Things continue to go very well for us here. We feel so very blessed to be in China and are constantly thankful for the open door made available to us and all of you who made it possible for us to come. So far during this school term another 51 have decided to speak the King's English. (Thanks, Dan Oden, for the unique phrasing!)
We have met hundreds of people from the university and the community. Because Jingzhou is not a place tourists visit, folks here are not accustomed to seeing foreigners. This makes us a constant curiosity, but provides surprising opportunities. Yesterday I rode the bus from town out to our campus (South Campus). A young man sat in front of me and we began to talk. His name is Lio Lee and he teaches Chinese at the Central Campus of the university. I will try to see him again. I invited him to stop by our apartment any time he was free just to visit and talk. I hope he comes, but the Chinese are very reluctant to accept the first initiation. It usually requires two or three invitations before they will come. I think they are accustomed to people being polite, but not necessarily really meaning it. They discount the first one or two as just a courtesy.
The two freshmen boys I met last week riding into town were different. As we talked I asked them when they were free later in the week. They said they did not have an 8 AM class on Wednesday. Free time for the students, especially freshmen, is very limited. Almost all freshmen, and many others, have three or four classes during the day and another at night. Classes here last 90 minutes. I invited the two boys to come to our apartment on Wednesday at 8 AM. We have installed a wireless doorbell because the entrance to our building always locks when the door is closed and we cannot hear people knocking on that door. But the wireless doorbell sometimes fails to work. When they had not arrived by 8:05 I wondered if they were coming since they tend to be very prompt, and if they are eager to come, may arrive 30 minutes or more early. Afraid that the doorbell had failed again, I went to the front door to check on them. Outside stood the two boys and two other friends. In China it is not unusual for someone invited to dinner to bring along a friend or two. If you only want two people to come to dinner, you must be very explicit that they are to come alone, and even then you may have two or three others come too.
I got to know the four boys and answered many questions they had about us, our family, and our experience in China. After about a half hour I thought I would introduce them to the game of Pit. We have taught several groups of students to play this game and they love it. If you are not familiar with it, it is a boisterous game. Just as we were about to begin playing Jim said he had to go to an exercise class. Michael said he also was in that class but the teacher would excuse him since he was visiting a foreigner. A few minutes later when the teacher phoned Michael, they all decided they should leave. They asked if I had free time later in the day so they could come back and play the game. Promptly at 2 PM they returned and we played Pit for an hour. Two of the boys already had English names, but two did not. So we gave one the name of Fred and the other we named Jim. They adopt an English name with foreigners because we cannot pronounce Chinese names, and they love all things English.
While we played cards one of them said, "We have many classmates who want to come to your home." Most of them have never met a foreigner before and are very curious and excited at the possibility. We told them to bring their classmates for an hour or so on Sunday at 2 PM and we would have a party for them. Ten of them arrived on time Sunday and stayed until 7 PM. We had not planned for such a long visit, but it was a great afternoon and we enjoyed them tremendously. We had snacks for them, played some games, gave a few English names and just talked getting to know them. (See the attached pictures. The "unusual" English names, James Bond, Sucre, etc. were not from us.)
About 5 o'clock I decided they were in no hurry to leave and we were having such a good visit that they may as well stay for dinner. I asked Evelyn if she could fix dinner for 12. Always the trooper, she simply said, "Sure." The students pitched in to help cook and set up the two folding tables we purchased for such a time as this. Soon the living room was transformed into the dinning room. We served a combination of American food and Chinese food (cooked American style). We would have had more food on hand if we had expected so many for dinner, but everyone had a good meal and the fellowship was great.
During their visits they noticed several of the good books lying around our house and were curious about them. In China, if something is where it can be picked up and examined it will be. So we always have the books out as conversation starters. Only one of the boys knew anything about the books. For the others it was all new. We also have a couple of DVD's about our older brother. After answering several questions I told them if they wanted to know more to come back next Sunday (tomorrow) at 2 PM and I will show them a DVD about the book. I have seen several of them this week and they always say that they are looking forward to coming to see us on Sunday at 2.
It all started with a conversation with two students on a bus ride into town. I believe we came to China "for such a time as this." Thank you for making it possible.
I am working on setting up a blog so that we can write short notes about our experiences here and share more photos. I will let you know as soon as that is functional. Meanwhile, continue to remember us and all our new friends and family in China when you talk to the coach.
Yours and His,
Ron & Evelyn
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