Hay is for Horses

A trip to Inner Mongolia: There were 6 of us who went – myself, Jessie, ZaiBin, Ruth, and Gary and Mike from the Montana Team. The purpose of this trip was to buy hay for our five horses. It started out with a 6 hour bus ride to ChangChun – nothing special about this ride. Then we boarded a bus to ChangLing, 2.5 hours away. This bus was a bit older and Ruth and I were put in the front two seats. The unfortunate thing about this was that there were about 8 people too many in the front of the bus. We’re talking on the floor leaning against my legs, in the aisle and in the stair well. The guy in the front who acted as an assistant to the driver, who takes the money and lets people off and on, was a bit flirtatious and kept feeding us fruit talking in paragraph-long sentences in Chinese – non of which I understood. That didn’t seem to discourage him. The driver was horn happy while going down the road but that’s to be expected as this is the norm here. However, the horn was much louder when sitting in the front of the bus and I’m pretty sure this one could be compared to a cruse ship’s horn! Not only was the driver able to manage driving, eating fruit, smoking cigarettes and talking he also busted out his electric shaver while going down the road. Impressive. At one point, a pheasant flew up and hit the windshield with a loud thud. Not to worry, the driver immediately pulled to the side of the road, the assistant jumped out and retrieved the dead pheasant and brought in into the bus…wouldn’t want to pass up a dinner opportunity :)

After the 2nd bus we had an hour taxi ride which brought us to our final destination – a small, sleepy village in Inner Mongolia. The guys in our group had established relationships with the owners of a small hotel in town in previous years. We stayed there this year and had great fellowship with the locals. By hotel in this case, I mean there are 4 rooms above their home/cafe with a hole for a toilet outside behind the building. Ruth and I found out that we were the first white women to ever come to this town – kinda crazy to think about. That night after dinner there were several children around whom I started playing with. I was able to practice the Chinese I know and charades made up for the rest. We took turns singing songs and they overloaded me with pictures they had drawn with the word “love” written in English. It was precious. They kept feeding me fruit and would stand there patiently waiting as I ate and then would hold their hand out in order for me to spit the seed into their hand. :) They were so cute! The 13 year old daughter of the hotel owner, Wang Wen Zhuo, asked me to sleep in her room that night. Of course I accepted and we spent some time working through my broken Chinese and figuring out she is just like any other 13 year old girl – she likes boys…a lot :) After looking at the night sky filled with stars and thinking the big dipper was close enough to drink out of, we said goodnight to each other and to the little mouse that had set up camp in her room.

The next morning we walked to a small building and had service with some of the local people. I was escorted by 4 little girls all holding my hand or leg. Later that day we visited a local Korean War veteran and his wife whom Jessie had built a friendship with two years prior. They were so precious and welcoming!! Their little mud home quickly reminded me how little we can truly live with. This 86 year old man, Xu Yuan Chun, had the biggest smile I’ve ever seen and his wife, Song Hui Lan, was so beautiful and warm-hearted. The wild thing about this story – the last American Yuan Chun had seen before Jessie was a soldier in the Korean War who had shot him in the leg. Then one day while sitting along the road in his humble little village in the middle of nowhere, at the age of 84, he met a blue-eyed, white-haired, smiling American who wanted to be his friend. It was really touching to meet them and to spend time with them. They told me I need to come back next year with my husband, ha ha!

That night we stayed out in an area with a cluster of yurts (Mongolian-style teepees). When we first arrived we came upon a big bonfire with people doing various dances around the fire…some were traditional dances and some were simply attempts of resembling dancing, ha! Being white we couldn’t exactly hide and were soon pulled into the commotion. It was pretty entertaining. It soon died down and we were left in the stillness of the night to enjoy the coolness and the stars that stretched down to the horizon. It looked as though we were in a dome made of stars – incredible. I slept like a baby that night. In the morning I headed over to the bamboo “outhouse.” It’s a basic, shallow squattie toilet with a bamboo wall blocking any view of you to outsiders. As I was getting ready to, well – you know, I suddenly noticed a live chicken pecking around underneath!! Whoa!!! Beside the obvious shock and concern I had a “note to self” moment…don’t eat the chicken here! Ha Ha!!

We made it back to Hunchun safely after 13 hours of traveling by bus and taxi. The next morning we unloaded our 10 tons of hay bales and I must say – that is NOT an easy task! Whew! Hope those horses are happy :)