Today Hazel and I said goodbye to a dear friend. Jeanette arrived in China the same day we did. Now, six months later, she prepares to go home and take back with her all that she has experienced. We are going to miss her.
Jeanette has provided us a different perspective of expat life in China. Unlike me, in an upscale apartment, she has spent the last few weeks living with her Chinese co-workers in a typical Chinese apartment, where she must squat over the hole in the floor that is her toilet, where she must wash her clothes in a bucket, where that same bucket often serves as her shower, where she sleeps on a thin mat, and where air conditioning, despite the humidity, is an unavailable luxury. Our last day together, Hazel asked her "Jeanette, why are you always happy?" And indeed, she is.
Each day, I see the material lack of those around me, and I question the disparity. I live a life of privilege, but I often feel out of place in this life. Not many years ago, I was on the other side of the great economic gap. But my friend Jeanette reminds me that regardless of which side of the gap we occupy, we can create joy for ourselves and those around us.
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| We love you, Jeanette! |
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| I can barely lift one of these bottles onto the dispenser. I don't know how skinny Chinese men manage to transport this many full bottles around the city. (They are empty in this picture, but I've seen them transported full, too.) |
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| Outside of a Buddhist temple |
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| The beach of Macao |
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