so we made the long walk across campus with her passport in hand to take care of this.  I also thought the walk and fresh air would help her from crashing to soon.  When we returned Mia was waiting for us and she had a bouquet of flowers for Donna and she greeted Donna by called her “My American Mom.”  A few minutes after we all got settled into the apartment Mia was fixing dinner for us.  She said she would have done that for her Chinese parents, so she thought she should do that for her American parents, especially if we were in her home Country!  She fixed some fried rice and stir-fry with some of the leftovers/take-away that I had in my refrigerator.  It wasn’t a lot but just what we needed for the moment.  I had been trying to keep Donna awake as long as I could… She finally crashed at around 7:00 p.m.

Friday evening I met with the Harding team of Will, Daniel, Sarah and Carey, along with Edwin and Mary Myers.  Mia also sat in that meeting.  I have always included Mia in our events and meetings even though she is not a Christian.  I just want her to see us interact with each other and to have her join us as we talk to our Father about our purpose.   The debriefing was for each team member to consider the following questions:
What were you expecting before you got here and how did the actual experience align with the perception?
What was the most memorable experience each had while on this mission?
Who did we meet that may have changed our lives forever?
Who did we influence that may have changed their lives forever?
Did we have any unfinished business?  Or, did we leave anyone behind that needed some follow up messages and meetings?
And finally, what overall or final comments did we have?

We talked for an hour or more but we could have talked all night.  We realized individually and collectively that we had just experienced the mission adventure of a lifetime!  I was so proud of each of them.  They all brought their unique personalities and in their own ways contributed to an effort that could only be described as providently the will of our Father.  

Will was leaving early the next morning to fly to Shanghai to visit with his sister who was there with a group from the University of Alabama.  It was hugs and goodbyes for and from him.  Will was such a large presence on our team.  He is big and burly and looks like a lumberjack but he is as soft as a Teddy Bear! His beard was even bigger and bushy and he stood out in a crowd like nobody else could! The Chinese girls loved him and people just stared at him as we walked down the street.  I told many people that if I were 25 and single I would want to hang out with him because he was such a “chick-magnet”!  

I believe the event that caused me to laugh as loud and hard as I had since I had been there occurred next.  Mia wanted to touch Will’s beard!  She said she had wanted to do this as soon as she had met Will.  Now he was leaving and this was her last chance.  Will agreed, and he sat down with another chair pulled to his side in which Mia could sit next to him at face level.  Mia reached up, slowly taking a couple of attempts before actually making contact with her hand to his facial hair – When she finally did, she recoiled back like a scared woman that had just touched a snake!  We laughed and laughed and laughed!  She kept trying to do it again and again with the same results.  It was so funny!  And the best part was that I have some great pictures of the event!