Is it Day 7? Things are blurred together right now. Once Thursday ended we had the final piece to take care of in the trip in Jinan, the passport. That morning I went outside briefly and it was the first day since the “fog” rolled back in. The original smell that was there back in the beginning of the week was now in full force. All I can say to describe it would be like breathing a poisoned gas. The same type of smell is in the water. If you lived here all of your life you would not think anything of it. It still seems strange that people are not looking up and saying that there is this strange fog that comes over out city all of the time.
The longer that I have been here the more I can tell that there is a strange mix of people walking and driving around like everything is ok. For the most part for them, it is. They just live their lives, go from here to there, and all seems to be business as usual. In this area where there are literally millions of people in a ten mile radius, there is somewhat of an order to the chaos. There is no good side of town, there is no bad side. It is all kind of mixed up.
When we see the people in this area, we cannot stop and talk to them due to a language barrier. Most people can say hello, or bye bye, but that is about it. No more than we can say hi and bye in Chinese. I have not yet demanded that they press one for English. I say all of that about the people because they live an existence. I cannot say how deep the meaning to their lives is, but from my perspective they are oppressed without knowing it. They cannot go online to web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. I am sure it is the government’s way of keeping the people under wraps so that they can control what they want them to know. We are not pushing the guides too much as whether they think this is normal. Buddhism is one of the primary religions here; however, there seem to be few people who practice that. I was told before I came here that most people are atheists and for the most part I can see that. There is nothing to believe in other than your existence and what you are experiencing right now. This is perfect for the government since they do not have to worry about controlling or regulating what the people think or do.
So, back to the passport. We did finally get the passport around 2 pm. One thing I have learned about these other foreign countries is that there is no time schedule. If I was running late and wanted to speak to a supervisor as to why there is a delay and I need answers now, they would likely call the cops to take me out. You just have to remain calm and hope and pray they all do what they are supposed to do, even if it is in their time table.
Our plane was leaving at 4:30 to go to our next city named Guangzhou. The airport was a little more intimidating since very few things are now in English. We get through security with little incident and the plane took off and landed on time. I was most concerned about the landing since the Chinese airline thing really concerned me. The one thing that made me feel better is that I realized that when I got on the plane I looked at the placard on the entry door that said Boeing, Wichita Kansas. USA, that’s what I am talking about. The seats on the plane were kinda flimsy, but those must have been made in China.
We arrived and once again the guide picked us right out of the crowd within seconds. How do they do that? We catch a ride to the hotel that night. We were pretty wiped out since we were up during the time we have been sleeping here so we did the quick tour and went to bed. That wrapped up this day….
I've been reading your other blog and am loving it :) But I stumbled upon this and some of what you write makes me feel really perturbed. Part of raising children of a different race is showing respect for their culture and background, because if you don't appreciate it, how can they learn to love that part of themselves either? All this about the lizards on a stick and the quizzical mockery of the food and the supermarket, the assumption that these "uncivilized foreigners" would forcibly remove you if you dared to ask a question, this contempt and dismissal of the lives and sentience of these people? I mean, do you even know about the tens of thousands of underground churches in China? I have countless friends from China and rather than being the bumpkins you make them sound, many of them are hugely well-travelled, well-educated and interested in other people and their cultures. Not really traits you have demonstrated so far. This has come out a LOT more harsh than I intended, and I know the blog was written ages ago and this will probably never be read by anyone, but I felt really burdened to say that this is possibly THE reason why people think transracial adoption is a mistake. I don't think this is true and from what I've seen on your other blog, I know you're most definitely a loving mother. But as a minority individual of Chinese-heritage knowing the struggles with identity and history I have personally gone through, I know it is important to be supported by people who are not dismissive of my culture and my country of origin, who are open-minded enough to accept that many many people live differently than Americans do and it's not just acceptable, it's wonderful.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I didn't finish reading this particular post before I got too overcome and had to reply, but- I just did and..
ReplyDelete"The one thing that made me feel better is that I realized that when I got on the plane I looked at the placard on the entry door that said Boeing, Wichita Kansas. USA, that’s what I am talking about. The seats on the plane were kinda flimsy, but those must have been made in China."
Er- this? I'm really hoping this is satirical. Because imagine what your son would think if you said, for example, 'Gosh this thing just broke. How lousy. Must be from China.' LIKE YOUR SON.
Google white privilege, please. It's a start. Or there's a wonderful blog called Anti-Racist Parent, written by the Mom of a multi-cultural family.