The Zoo Animal Experience

Sometimes, living as a foreigner in China feels like you are a zoo animal on display.  People stare, point, take pictures, laugh at your actions, discuss your every move with other onlookers, try to touch your hair (seriously), and generally are enthralled by simply watching you.  This phenomenon is especially true for the kids on the team.  Without further ado, welcome to our local zoo:

Will sits down to make a jack-o-lantern, quite oblivious to the fact that such an act will draw an immense crowd (“come see, the monkeys are doing something fascinating!”).

Will notices his spectators for the first time (after one of them reaches over to pet his hair).

Spectators move in closer.  Will’s thought, “Maybe if I close my eyes they’ll all go away.”

Cell phone cameras start to come out as one brave spectator tries to strike up a conversation.  Will pretends he’s in his own universe.

Count the number of cell phones visible.  People are starting to scoot in close to get a good shot.

Will decides to abandon his task.  Zoo animals in constant motion don’t draw as large of a crowd.

In a small city in China, anything a foreigner does is a source of fascination.  Old ladies stop to check out and physically peruse what’s in my grocery cart.  Workers in a store stand a foot or two back and discuss both my appearance and actions.  People drop what they’re doing to stare as I pass by.  All discuss my place of origin…and all think that place of origin is Russia.

With such an envrionment, there is no chance for me to forget that indeed I am a foreigner and alien in this world.  I can only hope that in the midst of their careful observations, people will catch a glimpse of one much greater than myself.  “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to live such good lives that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify the Father on the day he visits us.”