There was an audience...where?

Line is starting to form:)

This past weekend we decided to go to the Cherry Blossom festival in Lushun, which is about an hour and half drive. I prepared snacks and water bottles, we had the camera ready and we were off. Lushun was just as we expected, beautiful cherry blossom trees, vendors, ice cream... ...and people wanting to take pictures with the kids. As we allow one person to take a picture, quickly a line forms. It doesn't matter where we are, people will want pictures with our kids. Some people have tried to be discreet about it, not asking, but following us and having their friend take their picture with our kids "in" the picture, but for the most part they will come right up and ask. Our kids have been so gracious and only on a couple of occassions has it become too much and we had to break through the crowd and leave. I tell them they are like celebrities here, and I guess we are getting a small taste of what it is like to have to deal with the popparazi. I told Matt it will be nice to be somewhere and not stand out, and no one cares that we are american. So after pictures here and there, we get an ice cream snack and then have to use the bathroom. I know I have blogged a lot about the bathrooms here, but this just, well...it made me laugh. What do you do? The bathroom at the festival was one with out doors. In these bathrooms, we always go to the very end, so no one is walking past us to get to ones further down. So we go to the end one and are waiting, and it is a little akward, (for us anyways), because there are no doors and you are trying to look at different things, with out watching. So the lady finishes and sees that we are next. The stall is actually quite big and she steps aside to let us in, so now all four of us are in the stall. We think she is going to leave, but she stands there, smiling and trying to talk to Mia, and Mia is asking me if the lady is going to watch. The lady realizes Mia doesn't want her in there, so she steps down outside of the stall, only to stand and watch from there. I stand in front of Mia and Eden as much as I can as they do their business, but in the meantime, the lady is telling the other ladies in the bathroom that there are "meigouren" (Americans). So more and more ladies start coming our way, standing outside our doorless stall to see, and peeking their heads over the half height wall. By this time Mia and Eden have done their thing and it is my turn. I am thinking I will just hold it, but I have to go kind of badly and I am not sure where my next option will be.... So... for the first time in my life, I squatty potty with a crowd of Chinese ladies watching. I finish, smile and off we go. As we walk past the crowd of ladies all I can hear is "meigouren, meigouren". (For me, I am kind of proud of myself, I did what I had to do, and might add that I did it quite efficiently.) These ladies make me smile though. For whatever reason, it gives them great joy to see Americans. I think they don't get to see the variety of God's creation, that we in America are so blessed to have. Maybe we even take for granted, the array of skin, hair and eye color that is so abudant in America. My God is Creator God! (and I might add, He was very good to me, because just the night before, I had a lesson on the correct way to squat...Thanks God!)

Schooling

Before we left for China, I had bought some books for the kids to have while living here. I bought a nonfictional educational set that included books about the planet, weather, robots, recycling, (very exciting titles) etc. One day Eli brings a stack of books down and plops them on table and tells me he is going to do some reading. He is reading out loud to me and telling me about the ocean and how deep the deepest part is and showing me pictures of the planet. He finishes the book and I ask to look at it. He hesitates and slowly gives it to me, and then says, "but Mom, I wanted to read to you about trash and recycling." (I'm thinking he takes after Matt) He starts to read to me about trash and landfills and what can be recycled (if you ever want me to pick a series for you to read, let me know). Half way through, he stops and sees the next book is about weather. He asks me if I know how rain can sometimes be red. I tell him I don't know and ask him how. He then tells me I am going to have to wait and I can learn that when he reads me "Weather" but right now we have to finish reading about the trash and recycling. He is good at giving those "hook" questions to keep you interested and excited to hear more!

Mia loves her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Adams. The second week we were here was conferences, so there wasn't a whole lot Mrs. Adams had to show me, but she did say Mia is a very funny little girl. They were lining up to wash their hands for lunch and Mia told Mrs. Adams "we don't wash hands at our house." Mrs. Adams told her that they wash them at school though and she still had to wash them. The next day, as they were lining up to wash hands again, Mia put her arm on Mrs. Adams, and asked, "do you remember what I told you yesterday?" Yep, washing hands is overrated and we don't think it prevents illness, so we are boycotting handwashing, even if we are here in a new place, where we aren't used to the germs they have... and besides, if it really does kill germs, wouldn't killing be breaking a commandment? Mia has also told her that her stomach feels like it is melting and going to burst open, and should she see the nurse. Well, in AZ, Mia saw the nurse regularly and we knew her well. I guess we should get to know the nurse here also, especially if we are opposed to hand washing.

Using our Chinese phrases

Matt's Chinese is coming along quite well. One phrase he learned how to say is "climb a mountain". So we are at a park in the neighborhood and an elderly Chinese couple and a 3 year old boy come to talk with us...in Chinese. We establish that we are American, have 3 children, their ages...and we are actually understable. At the park there is a huge hill...pretty much like a verticle wall. Matt, anxious to show off his Chinese, tells Mia to go climb the hill so that he can use his phrase. Mia is scaling (like spiderman) this verticle hill... only to have the couple run over to the hill fearful that she is going to fall...while we stand back and watch. The man quickly calls Mia down, speaking in Chinese and motioning she might get hurt. I guess we just didn't think of her falling off the wall like hill. It did give me the opportunity to practice how to say "to fall" though. Nothing like putting our children in danger's way, just to practice our Chinese. I guess you could say we are giving it our all to learn the language.

Culture shock?

I'm realizing that we see things much differently than the Chinese people do. Instead of seeing the cup half empty, or the cup half full, they throw the cup out all together and take apart the faucet as well. Just when I think we are on the same page, I realize not only are we not on the same page, we are reading completely different books.
Let's see, we have "The bathroom scene"
Western toilets are considered unsanitary because if your bottom touches something and someone else's bottom touches it, that would be gross.
So, to overcome this, they choose to go with other options. Option 1) using a functioning flushable squatty potty...which leads to at times human waste on the floor and on your shoes (things tend to splash). These stalls could be with or without doors, or they could also have half doors that are easily seen over (very creative). I should add that the privacy standard is a little lower or maybe even non existent to what I am accustomed to...(still working through that.)
Option 2) Having a padlocked room that is seemingly without any sort of working plumbing, with not only squatty potties, but all different sizes and shapes of buckets used the same as the squatty potty would be used... and no ventilation. This renders a very wet and slippery floor and a smell that smacks you in the face like -70 degree winds coming at you full force as you walk out of a warm building. Eden and I were able to experience this option. Thankfully she didn't slip and I didn't pass out.
Option 3) Doing your business outside in the open...which surprisingly to me seems to be the MOST sanitary at this point. I actually find myself considering this option.
I now realize that there is a lot to think about when trying to overcome the issue of bare bottoms not touching the same toilet seat or urine getting on the toilet. It is funny that the western option is not sanitary to them and all their options seem quite unsanitary to me. I guess, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
"Wow, I never would have thought about that being a job"
A couple of examples:
-A parking garage floor mopper. The parking garage floor is being mopped, with a mop and bucket, so you need to find a different place to park.
-Walking Street sweeper. The street gets dirt on it, so people sweep it with a broom (no dust pan though...maybe it would be considered a dirt mover?)
The ironic thing to me is that to my knowledge they haven't created a bathroom cleaner position. It seems they are concerned with things being clean, they just aren't the same things I would necessarily be concerned about being clean.

-Construction work: I just haven't quite figured out their methodology. Behind our house is a cement slab fenced off for a playground, without the playground equipment. One day I see people busy jackhammering the cement. I think "Oh yeah! they are putting in the playground equipment." I come home later in the day and see that those men worked so hard getting the ENTIRE area jackhammered and crushed and the cement removed. The next day I leave and come home to see that the entire area has been recemented...and no playground equipment installed. I wonder if they had to recement because the grading wasn't quite right, but then I remember that I don't think they are particularly concerned with grading (our bathroom shower has a drain, but the water leaks all onto the bathroom floor and into the bedroom). So here we are with a freshly cemented play area, and still no play equipment.
(Side note: If there is a shortage of cement, you might want to look in China...they like making things out of cement here.)

I am trying to take off my American glasses and put on my Chinese ones, (oh but the way we do things is so much better).


I remember a verse that God gave me when I lived in Ecuador
Psalm 139:14 "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" Once again I find myself going back to that verse. I claim that verse for His creation here in China. "They are fearfully and wonderfully made. " The rest of that verse says "Your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
They may do things differently here, but they are His creation and His works are wonderful. I will look for and I will see the "wonderful" God has made here in China.