Something Old and Something New

Someone just wrote and reminded us that we had not published a blog for awhile. She was thinking that must mean that we were already home. No, not yet. Rich has been patiently waiting for me to be responsible this time, and as usual I have been waiting for an inspiration. Can't wait any longer. Just do it. By the way, this is Jolene, a girl Rich met his first year of teaching in YongChuan. She has become a friend, and a good example of a determined, energetic Chinese student who is working hard to develop a prosperous future.

These next two blogs are to be about friends, so I want to update you on some old friends and introduce you to three new ones. First, the moms and babies.

Last year we mentioned several times the young families who were living all around us in our apartment building. Four of the babies that were born last year became favorites. This year all the families have moved to the new campus area, as we have, but we are all living in different apartment complexes and rarely see each other. I had the idea of setting up a play date at our apartment on a Saturday morning. I arranged a corner table with kid stuff and prepared to watch and enjoy. Soon after ten, the moms (4), grandmoms (2), husband (1) and toddlers (4) arrived. I was expecting an American style playdate where the children played by themselves and the parents had some time to chat. Not so. These children mostly clung to their moms and grandmoms. I think they have little play date experience. We had Xia and Le Le (who is the beauty of the bunch), Sally and Shuai (handsome), Di and Xing Xing (star) and Gui Feng and Bao Bao (just means "baby") You know that most babies in China do not wear diapers so the play was punctuated by frequent running trips to the bathroom. They all left at 11:00, probably relieved that no disasters had occurred and that they had satisfied my desire to see them all. As they left, I felt my first real sadness about leaving China. Except for maybe Sally and her son, because she is a good friend, I don't think I'll ever see those little ones again.

You may also remember Becky, our Chinese friend who sells DVD's. Big changes have occurred in her life. First of all, she is married. The picture shows her with her new husband, Edward. She gave him his English name after Edward Scissorhand because he loves movies and because he often helped her mom cut the yarn that she sold in the corner of their shop. Edward is a country boy, and we enjoyed delicious food at the day long wedding celebration in his home village. We like him very much. Second, the newly-weds and Becky's parents are closing out the DVD business and planning to open another kind of shop. And third, Becky is pregnant:) They are not ready for such an event, but they are getting very excited. Please pray along with us that all will go well with the pregnancy and the delivery.

I can't remember if we put on the blog that I was bitten by a dog, but I was. Not much harm done, though going to Peace Corps headquarters to get preventive rabies injections and being observed for a week did interrupt my schedule. Out of it all, though, has come a lovely friendship with Jia Ping, a teacher at our school and one of the dog's owners. We have a symbiotic relationship: I help her with her English, and she teaches me Tai Ji Chuan. We laugh all the time about who has the better student. Very generously, she provided me with a real Tai Ji outfit. We went into Yong Chuan to "old" street, up a hill and down an alley to a nondescript door. Inside was a woman beside an ironing board, her husband eating in front of the television, and dozens of outfits in various stages of completion. She measured me, not writing anything down until she was all finished. Her only comment was, "She's a big girl." Indeed.
The fourth friend I would like you to meet is Sandy. Sandy is my latest language tutor. She was a student of mine last year and had seemed to want to stay in touch, so when my tutor David no longer had enough time to come here to help me, I asked Sandy if she would be interested. We have had a good time together, and I was happy to be able to tell her that when I took my language exam in April, I had moved up a level. I was glad to be able to tell her that good news because she was determined to regard any failure on my part to be a failure on her part. Not so. This week I hope that we are going together to visit a special school in Yong Chuan for the blind and the deaf. I have hopes of finding out if they can utilize student volunteers and maybe learning some other ways we could help them. Sandy is a sweet and conscientious girl. I am lucky to have her help.

Last but not least is Free. Once long, long ago my college roommate came to visit me and we talked so much that my throat was dry and sore and I could barely speak. It's almost like that with Free. She loves to read and we have read and discussed several books over these two years. Now she is giving me a brief outline of Chinese history punctuated by many stories that seem to flow effortlessly from her mind. I think she is much smarter than I am, and I am constantly amazed by her insights into literature. Besides that she has boundless enthusiasm and energy. I would like to borrow some.

I told Rich yesterday that some days I would like to go back to America tomorrow and some days I would like to stay in China forever. He says he understands. We have been very blessed by our time here and hope to have many opportunities to share some of joys and concerns with you, face to face, even though we have been warned that you may not be so very interested:) We love you anyway.