My first few days in CHINA were spent on a train. This was MY FIRST TRAIN RIDE, not counting rides at Disney. I have never traveled on a train so I was excited. It was a 36 hour train ride. I was thankful I opted to pay an extra $40USD (unlike most of my squad) to have a bed, especially after a long day of travel from the Philippines. I had already traveled by bus, plane, bus again, and then subway with all my gear. When I have all my gear (back pack, day pack, purse, & teddy bear) on I weight 200lbs. So after boarding the train, at midnight, I just crawled into my bed to sleep. My excitement could wait until the sun came out and I could see out the windows. I was on the top bunk. It took all my energy to climb to the third bed up. I didn’t even want to change my clothes. I crawled in jeans and all. Then the train attendant started yelling at me. I couldn’t figure out what she was saying to me (yelling in Mandarin.) Her and a few other Chinese passengers were yelling and pointing at my feet… I figured it out. I had crawled into bed with my shoes on. Sorry China! I started to get comfortable and almost grabbed my Bible, like I do every night. However this was China, so I remembered I couldn’t. Then just before I closed my eyes I noticed the man directly across from me getting handcuffed to his bed. Another reminder that this was CHINA! This is what I signed up for … An adventure with GOD … and this was it … THE WORLD RACE. In my surprise and disbelief I passed a note to the other two racers (Nick & Rachel) in my cabin. I wrote “The guy next to me just got handcuffed to his bed! WEIRD!” We all started to giggle a little. Then the police officer from the bottom bed stood up and hushed us. Then the lights went out. I didn’t make eye contact with the prisoner next to me. The handcuffs were now covered by the sheets. I felt he was hoping I didn’t notice. I felt sorry for him. What had he done? Did he know Jesus (highly unlikely?) I compassionately prayed for him and fell asleep.
I slept great… until loud Chinese songs and voices woke me up. The speaker for the whole cabin was on the ceiling, 12inches from my face. So I got up and went to the bathroom to clean up and change. Oh Good Lord! A very dirty and smelly squatty potty! MY FIRST SQUATTY POTTY EXPERIENCE! As if using a squatty isn’t hard enough, the motion of the train wasn’t helping. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination. I laughed at myself throughout this experience.
OH CHINA!
I spent the train ride visiting with other racers, eating romaine noodles ( first of many romain noodle meals to come), and then made conversation with the police officers. There were two police officers in my cabin. The conversation was light. They asked me if I was scared. I said “No, I slept well.” I didn’t know if they were referring to the fact that it was my first train ride (as I had told them) or the fact that I was sleeping next to their prisoner. Their English was limited and my Mandarin is non-existent. We found that writing English back and forth was easier than verbal communication. One of the officers grabbed a news paper and I had a pen. We went back and forth with basic conversation (Age, Married, Children, & Jobs.) Then I started to ask him about key phrases and words I should know how to say. I took some video of them speaking Mandarin so I could work on the phrases later. They were surprised that I was almost the same age as them (41 & 37.) They told me I was very beautiful. Then at one point on the news paper he wrote “Kill Human.” I believe he was telling me what his prisoner had done. However, I never asked. Communication was difficult. I sensed that this was more to impress me than true! When they asked what I was doing in CHINA I felt my stomach hurt as I said “traveling, vacation.”I couldn’t say mission work, especially to a Chinese police officer. It felt horrible to lie especially when it was about Christianity!?!? This was a tough place to be. It prompted many questions in my own mind. Where do you draw the line and say “I have faith that GOD is protecting me and should always be honest about what I am doing” or “This is not the place or time I will wait for a better opportunity.” I was instructed by the WORLD RACE to just say we are students traveling and for the safety and respect of the WORLD RACE and my squad I stuck with that story. However, if I knew it wouldn’t have affected the others, I would have liked to have spoken out in TRUTH!
I soon learned that speaking out was not going to be my mission in CHINA! Between the legal barriers and language barriers … I would have to be creative! I just learned to laugh at everything and release saying ….
“OH CHINA!” a lot!
