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9/9/2008 |
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SEPTEMBER UPDATE |
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Well, we have had about two weeks since the Olympics took their final bow here in Beijing and life hasn’t returned to normal yet. Now we are amidst the Paralympics and though you might not really notice much since the crowds are thin, you do see more wheelchairs in the city. A friend told me that at the Silk Market he was delighted to see so many of the athletes buzzing about and another friend who returned recently said her plane had several wheel chair bound travelers.
We still are confined to every other day driving and that curtails business and flow tremendously. Beijing is not New York or London with excellent mass transit. Because of the Olympics the city added several new subway lines, but the coverage is still limited. Cabs are not scarce, but it remains less convenient than our usual freedom.
Through my weeks of Olympic vacation (when the whole city was virtually shut down) I had yet another treat. My son Ben had been asked to go to Kunming to visit Hearts and Hands, a factory that a likeminded friend runs that hires almost exclusively deaf workers. The factory makes quilted purses and bags designed by an ex-Neiman Marcus designer who has a desire to help the needy. The founder of Hearts and Hands, an Irish woman who came to China to teach, saw the numbers of unemployed deaf on the streets of Kunming. With a passionate heart she began a cottage industry that has grown, yet she lacks business acumen. Even with her first really large order, her profits are meager. So she contacted Ben to come and give her advice. Ben invited me to come along to help and then travel on to Lijiang with Jenny and Micah for the weekend.
Lijiang is a charming city tucked in the foothills of the Himalayas at about the same altitude as Santa Fe. Like Santa Fe it is a walking city with shops, galleries and eateries along the canals that flow from spring fed mountain waters. It stays about the same cool temperature year round, so it makes it a very popular tourist spot for the Chinese. We spent our first day there at a very relaxed pace enjoying the scenery, good food and just being together. The next day we adventured out to the countryside for a boat ride and an exciting time on horse (or pony, not sure) ride.
Unlike the Bishops Lodge in Santa Fe, however, these wranglers didn’t adjust any stirrups, ask for your experience level, go in a long caravan or take any precautions whatsoever. We immediately started galloping away into the hillside, up and down tremendously steep and slippery slopes. I chose not to be petrified and figured if the horse fell and landed on me…somehow they would get me out alive…broken, but alive. At the mid point of the adventure we dismounted and hiked to a waterfall. When ready to return our wrangler asked Ben and me did we want to go back the way we came or go the dangerous way. Yep, enough was enough. We headed back the way we came.
It was a great weekend to be with Ben and family and yes, Micah is adorable and so smart. How many of your two year old grandchildren speak English and Chinese?
Back to Beijing and I am on task again. Spending my time again at the International School of Beijing (ISB), Compassion for Migrant Children and helping with our church. Since we were shut down this summer and told we can’t reopen at our old venue, I have been helping to find a new venue. It appears that the solution will be to hold services at ISB. The school has agreed which was a big hurdle and now we are working at getting approval from the government. I think it will happen, but there is always red tape and issues to overcome.
But the big news for our family is that with Nancy and Margaret Bonner back in Dallas, after much consideration and prayer, I am now planning to return to Dallas at the end of January. So the tables will turn now. I will consider Dallas home base again with numerous trips to Asia. I still have a lot I want to be involved with here and it will be very hard to leave. But that is part of the thrill of life. Every day is fresh and comes with new challenges and I am ready and peaceful about the next chapter. But for now I am still focused on today and what lies before me.
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posted time 9:30:41 AM |
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