This Great Work

 For now, this is my favorite photo.  It was taken after at least 3 minutes of this, and continued for a few minutes more.  And after this darling little girl had a good look, she went and got her mom and then her sister and then kept coming back for several long stares. Yes.  This is what it feels like to live in China.  Parents point us out to their children. Children point us out to their parents. Old people can't seem to get enough. Sometimes they do it openly and sometimes on the sly, and obviously it happens more than we see.    We are watched. We are stared at. We are photographed. It is why keeping our light on is so important. I hope we reflect the light of Jesus Christ.  I hope the people can feel my love for Him! It's all I can share for now. (Greta did smile and acknowledged her, but the stare continued and continued and continued.....)

I'm still puzzled by how it actually happened. ⬜ Communication issues?   ⬜ Culture issues?   ⬜ Translation issues? ⬜ Me being willing to help whenever asked? ☑All of the above. Here's what I do know.  One of my Chinese teachers (Penny) asked me to help someone learn English. I said I would.  At my next lesson, Penny asked me to help another person, something about 8 times and some other thing that I can't remember because what she said didn't make sense to me.  It seemed like a bigger time commitment than what I had, but she kept talking and talking and while I could understand her words, I couldn't understand what she meant. (This is so common--yes, she was speaking English.)  So to quiet her down, I said that I would think about it.  Later, she came to dinner, she told us about a conference at the university and mentioned three topics:  e-commerce, vocational education and teaching styles.  I told her a little about how teaching s...

 If we ever see a sunset, it looks something like this: That's my view out of my kitchen window. If you are on the ground, you rarely see much because there is always a building in the way. On this particular night, however, I decided to get my selfie stick and put my phone out the window as far as I safely could to get a bit of a better shot.   After doing that, I decided to climb on top of my kitchen counter to go out even farther.  As I did this, I caught a small glimpse of something else.  I changed the direction of my phone and shot these photos: I had no idea that you could see the sky on the other side of that building from here.  (Well, you can't actually see this without unsafely hanging out the window.....) This doesn't seem like much to you, but this is as much of a sunset I've seen the whole time we've been in China.  So while I couldn't actually see the full skyline, I was thankful to enjoy more of it with my camera. This was a sweet night...

There is a bamboo forest nearby.  A few weeks ago we paid it a visit. It was about an hour drive and after we got off the freeway it was a meandering road through some cute villages.  I started getting excited for some hiking and a lovely nature experience. I should have known better.  This is China.  If people will come, they will find a way to make some money.  The bamboo forest was no different---it was a tourist trap. That didn't mean we didn't enjoy it.  We did. It was a lot of fun.  But our expectations were shot down yet again.  (Pro tip, Darcee, drop all expectations, you're in China!) At the bamboo forest, you can see shops,  get a hot dog at "Fatty Dogg WestCoast Hot Dog",  (perhaps I should try it, my expectations may be happily surprised; but I highly doubt it) get measured 3 times,   (in China, children's prices are determined by your height, not your age.  When we came to China, both girls were under 150cm so they...