Being a Celebrity

Recently some friends from our organization who teach in northern China wrote an amazing song called, "Celebrity." It was so funny, because it was so true. Coming to China as a white foreigner means you're an instant celebrity. Everyone wants to take your picture, say "hello," and practice their English with you just about every second of the day. I would have thought I had adjusted to this life by now, but it is still one of the most amusing and challenging aspects of living here.

No matter how much I want to blend in and be "Chinese," I can't. I am and will always be the "laowai" (old outsider), "waigoren" (foreigner), or "waijiao" (foreign teacher). I hear people calling me those three different versions at least several times every day. Everyone stares at me and the other foreign teachers on our team. The whiter and taller you are, and lighter eyes you have, the more stares you attract. So I win! :)

Being a foreigner in China can afford you lots of privileges. If I wanted, I could get away with most anything, because I can claim I don't understand or I'm not Chinese. Anything I do, no matter how lame, is thought of as amazing and talented by everybody. And in China I'm considered pretty beautiful. ;)

But it also has disadvantages. I'd love for people to talk to me not because I'm a strange-looking person, but because I'm a cool and interesting person on the inside. I'd love to be able to walk outside without people shouting at me. I'd love to go shopping without attracting crowds of onlookers. I'd love to cross the street without causing traffic to nearly careen off the side of the road. I'd love to walk around without people literally stopping in their tracks to gape.

Sometimes it starts to wear on me. When they holler, "Laowai! Laowai!" (Outsider!) I want to respond, "Ni shi laowai!" (You're an outsider!) Or I want to stare right back at them until they look away. Or I want to say, "Yes, I can understand what you're saying in Chinese about me!" Sometimes I have actually said or done these things, but usually the Father reminds me to respond with love and graciousness.

The other day I was having a particularly severe case of feeling like I was in a zoo being examined, and started thinking rather bitter thoughts in my head. But then the Father sent an albino my way. There is an albino on my campus and he crossed my path right then and there. He can never blend in anywhere, yet he isn't moping around. It was very humbling.

Several hours later, the same bitter thoughts began again as people snapped pictures of me outside. But then the Father sent a one-legged student my way. He also doesn't fit in with the rest of Chinese society, but he doesn't complain. Again, it was quite humbling!

I think being a foreigner in China is so much more unique than being a foreigner in every other country in the world. China, with its population of 1.4 billion people, was literally sealed off from the rest of the world until just the last 30 years. It is also certainly not a place for many immigrants, so non-Chinese stand out. It's not even close to being a melting pot like America or many other countries.

And where I live is not even close to being a tourist attraction. The only few other foreigners you see here once in a great while are usually older European couples adopting a poor Chinese baby. Many of the students at our school are from the villages in this province and have never seen a foreigner until they set eyes on us. No wonder they look a little shocked. Sometimes I wished they didn't look quite so shocked. Even children are often afraid of us.

Well, that is a little snapshot of what it is like to be a foreigner in inland China. Maybe it will be different soon as China continues to develop and open up to the rest of the world. For now, it is just a daily struggle for me to stop thinking about how I'm a reluctant celebrity. People are going to still be fascinated with my exotic self, so I need to just try to reflect His light. I want people to look at me not because of the glow of my white skin, but from the glow of His light shining through me in a dark place.

Welcome, December

It is almost Shi Er Yue (December)! Last time I wrote how blessed Thanksgiving Day was. Then the next few days after that have just been rather strange. I'm glad for a new month in just a few hours!

Not too much has been happening. Students are wonderful and life is okay. I have a cold, but it's not too bad. It has been cloudy and my head feels like it is in the clouds. Everything is fuzzy and in slow-motion.

Can you please think of me? Lately I'm just feeling sad and disconnected from life. I'm always around people and doing different activities, but I'm just feeling alone. I really miss my family and familiar things. I know He is still close, though...

Here are a couple pictures from open house this past weekend. For one of the pictures we were pretending to be models. I thought they did a pretty good job looking model-y. :)

A Chinese Thanksgiving

It is the day after Thanksgiving as I'm writing this blog. We are having a potluck dinner for some Chinese English teachers and our neighbors tonight. The power has gone off for the second time today. This time it hasn't been on for a couple of hours. Our potluck starts in an hour. We aren't quite sure how we'll be able to cook anything...

Anyways, celebrating Thanksgiving in China provides me with plenty to be thankful for. We still had to teach all day on Thanksgiving, but I think I preferred that. I got to be with my sweet students and the weather was beautiful. The day couldn't have been any more blessed.

For lunch I ate with my old student and dear friend who became a sister last year. We went and had a big lunch just the two of us. We ate Chinese dishes of green vegetables, potato slices with fried pork, and bananas. It was a very traditional Thanksgiving meal! She wouldn't let me pay for it and she shared some words that about made both of us cry. She told me, "Thank you for being my friend and not giving up on me. Now I'm so happy and peaceful, because I have the Father in my heart." I'm also so thankful for her! Besides Jodi, she is my closest friend here, and she has taught me a lot about life and the Father.

Throughout the day I also received countless messages with the following saying from different students:

"I open my pocket, find no coin; I open my purse, find no money; then I open my life, I find you! Then I know how rich I am! Happy Thanksgiving!"

I remember receiving that message last year on various occasions. I really don't know where they find it... Maybe there is a website for sappy sayings to send your English teacher? I told Jodi I would say that in a toast at her wedding. We are both so fond of it now.

In other news, I've been hanging out with Chinese sisters who have incredibly strong faith. It is not easy to be a Chinese believer here, especially a leader of a fellowship or study. First of all it's terribly difficult to find copies of the Word for the amount of people who want one. There is one place to buy the Word in this city of 4 million people. There is a "bookstore" about the size of a broom closet, which is attached to the one government fellowship. Sometimes they are open and you can find a few copies of the Word or none at all. It's closed more often than it's open, though.

Then I also know some people who are such leaders for Him that they are being monitored about every second of the day. Many other brothers and sisters are also ostracized by classmates, teachers, parents, or employers. And people are still coming to know Him in droves! It really puts my life and faith into perspective.

Now I'm leaving you with one picture from class. Some of my students drew "turkey hands" on the board with things they were thankful for. I'm thankful for them and you!

Large Mass Gatherings

I think I'm becoming more Chinese because I frequently attend large mass gatherings and am actually rather addicted to them. For example, the closing ceremony for this year's sports meeting was this afternoon. We were urged not to attend because of fears about H1N1, but Jodi and I couldn't resist. Last year it was one of the highlights of my year. The pageantry, long speeches, lots of marching, crazy performances, and crowds of thousands of people excite me. I also enjoy seeing my students, boys and girls alike, in shiny costumes.

Enjoy some of the pictures from today! Your assignment is to find me in the crowds.

A Nanchang Weekend

My favorite time of the week is when Jodi and I help lead a study of the Word with three other Chinese sisters. I learn so much, especially from their perspectives. Recently I shared about how my dear grandma had passed away a year ago. Later in the day I got a wonderful text message from one of the girls. She wrote:

"I'm worry about you about i wish you are not feel so sad because of your grandma. because God need her. God wanna have her company. because she can bring many joys for God! and she also see you and bless you in heaven."

Speaking of text messages, I enjoy collecting a list of ways students and friends here spell my name in text messages to me. Some of my favorites: Rolla, Alura, Lurau, Lauara, etc. - basically any word that involves l's and a's.

In other news, the weather has been much milder now - about in the 50s, not the 20s and 30s, which is nice. Jodi and I went on a bike ride and explored some more of our fair city. There are always crazy and amazing things to discover. Today we found a rather creepy place.

We rode along one side of a gigantic lake where people have been haphazardly buried in little, tall mounds facing the water. There was tons of trash, dried up weeds, and old sticks of incense that had been burned on top of the graves. We rode further along and discovered "Ocean World." I found out it had been built just about 6 years ago, but the whole place was already falling apart. It had a huge, empty Victorian-style building, and a big pond for dolphins that didn't exist.

Even further down the deserted narrow road we came upon a mile-long park that had probably been built in the late 1970s or early 1980s, but had long since been abandoned. It was a very communist-style park (if there is such a thing), with random statues of heroic-looking people, tons of concrete pads to dock boats, and crumbling stairs all over the place. There were also a couple of rainbow-colored bridges, and a pile of old boats that now were half sinking into the lake. Everything was amazingly overgrown and eerily quiet.

Jodi and I had a great time taking pictures and plotting creepy movies. I've left you with a few pictures, so you can enjoy the sights for yourself. :)

And please continue to think of our students! At least two students have died of H1N1 on our campus now. It's just incredibly sad, because they probably don't even get a chance to survive with the lack of money, medical care, and sanitation.

Early Christmas

It has been an interesting past couple of days. Jodi's mom, Mrs. Poon, came to visit on Thursday. She comes to China sometimes for business so she stopped by Nanchang for less than 24 hours. She brought me a package lovingly put together by my own mother, which mostly included a few books and a couple of American snacks! It was seriously like Christmas.

Mrs. Poon also cut my hair, because she is a professional hair stylist. It was pretty fun. (See the pictures). We also went out to eat lunch with her and several of Jodi's and my best Chinese friends. (See pictures again). I couldn't be happier eating and walking and talking and laughing with our friends. They are just so accepting and warm. Most of them are also sisters, so they encourage me in my walk with Him.

On the 20 minute ride to new campus Thursday morning, I saw police officers lining the road. I was really confused to see all of these officers standing guard very seriously and talking on their walkie talkies. Later I found out it was just a crackdown on the illegal breakfast stands that usually set up shop in the mornings along the street. Most of my students didn't eat any breakfast that day. However, the police were gone Friday morning, and all the breakfast students were back in their places serving steaming bread or dumplings.

Then an 18 year-old economics major at our university in "Dorm 12" died from H1N1 on Tuesday. She is the first reported casualty of swine flu in this entire province. (There have probably been more deaths, but they haven't been reported. Officials get in trouble if the outbreaks occur in their "territory.") She apparently got pretty sick last week and only went to the campus clinic to get some medicine. The medicine, which was probably some herbs, didn't do anything. She got progressively worse, and died on the way to the city hospital. She was diagnosed with H1N1 after she had died. I only found this out by students and vague news reports. Nobody higher-up will say anything about it.

However, today the Foreign Affairs Office gave us masks to wear when we are outside and a glass thermometer in case we have a fever. They told us to stay very warm, and to avoid public transportation - all of which is virtually impossible. :)

Then one of my students, Will Lee, wasn't in class on Thursday. His classmates said that "something was wrong at his house." I asked one of his close friends what happened. Apparently Will Lee's 45 year-old mother died last night of a heart attack. It just broke my heart, because he's such a positive, upbeat boy and he's always so respectful. Please remember to think of him!

Many of our students have also had to go to the hospital because of high fevers and H1N1 symptoms. Please also think of them, because they don't have adequate clothing, no heat, and not enough money. Some of them won't seek help, because they don't have any money to spare. (It's probably only a few dollars to go to the doctor's).

I don't mean to be a Johnny Raincloud! He is incredibly good and loving, although it is difficult to understand why these things happen, especially in the lives of my sweet, innocent students. Thanks for letting me share!

How to Prevent H1N1 (Chinese Style)

Not a whole lot happened today. It was really cold again, but I'm starting not to notice anymore! I taught six hours of class, and they were pretty good. I've decided to ditch the textbook for a while and go back to writing my own lessons, because they provide better, deeper conversations. Lately we've been talking about character and morals. It's actually been really interesting and thought-provoking for them.

For lunch I went out with three students, Ashley, Karen, and Karin. Yes, Karen and Karin are best friends and apparently have found the need to have nearly identical names. We went to the student cafeteria to eat together. We chatted a little, but we were mostly shivering too much.

Afterwards I visited their dorm room, because my students like to invite me to their "homes." Every time I go to my students' dorms, I always think about how American dorm life is like living in a palace. Here they live four to eight girls to a very small room with concrete floors.

When they were walking me out of the building, I walked by a communal bathroom, which didn't have any soap, like usual. However, people had just finished painting the foyer walls with whitewash, masking the streaks of black and spots of water damage. I asked the girls why the people were painting, expecting them to say, "To make it look nicer." But, no. They gave me an answer that surprised me, even though I've been living in China for a while now and feel rather immune to surprises.

Very seriously they told me the school was painting to "prevent H1N1." Did I hear correctly? I asked them the same question again. And again they repeated, "It is to prevent H1N1. The paint makes everything cleaner." Wow. I could only look at them in complete disbelief. Then we said goodbye.

Usually I try not to judge the customs or culture in China, but this I will say is incorrect. Painting a wall does not prevent sickness anymore than painting your hands. Where is the soap? You can't find it here. Where are the people covering their mouths when they cough? You don't see it here.

I guess if H1N1 spreads to our campus, which it already has, then the officials will get in trouble, because they did not stop it. So if they were trying to be proactive, which must even include painting walls to ward off swine flu, then they won't get in trouble with the higher-ups.

Sometimes I just have to smile at the things people believe - like it is bad to drink water after a meal (I was informed of that by Karin after lunch), that exercising will help you grow taller (even if you are already 30 years old), and that rubbing your earlobes will help heal a burn somewhere else on your body.

That's all for today! I'll be off painting my bedroom...

(I've included a picture of a cute couple in my class - Karma and Kasha. They were sharing gloves and mittens today).