K: A Different Kind of Fishing

I have been studying the good book with one of my students for the past six weeks. Her interest began at the end of last year and we've been actively pursuing answers to questions this term. She is originally from the other side of Abraham's family; on Thursday of this past week, she became a member of the eternal family. Rejoice with us in this new life. We will continue to study as she learns to eat solid food.

We gave midterm exams last week, and we have next week off for our equivalent of Spring Break. Time will be spent marking exams and doing precourse work for Wheaton. New to the plan is a day out in the countryside visiting a friend's family. And then on Thursday, A will return from Beijing accompanied by her parents! Should be a good week. We'll let you know...

K: "It takes a village...

... to raise a child," or so says an old proverb from somewhere with villages. Apparently, it also takes a village to clean a fish. For how we acquired a whole fish, see Wander Life. Our fish spent the night in a plastic bag on a windowsill and then moved to A's fridge before we took him out to clean him up so that he would be allowed at the dinner table. A has cleaned many a fish in her life which is a fish or two more than N or I have cleaned... caught them? you know it... cleaned? not so much. It was an educational experience. 

We set up with our cutting board, knife and water sprayer outside our apartment stairwell next to the dumpster and about the time we had the fins off and the body cavity open, we had onlookers: "Where'd you get the fish? You caught it yourself?" and then advisors: "The head is the best part! You should have cut the tail off further down; look at that waste!" and finally an all out overtaker: "That will never work. This is the way you get the scales off. Oh nevermind, I'll do it myself." They watch, scold, take control because they care, and the way we show we care back is to allow them.

The woman who descaled our fish, and then insisted on cleaning up after us - "You go get that fish cooked! And don't forget the spice!" - is our beloved Bike Lady. (We gave her the fish head in thanks for her unsolicited help... it was the least we could do.)  She and her husband manage the bike shed in our apartment complex, and they live in a little cement room in the back of the shed. Though we're quite limited by language, a very sweet relationship has developed between us in the past couple of years that we’ve been neighbors. For example, one evening a couple of weeks ago, Bike Lady came knocking on our kitchen window because she wanted to get our knives sharpened for us. She had heard that the last time we had them sharpened, the man cheated us for eight times the price we should have paid. (We knew, but it wasn't a battle we were willing to fight.) Turns out we didn't have to because word gets around and our neighbors are quite protective; his face has been thoroughly rubbed in his mess, and though we can't help but feel a little gratified, if we could, we'd leave him a little more face than that.

We have recently been observing Bike Lady learn to ride a bike. Now, that's irony at its best. Not only did she manage to live life in China (still firm holder of the "biking capital of the world" title), but she has also been managing a bike shed for who knows how many years. I worked my brain for awhile trying to figure what else she could be doing by clumsily peddling one revolution before putting her foot down on the ground to catch herself from falling. Is she fixing it? Is she testing it? Wait a tick… is she learning to ride it? Sure enough. I went out to take a picture of her pushing herself along. Laughing, she slapped me on the shoulder and said, "Wo bu hui." I'm not able. At least she gets the joke.

Maybe this is my chance to join the village... "No, Bike Lady, this is the way to ride a bike."

N: Happy Birthday to Me

I woke up on my birthday with knee pain.  I have been having pain in my right leg off and on, but for some reason, the pain that day made me feel older.  I had finally reached that point in my life where my body was starting to breakdown from age...25 years will do that to you. :)

My birthday was great.  We had 3 friends from Colorado visit us for the week and they brought gifts and supplies to make dinner.  South of the Border Chicken was awesome.  Thank you KFlack for remembering one of my favorite meals and sending the supplies.  I also got a tshirt, loads of candy, Amazon gift certificates, Starbucks Colorado mugs, an Insulin Pump, and a bathrobe (it's still in the mail).  The insulin pump wasn't really for my birthday, but I did get a new one hand delivered which saved me a lot of hassle so it was like a birthday gift...thanks TShive.

I made a folder of Easter pictures.  It's on your left.  My basil is rockin' it too.  First harvest will be in two weeks!

K: Egg Hunting 101

Truth: I am a lazy picture taker. I rely on those around me to snap up the precious moments and pass them on down so I can take the credit. At the moment, my system has broken down and all I have are these words. So here's a deposit on the 2nd annual Ningxia Medical College Easter Egg Extravaganza and we'll post the pictures as soon as I round them up from the others...

Sunday, April 8th hadn't dawned yet, but we six foreigners (yes, six... we have three gals - T, C, and S - visiting for the week from our home fellowship in CO) armed with grocery bags stuffed with plastic colored eggs stuffed with jelly beans and Chinese candy stealthily deposited our tradition all over campus. 1000 eggs... there was no bush, no tree, no corner or windowsill left untouched. An hour in, the sun and early risers were threatening the secrecy of the mission, so we returned home to wait until the appointed time.

Where in the world would college students roll out of bed on a Sunday morning to hunt for plastic eggs filled with nothing but candy... and think it's the best thing since instant noodles? And not only college students. Curious neighbors, campus janitors, and the breakfast vendor on the sidewalk came to join in poking through the bushes and stuffing pockets full of brightly colored eggs. One woman even found an egg from last year's hunt! It was filthy and the candy was unrecognizable, but it didn't diminish the delight of having found the sought treasure.

I love the word for Easter in Chinese. Fuhuojie. It means Resurrection Day.

"Why colored eggs?" "Because it's Fuhuojie." "Who's Fuhuo?" Exactly.

K: Choo! Choo!

Number 1718 leaving Yinchuan for Hohhot at 6:43pm on Thursday, March 29th. I marveled at the prices of the train tickets I had just purchased. Y300 for three train tickets?.. that's unbelievably cheap. Ah yes, the naive foreigner, isn't she cute? It's absolutely true... you get what you pay for.

This past weekend A, L (a friend who teaches in a town a few hours south of us) and I, boarded the overnight train to Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia (which is actually a province in China, not Mongolia). We were bound for our organization's second annual Northwest Region Women's Retreat.

Apparently, the train's number has something to do with what kind of train it is. We now know that four digits without a letter indicates a cheap, slow, loud, and dirty training experience. When L asked the fuyuan (the woman in the uniform) for clean sheets, she responded, "Meiyou (don't have)," and showed us how to turn them over. Why didn't we think of that? As the train had inched its way north from Chengdu, the passengers who rode before us had obviously already employed this little trick. We made due and settled in for the night. The upside to this train was that the passengers, who were mostly peasants, left us pretty much to ourselves. I don't mean to imply that we weren't interesting to stare at because to be unnoticed in this part of China would almost be insulting. I mean to say that we didn't have to host any English practice sessions nor did we really even have to pretend to speak Chinese and answer the few basic questions that we know how to answer. These are things we have come to expect when traveling on trains and no, you can't pretend you don't notice the person trying to get your attention. That only encourages them to crawl into bed with you.

The actual retreat was great. We spent our mornings studying from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians looking at issues like suffering and brokenness. Isn't it interesting that a right attitude and soft heart will welcome these things because in them we know Him? The highlight of the retreat for me was time that we spent listening to a China expert who has 23 years of experience serving in China and has educated herself on the history, culture, society, politics, you name it... she probably knows it. She gave a couple of fascinating lectures -- one on some of the books that have contributed to her China knowledge (see the recommended reading list on the sidebar for a couple that I have actually read), and one on the three Chinese world views and some potential future implications of each... really fascinating. In addition to being a wealth of China knowledge, she is a great photographer and a good storyteller... you can see for yourself by linking to her blog, Outside In, from the sidebar list, Other Ddots.

Lest we sound like the worst retreaters ever, I should add that we also had some fun. We ate some good Mongolian food, went bowling, and shopped at what is best described as a Western Food Wholesale Warehouse. They generally supply some of the stores and restaurants in Hohhot, but they will open up the different rooms and let Westerners shop straight from the shelves. Most exciting find? Hawaiian Punch for N.

A and I planned to leave Hohhot on the 10:30 am train for Yinchuan on Sunday because we had to be back for morning classes on Monday. We missed it because McDonald's (which we can't get in Yinchuan and promised to bring back for N) doesn't start serving lunch until 10... go ahead and judge our priorities if you must. We weren't actually late, but the ticket taker was not inclined to let us and the handful of other late comers run for it. We could tell from the commotion that she was being very un-Chinese. Order? Are you serious? To make a long long story a little bit shorter, we ended up on the 3:00 train and got back into Yinchuan at 5 past midnight. All in all, we had a great weekend, but it begs not to be forgotten too soon as we picked up colds which started as really sore throats and moved to the choo! choo! that has us sounding eerily like the trains on which we retreated and returned.

Coming this week is a team from Hillside (our fellowship in CO) to visit and help us with our Easter events. Stay tuned early next week for that update...