Today after service, when the sun went down, a bunch of us played basketball at a nearby elementary school. (Me play basketball? I know shocking!) After a couple games some of us had to take a turn sitting out and waiting for a turn to play, which was nice because I was already tired from walking around in service all day. I miss cars and long calls. So I sat there on the maroon running track that encircled the double basketball court, ignoring the game, speaking broken Chinese to a young brother. It took the brother a half hour and a lot of pantomiming to ask me if I had seen "Titanic." I think a major point of confusion about it was the release date, he was was shocked it came out when he was about 10, 10 years ago, and I thought he was talking about a recent movie. Only now do I understand why he was talking about an ice mountain (berg) and a person with wings.
After that interchange I sat in a daze for awhile, my brain was numb from trying to make these casual conversations with a 25 word vocabulary continuously since morning. While I dazed I noticed a little kid I'd never seen walking towards us across the court with one of the sisters. He was about 2 or 3, with a very serious and intent little face, which he pointed at me as soon as he could see me. He walked directly up to me looked me in the eye, which was at his level since I was sitting on the ground, pointed his little finger at my face and said something in his serious little voice. Everyone around burst into laughter. I've heard that Chinese kids marvel at the size of our noses, and I was dying to have it translated for me, which involved a dictionary. He had asked me why I had changed my hair color. Which I had never thought of as being different than everyone around me, but it's the first thing he noticed about me. Four minutes later he walked up to me again and asked me to take him to the bathroom. I can't imagine this place without all of it's little kids.
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