Lewis' Bike Group Week 2

Hi my name is Buffalo Brain. I live in china on a farm in the rural areas. My life USED to be real LAME until a group of kids came to my house and started to eat sandwiches on the bridge I usually do droppings on. Then one of the little guys comes over to me and starts to squirt water in my mouth and than slips and squirts water up my nose. I start to lick the water out off my nose and all these guys start laughing I mean do you think I like water up my nose. Then the kid starts to pat my head and take pictures of me and him (I feel so special) NOT. Stupid kid disturbing my sleep. Now all the girls love me and I can't choose which one to mate with.

Crack! the door swings open and some twit grabs me. I am pulled down off the truck and I am handed off to my owner. I still smell like ox urine. The loser on top of me ran through a 3 ft puddle of it. I'm dumped on to the ground because unlike some of my friends do. I am not fortunate enough for a kick stand (or a leg). As I start moving I recall one of my friends Joe Bob bike got swerved into a river. Only God knows what is in it. So I make sure I don't get too close to the edge. About half way down the road Mat Olenik slams on his brakes my master stops biking and takes up flying. As were riding down the road I feel my rear end is sore. This was enough for one day.

Today we woke at 7:00am as usual. Breakfast was good but not as the day before. Finally we started out on the bus. We stopped 10 k.m. past Du Hu. We started riding and then went to a village. Down the road we saw women washing cloths. Then we went by an old tower. Then we later found out it was an old fort to protect them and their valuables from pirates.
We found this out from interviewing a doctor for the village. He told us about the village and how it worked. One thing that surprised me was that he said the villagers didn't own the land . The government did. After that we biked and ate a sack lunch, along the rice fields.

There were times when one word could just break my heart, but I didn't expect my emotions to be broken so easily by an old nun.

Something happened to me on the 17th of April, 1997. This event could never be forgotten, and I considered it important enough to be shared with people from all over the world. My school, Hong Kong International School, took half of the seventh grade on a biking trip in Guangdong, China. After a hard day of biking, we all walked into a restaurant to have our dinner. Boy, we were glad to see food, and even the people who hated Chinese food ate a lot. The meal took about one hour, and my group and I were all expecting to be excused to our room and take our rest. We were all wrong. Mrs. Zahn, our group leader, informed us that we were going to meet her in the lobby. We all made complaining noises, but obeyed. A few minutes later, we were all sitting in the lobby, waiting for our teacher. Mrs. Zahn excitedly told us that we were going to a nearby church where a nun lived. Of course, we didn't want to go, we were tired, and sleepy, and just didn't have the energy to do anything. But she was our teacher, and what could we do to reject her? So, we went.

Our group had five people. Mrs. Zahn also took two other teachers along. One was Mrs. Tan, our translator. The other teacher was Mrs. Zacharia, our trip nurse.

The walk to the Catholic church wasn't that long, and before I knew it, we were there, sitting on a sofa. We started our questions, and as soon as they start, I knew from right there that this interview was not going to be boring.

"Were you born a Christian?" Mrs. Tan asked in Cantonese.

The old lady nodded peacefully, and replied, "yes, my mother and father were Christians, and so I am one, too."

The lady then told us that she truly believed in Christ when she was a teenager. Mrs. Tan went further on with the interview, and we gradually got more and more interested. We received answers like she's 72 years old, and she was 19 years old when she became a nun. When the communists took over, she had to go into hiding. She remembers seeing the priest beaten, and burning her own Bible. She left her town around 1951 and stayed in a village for 34 years. During that time, she farmed, and didn't worry because she knew that God was watching over her. In 1985 she went back to this church, and she was really happy to be able to return. She has renovated the church herself.

When we asked her how we could help her she smiled and couldn't say anything. She seemed so overwhelmed by our visit. We decided to return with something the next evening. We collected a bag of hotel shampoos, toothbrushes, paper, and combs. All she could say upon receiving this was "you have heart" in Cantonese.

We never need to remember this because we will never forget it. We felt it was God's plan to have met her and to help her. We hope we can visit her again next year.

Emily, a quiet likable twelve year old felt a lot of self confidence right from the start of the trip, although she did confess to being a bit worried about the hills and lots and lots of hard riding. After the first hill she said to herself. "Yaay! I can do this!" And by the end of the week biking twenty-five kilometers was no longer a big deal.

The numbers of villages dotted all over the country side were impressive to Emily. She was amazed by the number of people who could all know each other and work in the fields together day after day.

One event she will never forget was her friend, Olivia, falling into a canal with her bike. Emily saw her chest high in the murky, smelly water and was so scared Olivia would get a disease! She was sure, too, something bad would happen to the bike which was almost completely submerged. At almost the same time, Emily fell into a rice paddy! All did end well, however, and no strange disease has yet to emerge! She and Olivia were dubbed the "Water Babies".

As she thought about her week, Emily, was very glad she was in better shape than she thought she was initially. A year ago she never would have believed she would be biking through China. She thought she would be in Washington, D.C. on a class trip!

Michael Napoli, tall and lanky at 13 is a veteran biker. The only thing he was worried about initially, was the food. He was sure he would have to force down pig's liver and cow's stomach at every meal. Surprisingly, the food was all quite good, even some of the weird stuff.

During the first days of biking, Michael was concerned about getting hit by a truck if he strayed too far from the side of the road. Indeed, he was struck, but not by a truck, only by the fact that there were no speed limits on the roads!

Throughout the week, Michael often felt like he could be riding through China a thousand years ago. There was no technology and no farm equipment. The little homes were dark and damp, the walls moldy. The highlights of his week came when a severe storm with high winds struck the area as the group was being bussed to a bike site. Michael was amazed how the villagers all came out to help each other clear the fallen trees and debris from their rice paddies and the road way. They weren't just living for themselves like he has experienced in Hong Kong.

Michael learned something about biking on this trip. As a group biking through a city, you can't really stay in a line. You have to be willing to break up because of the trucks and other bicyclists turning across your path. On the long hard rides, he always thought about the good things waiting for him at the end of the trip.

More Scenes of the Day

School in China................Woman and Child

Virtual China moderator: Jim Zahn Technology Coordinator Hong Kong Int'l School (M.S. Div.) Fax: 852-2899-0809
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