in the Muslim Quarter...

Originially:
there was a fight. i'll write more when i can.

Journal:
"Hurrah!! We have hot water!!! Last night Amy and I were trying to shower for so long but there was only cold, freezing water. I had to do the rub down instead of an actual shower. It was ice cold! so cold that it hurt when the water hit my skin. But this morning...guess what we have...HOT WATER!! Hallejuh! Praise the Lord!


Reflection:




We went out to eat dinner so we went by the Muslim Quarter. When our driver Wang Shi drove us to the city walls, we were amazed by the amazing beauty of the walls....



We can never resist taking pictures when we see something new or exciting. We, most definitely, look like tourists. =]



Our dinner was so good, we had to break up our half baked bread into tiny, tiny pieces which then it was taken away! It came back in about 10-15 minutes with a delicious lamb soup. It was spicy and delicious! I wish I had pictures.

The restaurant would have random blackouts which, at first, was suprising. It was fun to eat by candlelight and cheers were heard as the lights randomly came back on. What an exciting restaurant to eat at!

To get to the restaurant we walked through the Muslim Quarter, a long, narrow, almost claustrophobic snake path. It appeared to have two exits, one at one end, the other at the other end. We were walking back from our dinner so we had to go through the long Muslim hallway again.

The air felt different this time around. When we had first walked through the Muslim Quarter, my group and I were so excited and pointed out the many things that we wanted. This time something was off. There were less people, it was getting dark and things just didn't feel right. The program managers helped us to make good bargains with the Muslim Quarter vendors. A Muslim lady at the one of the stalls apparently had a problem with this.

Before I knew what was happening, I heard yelling behind me. As I turned around I saw two of our program managers fights with a Muslim woman. The Muslim woman's husband got involved and slapped one of our program managers on the face. It was terrifying to stand there in a restricted area, unable to understand the language, and unable to help. Eventually they separated and we booked it out of that maze!

We later found out that fights do occur there, but the police do very little when they do occur. If the police happen to take action, the Muslim Chinese community will protest the police station. The police seem to be powerless to do something about the group due to the response the Muslim community will have. Apparently there is also a divide between the Muslim Chinese and the other Chinese people.

This definately shook my group up the first night we were in China. BUT...we understand that the actions of one woman should not represent the area or the people there as a whole. What an eventful welcome to Xi'an.