It’s month 6 everyone! Can you believe we’re halfway?! I have a hard time fitting that into my head. Before I give you a little update on what’s on the horizon (we’re in-between countries right now, in a way), I do want to recap about our most recent country (China!). However, I want to do it in a way that zooms out to some bigger picture stuff I’m learning happens while on the race going from country to country.
Really I want to give you better context for what it means for us to arrive in a new country and, more specifically, what that meant for China.
You see, whenever we enter a new country, a lot of things change. “Well done, captain obvious!” you might say. And it’s true – there’s the “of course” changes. Things like new ministry partners, new languages, new teammates, new cultural norms, new government powers, new technological developments, new economies and so on. These are the things that change which you expect to change.
And then there’s the tiny nuances. The effects of the bigger, more foundational changes. It’s the pieces you discover for yourself upon entry, the welcome breaths of fresh air and “man, I haven’t seen this since we left America!”s.
No lie: China’s tiny nuances were the ones that hit me harder than the big differences.
One child’s playground is a China man’s gym! Thank you, Kunming, for your surprisingly serious commitment to exercise!
Up until China, Asia’s tiny nuances had begun to blend countries together in my head. Indonesia introduced us to crowded streets with constant horns and more motorcycles than cars. And that didn’t change much in Thailand, Myanmar, India or Nepal. Indonesia introduced us to what street food shops look like and that remained consistent throughout the next 4 months. Indonesia introduced us to squatty potties and how that was really the only toilet option up until last month. Indonesia introduced us to a surprising ease of communication because of people who speak two languages (their home country’s and English) and that was the same throughout.
But China…specifically Yannan and Sichuan provinces in the southwest region where my team traveled…China’s little things were the biggest little differences yet.
We arrived in Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan province, on May 10th late in the evening. Hopping into a bus taxis to one of two designated hostels, I surveyed our surroundings from the windows. Hardly anybody was out on the well-kept streets, the sidewalks were at least 6′ wide and made of tile (smooth enough to make almost all of us slip while casually walking down a non-sloped street) and the skyscrapers were well-maintained and made of metal, glass AND concrete (not just concrete).
The following morning, we woke up…and all was eerily quiet. Electric scooters and cars made for a sound vacuum even in the middle of a big city. Paradox. I walked around the rest of my time in Kunming pinching myself and in disbelief that, of all places to be different in the little ways, the day-to-day noticeable ways, that this would be the country where that starts along our journey westward.
I guess it makes sense, now that I think about it and considering what I know to be true about China’s reputation, but upon arrival, I was perplexed. This part of China wowed me. Kunming had me in wonder.
And Yunnan and Sichuan kept wowing me!
Once we split off into our new all-girls and all-guys teams and were commissioned to our missional traveling month, my team (Andrea D, Nicole, Janea and Alissa) traveled by train to a little hippy-esque town west of Kunming called Dali.
We enjoyed all Dali’s nuances brought us: washing machines, mountains hidden in clouds, small-town community feel, rooftop restaurants, daily bowls of noodles and bags of steam buns, clean country air, an old town pedestrian area, bicycle rental shops on every block, hot shower water and good conversations with locals over food. Nearly all of these things were things we had experienced in some capacity in other countries, but it was odd being in a place where all were present in such a normal way.
Our team took advantage of the bicycle rental shops and the beautiful scenery 🙂
Oh and one more new thing we discovered: if you want food, you better either know the word for noodles or be able to point at a picture and ask for the price because English is anything but common.
The language barrier is alive and well if you’re an English speaking person in Western China. Conversations have been more difficult to have there than anywhere else on the race. Yeah perhaps it was the region we were in, but we struggled to communicate everywhere in the country. You knew when someone pulled out a smartphone with a translation app that you were in for a ride, and in every conversation, it was only a matter of time.
This forced us to change something in us and how we lived, too. It required that we love people in ways where we can’t just quickly say something nice and move on. It made love a hard thing, a sacrificial, time-consuming action. It taught me about myself and my tendencies and how I go about loving. I’m discovering I have much to learn (as I always will, I suppose, but this realization became very real in China).
*I’ll fast forward a little bit here because a lot of what I have already mentioned about nuances remained consistent throughout our travels. I want to give you a complete roadmap of where we went in China. Get ready!
A Timeline of China Travel
Kunming (May 10-15)
>>>>>7 hour train ride>>>>>
Dali (May 15-20)
>>>>>5 hour train ride>>>>>
Lijiang (May 20-23)
>>>>>2 1/2 hour bus ride>>>>>
Qiaotou (May 23)
>>>>>7 1/2 hours of trekking Tiger Leaping Gorge>>>>>
Halfway House (night of the 23rd)
>>>>>3 hours of continuing trekking TLG>>>>>
>>>>>30 min bus back to Qiaotou to pick up packs>>>>>
>>>>>2 hour bus ride>>>>>
Sangri-la (May 24-27)
>>>>>8 hour bus ride>>>>>
Xiangcheng (night of May 27th)
>>>>>3 hour bus ride>>>>>
Litang
>>>>>6 hour bus ride>>>>>
Kangding (night of the 28th)
>>>>>11 hour bus ride>>>>>
Chengdu (night of the 29th)
>>>>>21 1/2 hour train ride>>>>>
Lanzhou (May 31st-June 2nd)
>>>>>25 hour train ride>>>>>
Urumqi (June 3-5th)
>>>>>28 hour sleeper bus ride>>>>>
ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN! (June 6th)
Map of most of our travels in China (minus Urumqi)…it’s a massive country! The topmost dot was our rendezvous point with the rest of the squad: Lanzhou.
And believe it or not, throughout all of the “here, there and everywhere”, we managed to make some good relationships with people. We interacted with a lot of foreigners who, like ourselves, were out looking for an adventure among the beautiful lands of Western China. I want to write about a particular story in another brief blog but will conclude this blog with some info on what we’re up to next.
Currently, we are in Almaty, enjoying some R & R after traveling before we leave for Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on the 14th. From there, we’ll have a full 3 weeks of ministry with different ministry contacts and hosts around the area before returning to Kazakhstan in late July.
Please continue to pray for my squad and I! We are about to be put on new teams and engage once more with existing ministries in their efforts to bring light into darkness (and maybe while we’re helping with that, it’ll shine a little light on our own darkness). And I’m so aware we cannot go the rest of this route alone, knowing what’s still to come!
On a final note, I am fully funded now and so so grateful to each of you financial supporters for allowing me to continue to be here! I am confident in God’s calling for me to continue to “run the race so as to obtain the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24), and I am encouraged that so many of you feel the same – that I’m where I should be!
Muchas gracias and God bless y’all!!
(Some good friends and I went camping at this gorgeous lake 45 min from Almaty yesterday and had a blast!)
