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.