Over the past few weeks, I’ve really tried to spend more time with my students outside of class. With the warm weather it’s given us more opportunities. Some of them have been cancelled with the rain as a distraction so I’ve really been lifting these up that His plans would go through.
Today, I got to go to the park with one of my class. A really nice park. I have too many details to tell specifics so I’ll give you the bullet point list to get you to 2:35pm. We rented bikes for 5 hours, we stopped and took pictures every 20 yards it seemed, we got pictures taken with brides and grooms who were getting pictures taken, we climbed stairs, we had a picnic-ish, we played odd Chinese games which ended in the embarrassment of one or two people who had to give a performance. Then we went to try to bike around the entire lake. Note, we had biked around a third of it in the first few hours but we had an hour and half left and after going back and forth (in arguments and physically on the road) they decided we could go all the way around (they didn’t realize which way we were going).
It dabbled in springlings off and on throughout the day but nothing much til about 2:00. We had an hour to get back and it’s starting to rain. We were stopped about 1/3 of the way left with a guard and a no bike sign… in the rain. Seriously? All this way? They said it was too steep for bikes. Back and forth in the translation and I asked if we could just walk up/down the hill if we needed to? They went back and forth more and more and most of them were determined to just go. Next thing I know the guard steps to the side and we took off. Whether or not she gave up or we just too off… we were going. (By the way, at this point there’s 17 of us and probably 14 of us on tandom (2person) bikes.)
It’s 2:30 and we had stopped to take a quick break. I tried to get everyone pumped up with high 5’s which they just love and it worked. It’s still raining lightly so everything has a good covering on it but it’s all pretty flat.
We come around a turn and start down a slight downhill. My partner has just switched out for a different girl (only one other guy was with us at this point) so that she could ride with their foreign teacher and go faster. As we start down this hill, Mekey (the girl riding with me) starts saying “Xiao Xin! Xiao Xin!... uh… slow down!” She was just kind of tickled going with it and yelling as my previous passenger did. I did slow down though as we approached another blind turn unaware of what was on the other side. As we made the turn, I see Allen and Nadine out of the corner of my eye come around the turn and not make the turn fully. They weaved over and started hitting the edge of the road, then the side of the road, then (I knew it was coming, it was like in slow motion) they hit a branch or two, then the front tire hits a tree and they both go off. I yell, “oh crap.” So I put on my brakes and do the immediate/safe stop (I’ve rode bikes and motorcycles enough to know how to do it – I thought.) As our bike’s back in slid sideways, Mekey fell off. Another bike lost control, freaked out and wrecked into the back of us. I looked up to see Simone on a solo bike come by and hit the first bike that wrecked and spin out and wreck further downhill from that one. It really was just like you see on tv, one after another after another after another and just piling up on top of each other. With about 4ish bikes now down and sufficiently covering the main path of the road, it was only a matter of time until the rest of our group came around and joined the wreckage.
I ran over and grabbed the middle bike from the road and tried to tell all of those coming around the corner freaking out just “Go straight, go straight, go go go!” It was a straight stretch after this and once they made the turn they could have just coasted down the rest of the hill. Thankfully, He improved their English and their understanding (or I started yelling Chinese without knowing it) to get them to go through, so no one else wrecked.
I ran over to check on Nadine first, she seemed to be ok just some bumps and bruises by the way she was sitting and crying. I moved onto Allen (who was driving the bike) and his legs were bent sideways (a normal direction) but he wasn’t moving them. “I can’t… my leg…” I was already planning how to bike him out the rest of the way with a broken leg, but somehow, I suddenly just knew exactly what to do and how to fix it. I sat him back and helped him move it around and it was just twisted up and mixed. He turned out to be fine.
At this point there were enough people up and moving around to be helping each other out… or freaking out more. I spun back around to check on everyone else. I found someone whipping blood off of their neck. Jugular! I thought. (Of course I think the worst.) I realized it wasn’t her jugular, but up in her hair. They had toilet paper with them so we used it to try to stop the bleeding. It took some time and some teamwork, but it slowly worked. They had water that we put on the TP to try to clean some of the dirt and stuff out to keep it clean.
I felt like I was being a good dad as I was talking to her, trying to keep her calm, and trying to calm everyone else down in the process. I made her sit down and broke the “don’t touch girls” rule as I applied pressure to her head and tried to help clean it up. I mouthed to the others all standing around not to freak out or say anything. We used water to clean out the cut (but at this point she had bled enough in her hair that when I took the TP off it was covered in blood.) I quickly put my finger to my mouth to tell the bistandards not to say anything. I put the blood TP in my pocket so she couldn’t see it and just kept telling her that she was ok and it was alright. It was much better than it could be.
At this point, I’m starting to realize that it’s Mekey, the girl who was riding with me. I tried to replay the memory of what just happened and figure out why is she bleeding? My best guess is after she fell off the bike whoever ran into us slid into her. (Also, learned afterwards that she wasn’t wearing a helmet…. After this everyone put their helmet on and I made those who didn’t naturally put 2 and 2 together.) After 10 min of sitting there, we got her stood up and around. I checked on everyone else and she was the worst. Simone had come by and wrecked off their bike twisting her ankle or something like it.
A van came by which they stopped and loaded up these 2 girls and Nadine who was shooken up. They wanted me to go with them (one cause I’m the teacher/foreigner so I know everything and what to do, and two because I was taking care of them.) I tried to explain that I shouldn’t go, I can’t speak Chinese. I did everything I could here, so another girl got in to take care of them. I made Mekey look at me and reaffirmed that everything was going to be ok, I’ve seen stuff like this before and that she’s going to be ok. (As everyone else on the scene was on high panic mode.)
After they left, I helped Allen and we bent the handle bars back towards straight and back in the right position and then bent the seat back down. We walked the rest of the way off the hill. Every big hill on the way back we walked down and some of even the smaller ones. I made Allen test out his bike to make sure the front tire wasn’t bent on flat ground before I let him try to ride it. I blew off all of the cultural let me take care of you and indirectness and just broke out my big brother/dad personality and was taking care of them. I asked…then explained what “stitches” were to one students and had her text the healthy girl in the car and suggest that Mekey might need stitches.
I ended up riding the bike the last leg of the trip by myself because I could handle the bike better and knew what to expect. I was the last to get back and as I got close I saw them circle up before going back to the place. We were already 30 min late. They said something and talked about my bike and I knew what was happening. They weren’t going to say anything and just wanted to get out of there. G and I had already talked about how we needed to say something and how He had given me money and it was His to spend so that I should offer and pay for it if necessary.
They got off their bikes and scurried around as fast as they could to get out of there. Lots of Chinese going back and forth but I recognized they didn’t say anything about the bike I was just on. I stopped one student and asked them “did you tell them about the bike?” “No, it’s ok. We can go.” “No, it’s not ok. If we don’t tell them someone else will ride it and will wreck. The brakes aren’t working.” She went and told them and came back and said it was ok. We could leave. They all were pushing to leave, but I felt Him standing behind me refusing to let me take a step backwards. “Did you tell them that we wrecked it and about the handle bars?” “It’s ok. When they fix the brakes they will find it and it will be ok.” “But we need to tell them about the bike. We wrecked it, we need to pay for it.” “It’s ok, they’ll fix it before they leave.” I really felt uncomfortable leaving, they wanted to scram. (I understand, I wanted to scram too but He had already changed my mind and told me what to do. I didn’t know how to explain it or turn it into a lesson, but I just knew what I had to do.)
After some talking they went back and talked to them about the handle bars. I didn’t know if it was a cultural thing or what, but I really felt like we should. One girl finally said, “yeah it’s the right thing, but it’ll be ok.” That helped back me up. So they went and told and we paid them for it. It was only 30 yuan, which was like 4 a person. I felt like I was being a good dad and teaching them how to do it. “Ok, is it ok? Can we all go now?”
Before you think I’m perfect and a hero, I definitely am not. As we were walking out, I asked, “did you tell them about the seat too?” “They know.” They responded. “But did you tell them? Do we need to pay for it too?” It went back and forth and the feeling I got was that they hadn’t told them directly but just assumed they would check the rest of it. At this point we were probably 50 yards away and 15 yards from the gate. I feel like I caused such a scene the first time that I didn’t want to drag them all back there again. They talked about how the seat could be fixed and adjusted (which it possible could be) but I still felt slightly guilty by not talking about it directly and checking to see if we need to pay for it.
I offered to make dinner for them on our way back after everything, but then realized that I already have plans with our team and Dave tonight. So on Tuesday I told them I’d make them dinner at my place. I also told them if they’re muscles were cramping up to drink water and eat bananas. “Abr, you have taught us many lessons today.” I didn’t know if they’d take me serious until 9 of them went to the dining hall to buy bananas afterwards. At this point they had called back saying she didn’t need stitches but just to wrap her head. So I think everyone is ok….I think.
They were all amazed that I knew how to do so much and about everything. (I guess living in WV and doing dumb stuff all the time has helped. Also, my family is pretty active in taking care of people in emergency situations so I have some experience in that. Playing sports and Him just unloading info into my brain of how to deal with it did a good bit too. Today, I feel like I am a pretty good dad/brother/teacher/friend/something. It’s been a long day, but they all learned a little first aid, some responsibility (as the people praised them and gave them a blessing for their honesty – I also told them numerous times that I was proud of them for going back and doing the right thing), and I’m pretty sure they won’t forget the word “stitches.”
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