A happy ending to a stressy day!

Cathy's relatives

After all the banking mishaps, Cathy took us to her relatives business.  The way there was complicated, dark and dirty.  I am glad Cathy was with us.  Inside was an oasis of calm.  After sitting around for a while I got talking to a guy in Chinese! He understood my bad Mandarin!  He was not from the area, maybe that explains.  Anyway, he asked me if I had eaten, and when I said I hadn't he shouted out to what appeared to be a general purpose office/kitchen and out popped this lady, Cathy's Grandma's youngest sister, with a bowl of Jiaozi (dumplings).  We sat and talked simple Chinese!  I cant find the picture of him!  However, shortly afterwards he went and I moved to sit in the bosses office.  The boss, in red, came in and took over the tea ceremony form the lady in black and filled me full of tea and sunflower seeds.  Lovley!

Sorry cant give names but the boss is in red, the bosses son is in Yellow, Cathy is in green and Cathy's grandmas youngest sister is in black.

 The taxi ride home was uneventful, but as most taxi rides in China  was interesting!  Taxis are always shared.  The driver tries to get as many people in as possible so as to make more money.  So we drove around a while looking for the passenger to fill the empty seat.  Chinese driving and roads have to be seen to be believed, but rush hour is something else!  If your car can do it it happens.  'U' turns across dual carriageways while someone tries a three point turn in the same place and everyone else weaves through the chaos, four-up on mini motor bikes, women riding sidesaddle with kids strapped to their backs, everyone beeping their horns and despite the complete madness, no one gets angry!  All the ideal conditions for Road Rage, but not a whisper of it!  Amazing!

Street teaching

By the time I got home, I was burned out and needed to go for a walk.  I walked past on of the hundreds of local shops and waved at the owner who I had briefly talked to the previous day.  He waved me over.  Some other guy got me a chair and I sat down.  Then the kids appeared.  I did some improvised 'street teaching'!  The little girl on the right was especially clever!  The they thanked me, I thanked them, and I went on my way.

Drink with the weird guys on the street.

A few days ago, I decided, I needed to meet the locals.  So I bought a litel bottle of Baijiu, a clear white alcoholic drink, and carried it with me.  After leaving the kids I walked maybe three quarters of a mile and was passing the another of the local shops, when three guys siting outside called me over.  They spoke the local dialect, so I spoke fluent English with them and tehy spoke fluent 'Jiankouish' with me.  Nobody understood anything.  In sign language, I  asked them if they had any glasses.  One of th em popped over to the shop and came back with three plastic beakers, the sort that are given away free at the many drinking water 'stations' in China.  I offered each of them some Baijiu.  Two accepted and then insisted I had some too!  I dont drink, but I couldn't refuse. The guy in blue went over to teh shop and came back with a pen and some cardboard.  He drew a fe pictures for me.   That is what he is showing in teh picture.  Fortunately, the images did not show well in the photograph...it was kind of 'earthy'!  We sat and chatted a while longer and I managed to tell them that I was an English language teacher at the local school.  Drinks finished and I walked off and went home.  A really lovely ending to a stressy day!

The guy in blue looked at the photo, realised that his picture was not showing and politely insisted that I take another shot of it.  I did, the images were very clear, but pardon me if I don't post them here!