Last night Drew and I went out to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary. It was about 10pm, and it seemed like all six million of Changsha's residents were with us at the commercial center of town. There's like street vendors selling everything, people crawling over each other, store-front lights flashing -- actually, kind of like the picture at the top of this blog page, but more expansive, tons more people and more modern.
On the uneven sidewalk, another mother kneels behind her baby, begging for a handout.
The baby is a little younger than Titus. He's sleeping soundly on a raggy quilt. I can tell his face is grimy because the store-front lights are bouncing colors off his face. His feet and hands are sticking out from under his cover. I wish I could adopt him, or adopt him and his mom. They could live with us. I wish.
His mom is maybe thirty, a little pudgy and hunchbacked. Like most beggars, she doesn't stop rocking forward and back, bowing, begging. She looks exhausted, like maybe on the next bow she's going to keel over. I wonder if that hunchback is from the bowing. People occasionally drop something in her coffer, and she tucks away the "big bills"-- worth about fourteen cents.
Think about this! Precious babies sleeping on the filthy, filthy street! Sometimes I hate this world for how polluted with evil and injustice and misery it is. I'm furious with this culture for not having a women's shelter or some place to get help. I'm hopeless within myself because I still don't how I can help these moms and their children. Lots of tears last night, and a few right now.
I am not trying to write creatively or hype this up to impress you with some heartbreaking story. This woman and her baby are real people, on a real street in my town. And I still don't know what to do.
Rachel
.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
That Was A Total Flop
This week I went to Drew's classes and personally invited all 85 students to an Open House at our apartment. I bribed them with Titus and cookies.
Friday 5 - 7:30pm
Saturday 3:30 - 5pm
Two people showed up; one wasn't even in Drew's classes.
Now we have a lot of extra oatmeal cookies and Coke.
.
Friday 5 - 7:30pm
Saturday 3:30 - 5pm
Two people showed up; one wasn't even in Drew's classes.
Now we have a lot of extra oatmeal cookies and Coke.
.
Sounds of September
September is noisy as heck in China.
First, you got Ghost Month, a when it is believed the the underworld opens and ghosts are free to roam and trouble the living. Every single day we hear firecrackers exploding obnoxiously, like rounds and rounds of ammo, because it is thought that this will scare away the bad spirits.
Ghost Month is also a good time to send your underworld-dwelling ancestors some comforts of home. You can buy paper cars, shirts, money, and houses to burn in a pyre, the postal method of the underworld.
On top of the explosions, every corner of our campus is occupied with university freshman in military training. Yes, freshman actually do not go to class in September, they just drill all month. If you could have watched them, you'd agree, they've really improved their marches and chants. And they're all decent, but I think the girls look more in unison than the guys. Maybe dance classes help with this sort of thing.
Well, I'm looking forward to a quiet October, free from explosions and drill sergeants.
rach
ONE-derful
Before and after the first haircut. (Caleb? How bout it?)
Birthday party guests.Titus, our ONE-derful ONE year-old...
...sleeps from 7:30pm to 6:30am, and takes two 1-2 hour naps during the day.
...eats nearly everything we do, and especially likes peas, soybeans, rice-puff cereal and watermelon. He doesn't touch cheese and refuses to be fed from a spoon; he'd rather do it himself!
...wears a cloth diaper with plastic pants.
...stacks cups, pushes trucks, flips the pages of books, strums the guitar (kind of).
...uses sign language for "more" and "all done".
...walks fast and climbs stairs and chairs.
...is fascinated by cranks, tiny things (like the sprinkles on his birthday cake, pebbles on the ground), the toilet, the front door, cell phones, keys and flames.
...gives the sweetest hugs.
...knows not to touch the oven, trash can, stove, computers and diaper pail, usually obeys "no" (followed by some whimpers), and knows not to drop his food on the floor.
...is becoming more willful -- getting mad when we say goodbye to playmates or a favorite toy.
...plays tag and hide-and-seek with Dad.
...nurses four times per day (no plans to stop!).
...doesn't know what to do with crayons except eat them.
...knee-bobs to music with a beat, makes clicking noises with his mouth, says "Mama", "Baba", and "Dada", likes to sit in drawers and boxes.
...is good-natured and easy-going like his Dad.
- Drew & Rachel
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Cake n' Cigarettes
L. Jie (pronounced "L. Jay") is our apartment building's gatekeeper/facilities woman. She's a fireball! Smokes, drinks, hollers, and LOVES Titus. She's got a daughter our age who came over to hang out with us last weekend. We met her gregarious husband once; he lives in Guangzhou in the far south.
Every weekday morning Titus and I visit L. Jie for at least a few minutes. She usually offers him some Chinese cake and a cigarette. Like I said, she's rough around the edges! But she's got gusto for life. In fact, I think she plans to live forever. At our dinner table I asked what she imagines shall become of her upon kicking the bucket...
"I'm in really good health! I almost never get sick! When I do get sick I never take medicine; I just rest."
Oh.
Uh, that didn't really answer the question.
We love L. Jie; you would love her too. You can meet her when you come to visit. You're coming to visit, right?
- D, R, T
Monday, September 14, 2009
1st Birthday!
Cake after lunch with teammates.
Hugs from Baba.
Special trip to the indoor play area.
McDonald's. (Drew's favorite part.)
A great first birthday!
We're looking forward to a birthday party planned for this Saturday afternoon.
- Drew, Rachel & Titus
Hugs from Baba.
Special trip to the indoor play area.
McDonald's. (Drew's favorite part.)
A great first birthday!
We're looking forward to a birthday party planned for this Saturday afternoon.
- Drew, Rachel & Titus
Friday, September 11, 2009
Grandma Ma
You remember that we found a baby sitting alone on the street after dark? Then we met her Grandmother, who was helping to run the adjacent restaurant?
Yesterday I went to the cloth market, a huge open-air complex about two miles from our home. The market consists of over 100 shops, each about the size of a single-car garage, bursting with every kind of fabric and all varieties of people.
As I considered a bolt of brown fabric, from the back corner of the same shop I met the smile of...that Grandmother! Grandma Ma (her surname is Ma) is easy recognizable with her black head covering -- she's a Chinese Muslim, called Hui-zu. Actually, as an undergraduate I wrote an ethnography on Grandma Ma's people: the Hui-zu. It took me two semesters, a conference and a summer internship to research and write this paper, so I feel connected to Grandma Ma. She said that Changsha does have a mosque, women can go, but she doesn't go. She does prostrate towards Mecca 5x per day. I told her Who I identify with; we found some common ground in stating that there is only One.
It is no coincidence that I ran into this friendly lady again. We plan to eat lunch at her restaurant on Saturday. I hope to see her granddaughter again and meet the rest of the family.
Rachel
p.s. This Hui woman who looks much like Grandma Ma.
Yesterday I went to the cloth market, a huge open-air complex about two miles from our home. The market consists of over 100 shops, each about the size of a single-car garage, bursting with every kind of fabric and all varieties of people.
As I considered a bolt of brown fabric, from the back corner of the same shop I met the smile of...that Grandmother! Grandma Ma (her surname is Ma) is easy recognizable with her black head covering -- she's a Chinese Muslim, called Hui-zu. Actually, as an undergraduate I wrote an ethnography on Grandma Ma's people: the Hui-zu. It took me two semesters, a conference and a summer internship to research and write this paper, so I feel connected to Grandma Ma. She said that Changsha does have a mosque, women can go, but she doesn't go. She does prostrate towards Mecca 5x per day. I told her Who I identify with; we found some common ground in stating that there is only One.
It is no coincidence that I ran into this friendly lady again. We plan to eat lunch at her restaurant on Saturday. I hope to see her granddaughter again and meet the rest of the family.
Rachel
p.s. This Hui woman who looks much like Grandma Ma.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Baby on Curb
How can people just leave their 15-month old sitting alone on a busy curb?
This evening Drew, Titus and I were on a quick stroll after dark. The 100-degree (F) heat keeps people dormant during the day, so the streets come alive at night. On this busy sidewalk we met a dirty baby girl, about Titus's age -- sitting unattended -- in stroller on the curb. I actually thought she was boy, with her buzz cut and dingy blue tank top. She had a string tied loosely around her neck, strung with three house keys and a small plastic puppy. Spilled milk flooded the cupholder of her stroller tray, but she had no cup. She did have a small plastic straw.
People were walking by -- college students, shaggy migrants, grannies, businessmen -- and others were loitering around. Titus and I talked and played with her for awhile, and no parents showed up. One of the nextdoor hairstylist guys came over. I asked him where the baby's parents were, and he told me that they run the restaurant across from which the baby was sitting. Looking into the glass front of the hole-in-the-wall eatery, I didn't see anybody watching the babe. I told the hairstylist that I felt really worried about the baby, but he said it's no big deal.
After awhile we tried to walk away, but the baby started crying and squirming out of the stroller. Nobody came! A middle-aged trash collector came up to me and started asking questions about Titus, but I ignored her interest and asked her what we should do about the lonely baby girl. She also acted like it was nothing. I'm thinking "What to do!?!?" (See bold questions below). Then -- an answer to Thoughts -- our organization's Regional Coordinator popped out of the nearby convenience store. She's been in China for fourteen years. I explained the situation. She went into the restaurant and said "Hey! Baby's crying, she's too hot!" and the Grandma came out with an apple to feed the babe.
So our Regional Coordinator left, and we stood there with the baby girl, her Grandmother and the guy hairstylist, chatting for awhile. I tried to give the Grandma face -- asking the name and age of her granddaughter, saying how much Titus likes her granddaughter, asking about the restaurant, smiling a lot. Then we promised to come back to play and eat at the restaurant some time next week.
Where's the line between...
1. This child needs help. Do something, even if it breaks all cultural norms, draws attention, and causes others to lose face. Act now.
2. Let it go. You don't understand all that's happening here. You don't understand the cultural implications. Entrust it to the Father.
Rachel
This evening Drew, Titus and I were on a quick stroll after dark. The 100-degree (F) heat keeps people dormant during the day, so the streets come alive at night. On this busy sidewalk we met a dirty baby girl, about Titus's age -- sitting unattended -- in stroller on the curb. I actually thought she was boy, with her buzz cut and dingy blue tank top. She had a string tied loosely around her neck, strung with three house keys and a small plastic puppy. Spilled milk flooded the cupholder of her stroller tray, but she had no cup. She did have a small plastic straw.
People were walking by -- college students, shaggy migrants, grannies, businessmen -- and others were loitering around. Titus and I talked and played with her for awhile, and no parents showed up. One of the nextdoor hairstylist guys came over. I asked him where the baby's parents were, and he told me that they run the restaurant across from which the baby was sitting. Looking into the glass front of the hole-in-the-wall eatery, I didn't see anybody watching the babe. I told the hairstylist that I felt really worried about the baby, but he said it's no big deal.
After awhile we tried to walk away, but the baby started crying and squirming out of the stroller. Nobody came! A middle-aged trash collector came up to me and started asking questions about Titus, but I ignored her interest and asked her what we should do about the lonely baby girl. She also acted like it was nothing. I'm thinking "What to do!?!?" (See bold questions below). Then -- an answer to Thoughts -- our organization's Regional Coordinator popped out of the nearby convenience store. She's been in China for fourteen years. I explained the situation. She went into the restaurant and said "Hey! Baby's crying, she's too hot!" and the Grandma came out with an apple to feed the babe.
So our Regional Coordinator left, and we stood there with the baby girl, her Grandmother and the guy hairstylist, chatting for awhile. I tried to give the Grandma face -- asking the name and age of her granddaughter, saying how much Titus likes her granddaughter, asking about the restaurant, smiling a lot. Then we promised to come back to play and eat at the restaurant some time next week.
Where's the line between...
1. This child needs help. Do something, even if it breaks all cultural norms, draws attention, and causes others to lose face. Act now.
2. Let it go. You don't understand all that's happening here. You don't understand the cultural implications. Entrust it to the Father.
Rachel
Friday, September 4, 2009
A New Neighborhood
We've been home -- at Changsha University of Science & Technology -- for about a week now, in a fourth floor apartment of the foreign teacher building on campus. Team building, logistical/legal stuff, unpacking, shopping, exploring, and class prep have consumed our days!
Things you might like about this new place
- big windows = lots of sunlight
- no prison bars on windows
- washing machine is not in kitchen
- bathtub = happy swimmer Titus
- dining table seats six = more guests!
- less mold on walls
- veggie market just outside campus
- groups of toddlers and their guardians congregate daily in a nearby shaded corner to play
- green play spaces on campus
Not as Agreeable
- British neighbor below blaring Elton John and Dire Staights during nap time
- pretty much only foreigners live in our building (though there are plenty of Chinese all around)
- kitchen stove operates like a gas grill: turn on big tank of gas under stove, light stove, cook, turn of gas, stove goes off, hope not to smell gas
On Monday Drew will begin teaching "Audio-Visual Oral English" to juniors!
I (Rachel) will teach Freshmen Oral English beginning in October, as the freshmen all have military training this month. We're excited and nervous. Can we do it? And do it well?
more later ----
rach
Things you might like about this new place
- big windows = lots of sunlight
- no prison bars on windows
- washing machine is not in kitchen
- bathtub = happy swimmer Titus
- dining table seats six = more guests!
- less mold on walls
- veggie market just outside campus
- groups of toddlers and their guardians congregate daily in a nearby shaded corner to play
- green play spaces on campus
Not as Agreeable
- British neighbor below blaring Elton John and Dire Staights during nap time
- pretty much only foreigners live in our building (though there are plenty of Chinese all around)
- kitchen stove operates like a gas grill: turn on big tank of gas under stove, light stove, cook, turn of gas, stove goes off, hope not to smell gas
On Monday Drew will begin teaching "Audio-Visual Oral English" to juniors!
I (Rachel) will teach Freshmen Oral English beginning in October, as the freshmen all have military training this month. We're excited and nervous. Can we do it? And do it well?
more later ----
rach
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