More NEGLECTED STORIES (echoing voice)

While in Chegdu in the Sichuan province of China I stayed at the Dragon Town Youth Hostel. One night while searching for some friends I was eagerly appraoched by a young chinese man who stopped me dead in my track by saying "do you want dinner". I didn't quite know how to respond to the question, so I stuttered, with my first instinct being to say no. In the moment I did realize that I was pretty famished and that it would be nice to eat. "What do you mean" I asked back. He then, over a period of time, explained to me he was an english student looking for a native english speaker to envite to a dinner. The attendants would all be english students, and I would just be expected to interact with people and, wait for it, I would get a FREE meal. After a quick risk assesment of the situation we were off. We soon met up with the young mans english teacher who explained better what would be asked of me as we shuffled onto a bus. After a tedious 30 minute ride we entered a large park with what looked liked a stadium on the far edge. The two led me to a small building in the middle of the park that looked like it had absolutely nothing to do with food. This would later turned out to be true. In front of the building was a small table with 5 chinese people of varying age and gender siting around. As we walked up I was asked to take a seat and if I would like any tea (Cha) to which I replied yes. The tea was scolding in true chinese form and burning my tongue was the highpoint of the next 10 minutes. I quickly realized that the level of English around the table was extremely low and that everyone was absolutely terrified that I might try to talk to them. I remembered back to my high school French class when I would be asked questions I didn't understand, and had absolutely no idea how to reply to. Feeling guilty that, I wasn't engaging people, and at the same time, that I might engage someone who was panicking, I waited desperetly for food. Eventually the teacher censed that food might lighten moment and announced that we should eat. The table and chairs were taken inside the park building and we proceeded outdoor resturaunt. When we reached the table the number of students swelled to 10 and some of them began demanding photos. One very tall chinese girl claimed that she needed photographic proof that there were men taller than her. As much as I hated moments like that, it worked to lighten the mood and eventually people began to open up and ask me questions.

Food was eaten, jokes were made, and an hour later it was getting dark. People around the table began to leave until the group had shrunk to 5. The end to the event seemed close, when one of the students, an older Chinese woman, leaned over and handed me a sheet of paper. Before I had time to even glance at the poorly scrawled english hand writting she asked me if I could help he pronounce the sentences. As a looked down the page I had to do a mental double take. The first sentence read "Viagra is a drug used to treat erectile disfunction". I looked down the page to find that the first sentence wasn't nearly as fantastic as the one about intro-utero devices, or the instructions on how to use lube in cases where sexual intercourse was "stressed". I looked over at the older woman who had handed me the paper and realized she seemed a bit aggitated. She had, I realized, been waiting the whole night for a moment when everyone was distracted. "Well" I said as I cleared my throat, and I proceeded to read the first sentence slowly stressing all of the difficult parts. There was a pause and I could see nothing but confusion on her face. So, I asked her if she knew what erectile disfunction was? She shook her head and so I launched into a very straight-foward, but graphic (using some ASL signs), description of what erectile dysfucntion was and how it was treated with Viagra. As I described more and more I could see her face get redder and redder. At this point the remaining students were starting listen in. When I finished talking she immediatly grabbed the paper out of my hands and said "thank you". At this point she was very aggitated, so I didn't ask if she needed me to read any other sentences.

Later that night I talked to an engineer who worked for a car company and ended up giving me a ride home in his company car. This was much preferable to the bus in theory, but turned out not to be the case in practice seeing that his friend, who he was also driving home, was a chain smoker. In the end, the food was good/free, and the night was memorable. I would have been greedy to ask for more.


Its fascinating, Islamasbad for the most part faired better than almost any other place hit by the qauke. For this reason I keep forgetting that there a devestating natural disaster that just claimed a number of lives. I feel really stupid when obvious effects of the qauke confuse me. For instance 4 days after the qauke I noticed a signifigant influx of people begging on the street. This was very confusing for me at first, until I slapped myself in the freaking head, they were, of course, refugees. This again happened with bottled water which became exceedingly hard to find until I realized that it was all be shipped to areas that were desperate for aid in the form of clean water. Really, if it was not for the news, I would never have even been aware that the earthqauke of any really signifigance.

Everything is good. I can't wait to get my Indian visa so I can move out of Pakistan. Its been a wonderful visit, but I'm ready to leave.

I added a picture of the event. Sadly the older woman hadn't moved next to me yet, so she's not in the picture.