Monkey Madness!

So this past week and a half or so has been quite interesting! I traveled to several new places and saw some crazy, unexpected things. Let me tell you about it...

Two Sundays I got a chance to go to one of the two legal Protestant Christian churches located in Chengdu. Crystal discovered the church after some random guy (now our new friend Michael) walked up to her when she was eating at a restaurant, asked her if she was a Christian and wanted to go to church. Michael then connected us with a New Zealand middle-aged couple who had lived in China for about 3 years. They met us at the North Gate-end of campus where we rode our bikes to the church about 20 minutes away. The church was a very traditional-style sermon and congregation. We started out with hymns, then a prayer, along with a message- all in Chinese! I wasn't able to understand most of it mainly because of the Sichuan dialect, but Michael helped me follow along in his Chinese-English Bible, which he later gave to me. We learned about Giving in 2 Corinthians 8. It was a very good experience.



This past weekend my classmates and I took a short trip to Leshan (Happy Mountain) and Emei Mountain. Leshan was has the largest stone-carved sitting Buddah in the world. It is about 71 meters high and would be 88 (a lucky number in Chinese) meters if it were standing. It was carved about 1,200 years ago and took 90 years to complete. The people at that time it was built suffered from terrible flooding every year that resulted in many deaths and destroyed crops. The giant Buddha was built to protect and watch over the people of the river which it sat above. I wonder if it worked...?

The next day we went to Emei Mountain and bused/hiked/cable car-ed to the summit, called Jin Ding or "Golden Peak." There was a giant golden statue of a buddah with several heads on an elephant with eight heads. The cost to build said idol: 40 million yuen (Chinese dollars)! There were also several temples and viewing areas at the top of the mountain. It was quite foggy, but nonetheless still very breathtaking and very high up!


But the best part about the WHOLE weekend was what we did after Emei Mountain....the MONKEYS!!!! We took a 7 km hike into the depths of the forest where we encountered creatures unlike any I could ever expect. They were greedy, fat, hungry, addicted to people food- yet the cutest animals alive! They knew we were coming too. We were greeted with tiny hands rummaging through our pockets looking for food and snatching at any shiny thing they saw. We were also greeted by men who offered to put monkeys on our heads and take pictures. I was hesitant at first, but after watching Crystal and my other classmates do it, it seemed just barely safe enough- so I reluctantly followed suit. I only live once I suppose...why not put a monkey on my head?? :D



Bible Verse of the Day:
2 Corinthians 8:9 "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; rich as he was, made himself poor for your sake, in order to make you rich by means of his poverty."

Chinese Word of the Day:

Hou 猴 "Monkey"

Earthquakes, English Corner, and Eating Out

Much has happened since Tibet, so I figure now is the time to get you all up-to-date...

At Sichuan University there is a weekly event called English corner. Chinese and English-speaking students gather outside the gymnasium at the flagpole, and it gives Chinese students an opportunity to practice their English. Last Friday was the first time I attended and I will have you know that it was quite an interesting experience! But nonetheless I still had fun. I was unable to persuade any of my classmates to come, so I went by myself. I must admit that initially I thought I would have a hard time finding people to talk to. However, that changed after the first ten seconds when some 20 people crowded around me and started asking me different questions. I kid you not here are some actual questions I was asked:

"Do you know about Area 51? So what about the aliens?"

"How do you spay or neuter a cat?"

"Has the U.S. economy affected you in any way?"

"Is your hair real?"

So as you can probably infer, I was a bit overwhelmed. I found many of these questions quite amusing and it was strange feeling like a celebrity just because I can speak English. I talked for 4 hours in what felt like an hour and a half. Chinese people are very friendly and have a great yearning for knowledge about Western life and culture. Needless to say that I made an exponential number of new Chinese friends. I think I'm going back next week.... :)

On Saturday I went with my classmates to the epicenter of the deadly earthquake that occurred on May 12 of this year. It was pretty devastating to see all the ruble and garbage still around. However, I was glad to see that the Chinese government has done a lot to help these people who were so greatly affected by this tragedy. They had planted some beautiful gardens along the road. Also, no one was homeless! The government had built tens of thousands of temporary housing units so everyone could live in a giant community (convenience stores and all) until houses were rebuilt. One thing that struck me was the high level of moral that existed amongst them. Although many of them had lost everything- including loved ones, they seemed generally happy with their lives at hand.
We had the opportunity to visit a high school and middle school and interact a little bit with the students there. Many of them were victims of the earthquake and much of the ruin of their old school was still around. We set up different stations and our class split up to help lead each one. We had basketball, frisbee, capture the flag, friendship bracelet-making, and a song station. I, of course, helped teach them English songs which included: "You Are My Sunshine," "Jingle Bells," "A Hard Day's Night," "We Will Rock You," and "Hit Me Baby One More Time." We had tons of fun! Afterwards, many of the students came up wanting my autograph and picture! It was kinda funny. The kids in China are great though! They are just like every other kid around the world. It was cool to get to hang out with them.

On Sunday I got to spend the day with my host family. I went to a little Tibetan area of Chengdu and tried some of the many snacks they had to offer. I got to visit a place where they made silk. It was pretty cool! They had the actual silk worms and everything. It is the believed that the craft of silk making goes back as far as 6000 B.C. That is a pretty long time. I wonder how anyone thought to use a worm to make fabric?? After little Tibet we visited a coffee house and then a tea house. I enjoyed it very much. Then we went back to their house for dinner. We had yak! :p It was made in the crockpot and was very tender and delicious! Better than regular beef. But yeah, my family is really cool. They are from Kang Ding and Jiu Long which is in western China. My host father and his sister and parents all live in the same apartment complex. Family in China seems tighter than in America (which would suck if you got unlucky in-laws :) They had a niece who was two-years-old and really cute. They also had a nephew who was 5 and had more energy than anyone knew how to handle. I had a really good time.


Bible Verse of the Day:
Romans 5:3-4 "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope."

Chinese Word of the Day:

Xingfen 兴奋 "Excited"

Life in Tibet

All I can say is wow! Tibet is unlike any place I have ever been (or probably will ever go) in my entire life! This past week I have experienced so much! We spent a few days in Lhasa, then spent a day each in Gyantse and Shigatse. The last day and a half we went back to Lhasa for one more round of shopping and then to fly back to Chengdu. Here are some of the things I discovered about Tibet while I was there:

Buddhism is overwhelmingly prevalent there and is much apart of the daily lives of the people who live in Tibet. While there, we visited about 5 monasteries. Unfortunately, I either wasn't allowed to take pictures in them or had to pay to take pictures so I don't have many photos of the inside, but I took some pretty amazing one's from the outside. Buddhism has many Gods and people offer a variety of things from money to corn to pens to combs to these idols' alters. In the monasteries were also many tombs and pictures of past monks and the scriptures they left behind. It was very fascinating. Every morning people got up early with their prayer wheels and walked clockwise around the monasteries and religious monuments (bad-luck if you walk counter-clockwise) and spun these prayer cylinders things and chanted mantras (prayers). They were very diligent about this and it makes me wonder what Christianity would be like if we had the same diligence...

Another thing I found interesting about Tibet were the people who begged. There were so many. I feel like I am in a moral dilemma. I know that these people are genuinely poor. In America it is easy enough to look past it because we have enough government programs to help people and plus the fact that you never really know where your money is going. It is easy to joke around when you are eating a huge dinner or going on a shopping spree to say things like "Eat up! There are hungry people in China" or "I am not going to buy such-and-such a brand because it is made in a sweat shop." But when there are people begging right in front of you when you are deciding whether or not to buy a jacket that you may or may not need, it really puts you in a bad spot. A woman came up to me with a baby on her back and said "money" and made a gesture towards the baby and then towards her mouth. I was just about to purchase a jacket and I was afraid to pull money out of my pocket. She followed me for about 10 minutes so I finally gave her 5 yuen. Now I don't think that that was a mistake in and of itself but I should've been more discrete. Immediately 5 or 6 other women with babies appeared out of nowhere asking for money! I was so overwhelmed! But just at that moment Crystal and my friend Justin came to my rescue and bailed me out. This incident made me feel bad for a long time and I asked my friends what they thought. They said that its not bad to feel bad, but that it really isn't you're fault. There are people at the bottom in every society and there is nothing you can do about it. I guess that made me feel a little better, but I just wish there was more I could do. I am praying for them now.

Another surprising thing about Lhasa was the enormous police and military presence there. There has been a lot of political unrest recently (the most recent being the March 10th riots. You can read more about it here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23780660/#storyContinued ), so I guess it wasn't unwarranted. I have just never experienced living in a place where the common people are so tightly monitored and armed forces are in such close proximity to people. I walked by dozens of troops with guns who were literally 2 feet from me passing by in the opposite direction. This was one unexpected thing I could not have expected. It was quite scary and quite surreal.

But onto better things...my last night in Lhasa I met two Tibetan girls who randomly came up to us because they wanted to practice their English. This was a bit unexpected, but I thought it was a good opportunity. We took them to dinner and learned a lot about their culture. One of the girl's uncles was a monk in a monastery who had been there for over 30 years! She also taught me how to write my name in Tibetan...it is such a hard language. They have an alphabet of about 30 letters, but they are WAY different than ours. My Tibetan name is now Dolma...or something like that :) I guess it means beautiful and is a popular name. They also helped me barter for things in the square. It is a lot of fun and I don't let myself get ripped off anymore! I think I have most of my Christmas shopping done now, so that was also a plus!

All in all Tibet was an awesome experience. I hope one day that I can go back. It had some awesome sights and it was cool being able to experience a culture so much different from my own!
Bible Verse of the Day:
Proverbs 11:9 "With his mouth the godless destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous escape."


Chinese Word of the Day:

Zoulu 走路 "to walk; go on foot"