Last night, Crystal and I decided to go out just because we were getting bored of staying in our apartment. Crystal suggested we go to Xintiandi, a fancy expat area to grab some drinks and I agreed. In true traveler’s spirit, we discovered that the excitement was in the journey, not the destination.
While transferring subways at the Shanghai Railway station, Crystal and I encounter a woman struggling to get down the stairs with a large suitcase. I stopped to watch the woman and wondered for second if I should help her. Turning to Crystal, I see that she is also watching the woman. Crystal looks back at me shrugs and holds out her hand for my camera bag so that I could help the woman. Realizing the right thing to do, I hand over my camera bag and approach the woman. That is when I notice that she was wearing extremely dark sun glasses, which suddenly made me realize that the woman was blind. After this realization, I reevaluated my approach towards helping her. If I just went up to this woman and grabbed her suitcase without stating my intentions, in a manner that she could understand, she would most definitely panic and think that I was stealing her suitcase.
A more obvious approach was needed, so I asked Crystal to tell her that we were going to help her. With my intentions clearly stated, I helped the woman carry her suitcase. I could sense that she was very concerned about being taken advantage of due to the way that she insisted on holding onto her suitcase at all times, while I carried it. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, Crystal repeatedly asked the woman where she wanted to go. Quite defensively, the woman kept replying that she just needed to get to an exit, without specifying which of the many exits that she needed to be at. We pointed the woman towards the nearest exit and watched her walk towards another set of stairs, with no cane or aid in hand. As we watched the woman struggle down the path, I turn to Crystal and tell her that we cannot just leave the woman alone. Crystal nodded in agreement and once again we approached the woman and offered to help.
Crystal and I help the woman out of the subway station and communicate her location to the person who was supposed to be picking her up. I made the decision to stay with her until she was picked up, and the waiting began. Curious to know more about this blind stranger, I urged Crystal to ask the woman where she was from. With a bit of prodding and convincing that such a question was not weird, I finally got Crystal to ask the question. The woman replied, quite defensively, that she was from Jiangxi province. After the reply, Crystal was in no mood to ask more questions, citing the fact that the woman was uncomfortable with talking to strangers. That’s when I suggested Crystal tell the woman what she had told me earlier, that she thought the woman was very brave for traveling alone. Crystal refused, once again citing concerns that it was too weird and also that the woman would just laugh. I respond that laughter is good and would ease the tension. Crystal says that she will only tell the woman that if she can say that the comment came from me. Seeing no problem with that compromise, I agree.
As Crystal predicted, the woman laughed and as I predicted, the mood lightened instantly. The woman responds by saying that she has been traveling for a long time and that this was the first time that someone has helped her and that she felt very lucky to have met us. As Crystal and I continue waiting with the woman, I begin to ask more questions. The woman told us that she was a masseuse that traveled all over China. She even offered to give us massages, saying that students have very stiff shoulders from studying all the time. Crystal and I politely refuse. When I asked her if she liked what she did, the woman responded that she did it only for the money. I wanted to ask her what the woman would rather be doing, but Crystal once again refused to translate, this time because she thought it would make the woman depressed. Before I could convince Crystal t just ask the question, the woman’s contact arrived. After, many thank you’s and you are welcome’s were exchanged, we left the woman and continued on our way, leaving me wondering about the woman’s life.
As we reached the bottom of the stairs at the subway station, Crystal says out loud “we are good people” and then a few second later, she qualifies herself and says “well you are a good person.” Curious as to why she said that, I ask her to explain herself. Crystal tells me that she would have just left the woman as soon as we exited the subway station and that she would not have waited around had it not been for me. I explained to Crystal that waiting with the woman was just something I felt like I needed to do, and besides, I had all the time in the world.
Not to mention, helping that woman makes a great story.
-muffinman
