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.

A lot of different types of fungus, peppers, some meat, anise seed, and other things I am sure

carrots, assorted fungus, garlic shoots, and chicken (mainly bones and skin)

This was really good, it was kind of like a pot roast with celary, carrots, seaweed, and I think bits of pork?

There you are for those curious about "real" chinese food! 

I think I will call that all for now.

  

My Christmas story

I'd like to finally talk about my Christmas. It was definitely different than any other Christmas I have experienced. This was my first Christmas away from my family, and not only that it was in Hong Kong, in a hospital. We had hoped to be able to go to a friend's house, but ended up not being able to leave the hospital. I was mostly disappointed for Sophie. For the first time I was responsible for a child's Christmas. To add a little more pressure, I wasn't sure when she would ever again have the opportunity to have a true "Christmas" by American standards. I hadn't been able to leave the hospital to shop, so there wouldn't really be presents. There was no tree or decorations, and the hospital menu doesn't really offer a Christmas dinner. What was left? I had luckily had a simple ornament kit my mother had sent me, so little Sophie and I made it as a present for the friend we were supposed to have Christmas with. It was fun! Even if she got a little bored before we were done. She at least loved putting stickers all over the card and throwing away the trash when we were done. Actually she loved throwing everything thing away whether we were done with it or not :) Then Christmas came and we were told we weren't allowed to leave. I dressed her up in her prettiest dress and did her hair with her little reinder antler hair clips she loves so much. She had the full Christmas ensemble and was most definitely a fan. To be fair she would be content to wear dear antlers and dresses everyday, that is always her choice of hair accessory. After that I just decided to make the day as special and as simple as possible. I ordered her favorite foods, spaghetti and purple jello. We even had pudding as a special treat later on. Then for the rest of the day we spent it cuddling, watching Christmas movies on YouTube (there are quite a few), sending Christmas pictures with funny faces, and just being together. She learned all about Rudolf and Santa Claus and family Christmases even if she didn't have it personally. What was truly surprising was what a truly special and wonderful day it ended up being for me. I felt like this is what Christmas was truly what Christmas was about, being with those you love and caring for another. That night I told her the story of another little baby in a place far from home. 

A whole new world

I had a day off last week and mainly did a lot of wandering around. It was rainy and cold, but when I got to see the view of the ocean I decided that Hong Kong wore the rain well :) It kind of made it worth it to see how beautiful the ocean and sky were.

Since I am not sure I'll ever get the chance to see Hong Kong again I want to see what is truly "Hong Kong". The problem with this is that there seems to be so little that is truly original Hong Kong anymore. There are stores and people from all over the world. I sit on the tram and can hear 4 or 5 different languages. I walk down the street and can go to some of the stores I see at home or read about in magazines. Most of them are even written in English. When I ask what people do in Hong Kong or what I should be sure to do while I'm here the almost universal answer is shopping. That being the case I figured museums might be more likely to show at least some of what the culture used to be. 

I found my way down to the star ferry using the many bridges that connect the buildings in Hong Kong (guess who didn't get lost!). Right outside of the ferry is the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. Since the entire city seemed to be based around the port and to have grown through out history because of it I figured that was a good start (besides, I could find it :P ). 

I found the museums in China and Hong Kong  to be different than those I have encountered in the states. I love the stories and hearing of the people, which is why I can spend hours just reading the placks telling of the history in Americsn museums. This is not as much so the case here. The first floor had many models of the different ships and different artifacts, but unfortunately (for me) the focus was different. It seemed to me to be more of a listing of events, artifacts, and types of ships rather than going into details of the people and stories. There were certainly some interesting parts but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. At least I felt more informed about the history of the place I am currently staying. Here are a couple of pics from it.

I thought this was an interesting sort of ship. The Chinese ships have changed so much throughout history with so many variations 

I truly thought these were awesome. The different navigation devices.

After I went upstairs I found they had an exhibition dedicated to John Thomson's photographic capturings of Hong Kong from1868-72. That was truly exactly what I was hoping to find. There weren't many descriptions or stories here either, but the pictures told their own stories of the people and the times. I thought it was beautiful. 

The rest of the museum was devoted to the more modern aspects of Hong Kong's maritime experience, which I quickly scanned through since I was getting hungry by that point. I took way too much time reading everything at the beginning. I blame my dad for teaching me to take every opportunity to learn what I can, and my mother for making politeness and care for others and their efforts a top priority. I can't help but think of the effort people put into the exhibits and feel obligated to give them my full attention :P

Afterwards I decided to do the tourist thing and take the star ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui. That is where most all of the tourists go for shopping all of the name brands. There were also supposed to be some museums and the star walk there as well. I figured I needed to at least try the ferry and check it out. Getting on the ferry was probably a bigger deal to me than it should have been. I'm used to Ohio and West Virginia. The whole public transportation thing is a big, scary, crazy adventure to me every time! I am learning though. Now I have conquered tram, metro, fast train, taxi, bus, and ferry all while being on this China/Hong Kong adventure. I am very proud, don't judge. Here is the view from the ferry. It was cute and quaint with an all dark wood interior. 

I got off the ferry and into the rain. Since I only had an hour or two before I was supposed to meet Amy (a friend who works with MedArt) for dinner I decided to just wander. I walked in the first store to the side and was immediately overwhelmed! I wandered in and up and down stairs through interconnected hallways feeling more and more out of place. I have never seen so many so expensive things all in one place! Most of the stores were famous name brands and designer clothing like Prada and Louis Vuitton and so so so so so many more I have never even heard of. Honestly I was content to wander around completely lost, look at windows, and attempt to come to terms with the completely overwhelmed and out of place feeling I was feeling. I was too nervous to go into more than one or two of the less prestigious stores that were already full of people so I could blend in. Everyone I saw wandering around looked as if to they had simply woken up and walked off the page of a magazine with perfect hair and obviously expensive clothing. My assortment of Walmart clothing, blues dance sweatshirt, and JC Penny's on sale coat felt awfully out of place. When two gentlemen on the street offered to sell me "genuine" purses I almost laughed. I was probably the least likely person to buy a purse there,  "genuine" or genuine. 

One of the things about Hong Kong is that appearance is everything. I was talking to one of my friends here and apparently much is based on the appearance of a person. With fashion so prevalent a thing in Hong Kong it is only natural that people's adherence to it would play a part in their social outlook. She was explaining to me that plastic surgery is becoming very common practice in the young women to try and achieve the perfect anime-esque feature with the large eyes, small round face, and perfectly V'd chin. It all just seems so different to me. I know America has a large draw for the perfect figure, slender athletic body with a large chest and nice tan, but the whole perfecting your face thing seems a little outrageous. Maybe it's because in America we have so many varieties of facial structures claiming one specific type is the epitome of beauty is outrageous, even for societies unrealistic expectations. Then again I know I am oblivious to a lot of the societal pressures. Maybe it's there and I haven't seen it. My personal experience with clothing is a perfect example. I know some people in America wear name brand clothing and are perfectly giddy over the idea of Gucci or Coach (I am running out of brands I have heard of at this point). Perhaps if I was one of them rather than someone whose wardrobe is mainly compliments of Walmart, various sale-racks, and the occasional thrift shop find I wouldn't have been quite so out of my league. 

Anyways! I finished my rather dazzling experience and encountered the clock tower on my way back to the ferry making the endeavor worthwhile (unfortunately seeing the lines standing in the rain to be one of the three people at a time allowed in the Prada store didn't quite do it for me). It was complete with historical plack and looked beautiful framed in the story sky.

I ended the evening with a delightful meal with Amy. She took me out for Dim Sum, which is a variety of dishes served in small portions. We got a little bit of a lot of different ones and I absolutely loved pretty much everything. 

BBQ staffed sweet tool, a sweet cake like egg bread, shrimp stfuffed balls, qspring rolls, beef meat balls, and sticky rice in a lots leaf. We also got vegetables which turned out to be boiled lettuce. I had never thought of boiling lettuce until I got here....

That was my interesting and stormy day before returning to my baby girl.

Picture tour!

So I haven't written because there really wasn't anything new to write about other than the trials and joys of living in a hospital and being stand in mommy to a delightfully incorrigible two year old. She has won over everyone on our floor, makes new friends daily, and has me steadily avoiding the thought of ever letting her go. She has a delightful way of going up to strangers and assuming they have a secret longing to be her best friend and share all of their snacks with her. As it turns out, she is pretty much always correct in this assumption. She smiles, and everyone is instantly at her beck and call. She puts the powers of cuteness to a whole new level, but I can't complain, she always makes ME smile. Well that pretty much sums up all of that part of my life.

The other thing that has happened, is that I have finally had a day off and some adventures! I went sight seeing around Hong Kong (and didn't get lost almost all day! That might be the most exciting part. I'm very very good at getting lost). I won't go into too much detail. I wondered around with a sketch of a plan and spent all day outside, and a lot of it surrounded by green things and a perfect sort of day. It was sunny with a light breeze in the 60s and I was I heaven after living in the hospital with. O sunshine for so long. Besides, I missed my trees. I saw St. John's cathedral, the hong kong zoological and botanical gardens, took the tram up to "the peak" and walked down again, and finally wondered around tiredly down town before returning to put my baby girl to bed. Over all a fulfilling day. I will give you all a picture tour now to sum up all of it!

Picture from the public tram so you can see what an average hing kong street looks like

And of course a Mc Donald's in Hong Kong. There are 7 elevens, Mc Donald's, and Starbucks every few streets with an occasional subway and KFC mixed in. 

I wandered down the street and followed the signs pointing to areas of public interest including St. John's Cathedral. I believe it is Anglican. Apparently it has been there a very long time and has a very rich history with some interesting places acknowledging noteable persons. This is the inside.

The out side

Next was the zoological and botanical gardens

I know it's a bad picture, but by the pond there are a variety of fluffy headed birds

This one made me laugh. Coming from ohio to see a big fat pampered raccoon in a zoo was borderline hysterical to me.

I believe this is the Pygmy marmoset, teeny teeny tiny, and it moved so slowly. This might have been one of the most adorable things I have ever seen.

There seem to be a ton of turtles and tortoises in Hong Kong. I have seen a lot of shops mainly devoted to selling turtles, both as pets and as dinner.

Then was the peak tram up to the peak where there was a splendid 360 degree view of Hong Kong complete with audio tour. 

My attempts at selfies were a little ridiculous with the sun and the bad focusing and such, but I have proof I was there!

This was actually my favorite view. The opposite side of the building where there was no crowd, but the view showed more of the original and natural beauty of Hong Kong. There was something about that little inlet that just seemed so secret and magical to me.

Trying new Hong Kong style food. The spicey noodles with onion pork and cold "milk tea" (something I'm finding to be a big thing in Hong Kong). It was all very good. The tea is a stronger, more bitter black tea, but it has grown on me. The vegetables are they typical veggies served with food here. It's kind of like a spinach thing.

Then I walked all the very long way down the peak. It was lovely though. Unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice. My iPad can only do so much.

Since I have been asked what a "squatty potty" looks like. 

Finally wandering the city at night. Hong Kong is a lovely city at night with all of its lights. Besides, it really is rather spectacular since it is near Christmas and they decorate on a rather large scale. Seeing sky scrapers adorned in Christmas light shows and greetings is a delightful thing indeed, especially by the water. 

I wish I could have captured some of the beauty better, unfortunately the blurry pictures I have will have to do.

Another wonder of Hong Kong is the famous horse races that happen to go on every Wednesday night outside my window. Here is a picture of that, though of course not the best quality.

There you are! That was my adventure. I'll share when ever I have another, maybe next week :)