The Heart of China

My days here are so filled with amazing, expansive, delightful experiences I hardly know where to begin. Here are a couple of highlights:

English Corner–Every Thursday night at one of the univeristies, the local people (mostly university students) gather to practice speaking English. If you are a native English-speaker from another country, they gather around you for the opportunity to interact and learn from you. When I heard about it, I thought it sounded interesting. After arriving at the university about 7:30 PM and as we walked toward the gathering, I discovered the meeting was OUTSIDE in the COLD, and it is COLD here. I live in my down jacket whenever I’m outside. I suddenly wanted to flee back to the car because I could not imagine standing in the cold for 60 to 90 minutes talking with ANYONE.

It was a heart-warming and body-warming experience. People gathered around me three deep, which kept me warm. Or perhaps I was warmed from the inside out by the innocent, open, sincerity of the Chinese people. Imagine being surrounded by about 20 – 30 people, all eager to meet you, to share with you, and who think you’re wonderful just because you showed up.

My heart is daily touched and warmed by the loivng openess of the Chinese people whether it is in a city of 7 million or in a classroom of 60. They laugh easily and often.

Another experience–walking through a city park on the way to the Great Mosque. We come upon a small gathering of people including 9 musicians warming up on their traditional Chinese instruments. There is a small crowded gathered around waiting for them to begin. We joined the crowd, somewhat tapping out feet as we wished they would get on with it since we had places to go. How Western of us!

As we were waiting, a Chinese woman walked up to us, offered us a small, low table and two very small stools to sit on. We had become guests. The Chinese audience were simply standing or sitting on the surrounding rocks. Then this woman brought us a paper plate with peanuts in shells and sunflower seeds and cups of hot tea. Of course, we sat down and enjoyed being special guests. We were blown away by this experience!

Within 10 – 15 minutes, the musicians began playing and people took turns coming up to the microphone to sing. Their singing sounded like Chinese opera. It is very high-pitched, and we might call is "screeching." It was all beautiful to our ears as was the joy and child-like innocence of their beingness.

I hope these stories give you a peek into the magnificent, magical experience I am having in China. I am constantly interacting with warm, beautiful people–Chinese people of all ages, the other volunteers, the staff of Cross-Cultural Solutions here in Xi’an. Every part of it is fantastic.

We in the West have so many comforts and our lives are physically easier than for most Chinese people. We take all our comfort for granted, and we often lose our innocence and openness in connecting with others. I’ll write more on this soon.