Grin and Bear It

There are some very beautiful things here. Beautiful people too. We get many stares, most of them are at Frank, I keep telling myself. But when we smile at them, or say hello, they almost always grin. They love to yell "Hello!!" in English because it is the only thing they know how to say and then they giggle. I feel a little like Pollyanna, bringing smiles and sunshine wherever we go. Many of those smiles are probably at our expense but at least they're smiling, right? For example, Frank wanted to buy a bike from one of the big stores instead of a junky one at the flea market. The prices were comparable so it seemed to make sense. But as he walked down the aisles with his new bike, he drew so much attention and even laughter that I had to ask if this was a good idea. We finally asked an English-speaking person about it. She said, "They are right to laugh, because it will not last a week." One of the ideas of some people here is, if you steal a waiguoren's (foreigner) bike, you are smarter than they are. What better chance to show that than with a bright, shiny, new bike belonging to the only black man in town. It's not like we would be hard to find. Frank made the decision to leave it at the store. Their loss.

Mandy

“Even though we ride non-polluting bicycles to save mankind, we lock our bikes because we can't trust mankind”- Unknown