Before embarking on our trip, Mommy had reserved a spot for us on a tour bus that would pick us up in Chinatown, and take us on a tour toward Washington, D.C. The tour company was called "Tours for Fun."
The cabby dropped us off at the street where we were supposed to be and left. We parked our luggage on the sidewalk outside the restaurant and waited for the tour bus. We thought it was strange that no one else seemed to be there to meet it, and we were the only Americans to be seen for miles. Everyone else was Asian.
We were in front of some sort of Chinese coffee shop~ which upon seeing the inside of it we decided we weren't in need of any refreshments just then. {It was filthy!} Next to the restaurant there was some sort of a e-world travel agency, then a cross-street. We waited for a while, and eventually noticed someone come out of the travel agency with a flag that said "e- world tours. " The Chinese man set up a table, and it looked like he was registering a group of Chinese with their luggage for some other kind of tour. A different tour than what we would be on, obviously.
Finally, a bus pulled up and parked in front of us at the curb. We watched a bunch of Asians pile out. Mommy climbed up to the talk to the African American bus driver. He had never heard of "tours for fun!"
What in the world? I was beginning to wish I was back in my hotel Wellington, 12 stories up.
Mommy asked the e-world tours man with the flag about "tours for fun," he shook his head and said something in Chinese, pointing down the street. Were we in the wrong place? Mommy ran to the end of the street and searched around, finding nothing.
Sitting on top of my fiddle case on the curb, in front of a {most likely} rat-infested restaurant in a different country-feeling city, I wondered if God was preparing me for the mission field…
Finally, a sweet little chinese gal set us straight. She was wearing an e-world tour jacket and was the tour guide for the bus that had pulled up in front of us. Apparently "e-world" and "tours for fun" were one and the same… and there were our names, printed on her list of tourists!
Whew! Relief! Here was our bus! We loaded our luggage and climbed aboard. Exhausted from the hectic morning, we found an open seat and dropped in. Sighing with relief, I stared at the seat in front of me and hoped I would never have to go China.
A few minutes later, Mommy nudged me. She motioned around the bus. "We are the only Americans on here!" I sat up and looked around. There were Chinese in every seat except ours and the drivers. Even the two tour guides were Asian!
Laughter ensued. Here we were, on a bus headed for the nations capital, with a bunch of short, shy, Mandarin speaking Chinese!
It got even better as the bus roared out of Chinatown. The tour guide stood at the front of the bus with a microphone and let out a string of gibberish- it took a few seconds to register that she was speaking Chinese. What had we gotten ourselves into? {no wonder the tour was so cheap!!}