One thing forewarned to me about going on the World Race was that there would be times when we would be the only white people in an area and that that could occasionally grant us something akin to minor celebrity status.
Well it turns out that, where we are in China, this is somewhat true. Although we were pretty much the only white people in Puerto Galera whilst we were there, it is a popular tourist spot which probably made us less celebrity-like there. Not the case here, however.
The first time we encountered this was when we all went out for lunch in a market area by one of the nearby Universities. Two of our group ended up being stopped by a couple of female students who when they saw the rest of us wanted photos with us all. A couple even wanted individual photos with some of us (myself included, no complaints there). Slightly bizarre feeling but it was fun and we were happy to build friendships.
The next time was when I was out with the men from our teams and we had gone to see and climb up some of a small nearby mountain (I say climb, there was a staircase) and see the architecture. We had stopped at one point for a breather and so I went off the path to explore some of the mountainside where some local Chinese guys were exploring too. This quickly changed into another photo-op, including standing on a boulder with the guys taking turns to have their photo with me.
When I went out for a walk around a local park the other day with two of my team mates – Raquel and Pete who are both of Asian ethnicity and apparently less interesting because of that (?) – I was stopped at one point by another group wanting photos one-on-one with me. It was still novel, and when we returned a couple of days later taking a couple of kids on an outing we had a group approach us whilst we were stopped picnicking to take photos again. The other outing I went on with kids also drew requests for photos.
But by far, the strangest experience was being invited to a brief English lesson in a nearby Kindergarten. On arrival, Kristen and I were welcomed with a bouquet of red carnations each and shown to two seats at the front of the class. We were welcomed with applause and also given a bottle of water as we were seated. The lesson itself was entirely planned by them, we just led the activities as they directed us, including teaching some words that shared a similar sound (ant, hat, cat, apple all use the same ‘a’ sound), reading a short story, teaching some other vocabulary and teaching a chant. We also experienced them singing some songs with actions about eating, brushing teeth and going to bed. They then had us sit in amongst the kids, had the kids gather around us and took a number of photographs of us with the class. We had our flowers handed to us and off we went. A short lesson, but a big experience and one that definitely felt like being a celebrity.
Obviously this isn’t what I came to China for, nor is it something I’m seeking out this year, but an experience it was. My hope is that as we travel people will be amazed by us, not because of ethnicity or anything else so superficial, but because they are able to see Christ in us, the hope of glory.
