Going to my school...

Wednesday, February, 24^th, 2010

That was the most interesting day of my life. So we got up at 5:00am to catch a bus to the airport. Then Jacob had to leave and we were afraid we were going to miss the flight but we got on this shuttle not the plane. The plane then shuttle takes you out to the plane where you climb on stairs to get on.

Skip back. Yesterday Jacob read a letter titled, “Missing My Yellow River Valley.” It was about the Hunan province and it made me cry. That’s when I started to realize how alone we are going to be. Sam is super amazing. I had a great talk with him last night. I realized I forgot to write down something he said. He said being strong doesn’t mean you’re not going to hurt it means you’re going to keep on kicking when you feel you can’t kick anymore.  I love Sam and I’m glad he’s only an hour away.

                                                           

We got to the Changsha airport and went and found a Western toilet. Jacob met us there and said, “Are you ready?” The whole time on the plane I was trying not to cry. Then we found all the teachers waiting and Jacob started hugging us. He held on to me longer than the others since I was talking to him the night before. I started crying which made Shelby cry and realizing we were saying goodbye to all the people we knew and we were about to trust complete strangers. Russell, our liaison, was already drunk, or drinking, told me “don’t cry.” So we finish hugs and follow him to the car with another man who spoke almost no English and his son who was a cute 18 year old boy.  The son was our driver.

Sitting in the car, the guy who spoke almost no English in between Shelby and I slowly driving away from everything we knew was the scariest thing I have ever done. No English anywhere there were cops everywhere but people here can honk as much as they want. There are almost no rules. You can drive on the opposite side of the road or go through the wrong side of a paying toll booth if you can honk you can do what you feel like. We stopped for food and luckily went to a back room since everyone was staring at us. We were the only foreigner’s there.

They ordered like fish babies (sardines) and made us eat one or it was like we were jerks it was pretty traumatizing. Shelby found one without a head and gave it to me. I saw the son push the bones under his plate. I took a tiny bite and mine broke. I pushed it under my plate and let the attention go back to Shelby. I continued to eat just rice.

Then we got back in the car to drive 3 more hours. Its super scary cause people only know a little English. The students know the most. They are really nice just meeting a few of them. The apartments are nice but really super cold and almost nothing works as well as we are used to. The sound on the computer isn’t working and I need it for my online classes.

I know I’m supposed to be here but it’s scary in a foreign land with no training on the language. I trust the Lord and I hope I can meet His expectations He has for me. I’m grateful for the Lord and knowing He knows I can do this. I’m also grateful for the people who trust in me. I feel so humble being here and I hope I can do whatever the Lord wants me to accomplish. I have faith I can do it. The Lord has helped comfort us today and made sure we made our flights this morning.