China - Day 4

October 16th
Thank goodness for prayers and pepto bismal. My spicy beef and rice was delicious going down for lunch, but my intestines didn’t agree later on. But let me start from the top.

This morning we had breakfast and said goodbye to the president of our primary supplier, JAM International. Then we made the 2 hour drive to our secondary supplier. The area this supplier is was much more green and mountainous, made for a beautiful drive actually.
The visit was nice, they’re a pretty small supplier for us, just doing about 15% of our production, so it wasn’t as intense there, just nice to finally meet them and strengthen the relationships.

We went to lunch at a little place that was delicious, then started the 4 hour drive to Shanghai. As mentioned above the lunch would cause a slight problem for me on the way to Shanghai. I felt the turning in my stomach about 2 hours into the drive, but we really weren’t near much, so I just prayed it would go away and it started to calm down. But 30 minutes later it was back, this time I spoke up and told Echo that it would be great if we could stop at a restroom sooner rather than later. All the sudden it really hit and I thought I was doomed. Lots of prayers ensued. Well Heavenly Father certainly is watching out for me here, because there was a gas station just 5 minutes later. Whew. So I chomped down some pepto bismal pills after the stop and just really prayed that I would be ok for the rest of the drive. Sure enough, my stomach was calmed and an hour and half later we arrived at our hotel in Shanghai. Not 10 minutes after I got to my room my stomach started churning again. I am so glad my prayers were answered today.
The day was far from over however. Don and I decided to get lost in Shanghai. We tried to find the subway station, but really did get lost, so we took a cab down to the Bund district. A vibrant city lights area with all the shopping and views of the skyline on the riverbed. It was a zoo down there though, so, so busy. But it made it kind of fun. As Don was taking a picture of me with the skyline a group of Chinese tourist people wanted to take a picture with me too. It was hilarious. Like old Chinese men, wanting a picture with me. Don snapped a few pictures of the scene, but they’re a bit dark. Anyway, it was really quite funny. The night proceeded with a ferry across the river then on to dinner. We ate pizza! It was delicious. Nice to have something not so authentic. Don and I had a great conversation over dinner all about Mormons. As we were leaving dinner he said to me, "well that was a conversation I’ve been wanting to have with you for 5 years now, glad we did it." I was glad too. I know I was blessed to say the right things and talked about some deep gospel related topics that went over really well. I pulled out my articles of faith card, glad I keep that in my wallet, because I certainly can’t recite them all by memory, oh to be 12 again. Don and I really needed a night like tonight. I finally feel comfortable with him on a whole new level and it is wonderful.

Pretty Spectacular Skyline



Posing with random Chinese men



The sea of people at the Bund

Another day in exciting Shanghai tomorrow before Don and I part ways. He’ll go on to Viet Nam, while I’ll stay in China and move up to the northern province of Henan.