Blog 2-10...at last

Travelogue #10-2

Dateline: Beijing, China; March 4, 2010--China at last. It was one week ago today that I arrived in Guangzhou (pronounced ˈgwä ng ˈjō, once called Canton), a populous city due west of Hong Kong. This was to have been near my destination of Shenzhen, which is within the Guangzhou province. Having been to Hong Kong with the Marines back in ’74, I was really hoping for a bit more China under my feet. As explained in Travelogue #1, my wish was granted and the school was moved to XXX, a small area outside Beijing. But Guangzhou made its impression on me nonetheless.
A Chinese friend of mine from years past lives near Guangzhou with his wife. His wife has tuberculosis. Needing some special supplements, my friend had them shipped to me in Alabama and I carried them from there. Among these supplements were four large bottles of Vibe, a souped-up vitamin/mineral nutrient concentrate which is both expensive and very useful in such a case as it was intended.
The flight from Los Angeles to Guangzhou was to have taken about 15 hours but for one reason or another it took a bit longer. After finally arriving and collecting my baggage, I cleared customs but found no place to recheck my luggage for the flight to Beijing and time was running out. Little did I want to be left behind in Guangzhou. Leaving the secure area, I started looking for a China Southern ticket counter. Happening upon a very busy, very crowded series of counters, I hoped I had found my solution. Big people, little people, suitcases, bags and boxes were everywhere. It seemed like the proverbial Chinese fire drill. The queue was going nowhere so I sought out another more promising looking counter, one with a sign in English which offered “Special Assistance.” The sign was the last of the English as none of those who heard my plight understood any more of my words than I did of their offers of condolence or assistance. Someone wrote down gate number C-116, that much I could recognize, but I protested, pointing to all of my luggage, that I needed to recheck it first. They in turn pointed to C-116 and made urgent, you’d better hurry sounds.
Thanks mostly to the USA, most airports now have the same security standards, one of which prohibits liquids of more than six ounces from being carried in carry-on luggage. Problem here was all of my luggage had become carry-on luggage. With great sadness I saw my four large bottles of Vibe disappear to wherever all those bottles, cans, containers and sharp instruments disappear to. There were many other smaller bottles in my luggage but they let all of them pass, bundled me into an electric cart and sped me off to C-116. Before we arrived, we have to pass the hall troll. The woman in uniform told me, “Zhou nichoz conflam flam,” or words to that effect. She and the driver fixed me with anticipatory stares. “I haven’t the foggiest idea of what you want,” I replied back. Fixing upon a solution to her dilemma, she she whipped out a 10 yuan note and waved it at me. So, it was money she wanted. I quickly pulled out a $5 bill, figuring that would surely trump her 10 yuan, and handed it to her. That seemed not to meet her immediate needs and she and the driver both began explaining the virtues of coughing up the requisite fee for the hall troll. So I opened my wallet, exposing a variety of bills, intending to pull out a $10 bill, surly matching her note. But she spied something better and pointed at a $1 bill and held up two fingers. She could have had $5, but took only what was needed, or an approximate amount. As it turns out, a dollar is worth about 6.75 yuan. It is always gratifying to meet an honest person, especially when I make myself such an easy mark.
Paying the two dollars, we sped on to C-116. All the passengers were already on board. I am that one that holds up the entire airline industry. What chagrin. I like to be an hour or two ahead of schedule and here I am, the last one. And making matters worse, I am doing what rankles me when I see others doing it. I am not just carrying on my carry-on luggage. I am lugging all of my luggage. A rolling duffle, a smaller duffle and a small carry-on suitcase. Of course I am the main attraction as every almond eye is strained to ssee this round-eyed apparition, struggling down the asile with all of my possessions. Business Class was completely empty and so the stewardess allowed me to stow my belonging up there, and then escorted me back to steerage, which was full. And thus the last leg of the journey to my destination was begun.
Being met in Beijing by my contact and two other gentlemen, I was escorted to a van and driven to one of the SDA churches here in this huge city. Soon, after years and years of waiting and dreaming, I was sitting in China, around a simple table in a brother’s home sharing a feast of steamed grains and vegetables with twelve newly found brothers and sisters. We gathered around a small stove in the center of the one room that serves as home for this family of four. How good it felt, how warm it was, how great were the promises of what would yet to be.
There was a good reason to enjoy the warmth of that little stove. It is cold in Beijing this time of the year, very cold. I did not notice it driving in from the airport, but later, as we drove out again, I could see those were piles of snow alongside the road wearing a black mantle of coal soot.The soot, and the exhaust from ten thousand diesel trucks, spreads it pall over the land. The little stove that was providing blessed heat to warm the body and heat the food, was fueled by black cylinders of packed soil impregnated with coal dust. Each is a bit larger than a small container of rolled oats with dime-sized holes running top to bottom. They glow red and inviting when in the heart of the stoves, and once spent, are but brittle yellow-tan ruins of yesterday’s heat lying aside todays frozen roads. Did I mention it was cold in China?
Now, some of you may be wondering why this is the first blog you have received since I left the USA. Good question. As is always the case, I am busy. This time it is converting all of my programs into Chinese, complete with Chine people. Then there is the internet. The place where we are holding the school purports to have Wi-fi, but it doesn’t work on my Apple. Then there is the power, which is on again, off again. Frankly, today is Tuesday, March 17, so you can see I am a bit behind. But I have purposed in my heart to write one hour a day, some on the blog, some on poetry, some answering emails when I receive them.
So, catch up in the next few blogs.
God’s blessings,
Don