Drunk Man in the Post Office

I guess since it's a new week, I should update my blog and let you know how things are going. Well, to start off with, I'm still sick. I'm pretty sure that every possible random ailment that I have ever had in my entire life has reoccurred in some form or another in China! It's amazing to me that things that I would never even think to prepare for are running rampant in my body in China. If you guys can lift up some thoughts for healing for my body and for my teammates health it would be much appreciated.

I had a very interesting week of teaching last week. It was the start of a new semester, so once again my students were so excited to start learning again after a 6 week break. Actually not at all! My first day back, I had a class of 5 whole students. Usually I have about 40 in that class, so that was fun. But I quickly lost my voice and my asthma flared up. So I've had an asthma attack almost every night since last Wednesday. The rest of the week was alright and went by pretty quickly.

Sunday was a China Day though. Not all of Sunday, but most of it. Our fellowship was actually really encouraging for me. We had sort of an open mic to share what was going on and what we were learning. I shared Romans 8:26-27 with the group. I have definitely been learning about the power of P-time these last few months! Even in times of weakness, He is there for us. After leaving a great time with the fellowship, the day just went downhill.

My agenda for that day was full of errands that I needed to run. However, a small errand to run in America takes about 10x longer in China. Joelle, Aaron, and I set out to grab some medicine at Wal-Mart really quick with the help of an Indian friend who is in Med school in Nanchang. Of course, Wal-Mart was jammed full of people and of course they didn't have the medicine that I needed. So after about an 45 minutes to an hour of searching through Chinese medicine, I settled for something similar to what I needed. Next, we headed to a mall to pick up a new work bag for Aaron. He had seen a bag a few weeks ago and was just planning on buying it. Joelle was also looking to buy some rollerblades and I was just along for the ride. After a 20 minute or so walk in the cold, we made it to the mall. However, Aaron's bag was gone, and Joelle couldn't find a pair of rollerblades that both fit and looked feminine. So she bought some manly rollerblades and Aaron settled for another bag. This excursion took at least an hour and a half.

Our last task was a stop at the post office to mail some letters to friends and family back home. This stop sent me over the edge. The post office in Nanchang is near the square downtown inside a bank. This is the only place that we've found to send mail to America. Usually the desk for mail isn't too crowded but because we were in a hurry the desk was full of people (Aaron had some students coming over to play basketball and were waiting for him already by this point). When we walked up to ask for envelopes, a rather loud intoxicating man happened to be standing next to us. When he saw Joelle, he immediately turned all of his attention to us. He started to say hello and the next thing we knew, he had grabeed her hand and was pulling her towards him. I ended up grabbing her back, pushing him off and telling him "bu yao" which means, "don't want." However, this didn't stop him from trying to get close to me, so I asked Aaron to stand next to me while I pulled Joelle on the other side of me. We ended up spending at least an hour in the post office trying to get our addresses written on the Chinese envelopes and trying to buy postage. The entire time, the drunk man was talking to Aaron in Chinese, offering him cigarettes and staring at Joelle and I. When Aaron had finished buying his stamps and was trying to seal the envelopes, the drunk man tried to touch my arm and so I had to push him away. He finally left by the time we were almost finished with our letters. It had become a China Day (Our code for a bad day in China). Errands that seem quite simple in the States become extremely difficult due to language barriers and culture differences. But flexibility is the key. I love sending mail and receiving mail, but I think it might be a little while before I send out another letter.