A Whatchamacallit

What is that thing Kathy is sitting on, and why is she smiling, you ask.

Now erase that thought. I’ll get off and give you a turn to look at it.

Yep, under that grill and ash, there are live coals. Pretty nifty, eh?

I knew what it was, because I’d seen them variously put to use the night before. Here’s a shopkeeper using one to toast her hands and feet:

So, it had been pouring rain all day long, really grim

You Shan Primary School courtyard

so our little band couldn’t help getting damp and chilled as we slogged from house to house, village to village, school to school.

So naturally, when we stopped for dinner and were practically shaking, the staff brought in a couple of whatchamacallits and we took turns sitting on them.

We liked them so much, we decided to buy some. I got a pair and, all told, our group bought twenty (!) in fact. After all, we knew that once we’d delivered all our stuff, there would be plenty of room on the bus. Can you imagine the conversation between our minder, who called the guy who supplied them?

“Liu, this is Zhang. Listen, I’ve got an emergency on my hands! These foreigners… Lord only knows what they’re thinking. Anyhow, can you possibly round me up a dozen or so bun-warmers? Yeah, I know, we make combs and fans and all sorts of carved geegaws, and what do they want? Yeah, I know, they’re too big for them and will probably fall off — look, just do your best, ok?”

“Whoa…, no problem! I’ll get on the horn with my no-good brother-in-law and tell him to bring all the ones he’s got over at the house. He owes me anyhow, remember how he got plastered and embarrassed me last month drinking all the bai jiu? What’d you tell them they’d have to pay? 100 rmb each?!? Whoohoo, a vacation in sunny Sanya is looking good!”

Sure enough, a guy showed up within the hour (after 7:00 pm, still raining) with a pile of the things on the back of a pickup truck.

So here’s one of my bun warmers, back home on the front stoop in Shanghai:

Well it seemed like a really, really good idea at the time.

PS: I was with Heart to Heart Shanghai, an amazing organization that brings kids in need of heart surgery to Shanghai and pays for their surgery. We were in rural Jiangxi Province to check up on some kids and their families post-surgery and bring them supplies… also books to schools that haven’t previously had any. If there’s anything you’d like to see or know about that — like photos of the adorable kids and their families, or the hillsides blooming with rapeseed flowers among the tea bushes –  you just let me know.