October 31st

What a day! Hilda, Lily, and I left with our driver for a 45 minute ride to one of the area churches. We met the female pastor who showed us the church and then, after prolonged conversation about the congregation, we left for our first home visit.

The visit took place in a beauty salon. The owner and her mother and several friends from the church gathered on little benches for conversation. The mother earns about 25 cents American per hour sewing the material to umbrella frames. In another part of the house, three women were cutting the excess threads off of pairs of white pants. It was an enjoyable visit ending up with reyarp.

 

Then we headed off to another home where a homebound woman resided. She had hurt her knee and found it hard to get around. Her artist son was in the upstairs working with two aspiring artists. Enjoyed tea with them and admired the art.

Visited an open market - those are the most interesting of all places. Fresh fruit and veggies, fresh meat of all sorts, live animals for sale, fish, turtles, eels, and anything you can name. This time I saw dog for sale, and at that stand I was asked if I wanted to eat dog at a nearby restaurant. But, having seen the dogs for sale, I couldn’t eat dog…..at least today.

Curry for lunch back in Jiang Men. Then Lily and I took a bus to the Museum of Overseas Chinese. Stories of how Chinese from this five county area emigrated to other countries (107 different countries). The museum had awesome dioramas and lots of wonderful explanation in English. Bottom line:  I came to realize that the Chinese people have a much greater stake in our world than just Asian China. From the Flying Tigers to supporters of presidents, to educators, they have done much!!

Back to the Center to meet Brogan who had invited Faith, a new GEO who is a service coordinator, along with Lily to have sushi. A nice evening meal.

Now, it’s getting everything back in bags in order to travel to Shenzhen tomorrow at 12:30 pm.

October 30th

A great morning. I slept so good last night and am feeling that jet lag is TOTALLY gone. I was really refreshed when I awoke. Breakfast: honey-nut cheerios, yogurt, and a tasty pear. Later had a cup of Nescafe. Spent more than an hour with Matthew as he tried to work on my computer (he, in Pittsburgh, was on my computer in Jiang Men). Ah!.... the digital age of technology. And he performed the magic that I had asked him to do.

Lily and Hilda made my lunch today: eggplant with pork, green beans, and chicken. Wow! And grapes for dessert (maybe I should go downstairs and get a McDonald’s cone). Brogan left the apartment at 9:30 to go and teach his 1^st -3^rd graders at a public school.

We’ll meet up again at a textile factory shortly before 5 pm. Pastor Jimmy meets with people during the dinner hour and Brogan and I will sing.

IMPORTANT WORD:  I need to be careful of what I am writing – I think that maybe I am telling too much of the story. It’s a story I should tell more of when I meet some of you eyeball to eyeball. Indeed I am about my Father’s work, but much of it should remain unshared publicly. That is not only for my own safety, but for the safety of those that I meet while here.

A result of jet lag being past is that I feel comfortable here in my surroundings. I feel safe walking around by myself, I can order food alone, and I just can be a bit more independent.

Later:  The textile factory did not turn out to be a textile factory (China surprise!). Instead, it was a company that makes lamps and light fixtures. We were greeted by “Steve” the manager of operations who was in the cafeteria making preparations for us and for the evening meal.

Steve invited us to eat a meal before the workers came in – and so we did. Food that was not too bad. We learned that there are 60-70 workers who stay in the dormitories and eat three squares at the cafeteria daily. They are from other parts of China and come to earn dollars so that they can send some home to their families.

At 5:30 they began to arrive to eat. The choir from the Jiang Men Church sang for about 15 minutes. They I shared a word, followed by Brogan and I singing one song with the guitar. Auntie Jolly shared a few strong words following, and then we were done.

It was a tough crowd because they ate and talked. They were working overtime tonight, so didn’t stay around very long. It was not a particularly heartening experience.

Rain off and on all day. Hope it’s nicer tomorrow.

An open air market on our way home to Brogan's apartment.

Just note the immensity of the train terminal in Guangzhou! It is an amazing place.

October 29th

The English Corner last night was wonderful. I chatted mainly with an attorney and his wife, a HR person, and their son. Simply an interesting conversation. A little later others joined in.

Today was Brogan’s day off, and he wanted to go to the Guangzhou zoo. First I had to exchange American dollars (a one-half hour process), and then we took bus, light rail, and subway (2+ hours to get to the zoo). Guangzhou is the third largest city in the world. This was my first light rail ride – a splendid experience, comparable to the bullet train in Japan except that it doesn’t travel quite as fast.

The zoo was much better than I expected. The animals were clean, and most had adequate room in their cages. This was a highlight for Brogan – he loves zoos. Hilda said it was her first time at a zoo. I enjoyed watching the two male pandas. It was a lot of walking, and my legs were talking by the time we left for home at 6:30.

I was going to go to school (grades 1 – 3) with Brogan tomorrow morning, but instead I will work on muy sermons. That might be time better spent.

All is well here! It’s been fun to do things with Brogan (and Hilda, our service coordinator).

English Corner at Xue Hua Church near Jiang Men, a satellite of the Jiang Men Church.

Brogan sits at the light rail station waiting, and playing a game on his phone

Brogan and Hilda wait with patience.

The new light rail trains travel between 90 and 120 miles per hour. More and more new lines are being put into service making travel in China safer, modern, and faster. A great blessing!

One of the two pandas at the Guangzhou Zoo. The animals at the zoo seemed healthy and energetic.

We call this little panda, the red panda (lesser panda). The zoo had 4 – 6 of these active little pandas.

People traffic at the railway transfer stations was “horrific.” There simply were just lots of people.
Reminiscent of Tokyo in the late 60.’s