Road to Indonesia, Day1 to 16!!! A very long post, but if you want to really follow our journey in deciding to relocate to Indonesia, this will bring you up to date. They are copies of my FB posts as we traveled along.  I will send individual posts as I write from here on. Road to Indonesia Day 1----Road to Indonesia Sometimes we lead an interesting, even exciting life. ....This is not one of those times. We are driving across the US, which is beautiful but mostly just long miles of driving. However, some people like a blow by blow of life and living. If you are not one of those people, just skip the rest. I will always put the important parts of our needs at the beginning of a message so you will not miss anything. But if you want to pray for us as we start this first step on the journey towards Indonesia, I will try to keep you informed. We left Hood River, OR about 4 in the afternoon. I was finishing up my responsibilities at Horizon Christian School until then. It was a long

FB Post from China

Got a fb post from an acquaintance in China today. She has an orphanage and adoption placement home, although she does not seem to live right with the kids. I thought it is quite telling about how many of us feel. She writes: “Thanks to the 2nd wave, we are back in quarantine. This time only allowed out once every three days for food shopping. So ready for this to be over. Grateful to be in China and not in America. Here there is a solid plan, swift action and a focus determination to get through this quickly but without sacrificing safety. Frankly, the news reports coming from the US looks like a dog's breakfast.” In the comments underneath she says that they are in quarantine because a foreigner in the general area tested positive, and so they are locking down foreigners there as the thought is they are communicating with each other and infecting one another. She writes that she will gladly do this in order to provide safety. Yes, it is restrictive, but those of us livi

Tomb Sweeping Day and Personal Update

Tomb Sweeping Day Today in Traditional China, one should go to the tomb of your ancestors and honor them. This involves usually cleaning the tomb area, but also often includes bringing food, etc. to offer to the ancestors for a certain amount of time, and then sometimes you get to eat the feast. …although they say that it never tastes as good after the ancestors have partaken. I always thought this was observed much the same way all over China, but have realized that even in normal times this is not true. It is very much a part of Taiwan society, but I have realized that it is probably the Buddhist part. My students in modern mainland China more seemed to view it as a family day to go hiking and kite flying and enjoying one of the early spring days. Many look at me strangely when I talk about the things I knew to be true of celebrations around this holiday. There are some postings on news feeds that have mentioned that with social distancing of today’s contingencies most communit

Happy Birthday, Ann (or reflections from a refugee from China)

You are invited to my birthday party on February 13,Thursday, at 7 p.m. at our son Peter’s house in Greer, SC. (Send me a message and I will send the address. 717 660 9321) This is the first time in forever that I have been in the U. S. for my birthday. For a few years now I have lost 12 hours of my birthday as I cross the International Dateline on   our way back to China on this day. However, this year I am here!! And I am throwing myself a party! Now, if you want to see the “rest of the story” as to why we are still in the States you need to open our blog and read it. I have delayed writing about our situation because everything is still unfolding and happening very fast. About a week and a half ago we were told that Peking University (as well as all the other schools and any large gathering) was closed until further notice. We were told not to return right now and nearly all of our organization as well as other expats that we know either were already   in the US like us or hav

Return to School Delayed!

So, as the scene unfolds on media, so also our circumstances are changing. Peking University, our Beijing employer, has informed us that the start of the semester is being indefinitely delayed. It was to have started on Feb. 17 and our tickets are for Feb. 11. We were told not to cancel our tickets yet, but it seems inevitable. There is discussion about conducting classes online, which I suppose can be done from almost anywhere. (Rick is contemplating how one can teach oral English with required oral presentations online. Haha) Personally, I am finding this delay very hard to accept. After this long ‘vacationing’, I am quite ready to return to my home and hold still and unpack. I am ready to return to my very meaningful work. But then I have spent most of today realizing what an ungrateful wretch I am. The Lord orchestrates it so that we are out of harms way, and do not have to go through the uncertainties of lock down, lack of supplies, and maybe even evacuation….and instead I a

New Year and Coronavirus

Happy Chinese New Year! Today is the beginning of the ultimate Chinese holiday. It means traveling home to see relatives, eating delicious food, handing out red envelops full of money as gifts, and generally relaxing. Many big cities are usually almost closed down as people gladly return to their villages of origins. ….except there is a coronavirus outbreak. 12 cities around the epicenter have been closed down and people everywhere are being told to just stay in place. One could easily wonder how a government could close down 12 cities with a cumulative population of about 35 million. However, having lived in Beijing for 3 years, I have no doubt at all that it is quite possible. Transportation will simply stop running. If there are no airplanes, busses, and trains, that pretty well leaves only cars, and although the number of cars has greatly increased they still are not usually used for long distance travel. So I have no doubts at all that the citizens in the Wuhan area are simply s