Perspective.

Longhu Mountain (Dragon Tiger Mountain)

We had a magnificent rest day yesterday. I slept late, caught up on season three of Girls (my guilty pleasure) and got a painfully wonderful foot massage. It wasn’t all butterflies and rainbows, though. My neurotic American mind allowed me to enjoy my Berkeley acceptance for about five minutes. Then it immediately went into panic mode.

 “How the HELLo-dolly am I going to pay for this? Where in the world am I going to get 70 grand?” I stressed about it and stayed up all night looking for scholarships that I’m eligible for. 
Last week I was bugging Annimal about my zombie toe.

“Do you think it’s infected? Should I go to a doctor? The nurse at

Zombie Toe

my mom’s school saw a picture and said it could get infected. Could a doctor do anything?”

The ever-patient Annimal told me that it will heal in time if I keep it clean and dry. I hated that answer, but I did as advised and it looks much better this week. It still hurts, but so does the rest of my body- Annimal’s, too.

lost in emotion

This morning Annimal and I left our comfy hotel room in Yingtan late. As we walked through the city I busied my mind by watching people watch me pass by. About an hour after leaving the hotel I looked up to see those beautiful golden arches. Ann lead us right to a Mickey D’s. The truth is that I hate McDonald’s; in America I hardly ever step foot in one. If I ever do, it’s with a group of inhebriated friends because it’s the only place open past 2 a.m. I see McDonald’s CEOs as Bond villains sitting in their golden lairs stroking furless cats and laughing with each other about diabetes and childhood obesity. However, they’re the only ones with soft serve ice cream. I know it’s a contradiction. And I also know that it’s not real ice cream. But I’m walking across China for charity…will you let me have this one?

After ice cream and coffee, we continued on. I bought a few apples, oranges, and chocolate bars for the road. Usually I buy two apples. But today I

bought three (I know what you’re thinking. “Darrah, that’s such a boring, mundane fact about your day. Why the fart does that matter?” JUST. WAIT.). As we were walking through a courtyard we went by a man begging for change- another one of The Invisibles. People were passing by without looking at him. We passed by him too. 10 yards ahead, Annimal stopped and looked at me. We were on the same page. We doubled back and knelt down to him. He was sitting on a small tarp with his back up against a curb. His feet were extended in front of him and his change bowl was in-between his legs. He didn’t have any toes, but rounded, half-healed scabbed-over wounds at the ends of his feet where his toes used to be. It was obvious that the wounds had been badly infected, and there was mold growing on one of them. Upon

seeing this, I became sick to my stomach. Annimal talked to him and gave him our extra apple and some chocolate. She explained what we are doing and asked for his story. He told Annimal that his feet had been chopped in a factory accident. The factory paid for his hospital bills, but now he is unable to work and he has very little support. He receives 100 RMB per month for disability (about 15 USD/month, which is about 50 cents American per day to live off of). He hardly looked up at her as he talked. He appeared to be a very broken man. We gave him all that we could: food, a card and a smile. I walked away with two thoughts in my head.

1)  I’m so thankful for my sore, calloused, blistered feet and toes.

2)  It is a blessing to worry about how to pay for graduate school when I could be worrying about how to pay for my next meal.

Perspective.