Explore a China many have not seen
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
Leo Buscaglia
The Zhu Family
They come from Jiangsu province and have served as "janitors" at our compound for 18 years. They keep our lobby area dry and put a rug when it rains so the residents don't slip. They take the trash out of our hands so that we don't have to go out. We interact with them and give them baked goods during holidays, and give them items they can use. To our amazement, when they return from their hometown after Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) they always bring a basket full of eggs from their home. How they manage to keep the eggs from breaking is a miracle in itself. Their "home" here in the compound is just a makeshift shack literally behind the garbage dump of our apartment. They have taught me about contentment!
The Wongs: Gardeners
They are cousins from Anhui province. They are our gardeners and keep not only the grassy area nice and trimmed, but they also sweep the leaves off the driveway of our compound. This seems to be an endless ritual. But they serve with a smile. None of the people that serve us live in an actual apartment. They stay which ever room the managers allow them to stay. When I see them, they are either sweeping, cutting or making their own brooms from the branches they just cut. All this is done with a smile.
The Wang Family
They are from Anqing in Anhui province. They have been serving us with "baozi" steamed bread filled with a variety of things. Our favorites are vegetable and sesame seed. One thing you will notice is that most of the shops, food stall place are all closed during Chinese New Year because they all go home. But because of the world pandemic, we didn't know what had happened to them or how they were doing. We were so relieved to see them return. Because they sell out of our favorite baozi quickly, we asked them to keep a certain amount of each for us to pick up later. The door in the back is the room where they sleep.
Zhu Yufang
Ms. Zhu has been selling fresh produce for at least ten years just down our street. Her husband and daughter stay behind the shop.One way of showing our appreciation is giving them bakes good. She's learned that would take cracked eggs because we would use them for baking. So she practically gives them to us for free.
Giving the drivers mooncakes baked by HGO during Mid-Autumn Festival
Public Bus 69
The terminal to bus 69 is just across the street from our gate. We use it to get to and from school which is just less than 10 minutes before rush traffic. In our experience, drivers only receive complaints and anger from the passengers for reasons beyond their control. For over a decade, we have developed a great relationship with all the drivers and dispatchers working the route. Ms. San, early morning dispatcher, and us have a great relationship. What started as a simple hello and thank you, developed into showing our appreciation at every major Chinese holiday with baked goods to the entire group of drivers and dispatchers (60-70 of them). An unexpected blessing we received was that for over two years, they set the departure schedule in the morning to the time I needed to catch the school shuttle bus. I know they will always have our backs.