It was time for our Sunday outing again, so we piled into the van and set off to sights unknown. We ended up at the river’s edge, where we took a boat across to an ancient village. The village had a Buddhist temple at the head of it, that had been rebuilt on the same foundation several times over the past 1000 years. This is the temple gate:

A few of the statues inside, until my camera battery died.


We also strolled around the village, which still has residents. I got to pull the pail up from a deep, deep well that was very, very old. The water was beautifully cool and crystal clear.

The notches are from centuries of pulling ropes up from the well.
Parts of the village were constructed at different times, this gate dates from the 1700’s.

As usual we ended the trip with a dinner at a somewhat fancy restaurant. We like these opportunities to try foods that we would never had ordered, because our translators take care of all that for us. My newest discovery that is quite tasty and has a nice crunchiness is lotus flower root.

It’s been about a week since I’ve sat down to write anything. We (meaning everyone at the hospital) have been figuring out our new routines but now it all seems to have smoothed out. The staff have been moved to an apartment complex about a half hour walk from here, some have chosen to stay in Huaihua, about a half hour bus ride, so our morning routine starts a bit later, but I don’t mind that at all. One of the translators feels she needs to get a bike for her morning and evening commute to the apartment, Simon offered to help her choose one, because she has never ridden a bike before! This comes as a surprise but apparently she is not alone among adults here. This will seem like a huge cultural generalization, but I thought bikes were intrinsic to Chinese transportation! I guess I am wrong on that point. Speaking of which, I had promised the girls something special when we moved to the new hospital, and we’ve followed through…


Emily and Maddie are proud owners of a bike and a trike. They are ecstatic! Emily runs out the door as soon as she is finished breakfast to start riding, and rides until the sun sets (go girl!). We’ve decided to keep the training wheels on Em’s bike while she gets used to the hand brakes, and we don’t have a helmet for her yet. It’s on the list on the next shopping trip into Huaihua. Maddie likes zooming up and down the large hallways on her crazy-looking tricycle. Either that or they get pushed around on a wheelchair by their 14 year old friend, Nura. We are very happy to see them so excited to ride around, and to be able to get some much needed exercise; not so attainable in the middle of a busy downtown setting. Luckily the hospital has only 4 patients, including me, so the girls can ride around to their heart’s content and make lots of noise. The bonus for us…they cost, together, $40.

The girls are experiencing a new and exciting aspect of rural living; more insects and wildlife! We can watch beautiful birds fly by from our large outdoor patio and there are many, many insects that interest the girls. Emily is desperate for a pet, of any kind, so I let her keep a cricket that she caught last night in a jar. She let it out this morning, for humanitarian reasons. The grasshoppers get very big around here, as you can see. Maddie doesn’t mind holding one, but this one was too big for Emily’s liking:

If you’re not paying attention, they’ll keep climbing up from your hand to your head!

Here is a photo of tonight’s visitor, a preying mantis:

So we have finally been moved to the new hospital. It was a crazy day for the staff, getting us and all our stuff to the new city of Zhongfang. Some of us moved in a bus:

The new hospital is finished, for all intensive purposes. Well, actually the main floor up to the 3rd floor are pretty much functional, but the next 3 floors are still under construction. As of today we have a functioning kitchen, with gleaming new appliances and cupboards, about a 100 times better than the last kitchen! Ugh!
Our room is very bright and spacious, and we have been given a full suite for the price of a room. Dr. Ming, the VP, wants to impress us, his first patients, so that we have rave reviews of this new hospital. He treated us to a great dinner, cooked by his mom, on the first evening, he is on the far right side of the photo:

Here are a few views of our room and the girls’ room, I’m sure you can guess which is which:


There is even a proper massage-type table for my treatments:


And here is the view from our doorway and my own private (or I like to think so) tai chi area:

We have found a local bike shop that sells high-end mountain bikes.

The kinda funny thing is that, even though we are in the mountains, these riders have barely been on a dirt trail, and certainly nothing steep or technical. They get together and do a two hour ride every night and a long road ride on Saturdays.
Translated from their website, the purpose of the bike team is for “Unity, fitness, environmental protection, progress, participation”, the official name is the “Locomotive Cycling Team”. The cycling team actively promotes the “bicycle fitness movement”, advocating “green healthy fashion,” in a “new life”. Unity, mutual help, and seeking common ground while reserving differences between teammates; sincerely into nature. Basically, the owner wants to advocate cycling as a green alternative to other transportation and the bike team serves to advertise this.

Simon went on two of these rides so far. Unfortunately the last one was cut short by a cyclist who hit some uneven pavement and crashed onto her face. She was not in the bike group, she just happened to be near them when it all happened. Simon did a quick assessment of her, just some ‘road rash’ on her face, no major injuries, and the ambulance showed up very quickly; there are many hospitals in this city. Here is a photo of the attendant and the cyclist, what do you see that is ‘odd’ in this photo?

The ambulance attendant is wearing stilletto heels!!!!

We have been here at the hospital for about 5 weeks. In that time frame we have already seen quite a few people come and go. The latest, and greatest, exodus happened yesterday. Three families left, totalling 10 people, so it seems a lot quieter around here now. Most people leave when their visa expires, a few leave for other reasons. Some positive and some negative. We try not to dwell on the negative thoughts of some of the patients. Some of them have not seen the cure they came here for. Some of them were not comfortable in this environment. Simon reminds me that we have each other, a happy family of four and that no matter where we are or what it is like where we are living we will always be surrounded by the positive energy that envelops each of us. Life is what you make of it, and we are experiencing it on a daily basis, no matter what our outcome may be. And we have you, our friends and family to keep us strong in our hearts, and we thank you for this.

We went for a group trip out to the site of the new hospital that is being built. It is the pride and joy of Dr. Ming and he is eager to get it finished and all of us in there. Unfortunately it looks to me that it is not that close to being finished, despite rumours of us moving anywhere from 3-10 days from now.

The hospital is in the newly built suburb of Huaihua called Zhongfang, and is set in a fairly idyllic setting in the countryside…

We have learned that, in China, everything has a yin and a yang. Yes, we will be near the beautiful mountains with a grove of orange trees right beside us; away from the constant honking and diesel fumes of the traffic in the city. However, this is the view from the other side of the hospital:

Hopefully the predominant wind direction stays away from us!

After our weekend swim at the pool, we walked along one of the downtown streets looking for a place to eat. I would say that this is the hardest thing we have to do on a regular basis. 99% of the places to eat have no english or even no pictures on their menu. This place had a picture on the wall of a plate of a bunch of foods arranged in a circle. We didn’t really know what to do so just said, “pork”. With that, the server was happily off. She returned a few moments later with a plate of vegetables and a plate with thinly sliced meats, which she indicated was all pork, but it was raw. Simon almost sent the plate back but I had a hunch about the trivets on the table. Sure enough, soon the chef came out with a pot of boiling hot broth, and threw the contents of the 2 plates in, instantly cooking the meat, and some long noodles as well.
Since we had been at the pool, we forgot to bring our spare forks for the girls, so they had to make do with spoons. It is not very easy to eat long noodles with a spoon, especially if you’re 3, so they resorted to using their hands. This was a source of amusement to the fellow patrons and the servers. It was all in good fun.
Everyone was especially enthralled with Madeline’s methodology:

When abroad you never know what you’ll be doing the next day. Today I was taught to make Iranian-style flat bread by our friend, Ali. He comes from a long lineage of bakers and his bread is fabulous! I never knew you could turn a wok upside down and use it for a cooking surface!! Here we are in midst of baking:

He also taught me to make halva, a delicious treat! Many thanks to Ali and we wish he and his family safe travels!

Living in a country where English is not generally spoken, combined with the use of a completely different alphabet, leads to some fairly interesting signage. Here are a few of the latest…
A gas station convenience store:

A bar, of some sort:

Just like your mother told you:

On the train: