Acts of Kindness

These past few weeks have had a series of fun and interesting adventures.  It’s been a mixture of pleasant surprises, difficult dilemmas, and trying challenges.  But why don’t I just get right to the stories…  So sit back and enjoy some adventures from China.

The Bike Hero

The first of my stories takes place in Tianjin during the holiday.  At the time Jamie and I were spending the night with the Tianjin teachers in the Italian Style Town.  We had finished all of our activities in the city for the day and we were headed back to the school to bed down for the night.  Jim (the leader of IECS) had gone shopping at a nearby store during our time in the city and he bought some floor clearer.  Apparently floor cleaner is a rare commodity near the Tianjin school so Jim was very happy about his rare purchase. It was late and we found ourselves quite a ways away from the bus station.  We needed to get to the bus station before the last bus left so we took a couple of auto-rickshaws to save on time.

I should take a moment now to describe just what exactly an auto-rickshaw is: Auto-rickshaws are a three wheeled car that is designed more like a tricycle than a taxi.  There is a cabin on the back that seats four people in a very cramped space.  There is a roof and back wall but the sides are usually left open.  It is also a very bumpy ride on hard seats. However, it is cheap.

It was while we were driving to the bus station that a rather harsh bumped jerked Jim’s bottle of floor cleaner out of the open door and into the street.  I watched helplessly as the bottle stayed in the busy street while we kept moving forward.   Just then I saw a young man on a motorcycle reach down and grab the bottle without stopping.  I thought to myself that this young man just got himself some free floor cleaner.  However, to my surprise, he raced to catch up with us, drove along side us as we went, and actually handed the bottle of clearer off to me without stopping.  It was like one of those action scenes from a movie, only with the hero handing off floor cleaner. 

An Unlikely Friend

Each week I have to take a 45-minute bus commute to the western school campus in Gu’an to teach classes.  Gu’an really is the middle of nowhere and there is zero public transportation on the back roads.  I take a special school bus along with several other teachers each time I go.  However, I painfully learned that it’s a good idea not to miss the school bus.  The whole incident happened just last Saturday.  It was cold that day in Gu’an and I was not wearing a thick enough coat.  I almost missed the noon bus due to talking with my friend, Mr. Liu.  We both ran down the street banging on the side of the bus as we saw it pull out.  You’d think that this lesson would be enough for me to learn that I need to pay more attention to the time but I guess I’m a slow learner.

I had just finished teaching my classes when I realized that I only had a few minutes to catch the bus home.  So I ran.  However, I was too late.  The bus had already left.  I wasn’t exactly sure about the bus schedule but I knew that there were multiple busses that left form the school.  So I decide to wait for the next bus.  Unfortunately there was no one around to speak English so I was unable to find out if there actually was another bus coming.  I waited for about an hour and a half but there were no more busses.  It was suddenly then that had a deep sinking feeling of utter loneliness and isolation.  It was cold, dark, I couldn’t speak to anyone around and I had no way to get home.

It was at this moment that a familiar face came walking over to me.  It was the police officer who had thrown me out of Gu’an during my first visit (Click Here for the Story).  This time, however, the police office brought with him two English speaking students to translate.  He told me that he did not want me to be waiting out in the cold so he invited me into his quarters to get warm.  There I was offered dinner and he was even going to help me find a place to sleep for the night.  There was a local hotel and he was going to take me there himself.  I was really touched by the guard’s kindness.

Fortunately I did not have to stay the night in Gu’an.  Dean Wayne called me and told me that he was sending a driver to bring me back to Langfang.  I had not called the Wayne but I had sent a text to the other IECS team members.  Luke had gotten my text and then immediately called Wayne.  Wayne was quickly on the case to help me get back home.  The driver showed up promptly and before long I was back home in Langfang for bedtime.