Being Chinese

Isn’t it great how sometimes you get exactly what you wish for? It may seem strange to people, but there is a part of me that really misses speaking Chinese if I don’t speak it for an extended period of time. Call it withdrawal symptoms or the need to keep practicing my speaking, but I get a strange and strong urge periodically to both speak the language and to immerse myself in the culture periodically. This was the exact feeling I was getting in Mombasa around the end of March, having been removed from Hong Kong for nearly six weeks.

I first took simple measures to try to address the feeling – I started listening to more Chinese music on my iPod, I converted a few Chinese movies to iPod format for the road, and I began speaking to myself in Chinese. It wasn’t enough though, and I remember telling Young, only half-jokingly, that I was going to go into a Chinese restaurant and meet some Chinese people so I could at least have a conversation in Chinese and get my fix that way. Thankfully, it never came to that, as just a few days later, on our way to Zanzibar, I ended up meeting two really cool and kind Chinese guys on the ferry.

Lin and Harry ran into the ferry ticket office just moments after I did. We were all about to miss the boat. I knew instantly that they were Chinese, and they were just as confused as I was about the pricing and the options – especially since we were bombarded with “hurry hurry, the boat is leaving.” At the time, we didn’t exchange much in the way of conversation – just checked with each other pricing. I know it sounds weird slash bad, but there is definitely something nice about being able to speak freely and discuss the potential of being cheated in a language that others can’t understand. Anyway, it was actually after the boat had arrived in Zanzibar that Lin, Harry, Young and myself began to talk. In the course of discussing where we were staying respectively, Lin decided to offer us a ride into town. He and Harry were doing a project for a phone company on the island, and because of that they had a car at their disposal and were getting picked up at the port.

Truthfully, I’m not sure why he did so, and I don’t think he and Harry discussed it beforehand. Now, knowing more about Lin and Harry (they just met at the airport before leaving China for the project in Africa, so they actually weren’t even friends, but had no one but each other for the past two weeks) I know that they needed new blood as much as we did. It actually came at a great time for Young and I, as we were ourselves going through a lull in our conversation due to the 24/7 nature of traveling together as much as anything else. All of this sort of came out later, but at the time, the offer seemed too good for Young and I to pass up. What ended up happening was that we stayed in the same hotel the first night, then Lin and Harry offered to take us along in their truck as they visited various five-star resorts on the island for their project. Over the next four days, the four of us spent all of our time together, getting to know each other and sharing experiences. It was a bit rough for Young, because faced with the mother-lode of Chinese speaking opportunities, we spoke a lot of Chinese. Yet I think Young likely wouldn’t complain too much because it was really good for him to be able to spend some time talking to someone besides me.

Beyond the practical reasons for latching on to each other in Zanzibar though, I think Lin, Harry, Young, and I chose to stay on the same path for the duration of our time in Zanzibar because we found each other to be good company and good people. Lin and Harry are both really cool guys with very interesting stories. They represent the new mobile Chinese middle class, each having spent at least a year working outside of the country. Harry worked in Pakistan, and Lin has worked in Africa for over six years. The challenges they face now, at the same age that Young and I are – in terms of careers, location, family, and friends are exactly the types of things that interest me most now. Thus, it was really easy spend time with them and it was really comfortable – in fact, we got rained in on the east cost of the island the day we were supposed to leave and we all just sort of decided to stay an extra day – I think it was our own way of prolonging a good thing – and we spent the day trading photos, music, and movies.

I guess for me, it goes back to the idea of passion and faith and how the cosmos somehow work things out for you if you’re on the right path. While there may be no connection with my periodic need to “go Chinese” in Mombasa and our meeting with Lin and Harry, and there may be no connection with our need for different company and our stumbling onto these two really cool guys, I like to think that it all works out perfectly (and in this case, it did) for a reason. Passion and faith right?