Praising God tonight...

for safety on the scooter. I often talk about the craziness of driving here, and I've had some very close calls (that I know of and probably many others I wasn't even aware of), but tonight was the closest, I think. Erin was not as fortunate, but thankfully she's o.k. Her scooter doesn't look so good and she's got some bruises but at least she's got no broken bones.

Erin is my Canadian friend I work with and we were riding together tonight after work to try to see a late movie. We've never done this but decided to try it because I had an unexpected class cancellation from my adult 3 on 1 class. This means I got finished at 7:45, which is the same time Erin finishes on Wednesdays. We were riding on a very busy street and had just taken off from a red light (which always resembles a race amongst all the scooters) when a taxi van pulled a u-turn right in front of us and stopped without any warning or indicator. I was in front and just barely managed to swerve to miss him at the back, but Erin couldn't do it without hitting me, so she braced herself and went broad-side into his car. She's a tall girl and the impact made her come over the scooter to smack her helmet on his car, then she and the scooter fell over on the left side. I was past the car when I heard a very loud thud and a slight scream from a girl, which of course when I turned around I knew was Erin's voice. I got to her in seconds and she looked up at me and said, "I'm alright." The taxi guy was standing there by then too, and the first words out of my mouth were, "You shouldn't have done that." He actually spoke English and understood what I said and frustrated he said, "I do it all the time." To which I quickly said back, "It doesn't matter if you do it all the time, it was wrong and you shouldn't have done it. You cannot make a u-turn without any warning." Erin managed to hobble off the road, leaving her bike there in the middle of it, and someone phoned the police. They arrived and asked if we could speak Chinese, which of course we can't. We phoned our office and our friend Sharon came within a few minutes, but meanwhile a very kind gentleman and his wife (angels?) who both spoke great English stopped to help us. To make a long story short, we ended up in the hospital for about an hour and a half, Erin getting the ambulance escort, and me following behind on my scooter, going much slower and notably shaken by it all.

I have to give a shout out to Erin, who saved my hide tonight, and handled the quick decision to hang on and go straight into the taxi very responsibly. If you've ever been in a wreck, you know that you can make it worse or better depending on your reactions to the situation with which you're presented. Erin could have tried to swerve in either direction and really done a lot more damage to her body, or she could have slid out and ended up under his car, or any number of other very unpleasant things that could have happened but thankfully didn't. So she was cool under pressure and that is commendable! Way to go Erin!!

I also want to give a shout out to the Kang Ning gang, particularly Erchong, but also Chutung, for showing up when we needed them. First, Sharon, one of our Erchong co-workers, came and talked to the police for us...thanks, Sharon, you're awesome! Then, when we were at the hospital, Sam and Serena showed up (from Chutung, Erin's roommate and our boss, the founder and director of the school) followed closely by Alex, who also works at Chutung school. Then, Teacher Hendri (the stellar teacher from my Saturday evening experience, see previous post for details) arrived followed by Cara and Scarlet, our co-workers from Erchong. By this time, I had registered to see a doctor myself and get my cough/cold seen to, and Erin was pretty much finished. We both left, able to walk unassisted, with medicine in hand, and neither of us spent more than $20! (Even though Erin's right knee is swollen and her face hurts, no broken bones, thank the Lord!)

You know, I often feel that God is protecting me, and tonight I really feel so blessed that He would cause it all to be so much better than I thought it was going to be when I first heard that thud. I really pray that I'll forget that sound soon, but that I won't soon forget how good He is to me. Thanks so much for all your prayers when you think of me here amongst the crazy drivers. (Let's face it, taxi drivers are crazy everywhere!! Sorry, if you drive a taxi, on a number of levels.)

Now, I'm off to bed to try to sleep...if only the mosquito that's been feasting on my flesh the last few nights would somehow choke out from the cough medicine they gave me. (I think there's liquor in it!) I'm probably pushing it, eh?

Until next time, LC