First, though- http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/06/largest.loo.ap/index.html
Nice!
This weekend was so different than how I thought it would be. As I mentioned before, we didn't really know what we were doing when we left. I thought we were going to some type of seminar or business meeting where we would be able to observe but not really know what was going on, and that we were just kind of tagging along. This was definitely not the case. Dean Ma picked us up at 2:30 with his son, Leon, and wife. His son goes to college at the U. of Missouri, so his English was really good and he served as our translator for the weekend. It was a drive of a little over 3 hours to Zigong, and when we got there we pulled up to this amazing hotel. There were about 5 men there to meet us, and then we were shown to our (very nice) room. We had about 15 minutes to rest and then we went to dinner in a banquet room in the hotel.
At dinner, there were about 12-15 people there, total, and Janell, Dean Ma's wife, and I were the only females, which was kind of interesting. I think we learned a LOT about Chinese culture at this dinner. Apparently, alcohol plays a big role in their celebrations, but not exactly in the way it does in the US. Before dinner started, we were all given these little shot glasses filled with some kind of (strong) Chinese liquor. The custom seems to be that when you're spending time with friends, you toast each other VERY often. So, one of the men would come up to Janell and I and say, "Ganbei!", which meant pretty much means "bottoms up". And they do this a quite often, I'd say about every 3-5 minutes during the first part of dinner. Janell and I had to quickly switch to beer as the liquor was really strong and difficult to drink without making an awful face. Somewhere in the middle, she had the good, sneaky idea to partly fill up our glasses with water right before the beer was poured! This was important because as we found out later, they thought we were really respectful guests because we never refused their "ganbei!", but we also wanted to/were expected to not be very affected by the alcohol. This tradition was done at every meal the whole weekend except for breakfast.
On Sunday, we went to the local CDC for a lecture on their current HIV/AIDS situation. This is when we realized that we were the guests of honor for this event! The powerpoint was in English and Chinese, and the director who spoke looked at us the entire time and waited for Leon to translate for us. This was definitely not what I expected. It seemed that they are doing really good things in Zizong for HIV/AIDS, especially since the current prevalence is pretty low. They did offer a list of next steps and challenges that was helpful. After that, they took us to a community clinic in the city and to a methodone clinic- very cool. After lunch, we went to the tourist sites. At the salt well, we saw how they produce salt in the city by collecting salt water through underground pipes then boiling it through the natural gas that also comes through the pipes. It was pretty amazing as they have been doing this for at least a thousand years. Then we went to the dinosaur museum. A large amount of dinosaur fossils were found in Zigong in the late 70s/early 80s (I think) and we were able to actually see the ground where the fossils were found.
After dinner was perhaps the best/strangest experiences I've had here. They asked if we wanted to go to karaoke. Dean Ma and his family were going to visit their extended family so it was just a group of older men who spoke almost no English and us. We were expecting just a karaoke bar, but were very surprised. We were ushered into a private room with a huge screen, couches, tables with food, lighting, etc. There were 3 waiters/waitresses just for us! And guess who was expected to go first- of course, us. We did an awesome version of "We will rock you", if I do say so myself. ;) It was really funny because after that they wanted us to sing every English song that came on, but Janell and I a) had never heard of the majority of these random songs, and b) are NOT good singers. We pretty much were chanting the lyrics we saw on the screen! There was also a lot of dancing and they did karaoke as well, which they took VERY seriously. It was surreal that we were singing karaoke in a room with the major health leaders of Zigong and they were so serious about it. Absolutely hilarious and great! That night, they presented all of us with gifts. Janell, Dean Ma's wife and I all received this beautiful tie-dyed silk scarfs (picture on the next post). Basically, we were treated like royalty the entire weekend! We didn't pay for anything, and there was even a photographer who followed us around all Sunday morning taking pictures. I think we still don't really understand why this happened, but it was very, very nice. Dean Ma told Leon that it was because he had done a lot of things for them in the past and so they wanted to treat his students very well. The Zigong people may have been the most hospitable people I have ever met. Everything was coordinated perfectly- transportation, everything. Oh, and I forgot to say that we went out to the countryside and met some farmers! So amazing. We were a little uncomfortable to be the center of attention at first, but they were so nice that we ended up enjoying it, haha.
So anyway, it was an incredible weekend as we had a translator the entire time and we were able to learn about HIV/AIDS AND Chinese culture. The clinic we visited in the rural area was really impressive because they had all these prevention programs and services going on while there were only 3 known infected people in the community. The Chinese people in generally are incredibly hospitable, and they were especially so in Zigong. I wish everyone could have this experience!!!
