Love and Hate and Trust: Eight Hours in the Life of a Peace Corps Volunteer

The Hate:

Last week I had to go back to Chengdu to get my permanent crown put in. I got up at 5:30 AM, caught the 6:40 AM bus for my 9:00 AM train, and all was well, until I realized my bus wasn’t going to the train station. The driver changed the route, for reasons that are still a mystery to me. In that moment, when I realized I had no idea if I were going to get to my train on time, I was filled with contempt for this place that can so haphazardly change things at the last minute with no notice and no concern for those affected. I really wanted to punch Chongqing in the face, and I felt like a Peace Corps failure for not being able to keep my cool in the face of this cultural crisis. The bus driver didn’t know which nearby bus went to the train station, but I did manage to find an empty taxi during morning rush hour (thank you, taxi guardian angel) and get the train station in time to catch my train. But it took me a while longer to get over that rush of anger and anxiety I felt.

The Love:

Later that day in Chengdu, I was riding the bus from the dental office back to the campus where I was staying. It was rush hour, and the bus was so crowded that people were jumping on through the middle doors. I noticed them passing down their electronic bus cards to the front of the bus to be scanned for their fare, and my American mind thought, “Oh, they are friends traveling together, and just got on through different doors.” But I soon realized that no, none of these people passing around bus cards knew each other. And I thought how wonderful it was that they trusted their fellow citizens enough to turn over a valuable bus pass, not just to one person, but to the 8-10 people it took to get it down the bus aisle and back (sometimes with wallet attached!). And I had this love in my heart for China and the Chinese people, that I could be a part of this kind of community. I started helping pass the bus cards for them, and because I am 5’10” in my shoes, my ability to reach over lots of heads made it go a little faster. They looked kinda tickled that a foreigner was getting involved in their ritual, and that made my whole day. 

During training our director told us something along the lines of, “If you find yourself wondering how you can stand to stay here one more day, wait half an hour, and something will happen that will make you never want to leave.”

It was a little more than a half an hour, but on this day, this was very true.