Letter fro m Dad 3/21/09

Dear family and others of concern:

Yesterday, mother and I were at the market picking up some vegetables for our dinner. On the way out, I met one of my former students, a very nice young girl. She said to me, "do you remember me? I said, "of course I do." She asked, "what is my name?" Well, I knew it was either Apple or Cherry. I couldn't remember which one, as I had both an Apple and a Cherry in the same class. So, I replied, "I know it is either Apple of Cherry". She said, "I am Cherry." I replied, "well, I knew you were a fruit, I just couldn't remember which one." Uh oh, that didn't sound right. I'm sure glad she didn't understand.

I also had to go to the super market to get some hamburger. When I got there, is all they had was some large chunks of beef just laying out in the open on a tray. I tried to talk to a lady, but she didn't seem to want to be of any assistance. I just needed them to chop me some beef, into hamburger. No one wanted to help me, so I just grabbed a chunk of beef and pulled it apart with my bare hands, I tore off the excess fat this I didn't want, and handed the beef to the butcher and motioned for him to chop it into hamburger. He said no, but he got some young boy and told him to chop it. The boy wasn't happy, but he did it because he had to. I then went into the back room to wash the meat off of my hands. The head butcher guy saw me in his back room and went into orbit.. Well, this is China, where else am I going to wash the meat off my hands? I finished washing my hands and told the head guy, "have a cow" and walked out. He glared at me the whole time the young man was chopping the beef, so, I just smiled at him.

In about ten days, mother and I are going to take a boat trip to the Three Gorges Dam. It is a three day trip. There is a National Holiday that lasts three days, so the trip was planned around thet time. We are looking forward to it. We will take a two or three hour plane ride to get to the place where we board the boat. It's not a very big boat, it only holds about 150 people. Well, the river isn't very wide probably only 300 feet or so. I don;t know how deep it is, but it couldn't be too deep. We are told that we will see a lot of different Chinese culture along the way.

Well, Tyler, Annamarie, Katie and Sportette will be arriving mid April. We are really anxious to see them. We're still planning our trip. I hear that Katie isn't all that fond of traveling. Well, we will do all we can to accomadate her. She waves to me and throws me kisses on Skype.

Mother and I went to Beijing last Friday. We had a great day. We shopped at the Pearl Market and ate dinner at Sizzler. Well, I know that Sizzler isn't exactly your favorite place to eat in America, but it is dang good here. It seems that is one of the only real American food places in China. Well, except for McDonalds and KFC, which is horrible here. We shall always be greatful for Sizzler here in China and I probably won't eat there again the rest of my life, unless I return to China in the future.

You must improvise here, you do what you have to do. We ride our three wheeler when we travel, we lay our laundry all over the apartment to dry, since there is not such thing as a clothes dryer in China, and we wash our dishes in the bathroom. Either in the wash basin or the tub, but never the toilet. Our kitchen consists of a small refrigerator, a hot plate and a microwave. We are darn happy to have each of them. Brigham Young had none of them. Poor guy. There is generally no such thing as heat in the college classes, and certainly no air conditioning. You just dress up, or dress down. But the buildings have a roof on them and if they leak, the custodian brings a bucket to catch the water coming through the ceiling. They give us the best they have. It's OK. I am going to ship a three wheeler home to America when we leave. Mother has already informed me that she is not going to ride in the back of the three wheeler when we get back to America. How soon she forgets. One day she is so thankful for the three wheeler, the next day, she says, "no way."

Mother and I both spoke in church today. Our talks went well. Our topic was faith. Mother always does better that I do. Tomorrow evening, I am going to hold my night class in our apartment. We are going to eat tacos and spaghetti. We will have our school lessons while we eat. The kids are really looking forward to it. I only have twelve students in this class, but some will bring their friends. We will probably end up with fifteen or sixteen in attendance. Mother will be with our family home evening group while I hold the class.

Well, I hope all is going well for each of you. Have a great day. I love you all,

Dad