Mei Guo Ren

On the day we went to meet the dogs for the first time, the man pictured below, who has no teeth, feeds street dogs and cats as a "job", and in all likelihood has not ventured very far from his hutong, looked at Joanne and I and immediately said, "Mei Guo Ren."

Now, understand that we get called this a lot, and all it means is American, but quite often when it is uttered in our direction, it is more of a eye-rolling,  watch out for the Mei Guo Ren over there, rather than  simple mentioning of where we come from.

His initial comment felt the same as the former,  what are these American's doing here on the wrong side of the tracks looking at these street dogs, but what followed changed the tone drastically, hysterically.  We nodded and said, "yes, yes, yes, we are American."

He looked at us, smiled a toothless smile, and with his thumb up said, "Obama!"

We laughed, accommodating him...yes, yes, he is the President... then he turned his thumb over with an emphatic downward thrust and said, "Bin Laden."

Uncontrollable laughter from all!

No electricity, no TV, no problem - big news travels!