Trip to Tian Jin Part 3 (July 26)

9:20 a.m.

We have just spent about half and hour with the doctor who is the director of the 8th floor. We went into his office with Chun Yu’s nanny and he and I sat (as the older people) while Jude and the nanny stood. The doctor explained Chun Y’s condition, which has deteriorated. She now has an infection in her brain and so the shunt is not functioning properly. They want to remove the shunt as soon as possible and replace it with an external drain, treat her with antibiotics and later replace the shunt. Needless to say, things are not looking great for this little suffering orphan.

The director’s room (considering that he is the head of a neurology ward) is “interesting,” as we say. Hospital green seems to be a universal phenomenon since, yes, it is also here in China. The walls the doors, the wooden lockers and desks were all painted the same nondescript green, with smudges around the handles where it has worn off. Crammed into this little (perhaps 12 x 12 ft.) room was a single bed with blue bottom sheet, and a green army-type sleeping bag shoved up against the end wall. Presumably this is where the doc takes a nap when he’s here at night or after a long haul in the operating room. Under the bed were various cardboard boxes and a very dusty brown suitcase. I had lots of time to observe, since I could only understand the odd word here and there, in a long conversation.

The doctor was very kind and explained in detail about Chun Yu’s condition and the fact that a decision needs to be made as soon as possible. Jude is in a slight panic as he has to coordinate the decision by communicating with various people about the options.

We went into the room to see Chun Yu for a few moments and I took a few photos. The nurses were kind, but I could tell that they were concerned about Chun Yu and didn’t want us hanging around. I put my hand on her forehead and prayed for her. Then we left the room. Jude borrowed the films of her brain scans and had me take photos of them against a window at the end of the hall.

We took the elevator downstairs so Jude could make a couple of calls away from the noise and confusion in the waiting room of the 8th floor (men smoking). When we stopped at the 6th floor, three women pushed a gurney carrying a young man onto the elevator. He was lying on his side, wearing regular clothing and his head was bandaged. One of the women was in uniform and was obviously hospital staff; the other two were relatives. (In the photo below, you see another case with relatives helping to transport their loved one to another place in the hospital>)

This whole hospital is for neurological problems and there are 500 beds. Not surprisingly, there are generally at least 1000 people in the hospital at any given time, not counting staff members. This is because much of the care is provided by family members.

Post office video

from Aug 2


Today the preschoolers went on a field trip to the post office. We talked yesterday about different ways we communicate with other people: face to face, on the telephone, via email and by sending letters. We discussed the fact that you have to pay money to buy your stamp, put it on your envelope and put it in the mail box. We learned about delivery of the mail.


You would be surprised, perhaps, by how many blind children - even teens - in the states, who don't know why we put stamps on the letters. (One kid in a class in Washington took a guess: "it tells when the letter was mailed?"). It's one of the things that falls between the cracks for blind students.


So, these preschoolers are now ahead of the game. They "wrote" letters to one another (e.g. "scribbled" using a Brailler and put foam stamps all over their pages. The ones with a little vision scribbled with a pen as well). Then we put our letters in the envelopes and Rosa wrote their addresses on them (since they cannot do this themselves).


Today we completed the learning experience with a trip to the post office in two taxi cabs, (since Bethel's van is down). Each child went to the window and said: "I would like to buy a stamp, please." They gave their one yuan (one dollar) and got back two jiao (20 cents). Then they glued on their stamps (with help from me - and yes, this involves a put of glue with a brush) and put them in the box. The postal workers were pretty sweet about the whole thing. Fortunately there was only one other customer in the post office at the time, so we did not create an inconvenience for other customers.


The taxis waited for us, so we hopped in and returned to Bethel. Back in the little school room we taped another envelope into our "experience" books, and I gave them each one jiao to put into their envelopes.

Trip to Tian Jin Part 2 (July 26)

We are now in what appears to be Tian Jin’s morning rush hour. There is a bike lane on the right which is packed with hoards whom I assume are on their way to work, as it is 8am. When they attempt to cross the major streets, the westerner’s activity is equally divided between the urge to gawk in fascination and the urge to cringe and cover her eyes. As I mentioned lat year, staying in your lane is an extremely vague concept around here. Much of the time, especially in the city, cars straddle the line.

Now I am writing, partially to avoid watching the traffic. At every other minute, what would be considered a “near-miss” in the States are happening, and we are in scary proximity to these events. One good thing is that this increases one’s prayer life and appreciation for an accident-free existence. A guy on a bike just wobbled precariously in our direction, his orange lunch bag clutched in his left hand, along with the handlebars. I’m including some photos of bikes in close proximity to cars, so you can see what I mean.

In spite of the McDonald’s invasion (the one in Lang Fang is open 24 hours) – I still haven’t seen any grossly overweight people in China – not one, even in Beijing. You occasionally see someone who looks like they ate a few too many delicious dumplings, but in general they are all slim. No wonder, with all this bike-riding. Add to that the tons of vegetables, fruits, and fish in their diet – then the only offence, by USDA standards, is the ubiquitous white rice, which is the staple of the diet.

We must be getting close to the hospital now, as it is 8:25 and our ETA was 8:45 or so. Traffic is vey heavy in this town, and combined with the smog, it is pretty oppressive. Ahhhhh! Zhong just turned on the air conditioner, right when I was about to melt into the seat. He must have read my thoughts.

Trip to Tian Jin Part 1 (July 26)

I’m sitting in the second seat of the big van with Zhong, the driver, waiting for Jude. We are on our way to see Chun Yu, who has been moved to Tian Jin, a city to the east of here. We’re heading out with the local pop station playing the Chinese versions – right now a Chinese Cheryl Crow. We’ve just passed a corner where there were a couple of traffic cops and a street sweeper, a female one. It’s kind of amazing seeing a woman with a big twiggy broom actually sweeping the street. When you’re a country with close to 1.6 billion people, you gotta find ways to keep as many a possible busy and employed.

We are speeding along in the morning smog on the freeway. The speed limit on this highway is 110 km per hour, but that is irrelevant. I’ve never seen a cop car on these freeways, let alone one that is pulling another car over. There are jillions of transport trucks on these roads and you can almost never tell what they are hauling. Most of them are battened down with some non-descript brown canvas-looking stuff. Some are lumbering along at about 40 or 50 km per hour, while the cars are doing their best to go 110. This involves a lot of jockeying for position, as the trucks don’t stick to the right lane. They travel in both lanes and sometimes seem to intentionally block the other traffic by “holding hands.” This involves car driver getting frustrated and leaning on the horn – a favorite activity here, as I mentioned last year.

At the moment we are cruising along nicely. This probably has to do with the fact that we are heading for Tian Jin and not Beijing. The road from Lang Fang to Beijing is always busy.

Chun Yu’s condition is stable as far as we know at the moment. She is still in a coma, but the symptoms on her brain scan have improved somewhat. For those of you who have been praying for her – I will personally deliver your love to her today.

Sitting beside the driver is Jude, who is a fine young man in his 20s, who works on the medical staff at Bethel. He is overseeing the care of Chun Yu, and meets with the doctors and nurses on a regular basis to discuss her treatment. Jude is taking a nap at the moment, after having stayed up late last night with the other 20-somethings. There was quite a gang of them the other night, as our three girls returned from a trip to Shanghai (Shuli, Rosa and Theresa). Also included were two girls who live next door (whose parents run a foster home) and one of their volunteers. Along with Chris and Miriam, that made a lot of card players.

One of their favorite card games is “Mao.” The person who is Mao gets to initiate the rules for that round of the game – but Mao doesn’t just come right out and tell you the rules. He/she indicates them in subtle ways - for example, sneezing every time she lays down a Queen. If you don’t follow suit, you are penalized. I could go into detail about how this relates to history, but as I mentioned before, I am paranoid.

The smog is terrible today – it reminds me of a very foggy day on Lulu Island, the Fraser River Delta island, where I grew up. Notice the biking ladies who are wearing various kinds of smog protection. They are in the minority, but at least a few are making an effort.

It’s interesting to speculate on how they plan to clean this up before he Olympic Games, which will be held here next summer. Apparently part of the plan is to just shut down a bunch of factories and tell people who live there that they can’t drive their cars to work, but have to take public transportation. In a communist country, this works.

I’m starting to sweat profusely now, which is something I don’t do at home. Just ask my daughters. I go for my speed-walking exercise *after* taking a shower. I will now use my notebook as a fan. To be continued….

Be careful! Landslide

I think I have enough material now, that I will be able to keep blogging for about a month after I get home – but for starters I will make a few comments on English signs here.

As you can see from the photos, there were some interesting warnings in our Chinese hotel. The “Take care of your head” sign was found on the circuitous route to our room, is open to various interpretations, some of which might apply to mental or emotional states. From the height of this sign, we assume that it’s true purpose might be to warn people who are over 6’5” to be careful not to bang their heads on the sign.

“Be careful! Landslide” found above our toilet in the bathroom was a little unnerving. Were we in a geologically unsound area, much like California or Taiwan?
After having a shower this morning, the true meaning became apparent. The shower is designed to spill out water by splashing on the tiled area at the foot of the tub and onto the floor in copious amounts. If you are not forewarned about the “landslide” – you might slide onto the “land” (floor) and bonk your head on the slippery marble floor. I decided that the “Take care of your head” sign might really belong in the bathroom.

Of course this is clearly explained in: “The Sweet Hint.” In case you can’t read the smaller writing (since I can’t check to see how it looks on the blog) it says: “In order not to the water splashes please pull up the bath curtain.” There was another “sweet hint” downstairs that had to do with making sure that all your bills were facing the same way when you go to make your money exchange. Sorry – I didn’t copy that one down.

One of my favorites is the highway sign “Rear End Collision….Keep Space…200 meters” Hahahahahaha!!

One of the restaurants down a side street near our hotel had this written on their front window: “Welcome to Beijing! We wish you have A good holiday and journey. Welcome to my home. We will offer the best dishes and services. Absolutely our menu price is as same as chinese’s. please come in, our beautiful smile and honest is waiting For you!” How can you not love these people?

We decided to take them up on it and they made good on their word. Above you see the delicious sweet and sour pork and yo mai tsai (kinda like spinach, but less intense) stir-fried with garlic that you see in the photos. Yum!

Apparently there is an effort being made to correct all the English errors before the big event: the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Fortunately there are so many of them that they will never manage it.