On Being a Foreigner

THURSDAY, May 3

Today while eating at our favorite restaurant down the road, Anna overheard a man at the next table over say, "They're foreigners.  They don't know what we're saying." :)  It's been a new and insightful experience to be a foreigner-- literally, in Chinese, an outsider.  When we walked through WalMart, a little boy probably about 8 years old, ran to his mother and tugged on her shirt.  "他们是白人."  "They are white!!"  Anna guesses that for many of the kids in the rural area we live in, we are the first white people they've seen outside of TV.  I'm mostly used to the shameless stares we get as we walk around.  It's kind of hilarious to stand at the bus stop and watch the cars and bikes and three-wheeled trucks keep moving forward while the eyes of the drivers stay glued to us.  More than once I've posed for pictures (or smiled when someone not-so-sneakily turns their camera phone at us).  Sometimes people shout out the two English words everyone seems to know "Hullo!" or "Bee-oodiful!"  People get excited when Anna speaks Chinese so well, and virtually everyone smiles back when I smile.  

Today, I reaped unintentional benefits from being a foreigner.  In the afternoon, a group of students from nearby came to volunteer.  I was vacuuming the couches in the babies' rooms when one of them walked by with Kaitlin.  She was wearing a pink short sleeved shirt with overalls and a huge, 90s-style bow in her hair.  And, "Oh, her earring are so cute!" I said to Kaitlin.  "I wish I could tell her."  Kaitlin told me how to say earrings, and I told her "我喜欢你的耳环。“ ("I like your earrings.")  She smiled and giggled a bit and said thanks and kept on.  Then a few minutes later, she returned, held out her hand and placed the earrings in my hand!  There was a lot of English chatter on my side, "Oh, no, no, no, I just wanted to compliment you! It didn't mean a I wanted them!"  And Chinese chatter on her side.  The only thing I understood was, "我给你。“ （"I give to you.")  I thanked her, dumbfounded, and went back to work.  

Before she left, I went to my room and picked out a very cute pair of earrings that I brought with me.  I went up to her as she stood with the group of students and handed them to her.  "来自美国。“ "Comes from America."  She seemed very pleased, and everyone in the group smiled. I showed them her earrings that I was wearing and held out my hands as if to say, "What do you think?"  A combination of "Bee-oodiful!" and "真漂亮!" ("Very pretty!") and "Thanks!" in both languages accompanied the huge grins and laughs all around. 

I'm a foreigner-- but a human being-- learning that all human beings appreciate kindness, gratitude, and mutual respect?  Yes, I'm in China.