:11:01
ls this your first trip upriver?
:11:03
Yeah.
:11:08
Did you understand
what they were talking about last night?
:11:11
- Politics.
- l'd like to know more.
:11:15
l'm not a missionary, l'm a teacher. And
if l'm going to teach, l ought to know more.
:11:20
You gonna try to teach the slopeheads?
:11:23
Yeah.
:11:26
l taught back home in high school.
Vermont.
:11:31
- Where's your home?
- Well, l was born in Grover, Utah.
:11:35
But my home's whatever ship l'm on.
:11:40
You're an engineer, huh?
:11:44
l'd have thought the engine on a large ship is
more interesting than the one on a gunboat.
:11:50
Too many guys tryin'
to tell you how to run it.
:11:52
Ah.
:11:53
See, on a small ship
you haven't got any of that military crap.
:12:00
They, uh... They leave you alone.
:12:06
l had a brother in the navy during the war.
:12:09
He was a lieutenant in the reserve.
:12:11
Uh-huh?
:12:16
- How long have you been in the navy?
- Nine years.
:12:19
- And out here?
- Seven.
:12:22
See, most China sailors, they don't go back.
:12:25
They pull their 20, 30 years and shack up
with a Chinese girl, open up a bar.
:12:31
l see.
:12:34
l mean, l keep asking myself the same
question about what l'm doing here.
:12:41
l'm kinda frightened.
:12:43
lt may be romantic,
but l wanted to be swept up by something.
:12:46
One night, Mr Jameson showed coloured
slides in the basement of the church.
:12:51
Slides of his mission, China Light.
:12:53
- How long you sign up for?
- Seven years.
:12:59
Well, those slopeheads
could use some teaching.