We arrived at the cafe in our hotel after an exhausting 22 hours in transit from Sydney, Australia to Zhenzhou, China. She was the first person we met and looked younger than her years. Her Chinese hospitality uniform stole any individuality she had. She was humble and worked hard trying to communicate with us despite her very broken English.
“Hello” she said. Handing us a menu.
“Hi” replied my husband, asking if she had any dark beer. She looked confused and began pointing at pictures understanding the word beer.
“This one?” she asked
“No” replied my husband.
“This one?”
“No.”
“I get help” she said and slowly walked to get her friend. She returned with her friend who appeared eager to help and looked at my husband.
“Do you have dark beer?” he asked.
“Yes, I think this one” she said as she pointed to a German dark beer written in Chinese.
“Yes” he said. Both girls looked at each other and smiled broadly, proud that together they had met the needs of this Australian traveller.
“I get for you” replied our first waitress and she returned with the beer and a free bowl of beer nuts. My husband loved it.
This interaction began the nightly ritual of our stay in Zhenzhou. During the day every time we walked passed the cafe our new friends would smile and wave if they were working and saw us.