This week is Chinese National Day, the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. It means a week off work, yay!
Today I headed over to the Dawanglu area and met up with Barbara Birmingham, an older lady from Congregation of the Good Shepherd(COGS). The Birmingham's are from England. Barbara's husband Bill works with the European government in Beijing. Barbara had recruited me to work with one of COGS service projects, teaching English to blind people at Golden Key. Golden Key raises money to build schools and provide education to blind children in rural and impoverished parts of China. COGS assists with financial support and also by supporting Golden Key's local work, a blind massage center.
The afternoon consisted of Barbara and myself having conversations with the masseurs that work at the center. Their aim is to improve their English so they can better provide massage services to the foreign population. There aren't many job options for blind people in China, mostly due to lack of laws protecting disabilities to the extent they are protected in the west. Working in massage parlors is one of the ways blind people do find employment. Some of these people could see, but barely, and some could not see at all. Any profits made at this center go to support the education efforts of Golden Key.
I stayed around after the lesson for a massage, how could I pass up donating money to such a good cause? (Suffering for the Lord!) It was a very thorough massage, what in the U.S. would probably be called a deep tissue massage. The lady massaged muscles I didn't know I had! Let me clear up a few misconceptions for you. It probably doesn't fit the picture you have in your mind. Chinese massage is done fully clothed and is actually a medical procedure. They have various massage treatments for various illnesses. I had the basic "full body" massage that focuses on the back, neck, and leg muscles. It gets quite painful as they massage very deep and very hard, but afterwards you feel more relaxed than you ever have.
Afterwards I rode a cab over to my favorite American restaurant: Peter's Tex Mex, for a chicken fried steak dinner and grocery shopping at Jenny Lou's.
Expect multiple updates this week since I am off work and will have more time for exploring the city.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, I would love to hear your comments. Just click on comments below and follow the instructions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment