Chinese dinner

The other night our team experienced our first dinner outing, Chinese style. The Chinese people dine family style, and as there were 16 of us present for this joyous occassion, we made for a very large and loud group.When dinig family style, a large lazy susan is situated in the middle of the very large table and everyone eats from the variety of dishes that are served. None of this American style eating where everyone gets his or her own dish to eat from. Nope, it is a free for all. The Chinese, however, are very gracious hosts. They always ensure that their guests are served before they see to their needs. Everytime a dish was brought out, more food was placed in my serving bowl regardless of whether I wanted it. There was also an endless stream of food arriving from the kitchen, so my serving bowl was never empty. And yes, the food was GREAT!!!

Another interesting part of the night occurred when the bill arrived. As the students had invited the teachers to eat with them, they insisted on paying and would not allow us to contribute in any way. Splitting the bill and figuring out who owes how much is a difficult task regardless of the culture. However, as the Chinese have a propensity for discussing everything with everyone before a decision is reached, splitting the bill was an interesting experience. Picture 8 Chinese people situated at various positions around the table, all discussing the best method to pay the bill. All of this occurred in Cantonese, of which I know none! So I am sitting at this table listening to a 10 minutes debate about the bill and then once the decision was finally reached the exchange of money took about 5 more minutes. This is in addition to the 1 and a half hours it took to discuss what food we were getting (talk about it), order our food (talk about it), get our food (talk about it), eat our food (talk about it). I think you get the picture. Dining Chinese style is a time consuming event.

Regardless of the above mentioned theatrics, the highlight of the night had to be "the Chicken head". Chicken in China is served with the actual chicken head. So there we were, all of us wasteful Americans who shudder at the thought of eating a chicken's head, taking pictures of this chicken head sitting so proudly amidst all of our food in the middle of the table. I could say that I was too culturally sensitive to take a picture of the chicken head, but that would be a lie. The truth is that only reason it is not on the blog for you to see is because I accidently deleted the picture. Sorry.

Here is a nice group picture of all us.

Here is Chris with some friends from the center.

Here is Gerry with our hosts.

Now, having expounded upon some of the differences that exist between the Chinese culture and the American culture, I wish to say that the most gratifying thing the Lord has shown me thus far is the similarities between us all. I have noticed some of the differences that exist between the two cultures and have had to stretch myself in order to accomodate these differences into my life. However, my understanding has also been stretched by the similarities that I see among us. The Lord has allowed me to see people... just people. And in seeing people, both in happiness and in sadness, I am better able to understand the need we all have for Christ.

Praise be to God!