Thanks so much for visiting us during our journey, Steve, Heather, Ed, Joe, Emily, Hana, Zeke and Samuel!
December 4, 2007 An Even Better Tuesday
Today was another great day, and interesting. Like yesterday, we had nothing planned, and nothing we had to do, so we just relaxed. Part of the day was spent hanging out in our room playing games and reading, wandering around and playing in the park, a great time playing ping pong, and a nice dinner with friends.
We had read in yesterday’s paper that five provinces in China got new leaders in what was a major reshuffle of China’s top personnel. We didn’t pay that much attention to the article, but had noticed that one of the new leaders was Guangdong’s Party Secretary. Anyway, today was really bizarre until we started putting what was happening together with what we read. First, for those who have been here, you know the two main roads that run towards Lucy’s, and the Victory Hotel, from the White Swan? When we walked down towards the White Swan from the Victory and then turned towards Lucy’s we noticed that there were no clothes hanging in the doorways. Further there were no tables where chops and finger paintings and other stuff is sold. In essence, there was nothing anywhere that was familiar. There were even some stores closed up.
When we rounded the corner where the tables usually are there was this older, fairly mean looking soldier ordering shopkeepers to clean everything up, remove the decorations still hanging, and basically being unfriendly. We watched what was going on and started asking some questions of friends we’ve made in the various shops and learned that leaders were arriving at the White Swan and orders had been given that all the shops had to clean up and remove all evidence of what they sell.
By the time we had eaten lunch and started walking back toward the park so the boys could play for a bit, we started noticing that streets, sidewalks and stairs were being swept, sprinklers were on to get the dust and pollen off the leaves in the gardens, and generally everyone seemed to be hustling about. We hung out in the park for a while and soon noticed police arriving from all directions, on foot, on motorcycles, in cars. There were military personnel both in dress uniforms and fatigues. And what was really neat, we watched the school children drilling and it looked like they were practicing for some event.
After watching and waiting, nothing much was happening so we went to play ping pong. Later, when we were back in the hotel, the cars were backed up and we think that’s when the leaders must have made their way to the White Swan. It was actually kind of interesting to see all the police and soldiers and things happening. Remember, we’ve been here forever, and have to stay forevermore, and for us, anything that happens is exciting.
Now, on to the best development. This is our second day that we’ve had no real problems with Sam. In fact, he has been just great. We did have one potential problem, but it ended better than we could have imagined. What happened was that Joe and Sam were playing chess. Sam is still learning and trying to communicate the rules for chess is almost impossible at best, but he really wanted to play. Well, as it appeared that Sam was going to lose, he got upset and Joe was not helping the situation, and Sam knocked the board over just when Steve was about to try to help. Sam started crying and Steve held him for a while. Then we spoke to Joe and explained to Joe that he had really behaved badly (remember we’re giving you the Cliff’s Notes version so all details aren’t included), handled the situation worse, and needed to apologize (read this to mean that Joe’s behavior stunk). Joe apologized to Sam and Sam seemed confused and looked unconvinced. Heather was unconvinced too so she pulled out our trusty dictionary. She showed Sam in the dictionary, while pointing at Joe, “he behaved badly.” Meaning, Joe behaved badly. Sam looked at us, smiled, pointed to “he behaved badly” in the dictionary and at himself. What a breakthrough. He understood that Joe behaved badly and was telling us that he, too, behaved badly. Heather found the words to tell Sam how proud we were of him, hugged him and gave his a kiss. Sam just grinned and has done great since.
A few days ago we don’t believe that Sam could have admitted that he had behaved badly, nor accepted Joe’s apology. Please keep praying for this transition. We’ve had some rocky times, but we think that taking a strict approach is the key here. Joe seems to have straightened up too since he was faced with a shower and going to bed early if he didn’t change his ways.
Tomorrow we’re going to leave the island with our friends the Patzers and check out some of the markets within walking distance. Leila has been so busy with us, and now some other families who’ve just arrived or are just leaving, that we told her she needed to sleep in and not worry about us.
Blessings to all our friends and family,
Steve, Heather, Joe and Sam, with things getting better every day in China, and
Ed, Emily, Hana and Zeke at home, along with Grandma and Aunt Sue, doing really well.
