Bike accident

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. The ole' bike accident that gets blamed on the foreigner. The whole thing was such a horrible experience. After it was all over I cried for the first time since we arrived. So this is what happened:

Yesterday I was crossing the road near our house to pick up the kids from a friend's house. It is a pretty busy street, so I waited until the coast was clear and then started to cross the road. As I got close to the other side, I saw a three wheeled motor bike coming and not slowing down so I stopped my bike to let it go by. It was an older guy and I don't know what he was doing but he didn't slow down and made this huge swerve and tipped his bike over landing him on the street. I quickly got off my bike and ran over to help him. That was a huge mistake.

As soon as I righted his motor bike he started yelling at me and telling me it was all my fault. I should have just left at that point. Another guy from across the street came over and called the police and told me I couldn't leave. Again, I just should have left anyway. I was scared that this guy was going to tell the police that I hit him and they were going to hunt me down and who knows what. Anyway, I just said in Chinese that it wasn't my fault and that I was going to leave. He said I couldn't leave and stupidly, I believed him. About 10 people were gathered around by now, all interested in the show. I was stunned at how quickly this blew up into a huge thing. A police guy came in his car with lights flashing and that drew even more people to the scene. I tried to tell the cop what happened and he said it didn't matter what I said. It didn't count. My friend Sung Hee Smith who's house Gabe and Sara were at called me to see if I had a diaper for Sara and I told her what happened. She said she would be right there.

She came about 2 min later and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Just to have her there by my side made the situation so much better. Our A yi, who was on her way home, saw the crowd and came over to see if she could help. She is a shy person so she just quietly stayed by me the whole time lending her support as best as she could.

I called Chris and told him what happened and he immediately got the driver and headed home. He felt so helpless cause he was a half hour away. When he told the driver what happened, Chris said he has never seen our driver put the peddle to the medal like that before.

In the mean time, another cop shows up. I was so confused as to what they all expected me to do. People were shouting and yelling and the crowd was getting bigger and bigger. My friend Sung Hee did her best to try and help, but the cops wouldn't do anything. We kept saying that if I had hit the guy, who was riding a bigger vehicle, then my bike would have had damage too. It was just too much logic for these people. The cops paid no attention and just kept talking to someone on their cell phones.

Obviously, this old guy wanted money and he wasn't going to let this go until he got some. The cops finally just said that we had to settle on an amount of money and then I could go. WHAT!? This guy biffed it totally on his own and now I'm supposed to pay him money? He was really acting the part too. He kept showing the crowd his scrapes shouting stuff I couldn't understand. His knee had a scrape and he kept his pant leg up the whole time making sure everybody saw what the evil foreigner had done. This was such a nightmare.

It had been an hour when I finally just said I would give him 100 yuan so I could get out of there. The guy just yelled at me a bunch of stuff and the only thing I caught was that he wanted 1000 yuan. I laughed out loud because I certainly wasn't going to cry! The cops were just talking on their cell phones to I don't know who while the crowd just kept yelling stuff. One of the cops handed the phone over to me and a guy speaking English asked me what happened. I recounted the whole thing and he said that I had to work it out with this old guy or come down to the police station with my passport and a police officer there would decide who was at fault. Yes, I know, this whole thing was ridiculous. I gave the phone back and just said that I was willing to give 100 yuan and that was it. I wasn't going to the police station so take it or leave it. I was fuming by this time. Upon hearing my offer one more time the old guy started all the dramatic "showing" of his owies. Then this lady who got there long after the accident happened piped up saying that if I hadn't been riding my bike so fast then this poor man wouldn't be hurt.

That was it! I had been pretty calm until then, but after that I asked her in my "outside voice" how she could have seen me riding my bike when she wasn't even there! I said some choice things to the old guy as well. I didn't swear, although I was tempted like never before. I just threw out a few insults like, " you're stupid and crazy," ( those are the only insults I know in Chinese) The old guy just made a face at me that rivaled the best nany nany boo boo face I had ever seen.

Chris and our driver showed up about this time and I was so relieved to see them. This was also about the time that a friend of mine in our compound showed up as well and asked me if she could go back to my house to be with Emily and Anna who were probably wondering where the heck I was. Our A yi had to go and Emily and Anna were just getting back from a friends house so it was a huge help to have my friend go be with them. Sung Hee also went back to her home to take care of Sara and Gabe. Meanwhile our driver began to argue in my behalf. Our driver is tall compared to most Chinese guys and Chris was a head taller than everyone there so I think this helped the situation. The arguing went on for about 10 min and then to my surprise our driver threw 300 yuan at the guy and it all ended... just like that. Everyone dispersed and went on their way. Chris walked my bike home and I got in the car with our driver and drove over to Sung Hee's house to pick up Gabe and Sara.

The minute I got in the car I began to cry. It was the most humiliating experiences ever and I was so angry that the guy got any money out of it. The injustice of it just killed me. I thanked the driver through my sobs and he put his hand on my shoulder and said that it was nothing. I was a sobbing mess when I got to Sung Hee's house and she just hugged me and said, "Oh today was one of those "Bad China" days. Sung Hee, who is Korean, has had a few of them herself and we've talked and laughed about her "Bad China" days in the past. It made me feel better. We were late to a birthday party a friend was having down town, so we got a taxi and booked it over there. A few sisters from the branch were there and all listened to my story with great sympathy. They literally put their arms around me and helped me laugh through my tears.

Despite the day's horrible events I had a lot to be thankful for at the end of the day. I am so thankful for good friends who helped me out when I needed them . I'm thankful to Chris for dropping everything and coming to my side. I'm thankful for a good driver who takes good care of our family. I'm thankful for the sisters in my branch. I'm thankful that this whole thing didn't turn out worse than it did. I'm thankful to the Lord for putting such caring people in my life. Yes, as bad as it was, I have a lot to be thankful for.