By Jana Dippenaar / Yellow Team
So it seems that being yellow means you eat a lot? And really well! At first we were all amazed at what one can eat with a R8 per person per day food budget. Thanks to Royco pasta sauces meals needn't even be all spicy and hot and with fresh food markets all around and mutton prices extremely cheap even traditional boerekos is possible! China is a chef's paradise? But this is not at all what God had in mind when He sent us to the heart of China. Improving my cooking skills will have to wait for later because right now God is treating us!!
Arriving at our third destination was quite the letdown?The station in way out of town and our first impression was not good at all. The only hotel in sight was right next to the railway and all I could imagine were sleepless nights with the sound of train engines echoing in my ears. Luckily the police soon became aware of our presence and escorted us to civilization. Here the boys found a hotel with a bed for each of us, our own bathroom and western toilet! (In previous hotels we girls had to share two beds as you pay per room, not per person and they only have two bed rooms) The only downer was how incredibly cold it was, so cold that sticking even ones toe out from under the covers was suicidal. The only motivations for any of us to actually leave our rooms was to (1) find a supermarket to buy food and (2) internet!
It was while on one of these long thought out
and pondered about excursions that we met our friends. Being the first foreigners to visit the town in years we were quite the headline news, so much so that the son, of what they claim to be the richest man in town, decided he wants to be our friend. Who are we to argue? So Margot, Tjaart and Wesley got into the convoy of cars waiting outside and came to fetch Zylna and me from the hotel. Our new best friends took us to the only museum in town, which they arranged to open especially for us. Thereafter we were taken to a local restaurant to have what we think might have been more than a R390 meal. They introduced us to hotpot. This is an interesting concept of boiling water and spices in a bowl in the middle of the table. Waiters carried our all kinds of food which our hostess then threw into the hotpot to cook. With chop stick one fish out what you want and dip it into your chosen sauce. The boys decided to go for hot and the looks on their faces pointed out that Chinese hot it much hotter that South
African hot!
After dinner they took us to the local club to first karaoke, then cheers ?them each with a beer in hand and the five of us more than happy with our cokes, then we danced a bit, back to karaoke and again doing the cheers! We had lots of fun and wished we could communicate better. We met a group of people we could relate to - there was the rich girl, the pretty girl, the shy girl, the player, the main guy and the joker all right there!
The next day we went along with two of the girls to the school where they teach. If ever we could sympathize with Brad Pitt it was that day. We were mobbed! We had to give out e-mail addresses, shake hands, pose for photos and say "yes, we love China!" probably a hundred times! But what a blessing! To see the faces of kids light up just because you wave at them, to see how they first shyly run away and later come back with a little more courage just to touch the hand of a foreigner! I know that
Jesus loves everyone of those beautiful children and I truly hope that we awakened something in them to search for The Truth.
That night we were treated to yet another lovely meal. Tjaart's favorite up to date. We had chicken, beef and all kinds of delicious veggies! This prompted us to invite them over for some traditional South African food the next evening. We decided to teach these Chinese people how to have a real burger! So with our traditional tomato sauce prepared, carrot salad ready and snacks set out we started to cook the patties we made from mutton mince. This did not go as we had hoped?The patties weren't all that successful! So a boer makes a plan and we fed then mutton mince sandwiches! We had a lovely evening which ended with us singing and praising our Lord with our guests watching teary eyed.
God it really so big and so awesome and so wonderful that He brought 5 South Africans to a small Chinese town just so that we
could worship Him in front of 4 Muslims, bringing them to tears! And all along He took us out for Dinner and spoilt us rotten with more meat and veggies than we could ever have asked for. Instead of remembering China as a land of noodles and green tea the yellow team will remember it as a place of feasts and celebration with our God and some of the lost He so dearly loves.
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