🇨🇳So you Want a Little Communism?🇨🇳

🇷🇺Red Square in Moscow, Russia, where I began my overseas journey🇷🇺

In the fall of 2010, I could not find a job in America.  I had been looking for anything for months.  Obama was in power, and our economy was terrible, so I went overseas to teach English in Russia.  Communism began in Russia in 1917, but after almost 100 years it had changed to a Post-Communist government, where rich elites rule the poor, and there is no Middle Class.  After a very long Russian winter and 6 months, I flew to Turkey, which had much better climate and food, and taught for 2.5 years.  That got dangerous because their President Erdogan became a Dictator and outlawed free speech, freedom of the press, certain religions, and protests  (which I had written about as a journalist for a magazine and later turned into a book).  I escaped to China just before some Turkish police officers showed up at my old apartment.  China was, ironically, the most Communist of all 3 countries, yet it had recently embraced capitalism, and I was paid well as a teacher there, but it had its dangers.  Communism had trickled down from Russia to its southern neighbor China and was still very much alive, as some of the persecuted Uyghur People of West China personally told me because I and they can speak Turkish.  I taught 2 years in China.  I taught overseas for 5 years, seldom coming home to America for a visit because I hardly ever had the money.  In fall, 2015, I left China and returned to California for good, glad to be back in a democracy.

🇨🇳Chinese soldiers in Tienanmin Square in Beijing, China (where I also taught English)🇨🇳

🇹🇷Turkish police in Istanbul, Turkey, where I was chased and pepper-sprayed🇹🇷

After what happened last week at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., I am responding here.  It started as a perfectly legal, peaceful protest.  Some who were there estimated that 500,000 people waved flags and banners as President Trump spoke.  Toward the end of the day, some extremists (mostly led by incognito Antifa members) took over the Capitol Building.  According to some videos, a uniformed security officer opened the doors and gates and invited them in.  It didn’t take long for Communist-Leaning politicians to viciously attack all the Americans who were at Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021.  Many of these people, not wearing masks, were later identified by employers and fired from their jobs.  Many have been arrested.  Even some people who liked the idea of protesting got fired.  The “Squad” of Communist-Leaning politicians lead by AOC and Ilhan Omar began a Witch Hunt.

So, you want a little Communism, AOC and Ilhan?  Please at least first watch my video and learn what it was like being an ordinary person living under dictators.  In 2016, President Erdogan of Turkey staged a fake coup so that he could take absolute power and void the Turks’ Ataturk-inspired secular democratic Constitution.  A friend of mine, a Turkish Special Ops Army Officer, was one of the many innocent people who went to prison and then had to escape from Turkey and become a refugee.  Hitler used the “fake coup” tactic in the Reichstag Fire incident in 1933, four months after he was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.  You know what happened under his absolute, demonic rule.  Millions of people died.  That’s Dictatorship and Communism.

🇨🇳A Chinese security officer gives warning at Beijing airport🇨🇳

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On the Road Again (Where IS my Home?)

Me in Russia, Turkey, and China

For the second time in just a few months during this World Pandemic, I have been evicted from a house where I was renting a room.  This house, like the other, is in Bakersfield, California–a sprawling agricultural town in the Central plains, surrounded by vineyards, nut trees, and distant mountains.  Bakersfield is definitely not Los Angeles, New York, London, Frankfurt, Moscow, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, or Shanghai–cities I have visited during my world travels.  I taught English in Russia, Turkey, and China for 5 years, living under their political systems and economies.  After returning to California, I was homeless in Los Angeles for over a year, living in my car and driving for Uber Eats to make barely enough money for food and gas.  I finally got a good teaching job and then moved to Bakersfield.

Not new to challenges, I survived a rare form of cancer 25 years ago when my son Jonathan was just a baby and my daughter Jessica only 3.  I lost my mother, father, and younger brother (my entire immediate family) when I was too young.  I write these things into my books.  By the grace of Jesus, I have survived them.  But the idea of home is an elusive thing.

My Daughter Jessica visits me in a California motel room, looking like Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz,” who just wanted to go Home

Right now, nothing seems as difficult as trying to find a home.  Should I stay in Bakersfield, in expensive, coldhearted California, during Covid-19?  Everyone here must wear a face mask to go outside, people line up 6 feet apart to be allowed into stores to shop for food, and Starbucks (and all the restaurants) won’t let people inside.  Governor Gavin Newsom (who was just caught in a scandal for disregarding his own Coronavirus Laws) has made new curfew laws that some California sheriffs refuse to enforce.  If we order take-out food, we must pick it up ourselves “curbside,” or have “contact-less delivery” left beside our home.  Eight months ago this began, and now winter is coming.  The sun which shines so brightly hot in Bakersfield summer has been covered up with gray.

My mother as a teenager and little girl, with braids like my daughter Jessica.  Lois Mary Groves was a haunted creature who ran away to meet a military man as a teen but then came home, met my dad, had me, and died too young

Home.  When I was four, I played outside my Grandmother’s stately Southern mansion near the old university where my Grandfather and she had taught and my mother graduated.  I remember the home’s tall white pillars by the stained-glass, embellished front door.  I could wander out that door and stand at the front rock wall that bordered grassy yards.  I was barely tall enough to glimpse the world outside.  Walnut trees lowered branches beside a guest house and a little creek.  My Grandfather, Professor Ernest Rutherford Groves, taught at UNC (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), one of the oldest campuses in America.  He  graduated from Yale University and Dartmouth College.  He received an honorary Ph.D. from Boston University and became famous for Marriage and the Family books, classes, and counseling.  He started the National Council on Family Relations that still holds conferences.  Sadly, he died before I was born.  Gimghoul Castle (part of a secret society my grandfather belonged to) rose stately down our road.  The three stories of our house held treasures from far-away places: cut-glass display cases with hand-painted rose tea sets from England, Colonial sterling silver candlesticks and spoons, African ebony masks hanging scary on the wall, and mahogany tables with lions’ feet that were hand-carved in Holland.

I wish we could live in hotel room like this, my newest one

Attack on America

Chinese Soldiers in Tienanmin Square

That we should kill our country for coronavirus is the Great Lie of our generation. Covid-19 has about the same death rate as seasonal flu but is more dramatic in symptoms. Many of us had Covid-19 early on, and we will all be exposed to it before this is over.  It is an attack on America.  Where did this attack originate?

At San Diego State University (where I got my Master’s degree in English), I minored in history.  One semester I took a course in Chinese history, and then I traveled to China as a tourist.  Years later, after working as a journalist in California, Russia, and Turkey (and writing books about it), I taught high school and university English throughout China for 2 years.  From Jilin in the northeast (near the Russian and North Korean borders) to Shanghai in the east to Beijing in the central east to Hong Kong in the southeast, I saw many amazing sights, learned about China’s culture, and took many videos and photos.

All Chinese high school students participate in communist army drills.  I once met the high school Communist Party leader (in an elevator between teaching English classes).  He was tall and handsome, and I wondered what his job entailed and how much he watched my students.

China has 3 million soldiers in its army.  America can never get the true sense of numbers out of China, for they do not report the truth.  The Chinese have a saying: “I would give a week’s wage to invade Hong Kong.  I would give a month’s wage to conquer Taiwan.  I would give a year’s wage to destroy America.”

Shanghai Christian Fellowship Sings Together

Shanghai Christian Fellowship sings

Wonder where lively Christians are? Check out Shanghai, China. I visited Shanghai Christian Fellowship (also called Shanghai Community Fellowship).  I saw people from many countries, races, and cultures singing together with love and peace. To get there, I traveled 4.5 hours on a speed train, 40 minutes on a subway, and on foot. I also had to rent a hotel room and eat out. So next time you complain about going to your church down the street on a Sunday where people don’t seem to really care about Jesus or each other, watch my video. Christ rose from the dead, and Christians are happy about that!  The People’s Republic of China allow Christians to meet in this historic church, and for certain services only foreign passport holders can attend.  Next time, you’re in Shanghai, check it out!  Watch the video.  If you like travel adventure, also check out my books.

Shanghai Christian Fellowship is a church packed with people from all backgrounds and cultures

Lonna’s Survival Guide for China

West Lake at Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province (near Wenzhou)

After living and teaching English in China for 2 years (and teaching in Russia for 6 months and Turkey for 2.5 years), I have learned a few things that may help anyone who comes to Wenzhou-Kean University (WKU) or any other place in China. My background as a journalist helped me compile facts from a variety of sources and summarize them here. Enjoy!

1. Get RMB (Chinese currency) cash at the airport in China before you leave the airport or as soon as you can find a bank. Nobody accepts dollars or other foreign cash, and the only places I’ve discovered that accept American credit/debit cards like Visa are the nicer hotels (especially in touristy areas), Pizza Hut, and Starbucks.

2. If possible, bring a working laptop computer. You will need it! Many American or other foreign smart phones may be difficult or impossible to fit with a Chinese SIMM card, especially at China Mobile. Unicom is the best company to find SIMM cards to fit non-Chinese phones. You can buy a cheap, basic Nokia mobile phone that can display English and Chinese texts (SMS) and send and receive calls (with other features like a calculator, calendar, and flashlight) for only about 170 RMB (less than $30) online, but you need a Chinese person to order it for you from taobao.com, the really cheap and great Chinese internet-ordering sight where everything is much cheaper than in the stores.

Spring at West Lake, Hangzhou, China

Children and adults play in a park by West Lake

I went to West Lake in Hangzhou, China in May and saw so many colorful flowers and people.  Walk with me by the lake, on paths across stone bridges, through parks, temples, pavilions, and historic buildings with statues.  West Lake is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province.  For 2000 years it has been the source of inspiration for poets, artists, photographers, and even filmmakers.  My students told me the romantic story of the immortal White Snake who became a woman and fell in love with a mortal man.  The turtle god of the lake was jealous, so he imprisoned her under a pagoda.  However, the man still loved the White Snake Woman, and they were eventually reunited and had a son.  This story has been made into television series and films.  Emperors from many Chinese Dynasties visited West Lake and inscribed its famous “Ten Scenes” with poetic names like “Two Peaks Piercing the Clouds,” “Three Ponds Mirroring the Moon, and “Orioles Singing in the Willows.”  As far back as the 14th Century, Europeans visited West Lake, including Italian explorer Marco Polo, who wrote that Hangzhou “is the most splendid heavenly city in the world.”  Spring and romance are here in China!

Easter in China

People of many countries, colors, and cultures celebrated Easter together at Hangzhou International Christian Fellowship in eastern China on April 5, 2015.  The church was packed, and many people stood or sat at the sides and sang joyfully together to celebrate that God loved the whole world so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for sins of everyone and then rise again with a promise of eternal life.  The Nigerian pastor spoke about Christ’s resurrection and message of love, hope, and unity.  

Christmas Lights in China

My daughter Jessica was born in September, so by her first Christmas she was old enough for me to carry around and look at Christmas lights.  Her small blue eyes widened at the amazing colors and brightness.  Now she is 22 and lives in California.  I am teaching English in China.  This is my 5th Christmas away from home.  I went out last night to a colorful, cobblestoned street by the river in my Chinese city near Shanghai and was amazed at how the lights lit up like a fairly-land.  I thought, “Jessica could see this.”

Amazing Chinese Angles

China has some amazing modern architecture in over-the-top hotels such as this one near Shanghai.  Traditional flowers blend with modern angles and chandeliers.  If you come to China, take some time to explore such places on a rainy afternoon.  If you like my posts, please check out my books.

Autumn in China

Ginkoa Biloba leaves blanketed the courtyard outside the high school classes where I teach English near Shanghai, China.  This colorful display cheered my students and me.  Later we went to Starbucks to celebrate a strange kind of Thanksgiving with a student’s birthday cake and flavored coffee.  Half of the students paid attention to my speech about Thanksgiving, and the other half played with their mobile phones.  Such is life in China.  If you like my blogs, please check out my books.