Gao's Turkey
Mr. Gao is our driver. We call him up when we need a driver to take us places. We have used him many times and have developed quite a good friendship with him. He has a nice car and is one of the funniest men in China. We called Gao to take us into town (about a 45 minute drive) for Thanksgiving Dinner. We would normally take public transportation (about an hour and a half with favorable traffic), because it is so cheap its almost free, but since we were bringing a warm dish to the smorgasbord we thought it would be better to take a driver. We found our own way home from the party.
When I saw Gao later that week he asked me why I didn’t bring him any Turkey from our Thanksgiving Party. He didn’t get to eat Turkey this Thanksgiving and he thought that was a shame since he had American friends (Turkey’s are native to North America so most Chinese have only heard of such a bird, or such a meat - this also means turkey is very expensive in China - our Thanksgiving turkey was $147). I felt guilty that I was not able to give my driver/friend some Thanksgiving turkey.
Fast forward 3 weeks. Our family was going to attend the Beijing International Christian Fellowship’s Christmas Banquet. This was a swanky affair and the Beijing Marriott and my wife was having contractions to the point that her doctor told her to slow down so that the baby didn’t come out so early. Because of the doctor’s prescribed restriction on Chyloe’s physical exertion we called Gao to take us to the Christmas banquet. When we got to the end of the buffet line we saw a man carving a scrumptious looking Turkey (it tasted even better than it looked). We were not going to miss this opportunity to bless our friend with some holiday turkey. Instead of having to wrap it in a napkin we used one of our gift boxes to deliver the stolen meat.
This was what the gift box looked like before - chocolate coins (gold), a sachet (incense), and some flavored oil (myrrh), and a small booklet explaining the good news of Christmas in English and Chinese.
This was the gift box as we used it. We also gave Gao a real gift box with the other gifts.
When I saw Gao later that week he asked me why I didn’t bring him any Turkey from our Thanksgiving Party. He didn’t get to eat Turkey this Thanksgiving and he thought that was a shame since he had American friends (Turkey’s are native to North America so most Chinese have only heard of such a bird, or such a meat - this also means turkey is very expensive in China - our Thanksgiving turkey was $147). I felt guilty that I was not able to give my driver/friend some Thanksgiving turkey.
Fast forward 3 weeks. Our family was going to attend the Beijing International Christian Fellowship’s Christmas Banquet. This was a swanky affair and the Beijing Marriott and my wife was having contractions to the point that her doctor told her to slow down so that the baby didn’t come out so early. Because of the doctor’s prescribed restriction on Chyloe’s physical exertion we called Gao to take us to the Christmas banquet. When we got to the end of the buffet line we saw a man carving a scrumptious looking Turkey (it tasted even better than it looked). We were not going to miss this opportunity to bless our friend with some holiday turkey. Instead of having to wrap it in a napkin we used one of our gift boxes to deliver the stolen meat.
This was what the gift box looked like before - chocolate coins (gold), a sachet (incense), and some flavored oil (myrrh), and a small booklet explaining the good news of Christmas in English and Chinese.
This was the gift box as we used it. We also gave Gao a real gift box with the other gifts.
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