Last weekend I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with a friend of mine and his family in their apartment in Zhengzhou. It was really fun to hang out with Declan and to meet his family, but it was incredibly frustrating too. They know no English. I know very little Chinese. So about all I could do was smile and tell the mom how good her food was...which was true. They cooked a feast for me - literally. Declan said they spent several days preparing it! It's incredibly humbling to be treated so well just because you are a foreigner. It's a hard thing to deal with actually, because although there is a part of my flesh that desires that, I don't want to be treated like royalty in my spirit. So besides building my friendship with Declan, the other highlight in my mind was the increased desire it gave me to work on my Chinese skills. I have a new Chinese teacher and will start my lessons othe week of October 8th. In the picture, you'll see Declan to my right, his dad, aunt, mom and cousin. Not pictured is his uncle, who took the picture. Thankfully Declan has really good English, so I was able to have him translate stuff too. I hope that next time I stay with a family, I'll be more prepared to talk with them!
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