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.

Titus the Tool-Man

(Click on any of the pictures to see them larger.)

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

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