Bon Voyage- Day1

I woke up with a vibration in my chest. I’d slept on the Canadians’ couch so that I wouldn’t accidentally oversleep, and I woke up to the sound of Roberta singing hymns and the smell of warm cinnamon- French toast. We had a huge breakfast, which the kids started eating while I finished packing my bag. When I finally sat down there were four pieces of French toast on my plate. It was too much food, but when you live in China and somebody puts French toast in front of you, you eat it. That’s the rule. We had been planning this breakfast for a week. We bought the fancy bread and blueberry jam from the western supermarket in the heart of the city. We made spritzers with white wine, soda water, and mango juice. It was delicious. The time to go came all too quickly. Adrian called a cab and the first batch of ready Berzenjis piled in along with me, my bag, and the ‘ni keyi’ flag hung on its flagpole, my hiking stick that the kids painted for me as a surprise.

When we got to the scene (Sunwen Park, under the Zhongshan statue) I got nervous. There were about 50 people gathered to see us off. More came later. Many volunteers from Ann’s charity (The Sunshine is Beside You) were there with a beautiful banner that displayed our route, a lot of writing in Chinese, and an image of Ann and I walking. I started greeting people. Asking westerners to get up and going

before 9AM on a Saturday morning is a tall order. I was thankful and humbled to see to many of my friends there. Gemma and Sabine brought us sunflowers and champagne, which the press was delighted to see me open and spray. I could feel my emotions rising, but I held myself together for the media interviews and the pictures. It wasn’t until Lukai, the youngest Canadian, took my hand and dragged me through the crowd when I became unhinged. Lukai is six and adorable. He led me though the mob of people to show me the men in wheeelchairs. He asked why those men didn’t have legs, and I explained that the men maybe had an accident, or maybe they were born that way. I might have also told him they were Transformers. I had to throw some color in there to make it interesting. He held my hand tight and buried his face into me when the man held out his hand to meet Lukai. After a bit of encouragement, Lukai shook the Transformer’s hand and said ‘hello’.

‘Lukai’ I said, kneeling down to his level. ‘I’ve got to go away for a little while. Ann and I are going to walk a really long way to help these people and to help the babies at New Day- at the foster home. I’ll be away for a while to help them. But I’ll be back when the weather gets warm. Do you understand?’

Lukai took a deep breath, looked at the ground, then looked at me, excitedly. It was the same excitement that comes over him when he’s in a good mood and he wants to express himself but can’t seem to find the right words fast enough. Like when he is telling us how much he likes bacon, or how beautiful he thinks I am (‘Dawah, you’re SO beautiful-you’re like the sun….you’re like a flower…you’re like a sunflower……. like a sunflower Jesus!!!). Lukai grabbed the sunflower out of my hand and half asked/ half proclaimed, ‘You’re going away to help people, like Superman? Like you’re Super? Like, you’re Supergirl?’ He smiled, proud of himself for solving the riddle.

‘Yeah. Kind of like that.’ I said as hot, heavy tears started rolling down my face.

The tears continued. I said ‘goodbye for a while’ to my China family and finally took the first steps in the direction of Beijing. After six months of planning, we were finally heading in the right direction. Well, actually I first started walking in the wrong direction, but Ann quickly corrected me.

It was a long but nice day walking. We had about ten people joining us for the first day. May walked in designer sneakers which, according to her, is ‘nothing compared to shopping for 8 hours in Hong Kong in high heels’. After I got a handle on my emotions I chatted with our supporters as we walked, making the time pass quickly. We arrived to our first stop around 3:30 pm after logging 21 kilometers. After everyone rested, our posse began to leave. My tears continued, uncontrollably. The best word I can use to describe what I was feeling is ‘overwhelmed’, but that doesn’t seem to cover it. I guess that’s the point. My body was a vessel for humility, appreciation, fear of the unknown, excitement, sadness, happiness, and love. It was…..intense, to say the least.

I slept for a while, then we went to dinner with Ann’s family and their neighbors. Half of the village seemed to be in that restaurant. We sat and listened to the men playfully heckle each other, putting on a show for the women who laughed and cheered in return. The men’s words and motions became louder and more dramatic after each ‘ganbei’ (cheers) we made with our glasses of red wine or vodka. I didn’t always know what they were saying, but I knew they were being hilarious. Ann filled me in. She always fills me in.

I made a few calls as I walked home, causing more tears. We sipped whiskey and chatted with Ann's family before heading off to bed. It was a very good first day.