so we are here. 🙂 where we are, that i have no clue, but we are where we are supposed to be. ill recap the past few days for you…
we left hong kong on sunday morning. our group joined together at 7:45am to head down to the bus station. we packed everything on our back and began the mile plus walk. a bit daunting…but ok. we arrived at the bus station and jammed into a bus. its always interesting trying to fit all our luggage into the little compartments underneath. 🙂 anyways…after about 45 minutes, we arrived at the china border and had to unload everything to go through customs and then board another bus. this one took us two hours to a five star hotel. we were dropped off at the door and secretly thought we could just chill in the lobby without anyone noticing for 6 hours until our train left. HA. we aren’t exactly a hidden sight…
so since we werent giving the hotel a “good impression” they asked us to sit outside. we had a few people stay back with the luggage at all times and everyone went out to grab something to eat. about an hour later, we packed up again and headed to the train station. we waited another couple hours until we were able to board and then entered the train. being my first time on a train that i remember…i wasnt real sure what to expect. and it was suprisingly very accomodating! we all had our own bed and if you know me…you can guess i slept the whole time! out of the 37 hour trip…i think i was awake maybe 3-4 hours total. 🙂 its the way to do it..im telling ya! the real reason is i get a little motion sick and so sleeping helps a ton!
when we departed the train, we had to get into cabs and go about 20 minutes across town. where they dropped us off was no particular place. very interesting. its just this random area with a ton of black sedans. we were warned that when you pull up, you will be mobbed with drivers wanting you to get in their cab and trying to take your luggage from you. Eugene said you just have to push them away. and he was exactly right. it was actually really funny. we pulled up and like 15 little men were opening our doors, chitter chattering away at us, and pulling our crap out of the car. we just laughed and were trying to push them away. we made it into one sedan, where eugenes wife gave him directions to the town we needed to go. this was a 2 hour cab ride and only cost us like 20bucks. crazy! i actually felt like i was in a chicken bus all over again. 🙂
a few things we have experienced so far…
squatty potties. gross.
everyone smokes everywhere. its a bit overwhelming.
the guys like to wrestle in the internet cafe. haha…kim and i started to freak out the first time we saw them. just weird.
dog is a delicacy. any takers?
its frigid cold…i think im wearing everything i own. 🙂
you have to pay for napkins at restaurants.
their internet servers do not upload gmail. shoot!!
the tea here has flowers in it… hmm. 🙂
almost everyone is muslim.
and….the hotel we are staying at has HOT SHOWERS!! awesome!
we are racing tomorrow. they are setting up a scavenger hunt type of thing for us so it should be VERY interesting. everything is in chinese. and i mean everything. its rare you find
someone who speaks english…so wish us luck! haha. ill update you tomorrow on how that goes.
as far as the agenda for this month… our team with be going to a village that will be decided upon in the morning to pray consistently and look for any opportunity to share the gospel. Eugene who is our contact here shared a little bit with us about the area, and it was written about in a book that the area from Northern Nepal to Tibet is a region with the most intense spiritual stronghold. He said that when the gospel is broken here, it will explode into all of Asia. This is such an amazing opportunity for us to share Christ to the people here. Please pray for the next few weeks. After we leave the muslim village, we will be heading about 30 hours into another village that is Buddist. This will also be intense and we could use all your prayers. We will be travelling an extensive amount so please keep safety in your prayers as well.
i will post again tomorrow…til then – sending lots of love to you…on the other side of the world 🙂
