If It's Between a Truck and a Ricksha, Hit the Ricksha

I have been on two missions trips now and both have involved bumpy roads (although Chinese roads are great compared to Ghana's) and a minor accident.  But that story (complete with a giraffe sighting) will have to wait.

Yesterday we spent the morning at a foster center that cares for children who are more medically fragile or who have had recent surgeries.  It was delightful to play with the kids and interact with them.  We divided the team up as there were two apartments that housed this foster center.  It is very well run and the children are well taken care of.  It was fun just to love on the kids and play with them.  We didn't have to do any assessments on these kids so it was a day off for us essentially.

After we left the foster center, we went to a restaurant for lunch.  We sat down and the waitress pass out plates and chopsticks.  She then put teapots on the lazy Susan on the middle of the table.  The teapots had water that was hotter than boiling.  You fill up your tea cup and swish your chopsticks in it. The you pour the water (without burning your hand on the ceramic cup that is now hot) onto the plate and bowl and swish the water around those as well.  There is an empty bowl on the lazy Susan that you pour your dish water in as it comes around.  You now have clean dishes and are ready to eat. 

We had a variety of food including pigeon (complete with the head and beak) and it was all very good.  The waitresses thought we were all a little strange when we asked for ice water. In China, they feel like HOT water is the healthiest.  We did also have tea to drink (after it cooled off).

After lunch we began the trek to Zhanjiang which is at the tip of China down near Vietnam (like 50 miles from the boarder).  It was a 5 hour trip that turned into 6 or 7 because a portion of the highway was shut down.  Along the way, one of the girls noticed that up in front of us was a truck carrying a giraffe.  I wasn't fast enough on the draw to get a picture but will see if one of the other team members can send me theirs.  It was pretty funny to see ESPECIALLY because there isn't a zoo nearby so no one could figure out why someone would be transporting a giraffe.

We had to take city streets instead on the highway for the last couple of hours of the trip because evidently they just shut the whole thing down if they are working on it.  We passed a lot of rice fields and saw a lot of different towns in varying degrees.  Some were nicer than others while some looked more third world impoverished.  

Driving here is a combination of how we drive in the states (clear lanes, stop lights, etc) and  a free for all.  Motorbikes and bikes are common (not as common as my dad saw in Vietnam).  Occasionally you will see a ricksha.  I'm not exactly sure of what happened last night - maybe we were in traffic ( I can't remember) but there was a truck to our left and a ricksha to our right.  We had to move over for some reason and the path of choice put us in line with the ricksha.  We should have run the guy clear over but somehow we managed to just clip the ricksha.  Our driver stopped - to go pick up our side mirror that got knocked off.  No one was any worse for the ware and we continue to laugh about how the bus is now missing a side mirror - 

not that the driver really used it to begin with.