China — Earth Angels & the Tower: Three Months in Hangzhou

Do you know when you meet an Earth Angel? This person comes into your life in a way that almost seems impossible. Two people from different places in the world, speaking different languages, coming together in some universal, divinely orchestrated symphony of a miracle. At least, this is what my friend was to me. With the little Spanish I could speak, I told him he had saved my life plenty of times. I wonder if he truly knows, though, the impact he had on me.

How about if I talk about where I was when he found me? I was in a pretty messed-up place. I was going through massive destruction in my life, and he just would not let up. I’m often thankful that we had that language separation, because of the patience it takes to be with another human being when you are essentially learning to converse in three different languages. None of them were easy for either of us to communicate in. This took only one thing we call upon in this life: complete faith and trust that we could simply be intuitively guided by another’s presence, without much more in-depth linguistic communication than a simple, “Uhh... ¿Dónde está el baño?”

He was learning Chinese at the time, and I, too, was learning a lot from the Chinese teachers at the school where I was teaching English. The experience amazed me. I was teaching him English so that he could translate more easily into Chinese, and he was teaching me Spanish and Chinese just by being around me. Eventually, the desire to communicate with this other person made you a whiz in the other person’s language. Not that I know perfect Spanish yet, but... confidence in intuitively hearing another person through their language was a definite awakening for me.

Soul friendship. He was my best friend while I was in China, and we’d often go on adventures. We both craved being around nature, and the district we lived in was the opposite of that. Every weekend, if we weren’t playing soccer at his university, we would walk two or three hours through the city roads. Construction stretched from one end to the other, all the way to the forests and mountains, which we would happily climb. If the streets weren’t crowded with open cement construction, they were filled with people, scooters, cars and pollution.

My first couple of weeks in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China... Naturally, I had no knowledge of Mandarin or any other Chinese dialect, and no means of transportation unless I wanted to get on a scooter taxi. I rarely took them. I preferred to walk, because ordering one was difficult for me, especially when I had no idea where I was actually going. I searched for food markets and fresh produce. As the health enthusiast that I am, I didn’t want to eat out too often. I worried about MSG and what I was eating while living there long-term... though I still ate out quite a bit. Three to five times a week, easily.

Otherwise, I cooked a ton of rice, veggies and beans as often as I could, and I would leave it warm in my rice cooker for a couple of days. At first, I cast all judgment aside and bought produce on the streets without knowing its quality. Over time, I found larger markets and indoor grocery stores where I felt there was a bit more quality control. Overall, I lived on big, sweet grapefruit, purple sweet potatoes from street vendors, rice noodles, rice, veggie rice dumplings, beans and veggies. Oh yeah, I ate mostly plant-based over there, refusing meat but being okay with fish once in a while.

Most of my time was spent working at a private English school, teaching children between three and eight years old. I worked Monday to Saturday, about 53 hours a week. Somehow, I still managed to make it to the gym a couple of times a week, start my YouTube channel doing tarot readings, and meet up with my Spanish-speaking friend to exchange languages and build that rapport. Haha. Teaching English to these kids was probably the most transformative experience I could have had there. Spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally. I taught kids from all walks of life. Some came from serious poverty, and I saw children with rotting teeth, which I believed were connected to malnutrition. Still, their parents spent a lot of money for their children to learn English and have a better life.

The fulfilment that teaching these kids gave me removed any exhaustion I felt during those three months. Children are the most precious beings to be around in education. They are still innocent, not yet weighed down by so many rules or limitations, and free to feel, think and be — innocent and pure, following the beat of their own hearts.

Every day, I would pull a tarot card to guide me through my experience. The Tower card showed up consistently. To me, it foretold a sudden shake-up, an upheaval that would force me to fall and change my circumstances. Although I could not, for the life of me, figure it out... until the day of the Tower came...

Towards the end of November, I had a situation in my classroom that essentially put me in grave danger. Long story short, I had to flee the country. At the time, I was hearing about English teachers getting arrested across China, and I came to understand that the agency I had enrolled with was operating illegally — something I hadn’t known when I joined. -_- You could say I wasn’t going to wait to be interrogated over the foolish leap I’d made to work for this agency.

I remember the day I knew I had to make another leap. I was in my apartment, scared to death, crying, feeling like I had no one but me. Falling to my knees, I prayed to God for the first time since I was eight years old, begging for a miracle. You see, I had no money. I hadn’t been paid yet, and I had perhaps $200 in my bank account. I didn’t have enough to fly home, and with the situation I was in, I didn’t feel safe contacting anyone through my VPN.

I remember thinking to myself, “I might just die here. I have nothing left.”

Knock, knock. Banging on the door.

“Argh, what does he want? I told him I wanted to be alone.”

Knock, knock. Banging on the door. “Rozaliaaaaa!”

“I’m not leaving until you open the door. I know there is a problem,” he said in Spanish.

When you suddenly stop responding and tell someone you don’t want to talk, I guess that scares an instinctive person like him.

I finally gave in and let him in, in tears, looking like a disaster. It was too exhausting to explain it to him, given the language barrier.

“What if they throw me in a Chinese prison?” I thought.

“I didn’t even do anything. Why am I being accused of something so horrible?”

I cried all night that night. Fell asleep in my snot. My Earth Angel slept beside me on the floor while I slept in my bed, fully clothed. Without a second thought, he stayed the night to make sure I was okay.

An African ritual. I know it’s crazy, but this Nigerian man messaged me on Instagram the next morning, seemingly aware of my troubles.

“Argh, these scammers. Can’t they leave me be?”

“I assure you that your pain is from two demons in your spirit. I will remove them with a ritual, and you will only have positive growth from here on out. $50.”

I remember feeling so broken in that moment that money had no meaning. It was all I had in my bank account by then, but I sent it to him, thinking to myself that if I was going to be left with nothing, I might as well be at zero.

“Just take it. Take it all.” He assured me he would complete the ritual.

That night, I had a dream. My brother and I were running through a winter forest, white snow all around us. Ice-cold. We were running from something. Something was chasing us.

We ran into a cottage, freezing inside, covered in snow. The demons — they were chasing us. My brother caught them and threw them into a pot, which I immediately covered with a lid and set on fire.

The pot exploded, and the demons vanished. I suddenly woke up to a DM with pictures of goat and turkey sacrifices that the Nigerian man said were part of the ritual.

“Ritual spell complete. All good will now come your way. You are protected.”

Then came another dream. I received insight in my dreams. I found myself in a beautiful tropical place, surrounded by palm trees and an ocean breeze. I was talking to a man with caramel-coloured skin, black hair and kind eyes. He asked me, “So, how are you liking Thailand?” In that moment, I woke up and knew what I had to do.

That day, I looked for jobs in Bangkok. I found an English-teaching position online at a learning centre. They interviewed me that day, and I told them I could be there as soon as tomorrow. I booked my flight to Thailand for $60 and was on a plane the next day. This synchronistic experience was, without a doubt, divinely guided to me, and in that moment, I knew I was safe. My intuition was my guiding light, and I was 100% confident entrusting my full being to it.

At that point, I had nothing to lose. All I had was me, my backpack and my laptop.

“Ring ring”… “Ring ring”, the sound of my WeChat app; someone was calling.

“Hi, Rozalia? I’d like you to come to the school; we can talk about the next steps,” the owner’s assistant teacher called me.

“I am actually leaving China tomorrow; I booked my flight to Thailand,” I replied in a firm voice.

“Hmm… You will not be able to leave; your tourist visa has expired. They will stop you at the airport,” she replied.

Panic… my heart started to beat faster. Being in China with an expired tourist visa is a serious offence. They originally promised me a work visa, which they never provided, and I practically had to demand my passport back into my hands, which they locked in a safe when I landed, so I had no access.

I landed in a prison.

I was already in fight-or-flight mode since the incident, since they told me I had to stay in my room and hide, so no one would see me.

I knew escaping was the only way, and here she tells me I was forced to stay.

“But I may be able to help you… Tomorrow, tomorrow come to the school; we will drive to the police station and get you a permission slip so you can leave the country,” she said in a calm voice.

Fear and relief. I knew I had to trust her. I remember thinking to myself that she could easily betray me the moment I showed up. But I always liked this woman; she was very kind to me, and I learned some Mandarin from her.

I did not even have to ask; I felt she was going to keep this a secret, help me flee without telling the school board or owners of the school.

“Better yet, we will pick you up from your flat” (it’s what they called apartments there).

“Be ready in the morning, so we get it all done before your flight in the evening.”

Something about this conversation makes me uneasy, and I cannot help but look at the clock.

They keep discussing in Mandarin, the assistant teacher and the police officer. It is like she has to argue that I should be allowed to leave.

The police officer looked sceptical…

He finally let out a big, long breath that felt like he took the whole room with it.

He signed the permission slip and handed it to me…

“You need to show this to the security guard at the airport along with your passport and flight ticket. If he stops you and doesn’t let you through, tell him to call us.” His eyes were wide, looking straight into mine.

I remember thanking him and being on my way.

“We have favour with the police here; you are very lucky,” the assistant teacher whispered.

Silence on the way back to my flat.

“He promised he’d be here”; my earth angel showed up right on time on his scooter.

He insisted he would take me to the airport, as he felt I needed help finding direction… He was right.

My flight was in the evening in Shanghai.

We took a taxi right away to the closest train station. He spoke Mandarin to the locals for directions, while I watched him take the lead all the way.

I think I helped him only once, when he wasn’t sure which path to take, and my intuition told me to go right.

Three hours later, we arrived at the airport, three hours before my flight. He walked me all the way to the security gate. We hugged in silence, exchanged a few Spanish words, and I turned around and passed to the other side.

I couldn’t believe what just happened; this earth angel just travelled with me for 3 hours, and then went back home another three hours that night.

“Why did it take me so long to get through the gate?”

I had to take a train just to get to the other terminal; I had no idea what I was doing.

Suddenly, I started running through the airport trying to get to the second terminal; I got through all the other ones without my expired tourist visa being questioned.

Fifteen minutes before they closed the gate, I made it to the last security entrance.

“Hold on, your tourist visa is expired,” the security guard said, guiding me to the right side.

I started to sweat; in internal panic, I said in a calm voice, “I have a permission slip from the police station that I can leave.”

He took my slip from my hands and directed me into a special room, went straight to the phone and rang the number on the slip… No one answered.

The ten minutes I had left to board the plane felt like a lifetime as my eyes flashed.

He finally got a hold of the police officer. Takes me out of the room, took me to the security entrance, looked straight into my eyes, waited about thirty seconds and said, “Do not return; next time you’ll be arrested.”

My eyes widened, and I knew in that moment that an angel must have had my wings because I could feel that the decision wasn’t made lightly.

I sprinted with my backpack through the airport to board the plane as fast as possible and made it just as they were closing the gates.