While I know there are hundreds looking after me, (thanks for the prayers, we all know I can be a bit oblivious at times) there are a few that have stuck out in my mind.
Rodney and Alex were my first helpers. Right after leaving the U.S. Grains Council I was supposed to meet the girls to go shopping and I didn’t have a map of Beijing or the subway station at this time. I saw a Westerner and started to chat with him- mainly asking directions on how to get to the Silk market. We ended up chatting for quite some time, he is an outsourcing consultant, businesses in the U.S. will tell him a product they want manufactured and he matches them up with the right factory in the Beijing area. After a bit his friend, a Chinese guy probably two years older than me showed up and I headed into the subway station and was planning on going to the stop they thought was the right one, they weren’t quite sure though. I went into the subway and after waiting a few minutes Alex and Rodney came down and said they wanted to know where this Silk market was too so they were going to help me find it. We stopped where Rodney thought he was supposed to and Alex would ask around in Chinese if we were in the right place, but typical China, no one knew where anything was at. Finally, Rodney called his wife who knew exactly what subway stop to take and even which exit to use to come up right inside of the building. Rodney said he had been there a few times before but had always been with his wife and just followed her so he never had to know exactly what to do, he just did what she said. We came up into the market and we parted- I went to meet my friends and they left. It was a true pleasure getting to meet both of them and they definitely went out of their way to help me, so that was nice.
My second guardian angel is my favorite of all so far. On a drizzling day in Beijing, I was off on my own- looking to get a massage and visit the Ya Show market for a bit. My taxi cab driver dropped me off in a location I had never been before and the map I had didn’t have the street I was on labeled so I couldn’t figure out where I was. I would ask for help occasionally and some would point me in a direction and knowing where I was going- nothing looked familiar. My favorite was when I stuck my head in a shop and the girl didn’t even attempt to help me or try to understand. I even had directions in Madrin Chinese but she still gave me this clueless look. I was getting kind of irritated at this point, people weren’t even trying to help.
I have picked up on how Chinese give directions, they point into a general direction. You are supposed to follow that direction and then ask when you think you’re getting closer and have people keep pointing in general directions until you stumble across it- as opposed to drawing a map with names or landmarks you get a pointing finger. After over an hour of traipsing around lost and clueless as to where I was a few Chinese guards stopped me to try and help- I think, I’m not actually for sure but I don’t think anyone was really going to mess with a disgruntled, wet Julia at that point in time, I’m pretty sure I was wearing my emotions on my sleeve at this point in time. I didn’t have much faith in their help but didn’t have a lot of options. Then out of nowhere a British man asked if he could help me. I told him the market I wanted to go to and he said follow me. It was only a block away but it was such a relief to meet someone who spoke English and understood my situation.
“I just can’t stand to see people lost,” he told me as we began to walk down the street. I found out he worked in the British embassy in Beijing and knew very little Madrin, he had translators so he never really had to learn. We chatted and he was a great person to vent to. He was the one who explained to me that not all Taxi drivers could read and that the city was developing so quickly that he couldn’t recognize a street he had been on 5 months early because development had happened so quickly, which helped me to understand why I could be a block and a half straight shot from the China Trade Center and an English speaker in a bank couldn’t tell me where I was supposed to be going without having to ask her coworkers if they knew about the building. While my faith in the Chinese wasn’t completely restored, talking to him helped me to understand the culture and people better so that when I am in frustrating situations I know why things might be working the way they are. He pointed me in the right direction and I couldn’t help but look back at the man as he walked away in the opposite direction; where would I be and in what kind of mood if he hadn’t stopped by? I have no doubt he was a guardian angel- someone’s got to be looking after me in those situations. I had been on the brink of giving up ( and doing what I don’t know, but giving up) when he came and fixed everything within a matter of 10 minutes, I don’t know his name and doubt I will ever see him again, but I also doubt I will ever forget him.
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