One World

We were ushered to sit down in our host family’s tiny living room.
“Would you like to play a game?” The daughter asked us. “We love playing UNO.” She grinned and sent her 11-year-old cousin to fetch the cards. She turned on the 20-inch TV right next to us and put on a basketball game that we could watch as well. It was exiting for them to play American games with us because we knew how to play, they explained.
We were students staying in a small farm village for one night as part of our China trip experience, and our hosts could have easily left us alone. But I remember them always doing everything for us in that short time; carrying our luggage upstairs, and feeding us every meal until we felt like our stomachs were going to burst. It was so delicious every time, especially these flat-bread things that tasted like a cross between quesadillas and pita bread. This family was small and didn't have much, but they were so excited to give us everything they had.
During our UNO game, the mother came in from the kitchen, and began talking to us in Mandarin.
“Ma says: are you having a good time?” The daughter translated for us.
We all looked at her with big smiles, “Yes, we are having a lot of fun.”
The mother smiled, and spoke some more. She pointed to the smile on her face, and cradled her arms in front of her stomach, rocking back and forth.
“She says: she always loves having American students stay here with us. We do this because to her, it’s like she has more children.”
The mother smiled and nodded her head, “My babies!” she laughed and gestured to all of us.
“Aw,” we laughed with them and nodded.
That day was nearly five years ago and I will never forget it. At that time, I was aware of China’s one child law but it wasn't until that day when I was actually a part of how many Chinese families cope with that burden that I truly understood what it meant. I thought about my family back in the states. I have two sisters where we are all loved and appreciated by society. My host family was happy to have a beautiful daughter, but their chance to have a son was gone, so in order to maintain a good reputation and have a male figure in the household the cousin has to live with them. Furthermore, the daughter was almost done with school, so I realized that the mother soon wouldn't have anyone else to take care of. Whenever I think about that day, and see that woman who looked at us with tears surrounding her dark, yet warm, loving eyes: I call her my Mom.