(A quick note for the uninitiated blog reader…. In a blog, the most recent posting is at the top. If you want to see the first entry from the first trip, go all the way to the bottom and find China Part I.)
I know some of you don’t even try to keep up with my travel schedule—I don’t blame you. Most were aware that I went to China for the first time earlier this year. I returned for the second time at the end of May and came home at the beginning of July. I learned a lot more about China and ate a lot more Chinese food! Most things were the same as during the first trip, but I had a couple of experiences that I thought were quite remarkable, at least in respect to timing. I’ll share the first one as I shared it with my family.
I was in the control room (on the LNG site in China), and my Chinese co-worker and I had just decided to go for lunch and we were packing up our stuff. One of the guys on the site came in the room and said my name. Of course I answered, and he said someone wanted to talk to me on the radio. I could not imagine who it would be, so at that point I started trying to convince him that I was the wrong person. Maybe there was another “Mark†somewhere else that he was supposed to be talking to. But he seemed quite sure it was me, and handed me his radio. (On all the LNG sites I’ve been on, they have radios that are specially designed to be safe in environments where there could be explosive gases. I think they have a range of a mile or two, and they allow the men to communicate with each other on the site.) I keyed the radio one time and said something, and got no response, so I handed it back to him. I don’t remember if he made any adjustments or anything, but he said something on it and then handed it back to me again. I didn’t know what else to do, so I said, “Hello!â€
Then I heard a voice loud and clear (full quieting, for you radio buffs) saying, “I just wanted to see if this was a voice you recognized.†It was a voice that I recognized quite well—it was my own father’s voice! He was on the same LNG site that I was, half way around the world from home!
My father works for the same company that I work for, and I knew that he was going to be in the area (within 2 hours traveling time), and I had actually told my Chinese co-worker that there was some possibility that he might come, but at that point I had forgotten all about it. When I asked my father if I was going to see him in China, he said probably not. He was to visit a sales rep about 2 hours (by car) away from where I was working. It turned out that the sales rep wanted to visit another engineer, and the engineer happened to be on the site where I was working that day.
Let me help you understand a little more how amazing this is. As I mentioned above, we have both worked for Scientific Instruments for a number of years, but it’s the first time I have been with my father on an LNG site in the 9 years since I started with SI. This is the first time for my father in China, and it is my second time in China. (My first time was about 2 months before.) I was there to work on the jobsite, and my father was there on a sales trip to meet with customers and promote good relations. He left for the Philippines while I was in China last time. After about 6 weeks there traveling around and visiting churches, he spent some time in Hong Kong, then he traveled to Japan, and then he traveled back to China where he was scheduled to be in the area for 2 business days. Actually, he arrived in China on the same day that I arrived in Hong Kong (Saturday, May 27). (I crossed the border from Hong Kong into mainland China the next day.)
I was telling this to an Indian fellow (from India, not an American Indian) that I got to know the last time I was on site in China. He was quite amazed to learn that we both worked for the same company, and we both liked to preach (he knew this from our conversations during my last visit). And he was quite astounded by the fact that we were both in China and on top of Tank 1 at the same time! He said I should submit it to the Guinness World Book of Records. I haven’t done that, but I did think it was worth passing on to you!
Now, a little diversion…. About the time that I first related the above experience to my family, my brother passed along this email to me. I’ll include it here for your reading enjoyment.
Olny srmat poelpe can read thsi I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on !!
Another brother then responded with this….
Yu’ore msisnig a poried aetfr “Olny srmat poelpe can read thsi”.
Hopefully my spelling is a little better than the above selection, but I can see that maybe it’s really not all that crucial! As you can see, we enjoy some humor in our family from time to time.
I may add some more about my experiences in China later, but that’s all for now!