Interesting Cultural Findings (Part IV)

I have never had to use so much hand sanitizer in my life as I have these past four weeks in China. The bathrooms frequently do not have soap to wash your hands and just as frequently they do not have a means with which to dry your hands. So rather than rinse my hands off and walk around swinging them wildly to get them to dry, I just use my hand sanitizer. And to add to the bathroom anomalies of China, sometimes they don’t even have toilet paper! Thankfully, I carry around my little roll of toilet paper, along with my hand sanitizer, all the time.

At church last Sunday, President Britton and his wife told us about how difficult it is to renew their visas to remain in China year after year. They are currently in the middle of renewing President Britton’s and their son’s visas. They said that this year the rules changed unexpectedly such that they are now required to obtain certified copies of their Canadian birth certificates from the Canadian Consulate/Embassy, but the next appointment to do that is weeks after their visas expire. I found out this week at church, that China renewed President Britton’s visa but not their son’s. Sister Britton and their son went to Hong Kong to try to get it renewed there but had no luck. So she had to put their son on a plane back to Calgary to stay with his older brothers until he could get his visa renewed from Canada. Can you imagine putting your 15-year-old son on an international flight all alone from Hong Kong to Calgary? I’m always a little nervous to fly internationally and I’m 33!