My life in China: A true test

Time to catch up on the adventure that is my life here in China. I had finally come back to my home in China, Louyang and Maria's Big House of Hope, only to turn around and leave again two days later.

The nurses here are almost entirely from the Philippines as I have said before. That means they need work VISAs to work in China, VISAs that must be renewed on a regular basis. The problem arises when the regulations have become more strict and the nurses have consistantly not been able to obtain VISAs and had to return to the Philippines. When the staffing was limited to begin with and they only had enough nurses to exactly staff the units, losing a nurse is a very difficult thing. Previously they had two nurses for each outlying unit and a nurse per floor in Louyang. I was an extra nurse who could fill in when nurses were on vacation or they needed to travel with a child. Now I am a complete necessity and tthey are still short. They have only one nurse at each unit and here in Louyang they only have Mariah and myself. When they needed another nurse to leave the country with a child, that meant that there would be a unit with out a nurse. That being the case they needed me to cover a unit alone. Even being a fairly new nurse and speaking almost no Chinese, I was the only choice they had. They switched nurses around so they could leave me with the smallest unit, only 18 babies.

The thought was intimidating, but there really was no point in fretting or worrying. They needed me and I was the only one who could go. Besides I didn't really have much time to worry about it. I arrived in Louyang to find out my room had been moved while I was gone and I would probably have to return to Hong Kong in the next day or two, then the next day I found out I was leaving in the morning for a unit to have completely on my own. I unpacked my room, packed a bag, repacked a bag with the different plan, and left. Not really much time for over thinking anything. Besides, I left with the knowledge I was supposed to return in a week or two, but at any time plans could change and I might end up staying long term. It is almost Chinese New Year, a time around which travel is extremely precarious. The entire country shuts down for almost an entire month surrounding the event. Most people don't work and transportation is packed with people returning to be with their famillies. Any delay of plans might mean that travel would be impossible for almost a month. Luckily I made it safely and had a night with the other nurse to explain how the unit worked before being left alone.

The outlying units are very different than the big house in Louyang. Rather than a separate building, they are a floor of the local orphanages. So you walk up the concrete stairs until you reach the floor with the bright colors to remind you of home and all of the other units. New Hope has worked very hard to achieve uniformity in standards and set up where ever they happen to be based. That means that walls have been built around the walls already there and painted in the bright happy cartoons that are characteristic of all of the units. It is obviously different since outlying walls aren't nearly as insulated and the rooms are much more compact, but they manage to make all of the rooms cozy and bright for the children. At the outlying units they are much smaller so they don't have a manager for all of the everyday things, instead the nurse is in charge of that as well as the children's healthcare. Luckily where I was there was a fantastic head ayi who managed most everything for me. She did all of the shopping and saw to the refuiling and maintenance and only needed me to provide her with the funds and keep track of the expenses and receipts. That was such a blessing to me. I was not at all ready to under take the shopping for the entire unit in an unknown Chinese town. I'd have had trouble trying to find out shopping for myself, let alone everyone else.

Going there I was nervous. I don't speak Mandarin, at least not more than a couple of basic words, and no one there spoke English. I had a translator on my ipad and someone I could call to translate at any time, but untimately it was just me. More than that, what if there were emergencies? I only know so much. I am new nurse. I have never had to function on my own. Dr. Steve was the ultimate authority and I could call or text at any time with any question, but if anything happened he had to trust my judgement and I was the only on that could do anything. That was truly intimidating, children's lives were relying on my abillities, the abillities I was skepitcal of having. Before I left I had had cause to question myself even more than usual, so I wasn't at my most confident when I left for this venture. Now I think perhaps it was really a wonderful thing for me. I had never before had to do anything where it was truly up to me, my skills, and my judgement. I had never before had the chance to prove to myself that I did have the abillity to do what needs to be done, even with no one to look over my shoulder and catch anything I might miss. Luckily most of the children were stable and doing well before I came and while I was there, but this unit like all of the units was filled with many children with varying degrees of medical needs. I had one little one admitted shortly before I got whose future is extremly precarious. Every day was a question, and everyday I had to know that I did everything I could to give him every chance. This was a time when my "basic" nursing skills could mean life or death for a tiny life in my care. What was astounding to me, was that somehow I managed to know what to do or to at least be able to come up with logical and reasonable ideas to help him. I don't know that what I did changed everything or not, but I am confident that I did what ever I could and some how he managed to improve some. His life will be an uphill battle of an unkown duration, but this little fighter has made it this long and every day he makes it means that he has that much better of a chance to have another. I had the other children as well, and somehow everyday I was able to find the knowledge and abillity to do what needed to be done for them. I know there is so, so much I don't know. The more time I spend here the more I know I don't know and want to learn, but this time gave me a chance to realize that maybe I have far more abillity than I gave myself credit for.

It was certainly different there, but the Ayis were sweet as always and I absolutely fell in love with the children. Here are some of my pictures:

Some how we all managed it, even with my little bit of Chinese. We didn't have a lot of conversations, but the ayis were phenomenal with charades and I tried to keep my ipad handy to translate my responses and instructions. The food was different as well, but the ayis always made sure I had plenty. Chinese people have an amazing metabolism and have this unbelievable abillity to consume extraordinary amounts of food, so they always made sure to leave me portions that could have fed a small family. Those were their "smaller" portions given after my pleas of only being able to eat a little. I was assured I was too little anyway :P The food was interesting to say the least. I always liked the flavors, but was not always a big fan of the ingrediants. I really never know what exactly I am eating, but don't really know enough Chinese to ask and wouldn't want to be rude anyway, so I try what ever I get. It is interesting that in different parts of the country they eat differently. In Louyang I had gotten used to a lot of noodles and bread, but in Xinyang they eat rice everyday and never served noodles or bread. Xinyang also had a lot more mushrooms, seaweed, and bones in their food than I was used to, but I really rreally enjoyed their flavorings. Here are some pictures of the meals:

I loved this one it's like zucchini, tomatos, onions, garlic, and I am not sure what.