Today is THE Day!

Today was THE big day over here. It was the official "flip the heat switch on " day. When we first arrived here I was very surprised to find out that our heat is turned on the same day all over town at the same time. The gov't determines the day...not the weather or you....the gov't. SO today was the day and so now our house is toasty warm...I have the windows open though because it is not all the cold out. We've had a few cold mornings but so far nothing too cold.

This morning I woke up and was just laying in bed listening for Hal to get out of the shower. When he came out he said "hey, the heat came on last night" and I am not sure why but I popped up out of bed all surprised. (just so you know I never "pop" out of bed...ever) We were not expecting it until its typical 'flip on' date of the 15th. For some odd reason that got me all excited. I have always thought it was kind of a funsy thing to hit that official heat turning on day....it tells me that it is officially moving to winter. Time for hot chocolate, snuggly blankets and sweaters again. We dont get as cold here as back home in Michigan.....but we can sure get some gusty wind off the yellow sea that is just outside my window!

So....the big day was today! Now I get to put my socks on the radiator to dry and I put the drying racks close to the radiators at night so things will be nice and dry when I wake up in the morning. Its life's little pleasures I am telling ya. Dont forget to celebrate the small stuff, thats my motto.

On a side note.....our heating bill here is all paid as one flat fee and for the full 5 months up front. NO monthly bills based on usage and etc. It is one of the benefits of gov't run heating.....you go to the bank, give them money based on the square meters of your house and thats that....cash on the barrel head and you have heat for the winter. And let me just tell you it is a fraction of the cost of heating a house in the states!

Happy Flip the Heat on Day to All!

Switch Up Post

I decided I wanted to put up another post just to clear the post from yesterday off the top of my page. It was my rantings over a bad day. That day is done, and today is coming to an end. The landlord talked with my friend and apologized for the poor interaction and wanted to be sure our relationship was resolved. She did not want us to consider her an angry person. Thankfully it is all resolved. The result of all of the goings on was that I came to the realization how difficult it is to change over my American mindset sometimes. I have alot of American blood pumping through my veins and American ways floating in my head. It takes time to accept the reality that these types of interruptions are just to be expected....and moved on from.

SO moving on to the next topic.....food. I just wanted to say how very much I have been missing Taco Bell lately. I haven't been able to get it out of my head. For some reason I love that stuff. When I was a kid my dad would often work late into the evenings. We would all be ready for bed or even IN bed when he came home. Sometimes he would come home so late that he would just stop by Taco Bell on his way home from work and grab a few taco's and eat them. I recall sitting on the couch next to him in my pajama's and wet hair from my bath and talking to him while he ate his Taco Bell. I remember distinctly thinking I cannot wait to grow up so that I can eat Taco Bell at 8:30 at night. In fact I can even go and get my own whenever I want because I will be able to drive myself there.

Ok....so I am all grown up now.....what happened? Shouldn't I be able to get me some Taco Bell now? Isn't that what being all grown up means? Anybody want to move to china and open up a Taco Bell near me? I promise I would be a loyal customer.....you dont have to have a drive through....you can have a bike through. :)


ENjoy your Taco's dad!

Culture Clash

Yesterday I had an enormous clash with the culture around here. It was one of those moments where I wanted to scream "why do you do it this way?" Of course I understand that this country has their way of doing things and America has its own and that is just how it is but there are times when I just plain ole dont get it. Yesterday was one of those pull your hair out kinda days. The positive side of it is that I now know enough Chinese that I am able to communicate my frustrations.....the negative side of it is that I now know enough Chinese that I am able to communicate my frustrations. Get my drift? Yeah, I gotta be careful. Yesterday I tolled the line, but b..a..r..e..l...y! I was ready to take someones head right off. I think I made Hal nervous. (thats not a first) :)

So our solar water heated "popped" because of a power surge. The result is that the box inside the apartment which controls our ability to bring water into the solar tanks and to heat it up should we have a major lack of sunlight snapped after a power surge in our apartment. The result was the solar unit was rendered useless and thus our non-existent water. AND the END of result was that getting it fixed was expensive.

Ok so at the exact moment the repairman was working on solar panel I get a phone call. At the exact moment the phone call comes in my chinese friend (at our house with me) begins to explain to me what the techno side of the repair work involved. The phone call was a chinese friend, the other chinese friend was speaking with rapid fire speed about the solar panel, the repair man was trying to jump in and talk AND then another phone call came in....the owner of the apartment. SOOO I say all that to say....there was some serious amounts of chinese words getting flung all over the room. It was a regular spit factory. I was dodging some of the words directed at me in frustration.....partly due to a misunderstanding about what I was suppose to do (for the landlord) that I didn't do because I didnt fully understand and partly because Hal forgot something and he part way didn't understand. Another part of it all was I needed my Chinese friend to help me understand the problem with the solar panel...it was repair words I hadn't learned. The repairman just wanted his money.....the landlord just wanted to vent her frustration with me and hal....the other chinese on the phone promptly hung up in sheer fear I am sure.....my chinese friend at my house....well she was standing in the middle lecturing me on how I had messed up and ticked off the landlord.

I was frustrated because the landlord never talked to me and instead called my friend to tell her how mad she was. Had she came and talked to me she would have immediately understood that there was a gross misunderstanding/miscommunication. She didn't call me, she called my friend. No wonder there was a serious lack of clarity! UGH>>>>>>>>>It is irritating that in this culture if you have an issue with someone you DONT call them....you call someone else....vent it out to them and then have them call and deal with it. It is to say "I am never going to tell you I am mad at you, I am going to tell someone else and let them do the dirty work so that on the outside everything appears just peachy keen". Everything is about keeping up appearances and not showing on the outside that anything is wrong. Please let me tell you it is NOT peachy keen. There is no peachy and NO keen. It is all ugly. I would prefer to have heard first hand that the landlord was ticked at me (so i could have explained my oops) than to play this game of third party problem solving. Its just so UGH.....not necessary. It creates more harm than good. Furthermore when a secondary language speaker (me) with her language training wheels gets thrown in the mix it makes for more confusion. THAT is when it was hard for me to hold back all the lovely new vocabulary words I know that describe how I am feeling at the present moment. It really is easy to tell someone you are ticked off at them in Chinese. :)

Ok so I got it all worked out BUT not without some serious frustrations along the way. AND by the way it did not help that I had several chinese voices shrilling towards my direction at the same time. Ya know that just gives a girl a headache!

I did not shoot anyone but I will say this......that repairman got a serious kick out of hearing me talk chinese, he was glued to me the entire time. He specifically enjoyed the paper I have taped to the wall with the English translation of all the buttons on the solar panel. He saw it and inquired as to what it said. When I told him I also made sure he was replacing the panel with the same model so that I dont have to relearn another panel. He laughed and showed me they were the same. He then called me a word.......it is the same word they use here when they are either saying "you are amazing" or "you are trouble". I always ask my friends how you can know for sure which one you are being called. They always tell me "we just know". In this situation I am definitely NOT sure which one he meant. It certainly could have gone either way on a moment by moment basis during that interaction.

Two cultures collided.....and I was left in the rubble. I did behave, but barely.

The Way To My Heart

My husband is not one to have a large slew of awards behind his name. That is not him. He is not one to need to be at the forefront of anything huge nor is he one to feel the need to be noticed by the crowds. He's not out to make a name for himself. He is truly a server. His gift is well suited and used up here in this work. His gift is a 'come along-sider'. He is one of those guys that will give you his time and you will not annoy him. He wont be frustrated with your problems and he wont blow you off when you ask for help. If he is able to help at all he will make it happen and you will never feel like you are bugging him.....i.e.....he wont look at his watch! Have you ever had someone do that when you are meeting with them or chatting? UGH...it is SO not nice. AND in ministry it happens ALL THE TIME. Sometimes, ministry has become a business and not so much about serving people while you teach them. THAT is not my guy by any stretch. He just plain has a big heart for those who have needs.

SO he is very well suited for our life here. There are men that genuinely need someone to come along side them and encourage them as they work here. They are learning and in need of growth....he is that willing heart that wants to step in and do the job to encourage them and help them to learn. In other words he will spend the time they need and talk to them. It is an important part of the work here. It is what I love about my husband. He truly sees that people are a part of the ministry....not the office and the books and the planning meetings......the people. A genuinely loving guy.

So I say that all to say.....I have been the recipient of his big heart these past two weeks. I have struggled with my health for a long stretch here and he has been my doctor. :) I have thought over these past few weeks that I have been fighting pneumonia. I wrestled with going to our hospital here since it is overun right now with the swine flu. We were warned to only go there if we really needed it, as in emergency. I was plodding along and controlling my symptoms, albeit slowly. My body just gave up the ghost this week. I am, thankfully, on the mend and definitely felt better today than I have in a looong time. The antibiotics finally kicked in and I can tell a huge difference...PTL!

I mention these things because living way over here on the other side of the planet the best thing you can have in your life is a spouse that loves you and takes good care of you. I would be so sunk if I didn't have that. I would be truly crying in my rice bowl. :) Thankfully my husband made sure I was well cared for during this time. If you are ever planning on moving to the other side of the world make sure that you are moving with your best of friends. Otherwise its gonna be a tough one for you. I am so blessed to have this guy......he knows the way to my heart is to just plain take care of me. AND that he has done very well.

So, honey, for all the pots of coffee you have made....for all the times you sent me back to bed and covered me up for my nap, all the times you have quieted the house so I could rest and made sure the girls were cared for.....I thank you, truly from the bottom of my heart!

Things Not Often Said

There are just times when you really want to say something but you don't. We have those times a lot here and often they are because of language barriers. Today I have a few things rolling around in my head and have debated back and forth as to whether they were useful to be layed out in this forum, or if they are better kept for their current location...inside my head.

I chose to go with it. Hang on you are entering a scary place, the interiors of my head. Thankfully I have a wonderful readership whose feedback I enjoy (just because you dont see many comments does NOT mean I dont get them....I do and I love them, both positive and negative).

One of the things I have been thinking about is laying things out on the table. You know that thing we do when we sit down and we put all our cards out and we show what we are thinking and feeling. Sometimes its a gamble because you never know what the other person is going to say/do or how they will react. It is not easy to be that open and upfront. It is not what we do. We dont typically show what we are thinking but rather we keep this pretty little picture for the world to see but on the other side of the frame is the true self. Its not always as pretty as the flip side with all the trimmings and picture perfect frame. Its a whole lot of ugly behind the scenes sometimes.

I think overseas workers do that when they go home on furlough sometimes. I know we did it. You go to the ch*rch and they take you out for lunch after the service (most do) and that is when the questions come, which are normal of course because people are curious about your life on the other side of the planet. But the answers we so often give to those questions aren't usually all of the facts. We tend to shield the ugly, difficult aspects and we lay out the things that are good...i.e. how the work has grown, how the people are learning, how HE provides and etc. We dont often say some of the things that...well....we just dont say.

The things we dont tell them are that it is hard. We dont often reply back with how we struggled through the year and the rough parts of the work. We dont tell them that we go to language classes day in and day out and some of those days we never want to go back again because it is just so stinkin hard! We dont tell anyone that there are days when we want to HIDE from local people instead of run to their aid. Nope, you dont hear THAT said from the pulpit when someone comes to report on the work. BUT chances are that each and every one of those people who stand up there and speak have felt the very same things. We just dont put that on presentations anywhere, ever! Why?

The answer to why is a delicate balance between pride on the part of the worker and fear that the listeners just wont get it. In most cases, lets face it, they just wont get it. I know that I did not before.

I had several days in a row of rough chinese classes. Yesterday I saw another friend who lives in another country and is learning the language as a 40 something and her status on facebook was.....rough day at language classes, my brain is fried. I replied back to her and said "i cried in my language class last week" two which her reply was that she was in the same boat. It made me feel better to know that I was not the only one.

I have never heard that said from an overseas worker who is home on furlough giving their report on the work. The truth of the matter is I have never heard anyone ever say how much they struggled or how hard it was. WHY? Perhaps they are afraid others will not go!? Perhaps they realize the rest of us would never understand? Perhaps they have forgotten that IF they did, perhaps others would pray for them like they never had before. I think that they would.

SO~~~last week I cried in language class.....like a baby. My poor teacher had no idea what to do. She just stood there and waiting until I got it all out. I used up the kleenex and then told her I was done. I told her we can hit it again. We moved on. We jumped right back into that grammar and didn't stop till I got it. I will do the same tomorrow.

My point is...I'm just tellin you its hard sometimes. Its not words you often hear on the overseas workers blog....but they have all felt it, I most certainly guarantee.

American Embassy

We routinely get notifications via email from the American Embassy here in our capital city. The warnings are sent out to those American citizens residing in this country that are registered with the Embassy. The registration is recommended so that in the event there is a need for evacuation of foreigners they can reach you quickly. They also send out warnings regarding potential health threats according to region. We get travel warnings as well. These are designed to let us know what areas of the country would not be advisable for us to be traveling in the event they have uprisings.

We have had many Embassy warnings hit our in box these last few weeks. Mainly they are regarding the rise of swine flu outbreak in this country. Along that lines there have been warnings of uprisings occurring in the Western side of the country…..there has been some serious unrest in those parts. We have had travel warnings related to earthquakes, but those have been minimal over the last few months.

Another thing the Embassy sends us a warning about is not so much a warning but rather a heads up. They let us know when they are coming our way. Sometimes the Embassy will send representatives to areas of the country so that they can perform routine passport services for American citizens residing in that area. This is a convenience thing since many areas are not readily accessible for travel to Beijing. I recently emailed our Embassy asking if they would be coming to an area near us since we are in need of passport pages. Hal and I both need pages put in and I was just curious if they had a trip planned in which they are headed our way. When I emailed them they replied saying they had no plans this year of being in our area. I was hoping that even if they didn’t come to our city, which is considered to be “smaller” in comparison to the massive cities in this country, I thought perhaps they would be nearby and we could hop a train and get the passport work done that way rather than flying to Beijing.

Well, recently I got an email from the Embassy saying they would indeed by nearby. They had a change of plans. The city they will be in is very near to us, in our province, and would be easy for us to get to. So today we went to get our passport pages taken care of nearby….instead of having to head to the Embassy in Beijing. They somehow did not have my paperwork ready and so I have to wait until another time. I was a bit frustrated by this but she let me in a secret that she was most likely going to need to be back in or province for other business and could bring my papers along with her the next trip, which is next month. We both needed to get this done right away since the last time I flew through Beijing (a few weeks ago) they warned me that my pages were low and they would detain me if I did not have that resolved the next time I flew through. OUCH…..don’t want that to happen. As it is they like to stop me every time I go through since apparently the red flag warning on my passport from several years ago has never been lifted. I have been held several times in Beijing, asked questions and then let go. It has never been a big issue, just questions. I really don’t want to give them more reasons for us to have a chat. They are pleasant enough but ya know it’s a bit of a hassle.

SO today we met the vice consul…..nice lady, an American who looks Chinese but admitted to me today that she doesn’t speak it real well. She jokingly said “it’s a really hard language”. We both gave her the “oh yeah tell me about it!” on that one!

Me and The Motorcycle

Ever since we have moved here I have coveted the motorcycles around me. I have always thought it would be fun to have one and of course never take into consideration the risks…just the fun. I have asked for a motorcycle for Christmas many times and well Santa didn’t anty one up. I think he is worried what international incident I might create should I have one to call my own. That is probably a wise thing to consider. Today I almost had my golden opportunity……

The last few days I have been pretty sick. Yesterday I was feeling a bit better and really couped up inside the house so I decided it was time to get out. Kayleen had her last soccer game at school so I figured I would go to that. It was a beautiful day out! After the game Hal ended up staying and meeting up with one of the staff members at the school so he told me to go ahead on home via taxi. The girls would come later on their after school bus. Previously I have mentioned that the girls school is in the middle of a village. The school purchased a very old college campus and renovated it. They bus to school each day up the dirt roads on the side of a mountain. It is really a cool view over the sea from the side of the mountain and an interesting location in the middle of a very old fishing village. I love it there. I like walking through the village and just the atmosphere of people sitting around mending their nets and always willing to chat. Getting a taxi up there is pretty much impossible so often I have to walk down through the village to a main road to get a taxi. It’s a bit of a walk but I like it.

As I wandered through the village I enjoyed watching a few ladies mending their nets and another man unloading his haul of fish for the day. It was getting to be about 4:45 so things were getting busy there with all the street sellers putting out their vegetables and fruits for people to purchase on their way home to cook dinner. LOTS and LOTS of fish everywhere still squirming having just been caught. I love wandering through there. I chatted with an old man sitting on the side of the dirt road with a large bird that looked to be a Macau. It was beautiful with bright colors and he showed me some of the birds tricks. Walking through this area a foreigner gets a lot of second looks. They are interested and of course watch me the entire time. I am used to that now but it still makes me get a bit self conscience. After a few conversations with people I usually forget that is happening and just enjoy it.

So as I got down the side of the mountain there were a large group of men bringing back their haul for the day. Several guys on motorcycles were delivering nets that needed to be worked on. As I passed by a man was getting ready to hop on his motorcycle and he asked me if I wanted a ride. I instinctively said YES. As a side note, NO I am not afraid here to take a ride like that. For the most part I feel safer here than I do in the states….more on that at another time. Anyway, he offered for me to “hop on” and I was geeked. We talked briefly and then just as I was about to get on a few men surrounded me and I got a whif of what was the remnants of their long “fishing” workday. UGH….it was horrible. I stepped back slightly all the while trying to answer their questions and I realized I was about to throw up. I started gagging so I stepped back to avoid hitting any of them with what might be coming up. While I was standing there gagging, and them all laughing curiously, my motorcycle friend ask me to hurry up and get on. I was standing there trying to decide if I was indeed going to throw up or if it was a false alarm. Hedging between getting on and stepping back he asked me where I was headed. I told him where my house was and he said he was going the other direction and zoomed off.

I think I scared him off. I eventually got my stomach settled down and the rest of the crew was still enjoying my episode. We chatted for a moment and I left. I was bummed. I think I scared him off because everyone here is very on edge about the Swine flu. He probably didn’t want to take his chance that I would barf down his back riding with him on the motorcycle. I suppose that would be no fun.

My day will come……hopefully it will be on a day when my stomach doesn’t act up. I am telling you the smells around these parts can get to you! Someday my senses will settle down….I hope!