Shrimp and unidentified eggs.
These are the times when I'm glad that I can't read Chns... what is that?
For those that can't take the blood, there is plenty of dried meats
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Walmart: Chn Style!
It's true, I'm not living in total depravity over here...after all, I live within walking distance to TWO Walmarts. These Walmarts have brought great comfort to me and I appreciate Walmart here in a way that I never have in the U.S. If there was no Walmart (which after this month will be my life as I move to a different city in Chn) I would have to run around to various open markets and random stores to buy my goods. It would take twice as long and require eight times as much language skills. The Walmart offers connivence and an odd sense of comfort as it reminds me of home (although I really don't shop at Walmart at home). This all being said, don't be tricked into thinking that I waltz into Walmart and waltz out with Mac N Cheese. The exterior is the Walmart of America, but the interior is the food preferences of Cha. I wanted to take all of my readers at home on a trip through Walmart Chn.
Duck head anyone?
I'm not really sure what this is...it's dried meat I guess? It's not in a cooler so I don't know.
Yum... bloody fish heads.
It gives me great sorrow to tell you that these sweet frogs are not in the pet department... This is the meat department : ( Jump away, they're going to eat you!!!
I don't know what this is... the label says "laver' is that English? What is "laver"? Do I eat laver?
More Ramen noodles than you can try in a lifetime! This is where I spend a lot of time... MSG is so good!
I had to reinforce some stereotypes right? There is A LOT of rice.... these bags are the size of large bags of dog food at home.
And my favorite... Oreo's!!! There are tons of flavors! Bill and I had The Great Oreo Tasting Party while watching movies on Christmas this year. I am disappointed to say that we both only liked the original flavor. The other ones had a weird aftertaste.
Circles of Friendship
As I was fundraising for this trip last year, I had a couple of thoughts that have been brought back to me recently. One is the idea of Circles of Friendship. Working in Special Education, I have talked to kids about their friendships. One of the common ways to do this is by using the Cirlce of Friendship approach. In this approach we have a diagram of cirlces where we ask the child to write their name in the middle. We then ask them to move to the next circle and write the names of their family members and close friends, these are the people that they love the most. The next circle is for aquantiances etc. This activity continues and we talk to the child/teenager about relationships. We do this for a sad reason... we live in a world with evil people who prey upon individuals with cognitive delays knowing that they can trick or abuse them. They also know that if the individual has a communication delay, they may not be able to report physical and sexual abuse. These kids/teenagers can be taken advantage of because they don't understand boundaries and we are attempting to educate them on who to trust, take care of, give their affection to. One teenager that I worked with was being bullied at lunch. A group of boys was telling him that if he was their friend, he would buy them snacks at lunch. He bought them snacks and when we asked him where his money went, he explained that he was sharing with friends. We knew that these boys were not his friends and that they were taking advantage of him. Explaining the intricacies of who to trust, who to love and how to be a good friend is complicated. When I was thinking about this concept of the circles of friendship, I felt like I agree with it as a method to teach children/teenagers how to be safe from abuse, but have we have gone astray by continueing to live in this diagram as Chrstan adults?
The first question that we should be asking is "whose name should be in the center?" The next circle is reserved for our family, then our friends, then our co-workers, etc. But where do we put the orphaned, the widow, the alien? Chances are if we care for people moving from the inside out as the diagram indicates, we are exhausted and done by the time we get to the outer circle. Maybe if we lived in a perfect world, this wouldn't be such a big deal because everyone would be in someones inner circle. Unfortunately, we live in a broken world where that is not the case. I just finished a book about sexual slavery in Cambodia. The author explained that the victims of this evil industry are generally the desperatly poor and the orphaned. They are people that aren't in the inner circle of many people, if they had advocates, the sex traffickers would most likely leave them alone. There are thousands upon thousands that don't fall into the inner circles of anyone.... anyone but G0d.
The Bible can't be clearer and can't say loudly enough that G0d cares for the needy (Proverbs 14:3, Deut. 10:17-18 etc.). It also can't be clearer that we are called to love who He loves (Proverbs 19:17, 1 John 4:7, Matthew 25:40 etc.). In a book that I'm reading called "Pursuing Justice: The Call to Live and Die for Bigger Things," the author, Ken Wytsma talks about the connection between loving G0d and loving others. He says, " If we care about the Kingdom, we work toward the same end as the King. If we love someone, we love what that person loves. GOd is absolutely clear about who and what He loves."
As I've been reading through this book I've been asking myself how I can live a life that is more just, more loving and less selfish. I feel like there are a couple of key steps. The first is to take myself out of the center of the circle and put G0d there. When I'm in the middle ugly things happen. I live a life where I pursue my own agenda while desperatly trying to do something "good" so that I can sleep at night. The result is that I exhaust myself by my good works while still having a heart that is in disarray. My pet projects help me find momentary alleviation from guilt, but not peace. I want G0d to give me eyes that see people the way that He sees them, a heart that aches for what His heart aches for and feet that travel where His feet travel. To do this, He needs to be in the center. Ken Wytsma says, "The way to do more justice is not simply to do more justice, it is to grow closer to the heart of God." The other thought that I had is that I need to somehow rearrange my other circles. This doesn't mean loving my family and friends less because I know that G0d has blessed me with them, but we are called to care for the "circleless."
There are times when the sorrows of the world feel overwhelming. There are so many people hurting, how can we fix such enormous issues when we feel so powerless? That's when we turn to G0d. We remember that this world is His creation and He goes before us and walks beside us on a fight that has been going on since the beginning of time. We turn the sorrow over to G0d because it's too much for our human hearts to bear. We put the people that we see living in heartwrenching situations into His hands because ours aren't strong enough. We ask for wisdom on how to change what is our responsibility to change. We ask for love that doesn't always come naturally to us. We ask for endurance when we want to pack it up and go home. We ask for forgiveness when we hate instead of love, are selfish instead of selfless, are judgemental instead of compassionate, are apathetic instead of energized and in doing all of these things we misrepresent our loving G0d is to the world. And lastly, we cry out for G0d to help us reorganize our circles.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
From Dog Meat Soup to Poodle Promenades in the Park... The Story of the Chns Dog
Just as in the U.S., various areas in Chn are known for their culinary delicacies. Chicago is known for its deep dish pizza just as Beijing is known for Peking duck. Pittsburgh is known for its primanti brothers sandwiches just as Sichuan is known for its spicy cuisine. Well one of my childhood homes in Chn was known for its dog soup. Dogs in Guiyang had it rough, they were by no means pets. Guiyang was a poor city and the numerous stray dogs were the least of anyone's concern until dinner time came around and then they were a mans best friend. As stated before, Chn has changed quite a bit and is at the same time, exactly the same... You may be thinking "that statement doesn't make sense." EXACTLY.
One of the changes that I've recently taken great interest in is the civil rights movement of the Chns K9. Something has happened over the past twenty years in the equality of dogs. I walk down the street and I see dogs with their heads held high wearing clothes! When I see dogs wearing clothes in the states, it's Paris Hilton type people dressing their dogs up for special occasions etc. I will admit that our deceased dog Mia, was known to don a Steeler shirt during football season. But dogs wearing clothes are the exception, not the rule. Here in kunming, some of these dogs wear clothes on a daily basis as if it would be totally inappropriate to leave the house without a shirt and skirt on. I can't help but wonder, when/how/why has this happened. I want to interview the owners and ask what made them make the leap from putting a dog in their soup to dressing it up in tennis shoes and jeans. If this was some sort of campaign, then I want to meet the orchestrator. Perhaps we should put the Chns dog activist on the committee to bring peace to the Middle East or end world hunger....anything, they must have excellent powers of persuasion.
Sometimes I resent these dogs. After all we live in a world where children die of hunger and little Rover has a full belly and Michael Jordan shoes (everything else has been true, the Jordan shoes is an exaggeration). But what's one little foreign girl to do, run all over town undressing dogs? So instead, I ask you to rise up oh dogs of kunming, and use your power to join the rest of us in the fight against human rights violations worldwide! But by all means, put on those split pant jeans, skirts, sweaters and shoes, put your hair up in a ponytail (I kid you not) and hang your purse around your little neck (also true), who says injustice can't be fought in style.
P.s. I have been chasing unsuspecting dogs around for a couple of weeks to take pictures. It's made me wonder if I have a future in photojournalism... It's been exciting to run after dogs in the market and through the park with the camera on my cell phone! Unfortunately there is little dog that wears tennis shoes, jeans and a sweatshirt that I have seen a couple of times but didn't have my camera out in time. There was also one wearing a purse, but I was on a bike and taking a picture would have gotten me killed. I hear from a reputable source, of a dog that wears eye shadow, but haven't come across it yet.
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Dance Party in the Park!
If any of you out there think that the concept of a flash mob is either western or new, you haven't seen what goes on in Chinese parks. I am convinced that the Chinese have been flash mobbing since the Ming dynasty. I have been scouting out the dance parties because one of my New Years goals is to join in. You have to understand that while this seems like an easy goal, it's pretty intimidating. My very presence in China brings about stares, cell phone pictures and the traditional point and scream "foreigner" from small children. I can't even imagine the response when I jump into the crowd and start shaking what my momma gave me! I guess I'll find out!
Today, I had the pleasure of watching how these epic dance parties begin. A group of four ladies rolled up with a boom box and started dancing. The area that they began in was virtually empty. Within about ten minutes there were about twenty strangers dancing in a circle together and about forty so spectating. I love the inhabition and the inclusiveness of these spontaneous events. There were people from different minority groups, women, men and children of all ages. One of the men was dancing in a business suit! I feel like at home it would take a pretty strong drink to get most people to dance around with strangers and the gawking eyes of onlookers! But that's Chna for you and one day I'll be flash mobbing with the best!!!
Friday, January 3, 2014
Bill's Visit : )
For those of you who may not know, my family lived in Hong Kong for about a year and a half when I was about nine. Hong Kong is my favorite city in the world so it was nice to get to show Bill around what used to be one of my homes. What made Hong Kong all the sweeter was that I was coming from Kunming. While I enjoy what I do here and love working with the people, Kunming isn't the most beautiful places on earth. Yunnan province is known for its beauty and judging from my trip to the countryside at the beginning of my time here, I see why. The mountains are amazing and the temperature leads to lush plant life. However, Kunming itself gets me a little down. It's a big city and you have a tough time finding nature which is what makes me miss the beauty and rolling hills of Pittsburgh. Anyway, it was nice to show Bill, both my childhood home/favorite place ever and my current location.
We had a great time in both places and were happy to get to spend time together after being apart for six weeks. The weather didn't cooperate in either place which was frustrating, but we survived the torrential downpours of Hong Kong and the freezing temperatures of Kunming. Kunming is generally pretty mild but we hit a bad week : (. The difficult thing about living here when there is cold weather is that there is no central heating in the buildings. Some days it's so cold inside that I can see my breath. That was what poor Bill got to experience. It really can be depressing to NEVER warm up.
Below are some pictures of our two weeks together...miss you already Bill : (
Lantau island ... This is where we used to live. Love it!
Cartoon avenue of the stars in the park.
We ate at Pizza Hut for my birthday. It's totally different here because it's actually a pretty nice restaurant with a big menu. I stuck with pizza since it's a treat that I don't get often. I like that the sign says "let's pizza together"
Thanks Bill for a great holiday!
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
A Dog Tinkled on My New Years Resolutions : )
I will admit that I am borderline insane when it comes to New Years resolutions. I LOVE getting a fresh start, reflecting on the previous year and thinking about how to torture yourself in the new year : ). In reality I don't do resolutions because I have terrible success with that system...in true procrastinator fashion, I prefer goals because they are one time things that I can cram in at the end of the year. I generally take about a week to come up with a list of 12 or so new goals for the upcoming year. These goals fit into categories and then I put them into a powerpoint...borderline insane may have been giving myself too much credit.
The process of coming up with New Years goals was yet another reminder on how my life in America and my life in China differ. In America I feel like I can do BIG things, or at least dream to do big things... one year I wanted to (and did) participate in an adventure race involving kayaking 2 miles, biking 12 miles and running 3 miles. One year my best friend and I rode our bikes from Pittsburgh to D.C. In China, due to the language barrier and other complications, I feel like I have to dream a little smaller because I am barely able to do the daily tasks required for sustaining life. But these small things end up feeling like big things because they involve large amounts or frustration, anxiety, stress, tears and embarrassment.
Now we get to the dog... As I was beginning the process of making my goal list, I felt that I need to branch out and try to buy my vegetables from the market instead of from the local Walmart. This would give me a chance to support the local farmers and an opportunity to use my Chinese. I have bought fruit from the market and it has been nice because the fruit man and I exchange pleasant nods when I go past. It makes me feel like I am a part of a community which I really miss. Right outside of my apartment there is a street where farmers come and sell their vegetables. Many of them lay out blankets on the ground and sell their produce that way. As I was walking towards that street I saw a stray dog lift its back leg and tinkle on the lettuce. I looked at the seller in horror to see what her reaction would be. She saw the episode and merely looked away and continued on with her selling. A DOG TINKLED ON MY NEW YEARS RESOLUTION! I considered taking my vegetable buying off of the list and giving up vegetables for the next six months but then realized that I already have so much anxiety about purchasing meat that I am nearly a vegetarian by default...how can I be a vegetarian without eating vegetables? Isn't that what scurvy is? Am I going to end up like the pilgrams voyaging to the new world and die on the boat before reaching the destination? NO! In the words of Gloria Gaynor, "I will survive!" I decided that I will continue to buy and eat vegetables, I will just have to come up with a better strategy for purchase and learn how to clean them correctly. Since the dog incident I have had vegetables (they were bought from Walmart : ) ) I conquered the washing part and washed them like I have never washed anything before. The bowl that I washed them in looked like a commercial for Mr. Bubble. I was almost jealous of the bubble bath spa treatment of my green beans and bean sprouts. Now for the purchasing strategy... I've scoped it out and have come by markets in which the vegetables are on tables. It would have to be a pretty big dog to tinkle on a table right?
At last my list of small but big goals is complete. I have my categories down to three categories. They are cultural immersion, learn how to say more than "ting bu dong" (translation: "I don't understand") and professional development. In the cultural immersion category (which really overlaps with "ting bu dong") I have decided to join one of the early morning or evening dance parties that go on in the park, get back onto a bike (I have taken an approximately three week break because everytime I rode a bike in traffic I wanted to go back to America), shop in the market (I want to try to buy fruits, vegetables and meat in the market... the meat will be the biggest challenge because the beef is hanging there in big slabs and I don't know what it is and the fish is alive and that freaks me out. I also want to try new vegetables, there are some really interesting looking vegetables here and I would like to give them a whirl) and strike up conversations in Chinese with unlucky innocent bystanders. I also want to cook two meals from scratch (since that is really the only option) a month. Regarding language learning, I need to be more disciplined. I didn't sign up for classes because I will be moving around so much but it's hard to study without anyone in your face. I have decided to study at least 5 hours a week and start talking to random people. My professional growth category isn't that excting so I won't bore you : )
There my friends is 2014, the year of talking, shopping, riding and eating, when I put it that way it sounds pretty fun! Happy New Years!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)