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Friday, June 23, 2017

A Face in the Place

My dirty little secret is that I am home--in Idaho.  To the casual observer, I am posting from China.  But it is a charade.  I am a charlatan. My rationale is that when I'm senile and time-tripping, I won't know the difference.  I'll get just as big a buzz out of the blogging I did in retrospect as the blogging I do in real time.



And in continuing full disclosure, these Chinese are not really in China.  They're in Rome!!  At the colosseum!


I flirted with this little beauty on the subway.  She was a fuzzy pink thing that I could barely keep from gobbling up.


Pre chopsticks.  I went through this stage too.  It was messy.



On the way home from a trip to the primitive Great Wall with Diana and Tony (fabulous parents of Kathy in my novels class).  This is the bee lady.  Our hosts gifted us a delicious jar of her honey which we brought all the way home to Idaho!


Guilin.  This child lives with her family in an old farm that allows tour guides to invade for a taste of the past.  Over her shoulder is the soybean grinder that makes soy milk which is later turned into tofu.


A penny for this woman's thoughts at the Forbidden City in Beijing...


"We are a happy fam-i-lee!"


Forbidden City.  I think she's holding a bubble maker.  We grabbed a day with Ted and Sally Ashton--humanitarian missionaries in Beijing.  I knew them 40 years ago in a Provo ward of mine.  Sooo delighted to cross paths with them again.


An out-of-the-park photo hit in the Forbidden City.  I just saw her and snapped it--took about 3 seconds of my life.  I love it.


At the top of a trail leading up to the primitive Great Wall, we found this guy.  He carries up styrofoam coolers full of cold drinks on his back EVERY day and sits here under a tarp he throws up selling them.  We sang for him--first our hosts Kathy and Tony and then Jerry and I.  Fabulous day, really.  Jerry said it was his BEST in China!!!!  This guy told us that last week someone stumbled in the wall rubble and injured himself.  For 500 yuan, drink guy carried him ON HIS BACK down the mountain!!!  I tell ya...


Soaking up some sun.  We returned about three hours later, and she was still here in the same position, only that time she came to life and started hawking her wares! Guilin.


Near the dragon rafts in Guilin.


Perhaps my favorite photo of all time...She was selling flower head wreaths early on a Sunday morning.  I bought one and then placed it on her head for a picture.  


Trezlyn posing with the cormorant man just after we'd gotten off the Li River.


Yiaou woman pinning up her hair.  These women only cut their hair once in their lifetime--at age 18.  They keep the hair that brushes out in their brush and make a hairpiece to wrap up with their other hair.  This woman asked if we wanted to see her hair when we were strolling through her village.  She led us down to the river, let it down, and gave us a full show!


I found this little girl sitting in a styrofoam cooler in the Dragonbacks while her mother sold trinkets to tourists.   Her older sister would have none of it--but the baby let me shoot away.


A Xi'an street solicitor.  He wasn't begging (in the pure sense)--just holding out a cup and smiling.


Guilin.  A little fuzzy but so charming.  He was sitting with a rather large family in front of the family business enjoying a meal with all of them.


A fellow spelunker in Guilin.


Guilin.


Nature boy in Dragonbacks.


The young face of China's future--Dragonbacks.


Moslem Market, Xi'An.


She sells these bobbles.  They're sex non specific and actually very popular.


Tasty lamb kebobs--Moslem Market, Xi'an


Such a fruit this is.  Moslem Market, Xi'an


Mom and daughter meet in the airport!  So so fun to finally get my good friend Elyse to take the China plunge!!!!!


A worker--Badachu, Beijing


A little happier version of the same workforce


Jenny and Megan--Two very good reasons to have come to China!!


Daniel Gaillard and daughter CeCe--do you think they share a few genes?  CeCe's mom, Tricia, and I exorcized her sewing machine, and Tricia made this beautiful dress!


Our friend Cam utilizing our bathtub to prepare stacks of carrot sticks for a Young Adult lunch.  Dr. Cam also treats all manner of foot maladies for us and is our drug dealer too!


A very calming statue--Badachu, Beijing


Autumn and I met this Beijing policeman at a Moslem restaurant when we went on a little trip to a hutong and a mosque.  This guy was curious about who I was and where I got my "crazy" (my words, not his) chopstick skills!!


Tibetan monks with a case of the giggles--Beijing

Marsha and Frank have been changing Shanghai one student at a time with BYU China Teachers.  We started with them three years ago.  Who would have ever picked the four of us and Diane and Megan as survivors out of that training group?  Summer Palace, Beijing--Dragon Boat Festival Day, 2017


I wonder what his brow secret is???  Too too cool.  Summer Palace


I


Love


All the faces


In all the places...

Favorite books

  • Me 'n Steve
  • Thundering Sneakers
  • James Herriott's vet books
  • The Count of Monte Cristo
  • Travels with Charley
  • A Walk in the Woods
  • Peace Like a River
  • The Egg and I
  • Mary Poppins
  • Extremly Loud Incredibly Close
  • How Green Was my Valley