in a streetside bar in soutwest China. It’s a warm night, the Snow beer is ice cold, the TV is huge, and there are crowds of people who are ready to enjoy something they have spent years preparing for. Whatever you want to say about it, these Olympics mean something very deep to a lot of ordinary people and it was a very special time.
I’m there with a group of Americans. It’s probably as worldly a group as you can get- almost all of us have spent years living aboard in some of the more obscure corners of the world. Most of us were just returning from various adventures and ready to set out on a new life in China.
Naturally we all want to support the countries we’ve just come back from.
So when the Ghana Olympic team walks out, the guy who spent two years in Ghana cheers. And so we all start to cheer. We clap and toast and yell.
But it’s not just us cheering. The Chinese people at the bars are starting to cheer, too. It starts spreading up and down the street- a loud appreciation of Ghana.
This is what it’s all about. I think we were in the only bar in China going nuts for Ghana, and probably they were wondering about why a bunch of Ghanians were hanging around and why we were all pretty much white. And it was heartwarming, because they were so prepared to welcome us, even if it meant doing something kind of absurd.
We celebrated with cheers and toasts for the American team. We celebrated with cheers and toasts for the Chinese team. We cheered for Cameroon, Georgia, the Philippines, and more. And we started to move away from our table, joining others, sharing our stories in a mix of languages as best we could.
So at least for a night, at a bar in southwest China, the Olympics helped create some laughter and friendshp and sharing among nations. And I’m never going to forget the sight of a hundred accepting but slightly confused Chinese people clapping for the Ghana Olympic team.
