Hats Off to Chinese Volunteers

We are out of the Guangdong province! It took us three weeks, but we are finally in Jiangxi, a neighbor to Guangdong. The way we entered this province was quite remarkable. The experience made Day 23 one of my favorite days so far.

On the evening of Day 22 we had dinner and a semi-official meeting with the Nanxion Love Heart Volunteer Association. I know that is their official title because they gave us each a trucker hat with their logo on it. Actually, I pestered them into giving me a hat because they are so dang cool, ranking just below the hats the little Canadians decorated for us with the New Day South kids' names. The Nanxiong volunteer leader is a Buddhist man who has nothing but admiration and encouragement for us. We drank tea, ate dinner, and talked with the group until it was time to find our lodging for the night- a Zhongshan volunteer’s family’s house. We struggled Annimal’s luggage into the trunk of a volunteer’s car and made it to our destination. Tired and sore, we were guided up the stairs to our room that we would share for the night. We opened the door to see a wardrobe, a mirror, an end table, and one bed.

‘Welp, I’ll take this one.’ I said, throwing my pack down to claim my territory. ‘Ann, where are you going to sleep?’

The next morning we met the same Nanxiong volunteers and started walking. Just before noon they led us in a direction different than expected. They took us up a road that connects the Guangdong and

Jiangxi provinces. It was built in 213 B.C. and was once the only road that led from Guangdong to Beijing. As we walked we learned from the volunteers that many scholars and merchants walked this path to Beijing to take important tests or to sell their goods. Even Mr. Zhongshan himself once led his rebel army over those same stones. We dodged tourists, took pictures, and tried to help the volunteers with our bags. The path was very uneven and steep, making it difficult for one man to haul Annimal’s walking trailer up parts of the path. Like a merchant in the old days, he pulled the cart full of goods up the inclines and over the rocky path. I was absolutely in awe of this road. We were walking the same path that a few of the greatest people in Chinese history have walked over. The American in me was reminded that some Chinese people have items in their refrigerators that are older than our entire country. It was a beautiful path made of stones smoothed by heavy use. Rocky walls and clean-smelling greenery enveloped us, adding to the old-

world illusion. Halfway to the top we stopped at a stand selling fresh tofu. I wandered over to a large stone apparatus with white foam coming out of it.

“What IS that?!” I asked in disgust. It was tofu! Actually, it was soybeans being ground by a stone grinder. There was a man turning a large wheel and feeding beans into a hole in the middle. I immediately asked to try, jumping into the ‘driver’s seat’ and turning the wheel around and around. We tried some of the tofu. It was delicious, even though it looked a little bit like baby puke. (Actually it looked a LOT like baby puke). When we reached the top, volunteers from the first town in the Jiangxi province met us. They were very nice men who took our bags from the Guangdong volunteers. We had someone film us with our camera as we walked out of Guangdong. This was a big moment for us. After ‘passing the torch’, the Guangdong volunteers said goodbye. We thanked them profusely and carried on, descending the mountain with our new friends into Jiangxi.

It’s strange and interesting to watch the culture change as we move away from the province we’re both familiar with. Annimal is actually out of her element, now asking people to repeat sentences due to their accents, and eating unfamiliar foods. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only fish out of water.

Volunteers have continued to help us. In fact, we haven’t gone one full day without local volunteers finding us on the road, walking with us, and paying for our snacks, meals, and sometimes even our hotels. Annimal expressed her fear that I might be annoyed by constantly having people around us. But my feelings are on the contrary; I am overjoyed to have company, even though I can’t communicate with them. I simply love the symbolic gesture of people walking with us in support of our goal. And they bring snacks. I like snacks. It’s also entertaining to see how excited and enthusiastic people are to join us. They are so willing to help that they won’t let us do hardly anything ourselves. We have volunteers rinsing our dishes in tea for us before meals, carrying our bags for us (no matter how much we protest), filling our water bottles with

water and our pockets with food, washing our clothes, rubbing our sore muscles, tying our shoes, brushing our hair, and even tucking us in at night. Okay, the last few I made up. But I bet they would if we asked them to. Annimal says their motivation is twofold; 1) They want to help us because they admire what we’re doing and they see how difficult it is, and 2) They want to experience a piece of what it feels like to do what we are doing. No matter their motivation, it is great to have their support. Yesterday Annimal and I were walking with three volunteers from Nankang when we stopped to do an interview for the Ganzhou news. The volunteers were estatic just to be in the background of the camera roll as we talked and walked. After the interview, Annimal and I talked about how amazing it is that this tiny little idea has turned into something SO HUGE that will hopefully inspire SO MANY people to rise above their fears and perceived limitations. As we walked, we were sweating. This was the hottest day we had experienced on The Walk so far. We looked behind us to see the sun shining through the clouds in the most beautiful way. Beams of light shone down from the heavens, blinding our eyes and warming our faces. Annimal said it was Feng Ming shining love and protection down on us. That day we walked 30 kilometers. This is farther than we have ever walked in a day. Maybe it was the little guy in heaven that gave us power. Maybe it was the sunshine and volunteer support. Maybe it was the rice wine. Whatever the reason, we are reaching new heights and we are thankful. 

'Manly Women'- Nuhanzi

Let’s get something straight. Before we left Zhongshan, Ann and I sat down to write a mission statement. In the corner of a coffee shop, we brainstormed and wrote both personal and general goals that we wish to attain throughout this journey. Ann wants to find her voice and become more assertive with her wants, opinions and ideas. I see more of this in her every day, which is a

very good thing because Ann has a lot of great ideas and intelligent things to say. As a team, we set our goal to walk 2,000 kilometers, as we knew we would most likely be earning RMB/kilometer from donors. We also thought this to be a good number because it gives us the flexibility to achieve a practical daily goal without forcing unnecessary misery upon ourselves. This allows our days to look like this: we walk to reach a distance goal for the day (usually this is just over 20 kilometers, which takes us about five hours) then we are free to find alternative transportation to the nearest hostel or hotel. If we are in a rural area, we camp. Lately, volunteers have been meeting us in the afternoon, walking the last few kilometers with us, then taking us to dinner and a hotel. We have been very happy to meet these good-spirited people in many towns we walk to. And they are absolutely OVERJOYED to meet us. Some people think of this as cheating, to which I would say,

Piss. Off.

If you want to read about a hard-core borderline masochist struggling through a life experience, I suggest ‘Into the Wild’. If you want to read a heart warming, fun-filled account of a brave 40 year-old Chinese woman and an in-over-her-head American woman hacking their way through a self-designed challenge through China, stay tuned. It has been a wild ride so far and there is more nectar to come. 

Chinese New Year in Shaoguan was the beginning of something beautiful.

The local volunteer association hosted us. The night before we left, they held an official meeting to honor us, as well as the volunteers who came up from Zhongshan. 20 volunteers sat around a large table and talked about the projects they completed in the past year, as well as their altruistic plans for the year to come. Then it was our turn. I was up first. Ann translated for me as I introduced myself in Navajo and English, and then told my story of how The Walk came to be. I told the story of meeting Gordon, Jerry and Ann. I told the story of the New Day children and how Feng Ming’s life and death inspired my bravery to start planning The Walk. As I talked, hot tears rolled down my cheeks. I hadn’t spoken of Feng Ming (Matthew) in ages, and my memories of him caught my heart off guard. I cried through the rest of my speech, trying to hold it together to finish my story. Ann then told her story, also tearing up. There was something in the air. We must have touched their volunteer leader as well, as we haven’t gone one day without a local volunteer group meeting us since then. The volunteer leader in Shaoguan talked to the volunteer leader in the next town, who talked to the volunteer leader in the next town, and so on. It is great to see our project bringing so many people together. We are equally thankful and exhausted. Everyone is so excited to see us and they want to talk to us and feed us and give us food and gifts. Unfortunately, when you’re walking there’s not much ability to carry bountiful food and gifts. We’re finding it difficult to say ‘no’ to good-hearted people who want to help us in the wrong ways. Unfortunately, most of this falls on Annimal, as I can play the ‘ignorant foreigner’ card. Though, it is all part of her journey, finding her voice to express her wants and needs (and in this case, expressing what we don’t need).

I also have goals for The Walk. I am trying like hell to learn Chinese. I am so tired of not being able to communicate in this country. I am a social person, and not understanding or being understood by people KILLS me. My Chinese is getting better, and more importantly, my listening and understanding skills are improving. It is a slow, difficult process. There is something else I am learning from this walk that I equally hoped for and dreaded before our departure. It’s a bit humiliating, actually. I’ll tell you anyway.

It’s no secret that the American society puts a high price on beauty. All you have to do is look at Barbie’s impossibly huge rack or open a Cosmo magazine to see the problem- an impossible standard of flawless 'beauty'. I’ve known for a while that I am a brainwashed American in this respect. The media teaches us that attractive people are funnier, more popular, smarter, and more worthy of love than ugly people. Perhaps it’s human nature. Perhaps it’s consumerism bullshit. Either way, I knew I needed to change this harmful lie that my brain has accepted as truth for so long. And I knew it was going to be uncomfortable. The first time I posted a picture of my face without make-up on I was terrified of what people would think. Before I

posted it, I forced myself to really look at it and to think about the amazing adventure behind the picture, remind myself of the bravery in my heart, and see the beauty in my bare face. It is incredible and a little bit scary how difficult this was for me. This was a huge, sobering reality check of how media influences my brain like a drug that I need to detox from. Fast forward to The Walk. Last week the volunteers in Shaoguan made us an encouraging banner that named us as Nuhanzi- ‘women who do manly things’. It’s a compliment, I think. They had no idea how right they were. We have bruised, purple toenails, our legs are becoming more muscular by the minute, and my hair needs an oil change 90% of the time. When Ann’s family came to visit us, we sent back with them many things that we haven’t used or don’t need. See, even though my pack is almost as light as can be, by the end of the day I can feel every ounce that I'm carrying beating down on

my knees and feet. This feeling is motivation enough to discard everything I don’t absolutely need. I threw away my razor and deodorant ages ago. Priorities, baby. When Ann’s family came to visit, I sent back with them some souvenirs from the Buddhist temple, donations from the Buddhist nuns, my foundation compact, my mascara, and my hopes of ever having a boyfriend again. Mascara and sex appeal are small prices to pay for this amazing adventure.

Packing light comes more naturally to me than it does to Annimal. I’ve been giving her a hard time for holding onto every little thing like a common pack rat. Every day her pack seems to grow larger, consuming everything in its path like a tree shredder in a rainforest. Like an Encyclopedia Britannica salesman, Annimal hauls her suitcase full of books and other treasures from one city to the next. Like Annimal’s bag, we are both growing in many ways. Some were expected and other lessons come as a surprise. It is becoming apparent that we will not finish this walk quite the same as we started. That is the scary part. That is the exciting part.

Kilometers to date- 358.8

CNY and The Goddess of Dairy

Chinese New Year was great! Ann was a little bit disappointed that her family was stuck in Zhongshan for the holiday. We stayed in Shaoguan, in a nice apartment with a young woman and her child. The volunteer group of the city organized this lodging. For New Year’s Eve dinner we went to the

family home of a volunteer who is from Zhongshan. Her family was very welcoming. There were over a dozen of us gathered to celebrate and many children running around. The kids eyed me suspiciously until one brave little boy mustered the courage to come over to the couch where I was seated. He walked up to me, closer and closer until his face was about an inch away from my face. He reached his hand up and touched the stud in my nose. Then he said something, to which I replied in Chinese, “I only speak a little bit of Chinese”. With that, he was gone as fast as he came. He rushed through the house hollering for his dad. When his father finally came out of the kitchen, the little boy excitedly told him, “Dad!!! I spoke to the foreigner and she said she speaks Chinese! Dad! I talked to her!” 
After much eating and cheers-ing, I went to play with the kids. We set off fireworks and waved sparklers around outside of their 4^th storey window. When it was time to go home, the kids begged

me to stay and the parents loaded us up with beer and food to take away. That night the fireworks continued. I had been warned about the fireworks in China on New Year’s Eve, but I didn’t understand the magnitude of it until I experienced it for myself. Each family lights Black Cats before their NYE meal in order to scare the evil spirits away for the year. As we were walking to dinner, many families were lighting these VERY LOUD firecrackers. I shit my pants six times that evening. Later that evening the booming fireworks started ten minutes before midnight and there was not a millisecond of silence until 26 minutes after midnight. I counted. Imagine millions of families setting off Black Cats at the same time. It sounded like a battlefield outside of my window. I was VERY glad when this part of the celebration was over.
 

On New Year’s Day we rested. Although it was great to have a few days of rest, I was anxious to get going again. I knew it would only get harder to get going again the more comfortable we became. Most of all, I was ready to get back on the road.

I was right. The first day traveling again was a rough one. We were already tired and sore by lunchtime. We started looking for a place to stop, but saw only houses. Ann spotted a Buddhist temple and mentioned that we might be able to find a vegetarian meal nearby. Boy, was she right! We wandered up to what we thought was a house. We were greeted by a kind old woman who

immediately invited us in. Little did we know we had found another Buddhist temple dedicated to Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. The woman and the nuns (I could be completely off here. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I’m not sure what these women are called, other than ‘amazing’) invited us in for lunch, first ushering us into a small temple to pray. Ann coached me through my first real temple experience. We lit three sticks of incense and knelt before the altar. Here, more of my awkward agnostic praying ensued.

“Um, hey there. Guan Yin, is it? I hope you speak English. I know we just met, so I feel a bit uncomfortable asking you for anything. I hear you do some good things for people, though. I don’t know how much pull you have in the Chinese dairy industry...or if you exist at all, but I could seriously use a milkshake. If you could throw some Snickers or Reese’s in there, I definitely wouldn’t be upset. And I guess, like, safe travels for us, or whatever.….if it’s not too much trouble. I know Ann would be mad at me if I wasted my wishes on ice cream alone. Thanks. Catch ya later.’

The nuns were absolutely beautiful women with shaved heads and the kindest spirits you’ll ever know.

After our prayer they called for their Shifu, Master. The Master was over 80 years old with an indescribable positive energy that illuminated the room. We ate and talked with our hosts, who blessed our journey. After lunch we were invited to write the names of our family members on a scroll that will hang in the Guan Yin temple for a year offering them protection. We took a tour of the temple, said a final prayer, and packed up to go. The house/temple was an oasis of positive energy that was difficult to leave. Everyone there was so happy and peaceful. The nuns gave us the first donation we’ve received for our charities so far. They also gave us A TON of food. It was so much food that we had to stop and give the heavy, overflowing grocery bags to a family in a small village that we passed through not long after we left the temple. It was truly a beautiful afternoon.

That night we stayed in a small town in a hostel room above a restaurant. In the morning it was raining cats and dogs. We slowly packed our bags and drank our instant coffee while we waited for the rain to cease. We started walking in a drizzle, but it soon stopped. Then the weather was amazing. It was cool enough to walk comfortably in a long sleeve shirt. The clouds hung low over the mountains, blanketing the peaks in billowing cotton. Despite the beauty, this was the most difficult day we’ve faced physically.

We wound our way through beautiful mountains, which made for amazing scenery, but sore legs. We coached each other up every hill and thanked the heavens for every decline. There was nowhere to stop for lunch so we had a snack lunch on the edge of a farm near the highway. We agreed that this was the most difficult and most beautiful road we’ve encountered so far. We had the right motivation to press on, though. Annimal’s family was well on their way to see us. Since they couldn’t make it to us for Chinese New Year, they were coming to have dinner and stay a night with us. As much as I love Ann’s family, I was even more motivated by the care package my Zhongshan family had sent me. I knew the Canadians were sending chocolate and a hat that the kids decorated for me.

Six kilometers outside of our destination town, local volunteers met us. They took our packs in a support car and joined us walking the last bit. When we had only a few kilometers left to walk for the day, Ann’s family found us. It was so exciting to see them! Ann’s dad, aunt, uncle, sister, brother-in-

law, and nephews pulled up and we greeted them warmly. Ann’s brother-in-law, David, is an Italian/Australian man. He and Ann’s sister Helen have two beautiful boys, Bradley, 3 and Micah, 1. They are the CUTEST boys in the world. David and Helen frequent Jam, the café in Kaiyin where I spent my winter. As David was getting out of the car, he complained, ‘ You guys have been walking way too long. It took us FOREVER to get here. We left at 8 this morning!” Sweaty, dirty, sore, and exhausted, I gave him an evil look and said, ‘Oh really? That must have been really hard for you, David’. We shared a laugh. It felt good to be sarcastic with somebody.

We had a great dinner with the volunteers and Annimal’s family, then got some rest. It was a fantastic couple of days. 

Touche, Annimal....Touche

Getting a massage in China is kind of like paying someone to beat the shit out of you. I can’t read Chinese, but I imagine the ‘want ad’ in the classified section of the newspaper reads like this:

 ‘Are you miserable and angry? Do you have pent-up anger from a lazy husband, unappreciative children, or broken dreams? Are you a sadist? If so, come find your life calling at our massage parlor job fair this Saturday! It will be fun!’

John, Lianna, Ann and I went into the foot massage parlor looking for relief. John and Lianna had been walking with us for two days when we finally reached the outskirts of Shaoguan. We were all sore and blistered. I’d never had a foot massage before. This is how it goes:

First they lead you to a peaceful room with a tray of tea and tomatoes, a big TV and comfortable chairs. This is a façade- like getting flowers on your first date with a serial killer. Then they stick your sore, blistered feet into a vat of boiling herbal water. I have a strong suspicion that this ‘herbal water’ is actually the salon’s dirty dishwater that has been heated up and put in a fancy bucket. I keep my suspicion to myself. As your feet are cooking to a slightly pink medium-well in the scalding ‘therapeutic’ water, your own personal sadist starts digging her stone fingers into your tender shoulder

muscles. She doesn’t stop there. She grabs your hands and pulls them behind you like a cop taking a thief into custody, but with more lifting, twerking, and pulling. We tried not to resist arrest for fear of making it worse. The sadist then flips you around, pulls your scorched feet out of the water, and starts squeezing, hitting, pulling, and kneading them with a vengeance. This torment continues while you try to follow the strange Chinese sports on the television, wishing you were one of the athletes playing…. wishing you were anybody else in the world, really.  After 70 minutes, the torture subsides. You put on your shoes, pay your bill, and hobble out to your car, where you can moan and whimper in peace.

As Ann was getting her arms pulled behind her, I couldn’t help but laugh, as her sadist was even more aggressive than mine. It took only a few words from Ann in Chinese for my ‘massage therapist’ to up her game and dig into me even harder, causing me pain that nearly made me jump out of my chair. My sadist looked at Ann and they shared an evil Bond villain-like laugh together. Touché, Annimal. Touché.

John and Lianna found us on the night of the 13^th while we were camping in the mountains. That night we had found the perfect campsite down a village road, on top of a ledge. Our only issue was pushing Annimal’s trailer up the 6-foot ledge. After a few minutes of struggle, we made it. We set up our hammocks and had a rest, then made a dinner of noodles, eggs, and pickles. I made a fire while Ann went to find John and Lianna. Lianna is the saint who helped me sort out my visa issue on Day 3. Her

husband, John, is an American who has lived in China for over a decade. We drank beer and talked with them until it was time for them to go find a hotel and for us to get some rest. I opted to sleep in my hammock that night. Ann thought I was crazy and chose to sleep in the tent. It was a cloudy night with only one bright star shining above us. I checked my hammock knots, nuzzled down into my sleeping bag, and went to sleep with an appreciative heart. 

Having John and Lianna join us was great. They brought their car, which they thought would be an inconvenience, but turned out to be a great help. Each morning they would drive to our destination and take a car or motorcycle back to join us for the walk. When we reached their car at the end of a long day, we would drive to the nearest hotel and then go out to find a good meal. It was a very comfortable way to travel, and we miss them dearly now that they’ve departed (for many reasons, mind you…not just convenience). It was also great to have the company of an American. Having someone around who has a similar background just feels so good. It is nice to talk about American football, food that we miss from home, and our thoughts about China from an outsider’s perspective. As much as I love and appreciate the Chinese people and culture, it has

been difficult for me to experience and accept some of the customs. For example, children relieve

themselves everywhere. It is a socially acceptable act for a child to drop trou and squat on the street.After stepping over many child-made puddles in the city, I have become a bit desensitized. But yesterday, watching a child fertilize a tree with her mother standing over her on the side of a busy street, I was reminded that I’ve landed on a different planet. Needless to say, it was nice to have a fellow American with me for a few days, just to be understood.

There are a lot of really amazing Chinese customs, too! Today is New Year’s Eve in China. We are currently in a city called Shaoguan. Last night a family who volunteer locally at a leper’s village hosted us. The family made us dinner and taught me how to make shui jiao- Chinese dumplings. We ate delicious food until we couldn’t eat another bite, and then talked about the good things that happened in the past year. As we took turns sharing our stories, Liaoge, the patriarch, chomped on the leftover chicken bones, cracking them with his teeth, and then loudly sucking out the marrow. After dinner LiaoGe made us tea and his wife, LiaoSao, sent us home with multiple dabao (to-go) bags filled with food. It was a very nice evening. Tonight another family will host us for a New Year’s Eve dinner and fireworks. It is nice to have a restful break, and I am excited to experience my first Chinese New Year deep in the heart of China.

 Kilometer count to date- 247.4

There's No Place Like.....Dairy Queen

Day11

On day 11 we got going late. This may or may not have been my fault. Getting up early is not my thing. While we were having breakfast we heard loud drumming music coming up the street. It was a group of dragon dancers and their drummers. Children ran to watch and I ran with them. Annimal thought it was silly for me to get so excited about watching the dancers pass. But I thought they were amazing. They must have been practicing for the Chinese New Year festivities, which begin on the 18^th of this month. We had a rough morning. My body had aches and pains for the first time on our trip. I was exhausted and all I wanted was an ice cream cone which, of course, was nowhere to be found. The positive side of the day was that we were walking through beautiful green country at the base of a mountain range. At one point we both stopped and keeled over in misery. We were sore and exhausted. But I had an idea. We needed a dance. I set up the camera and taught Annimal a few basic hip-hop steps. I blasted a Macklemore song through my headphones and we did a ‘daily dance’ on the side of the road. Afterward, we watched the video and laughed. Ann claims that teaching her these steps is ‘like teaching a piece of wood how to dance.’  We stopped for a small lunch with a biker who had seen us on the road. We ordered soup and a beer, which he paid for before he left after a good conversation about our journey. On account
of me being exhausted (and a big baby) we called it a day and checked into a hotel. I slept all afternoon and had bad dreams interrupted by the firecrackers that children have been setting off in the streets all week in anticipation of the new year. We had a poor man’s dinner of noodle soup in our room because we were too tired to go out. We talked to our families and went to bed early. My favorite thing about Day 9 was our room. It wasn’t a spectacular room by any means (though, it had not rats, which I REALLY appreciated). See, I had been quite homesick for a few days and I was deeply missing home. As I was listening to my National Public Radio podcast that afternoon, I heard an interview of a man who plays Saul, a lawyer, on the show Breaking Bad. The show is a wildly popular drama about a high school chemistry teacher who turns to making meth when he finds himself in desperate need of cash. It takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and it seems to be the only reason anyone understands where I'm from. The man being interviewed was talking about the filming location and how it was sometimes so awful to be in Albuquerque, enduring sandstorms, trashy people, and cold weather. Even though he was complaining about my home state, I was filled with nostalgia of home. That night when we checked into our hotel, we ended up in room 505- our room number for the night and the area code of New Mexico- of home. Even though it was just for a night, it felt good to be back in the 505.

Day 12-

In the morning we had breakfast and met one of the volunteers whom had hosted us in Qingyuan and was joining us for the day. It was a cold and foggy morning. The road was a mountain pass that wound us through beautiful, hazy, soft peaks.  After a few hours we stopped to stretch and do a daily dance,

which our guest respectfully and bashfully opted out of. Just before noon we came up to a house inhabited by a very kind family. Ann talked to them, explaining our story and purpose. The matriarch of the family invited us for tea, then for lunch. As we drank tea, Ann talked with the adults and I found a friend. Actually, she found me. As I snacked on pistachios and walnuts, the woman’s two year old  and granddaughter inched closer and closer to me. Eventually, the little girl was right in front of me and we were sharing my snack. One piece for her, one piece for her cousin, one piece for me. Repeat. Before lunch, the woman’s son took us to the family’s orchard. The family owned many starfruit and banana trees, a pig farm, a fish farm, many foul, and a large vegetable garden. Her son guided us to the orchard and picked us fresh starfruit off of one of their trees. I took my first ever bite of star fruit and melted with happiness. It was freshly picked, organic, and absolutely delicious. We spent time walking through the orchard and watching the adorable piglets, then went back to the house for lunch. We ate rice from the family’s field, fish from their farm, and vegetables and herbs from their garden. It was delicious. After lunch I played with the kids for a while before we had to go. The little girl whom I shared my snack with wanted to come along. When her Grandma held her back, the girl cried and cried My heart broke into pieces as I said goodbye. I’d only known this dirty, ornery little girl for a few hours. I don’t even

know her name. Why was I so sad to leave her? Later that afternoon we arrived in Yinde and got hotel. Just before we arrived into town, I found fake money on the side of the road. As legend has it, burning this money as an offering to your ancestors will bring good luck. I pulled out my lighter, set the faux cash ablaze, and pleaded my ancestors for a double chocolate fudge Blizzard with Snickers and brownies added in.

‘And ask for safety in our travels’ Annimal added.

‘No’ I said, shutting down her ridiculous remark. ‘I mostly just want ice cream’.

Ann is so patient.

That night we said goodbye to our walking buddy, went out for a quick dinner and got some sleep. We were very tired.  
Km count- 178.3

‘As long as you’re enjoying yourself, it’s worth it’

Day 8- Rest Day

We woke up in Qingyuan and set out to find some wifi. After 30 minutes of walking around without finding a connection, we hired scooter drivers to take us to McDonald’s. It turned out to be just up the street from our hotel. After updating the world on our adventures, we were picked up by the 

volunteers. The Qingyuan volunteers offered to take us to a  group home for people with disabilities. This was such a great opportunity- our first chance to talk to people with similar interests on this trip. We arrived just as the students were eating lunch. Upon arriving to the home, we sat on a couch in  the office and talked to a few of the staff members. As we talked, we worked. The staff and students spend time doing various assembly jobs in order to raise money to keep the home functioning. On this day they were assembling what seemed to be e-stimulation pads. Jobs like this provide revenue for the home and help the students develop motor skills. It was described to us as a kind of occupational therapy. We helped, inhaling the medicinal fumes as we peeled back the wrapping and stuck metallic beads onto the pads. The woman who runs the home invited us to have lunch. Ann talked to her and translated for me as we listened to her story and asked her questions. As we talked, a little boy was buzzing around us. He was eyeing me as we ate, and

eventually felt brave enough to investigate further. He grabbed my hand and led me to the next room where he put me in 'jail' behind stacked school desks. As I pretended to be trapped, he laughed and laughed. Then he went back for Ann, bringing her to jail a few moments later. Satisfied with himself, he left us to find more potential prisoners. This little boy was ornery and hilarious. It was impossible to get a picture of him that isn't blurry because he never stopped moving. We played ( and by 'played' I mean he led me around the room and showed me himself in every picture on the wall) while Ann chatted with the grown-ups. Eventually, I came back to the conversation. Ann filled me in on the woman's story. She started the home in 2009 to fill a need- nobody was properly caring for the adolescents and adults with disabilities in Qingyuan. She told us of the triumphs and struggles of caring for people with disabilities in China. She mentioned that now, after years of taking the students to the local park, people seem to be much more receptive and kind to them. She told us what an exhausting and sometimes thankless job hers is, and how it frustrates her when parents seem to dump their unwanted children on her. She has hopes for more money, programs, awareness, and acceptance for people with disabilities in China in the future. Funny- we have the same dream. 

Day 9 KM count- 105

The next morning the volunteer leader took us through the edge of town and pointed us in the right direction. We struggled Annimal’s cart out of the trunk and set off, ready for a full day. The road was absolutely

BEAUTIFUL. We walked down this two-lane road all morning. It was lined with beautiful red pom-pom like flowers and the traffic was minimal. Late in the morning we stopped at a small village shop for a rest. According to our calculations we were coming up on our 100^th kilometer, so we purchased a beer in anticipation of our celebration. Just as we were leaving, a young woman came up to us with an important message. She seemed to have a disability of some kind, and she was as happy as can be.

‘As long as you’re enjoying yourself, it’s worth it’ she told us in Chinese. I don’t know if she knew how much I needed to hear that. But I did.

We continued on, excited for our pending victory. Not long after leaving the village, two cyclists passed us. The woman behind looked back at me, then circled around. Lola and Ana are English teachers who live in Guangzhou. Lola is from Ireland and Ana, Colombia. I was SO happy to meet someone 

who I could speak English to. The ladies decided to walk to our 100^th KM with us, which was only a few steps away. We opened our beer and celebrated together, cheers-ing and drinking Budweiser from our camping cups. It was the perfect way to celebrate. We took a break to talk to the women, exchanging stories, laughs, and contact information. We made plans to meet up when we’re back from our journey, then said goodbye. 

We had some lunch and kept on. Since the road we turned on to was under construction, we had one whole side of the highway to ourselves. It was fantastic. A few hours later, we took a break to do a daily dance, then turned off of the main road toward our town for the night- Jiangkou Zhen. I LOVE this old town. There are mountains in the distance and a river just outside of town. We were the town spectacle as we paraded through the market street to find a hotel. Women looked up from their sewing machines, men looked up from their games of dominoes, and children stopped playing  in the street to watch us pass and comment. We checked into the hotel and received our key to the room on the second floor. We had the Laoban (boss woman) film as we struggled to get Ann’s cart up the stairwell to the second floor, jokingly cursing the name ‘Gordon Styles’ the whole way up. Unfortunately, the video was too dark to see. But take my word for it- it was comical. That night we walked around the beautiful little town and let a rambunctious little girl guide us a place to eat. The people were very kind and ABSOLUTELY in awe of what we are doing. I plan to go back and grow old in that little town.

We went back to our room, laughed at the videos of the day, said goodnight to the world, and slept. 

The Annimal-Drawn Carriage

We finished lunch, said goodbye to our hosts, and carried on with our

newfound friend. Ann chatted with him, and I asked him a few questions through her. He left the Dongguan the day before we left Zhongshan. Tired of the rat race, he quit his factory job and decided to start walking. His family told him he’s crazy. We think he’s awesome. We only walked about 400 yards with him before Gordon’s  driver found us. Gordon Styles, Ann’s husband’s boss and our good friend, purchased a walking trailer for Ann in hopes of making her load easier to carry. He ordered it from Holland and we’ve been tracking it for the past week. Finally it was here. Gordon hired a driver to find us on the road to deliver the trailer. It was like Christmas! The driver pulled up in his white van with a huge grin on his face. The four of us spent ten minutes assembling the trailer and transferring Ann’s belongings to it. Soon enough, we were going again.

‘Wow!’ Ann gasped. ‘I feel no weight on my back at all!’ We sent Gordon a message of many thanks.

‘Thanks you Gordon!’ Ann started. ‘It’s amazing! I can walk faster than Darrah now!’

A few hours later we came to a shop where we stopped to use the bathroom ad rest. We took off our packs and talked to the family who runs the shop. There were two children who wouldn’t come near me. Their mom was trying to get them to speak to me to practice their English, but the boys weren’t having it. I went over to a fish tank and crouched down as the younger boy, about 7 years old, watched me.

‘Is this your fish?’ I asked him in English. He nodded his head and buried his face in his mom’s leg. I looked up to see his brother playing with a badminton racquet and birdie. ‘Can I play? I asked the younger boy in Chinese. He ran to a big box of toys and pulled out two more racquets and a birdie. I coaxed the younger boy into the driveway and started playing with him. The older boy popped his head out to watch. Then he decided to join us. Soon we were all playing together. ‘Dengyixia’ I said. Wait a moment. I went to

my bag and grabbed by quickstart tennis ball that I packed in hopes of a moment like this. I introduced the boys to the ball and soon we had a game of quickstart tennis going in the parking lot. The boys LOVED it….almost as much as I did. We played while the adults took pictures. I got to be a tennis pro again for 15 minutes. It was magic. 

We said goodbye to my new best friends and kept walking. An hour and a half later it was 5:30pm and we were exhausted. Ann suggested that we catch a bus to meet the people who were waiting on us, as it was getting late. We sat at the bus stop and waited for the #5 to Qingyuan. Ann exchanged a few words with a group of old men who were sitting on a short brick wall in a courtyard. Ten minutes later we watched the #5 bus blow past us without stopping. Great. We eventually stopped a car and hired the driver to take us the rest of the way. Ann couldn’t walk anymore and we were late. My ego struggled with this. In the moment, I was exhausted, hungry and grumpy. I had to have the patience with myself

to calm down and realize that getting into the van was disappointing but necessary in the moment. We didn’t have any other options. When we made it to Qingyuan we met a few leaders and volunteers from their city volunteer organzation. They treated us to a great meal and set up a hotel for us. I tried my best to be pleasant even though I was beyond exhausted and grumpy. After a 10 minute struggle to get Ann’s cart into the trunk of a car, we got to our hotel, got showered, and went to bed.  Day 7- Done. 

Not For the Faint of Heart

*Before you read: I am so grateful to be learning so much about the Chinese people, language, and culture. This was a difficult post to write and may be a difficult one for some of you animal lovers to read. Please don't judge my new friends without having ever walked in their shoes. I beg you to read this post with an open mind, an understanding heart..... and an empty stomach.

The past two days have been full of surprises. On Friday we left Guangzhou area for good and made our way towards Qingyuan, the next city to the north. We had a long road ahead of us and we had people expecting us in the city on Saturday night.

On Friday morning I woke up at Home. The Home Hotel, that is. This was the first time we’d found a  

reasonably priced hotel exactly at the time we were ready to stop walking. We left the chilly hotel room in search of food. Twenty minutes later we found ourselves at a little breakfast noodle shop. It became obvious to me that we were the morning entertainment in this tiny corner of the world as everyone stopped what they were doing to watch us pass. Ann ordered us two bowls of noodles. When our meals came I thought they’d made a mistake, as there were pinkish-grey cuts of meat resting on my noodles. In fact, Ann had forgotten that I don’t eat meat…she claims. I have a theory that she was just VERY hungry that day and didn’t want to look like a pig, so she ‘accidentally’ ‘forgot’ that I don’t eat meat. Either way, I soon had a meatless bowl of noodles in front of me along with fresh-made, steaming soymilk. I was a happy camper, as this was the most beautiful and delicious breakfast we’d had so far. The vegetables were fresh, the ginger had just been cut, and the noodles were delicious! With day 6 off to a great start, I had a surge of energy. I walked behind Ann and literally danced my way through Huadu. I had my headphones on, Macklemore’s ‘Can’t Hold Us’ traveling through the wires and into my soul. I bobbed my head, threw my arms into the air, and stepped to the rhythm that only existed in my head as people on passing busses craned their necks, double-taking at the dancing, pack-bearing foreigner. I didn’t care. I wasn’t ashamed. I was just dancing.

We stopped for a bathroom break at a beautiful park. There, we met a girl named Yuki and attracted attention from many park-goers. Yuki is a Chinese girl who speaks English. She went on an exchange program to New Hampshire last year, and she is planning to travel as a translator to Sri Lanka this year. She was a very pleasant girl to have a conversation with (This was the first time I’ve spoken English to anyone except Ann on our trip). The afternoon was long because I knew that Ann was having a hard time. She had been ill-advised to throw away a foot bandage that she was using to wrap and support her ankle (my bad). It was getting late in the afternoon and it was time to stop. We had seen a McDonald’s on the map and made it our goal to get there. It seemed to take forever to get to that goddamn Mickey D’s. Finally, we found it. We had our ice cream of the day and found a hotel nearby. The hotel was above a busy marketplace that was filled with vendors selling everything from grilled octopus to knock-off Louie Vuittons. We had a quick dinner and then succumbed to our exhaustion, drifting off to sleep earlier than usual.

The next morning offered another great breakfast. We found a breakfast stand selling labufan. This is my favorite breakfast dish that is made by putting batter made from rice flour and water on a metal sheet

with an egg. It is then inserted into a steamer and scraped onto a plate when it becomes translucent and reaches almost a gelatinous consistency. All you need to know is that it’s delicious. We started walking early and soon came to a market. Ann commented that the markets are bustling more than usual because the big holiday- Chinese New Year- is approaching. We slowly walked through the busy market while taking pictures and videos of the beautiful fruits, vegetables, and furniture. Live ducks and chickens were being sold. You could take them home, or you could have them slaughtered, feathered, and chopped up on the spot. Ann joked with me about getting one for lunch (I’m sure everyone who bought birds wanted to have them as pets…to let them live happy lives and die peacefully of old age) Fish flopped around in shallow tanks and birds wriggled their bound feet and wings in hopes of freedom. It was a vegetarian’s worst nightmare. Then it happened. One of my biggest China fears came true. As I was watching the world through the lens of my digital camera, a peculiar sight came onto my screen. A man was standing behind his booth selling meat. It wasn’t chicken. It wasn’t pork (that was the booth across from him). It wasn’t beef.

It was dog.

Head and all.

Hung on a meat rack.

For sale by the jin.

I took a picture because I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t. And then I had to leave. My heart started to beat fast. Blood started pumping through my veins rapidly and my face became red hot. I took one sickening glimpse of the bloody carcass of what we call ‘man’s best friend’ and I became so filled with rage that I

had to walk away. Fight or flight kicked into my animal brain and I chose to flee before I made a scene. I wanted to scream at the man. I wanted to say, ‘WHAT THE FUCK! WHY? WHY WOULD YOU KILL A DOG? THEY’RE SMART CREATURES! THEY FEEL PAIN AND FEAR! WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU DO THIS??? TELL ME WHY!’

But I didn’t. It was very difficult, but I didn’t scream because I already know why it's done. Culture. For a long time, China was very poor. They were not the ‘we can’t afford Christmas presents this year’ kind of poor. They were the starving and dying kind of poor. As vile as it sounds to an American, Chinese people once had to eat whatever they could get their hands on in order to survive. Dogs were not seen as pets. They were seen as food. Much like the way many Americans see pigs, cows, and lambs (don’t even get me started on that soap box). Seeing dog on the chopping block was startling, unsettling, and inferoriating to me. But to some Chinese people, it is normal. It is a cultural characteristic that was born out of necessity and kept out of habit. This is changing, though. Both foreigners and Chinese people alike have started rallying to educate and convince people not to eat dogs. And just like any big cultural change, it is taking time. In no way to I condone eating dog (or any animal for that matter) AND I am happy that the Chinese survived their starvation period, even though it meant they had to take (what I see as) unfortunate, heartbreaking measures. 

That afternoon the GPS led us through construction. I imagine that this only happened because I’d done laundry the night before and I had damp clothes hanging off my pack. They were just damp enough to turn a dusty sock into a muddy one. Fantastic. At lunchtime we stopped at a shop that was set up in a

garage near the construction site. There were two children watching Spongebob Squarepants on an old box television, and a little girl eying me cautiously from a distance. Ann told the people our story and they graciously invited us to join them for lunch. We all sat at a big round table that they set up in the middle of the shop. We chatted as we ate, but soon were interrupted when Ann seemingly flew out of her seat and out of the shop. She saw a man walking with a large pack. He was obviously on an adventure like us! I followed her out. She called to the man, who came up to the driveway to talk. He was a young Chinese man wearing blue jeans and a cowboy hat. He and Ann talked as I tried to understand, unsuccessfully. I became distracted by the children, who decided the strange foreign girl was more interesting than Spongebob. They crept up behind me and hid when I turned to them. I tried to take pictures as they scattered like cockroaches in the light. Finally, I showed them the pictures of themselves and they laughed and laughed. They hit behind each other as we took selfies, then jumped into the frame in front of each other. They were so funny. And so dang cute. I was called back to the grown-up conversation by Ann.

‘Darrah! This man is walking from Guangdong to Tibet!’

We are not the only crazy ones.

To be continued….