Blog Post #8
Wuhan, Sunday, March 30, 2014
The sun has
set on Wuhan, while it has recently risen in the US. We are 15 hours ahead of
Oregon, and 13 hours ahead of Minnesota!
And now that our bodies have figured out that day in the US is night in
China, we have only 5 more days until we have to confuse our systems again by
reversing the time. We leave early Saturday morning and arrive home Saturday
evening after flying 16 hours, with an 8-hour layover in Beijing. But for the
International Date Line, that would not be possible.
It has been
a great day. We began it with our Nescafe in our room, along with an orange and
a banana, and xabee, the fresh baked savory bread rounds Jim went across the
street to buy. He waits while a street vendor bakes them for us in charcoal
inside an iron barrel.
Thanksgiving
Church was a beehive of activity this morning. Jim preached at the second
service, translated by Lydia into Chinese. The choir, including some of the
students we have been teaching, sang a couple of songs. There was an altar call
after Jim’s sermon (which he didn’t initiate—it seems to be the tradition here)
and 18 people came forward, so he is pretty hard to live with. He pointed out
that at the following service, in English, which we attended, only two joined,
and one of those had already done it last week.
We were an
international group for lunch: a couple from Hong Kong who are also teaching a
short course at the seminary, a Swede teaching Greek at the seminary while
learning Chinese (his English/Chinese dictionary was dog-eared and worn), Jim
and me, an Englishman teaching English to engineering students at a local
university, and Lydia. She said she felt like a foreigner, and was thrilled to
be in such an international group. As usual, there were as many dishes as
people on a lazy Susan in the middle of the table and we tasted all the dishes
as they swirled past us. I have been meaning to say that it is almost
impossible to get tea here. We have not yet had a meal where tea was served. We
ask at every restaurant and they don’t have any. Only hot water, they say. Yet
tea is grown within a couple of hours drive of here. We don’t know why, but
speculate that this city is so hot and humid in the summer, 40 degrees C, or
about 110 F, that tea is not appetizing to them.
But, on a
walk with Lydia this afternoon we found a teashop. The delighted owner prepared
several black teas for us and we bought half a pound of the one we liked best.
When tea is prepared, water is poured through the tea quickly 4 times. The
first time is a foot wash. Lydia has a friend who did a thesis on tea
preparation who concluded that the first pour washes out 70% of the “poison” in
tea. She said pollution has had a big impact on tea so that wash is necessary.
By the time you get to the third pour, the tea is at its prime and has the most
taste. We also bought one of the wonderful glass tea mugs with a sieve inside.
You put in tea, pour in the water, rinse, pour water in again, let it steep,
then drink it through the sieve so you drink no tea leaves, only the water.
We walked
through the old part of town and saw buildings that had been built 120-140
years ago by English and Swedish missionaries. The buildings and property were
taken over by the government years ago and have not been maintained. The
Swedish mission compound is full of ramshackle housing and little shops selling
noodles, sweets and drinks. Apparently
the government recently gave the buildings back to the church, but there are
two dilemmas: first, there is no money to repair them, and second, where is
housing for the people living there is the buildings are used for church
purposes. We also saw a beautifully restored building called the “Pastor’s
Building” and weren’t sure if it was from the Swedish mission or the
neighboring Roman Catholic mission, but it is now a café and bar. Lydia thought
that most ironic.
Wuhan is
the 7th biggest city in China with about 10 million people of which
1 million are university students. Apparently this city has more universities
than any other city in the country. We walked through the University of Chinese
Medicine and an attached hospital. Perhaps it began its existence through the
Anglican school and hospital on campus that we saw now being used for other
purposes.
Time for
the Chinese TV news. We are hearing a lot about President Xi Jiping’s
successful European tour, and of the search for Flight 370.
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