Friday - Day 1
The first day
was just traveling. Aside from a delayed flight, everything went off without a
hitch.
Saturday - Day
2
We got up
early to go do our service project, but before we left, we had to go get Niu Ro
Mian (spicy beef noodles) for breakfast. My stomach didn't know what to do with
mixture of spice and coffee.
We drove out
of town to a farm area where we met some children with special needs. The plan
was to do different stations with the children, but by the end the stations are
sort of melded into one group. We did a skit, sang songs, made a paper chain,
and ate lunch with the children.
When we got
back to town, we met up with a Chinese high school soccer team, and the student
enjoyed playing soccer with them. I think that this was probably one of the
highlights of the trip for the students. After playing soccer, we went to a
market for street food.
Sunday - Day 3
Lanzhou is
known for having the yellow river, so we took some speed boats out on the
river. Another thing that Lanzhou is known for is Niu Ro Mian, so for lunch we
had Niu Ro Mian again. After lunch we headed to a park in Lanzhou that has
cable cars up the mountain. Once on top of the mountain, we did a zipline and
an alpine slide. Last year, the hike down the mountain was one of my favorite
parts of the trip, but I think that the reason why it was so fun was because
the pathway was under construction, so it was rather treacherous. It was
bonding experience for those of us who went. However, this year the construction
was complete, so the “hike” was just walking down a bunch of stairs, leading to
several days of walking like an old lady and sore calves. Next year, I think
we’ll take the cable car down the mountain.
Monday – Day 4
On Monday, we
traveled to XiaHe, a small Tibetan town. Once we got to XiaHe, we were able to
hike around the Labrong Monastery, which is the second largest Buddhist
monastery in the world. Our tour guide explained to us different aspects of the
monastery and Buddhism. Plus the landscape was beautiful. Seeing all the
beautiful landscapes, I am further convinced that there is a creator of this
universe (Romans 1:20).
Honestly, I
would love to go back to XiaHe on my own, and just to enjoy some time outside
of the city and to be alone with God in nature.
Tuesday – Day
5
We went
outside the “city” of XiaHe to the prairies where we enjoyed some Tibetan
snacks and rode horses. I almost didn’t ride a horse because last year I found
it rather terrifying. However, my horse this year was much more calm, and I am
so glad that I did it.
Another
highlight was using a countryside toilet. To be honest, it wasn’t too bad, and
it certainly was not the worst toilet on the trip. The fabric door had a rip in
it, so I felt a little exposed, but it did not smell like other toilets that we
had to use at various gas stations on the trip.
Later that
evening, we met with some Chinese high school students and had an English
corner, which turned into a Chinese corner instead. I think the students had
fun playing games with each other.
Wednesday –
Day 6
This day was
the beginning of our misadventures. This was my first time leading this trip,
and on Wednesday, we went to a new city that we had never been to before. This
addition had been added to the trip because another teacher who had been there
before suggested it.
We drove for
several hours on bumpy roads, but I would say that the landscape was worth it.
Pictures cannot do justice to the beauty that we saw. As we were driving, we
were going higher and higher into the mountains, reaching almost 12,000 feet
above sea level, which is twice as high as Denver. At one point, we stopped at the top of the mountain to see the view, stretch our legs, and use the restroom - just below this cliff was our toilet.
Our plan was
to stop at a park on the way to our next destination. The ETA was 11 am, which
would give us several hours in the park before we continued on our journey, but
we did not arrive until around 4pm. We did get to see a small part of the park,
but honestly by that time, most people were just tired and hungry.
When we got
the hostel, we enjoyed pizza and hanging out in the common room. I am so proud
of our students they had such good attitudes about the trip, which was
important because we needed these positive attitudes for the next day.
Thursday – Day
7
The plan was
to go to Qinghai lake, the largest lake in China, eat lunch, play
Frisbee by the lake, and be back in time for dinner at a street market. We
drove to the lake, and we stopped for Frisbee and lunch by the lake, but we did
this in the parking lot instead of going into the lake area because the plan
was to continue to another part of the lake to get out and look around. What
started as a 7-hour trip turned into a 12-hour trip. We ended driving around
the entire lake, which was a little over 400 miles. We did get out of the vans
and have the opportunity to bike beside the lake, but once again we got there so
late that everyone was just tired and hungry and ready to go “home.”
However, this
bus ride was a blast. We played Mafia, solved the world’s problems, discussed
theology and religion, sang songs, and generally had positive attitudes.
Since this was
the last night, the plan was to let the students stay up late, but by the time
we got back, most of the students were so exhausted that they just went to bed.
Friday – Day 8
We slept in,
which was beautiful. Then we met for devos where we talked about looking ahead
to being seniors.
After the
students packed up, we got on the busses and head to lunch. Unfortunately, we
were trying to go to lunch near a mosque, and Muslims have their worship
service on Fridays around lunchtime. All the cars stopped in the middle of the
road so that people could go to the Muslim service.
So we got out
of the vans and split into groups to get lunch. During lunch, we talked about
our takeaways from the trip; everyone said patience, which was good because it
took us about a half an hour to find our vans after lunch. On top of that, the
school children were heading back to school, and they mobbed us foreigners. It
was rather overwhelming. At this time, the Muslim service was also getting out
and there was just this sea of white hats flowing from the mosque. It was hard
to believe that all those men could fit into one building.
After wadding
through the sea of humanity, we got on the vans, headed to the airport, got on
the plane, and made it safely to Beijing.
Thanks to the
brilliance of one of our leaders, we ordered Avocado tree (the Chinese version
of Chipotle), and we had it delivered to the airport so that we could get on
the road and get home asap. Unfortunately, we needed to learn another lesson in
patience. The bus to take us home was not supposed to drive in Beijing from 5-8
pm, so we had to wait in the parking lot of the airport until 8 pm before we
could go home.
The bus ride
was once again filled with Mafia and good conversations, and we made it home
around 11 pm.
Takeaways
If I am going
to ask my students to talk about takeaways from the trip, then I should also
reflect on them as well.
1) I built good relationships with
both the students and with the other leaders on the trip, and I look forward to
continuing to build them.
2) Patience.
3) I need to be flexible in the
best-laid plans of mice and men. I worked hard to make sure this trip was well
organized, and things still didn’t always go the way I planned. At that point,
the options are to get frustrated or to make the most of the time given. I
think that as a whole, we made the most of our time.
4) I think even before this trip that
the Father has been teaching me about surrender. All other belief systems are
about man searching for god, but Christianity is about God pursuing man. My
faith is not about what I can do to earn his favor; it is about being “alive
together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5).
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