That which is most universal is most personal, indeed there is nothing human which is strange to us.
-Nouwen

The harvest is here...

The harvest is here...
The kingdom is near...

Friday, October 31, 2008

The scariest thing: America vs. Tibet

No, this is not about mashed potatoes, but it could be...

One of the scariest things that's ever happened to me in America:

I had just turned maybe seventeen and I was driving home by myself one night. It was really dark and I was inexperienced with driving in the dark but I was very close to home. Less than a mile from my house in the glare of the headlights I see a figure in the middle of the road. I began to slow down but as the car gets closer it becomes apparent that this person is not moving. Edging the car closer and closer the figure of a woman begins to take shape, but she does not move from the center of the road. Soon, I am close enough to see her face, she is staring right through the headlights, right at me. Tense, I move the car around her but going slowly enough that she is able to reach out and bang on the hood of the car and claw at the door handle on the passenger side.

By the time I got home I was a white as a ghost and shaky.

One of the scariest things (turned pretty hilarious) that's happened to me in Tibet:

Last night, I had had a friend over for dinner and walked her back to her apartment. It was about 10p upon my return through the dark dankness to my warm and comfortably well lit apartment. Not one minute after shutting the door there is a frantic banging. Startled I turn around and stare out the peep hole into the shadowy darkness of a face of a woman who is speaking in Chinese. She is speaking in Chinese and still banging on the door. Tentatively, because I obviously do not recognize this person, I call out "hello" (thinking, hey if she's got the wrong door, she'll know when I answer in English) at this point she goes into hysterics. I'm watching all this through the peep hole but she's clearly very frantic, waving her arms, and talking very quickly in Chinese. Keep in mind I can only see an outline of her because it's dark outside.

Not knowing what to do I open the door a crack (isn't that how all horror movies go?) and she tries to push her way in. The only words that I'm understanding are "water" and "kitchen" so I think: maybe she's desperate and needs some water? I reach to get her some and she grabs my arm: "bu, bu" (no, no). Finally, heart racing, I reach for my phone and motion that I will call someone who "hui shu han yu" (speaks chinese). At which point she grabs my arm, pulls me out of the apartment, into the darkness, down two flights of stairs, muttering and going on the whole time in Chinese. I am horrified, maybe I am being abducted?

Not quite: We end up at an english speaking Chinese teacher's apartment. Apparently this woman is a teacher who lives two floors below me. Her kitchen was flooded with water and she chose 10p at night to come knocking on my door to ask me not to use my kitchen sink until the plumbing is fixed. In Chinese.

My main question is: how do you say "sketchy" in Chinese?


He has promised to bring the good work that He started in you to completion...
And He's more committed to that than you are.

Are they looking out or in?