China Post 6

Saturday 6th January
A bit of a quieter day today. We left the hotel at 9:30am and went to the same village as yesterday. The team bought 7 radiant heaters for the classrooms and gave $800 yuan to help with their electricity costs. We also gave the children beanies, toiletries and some snacks. We did about 30 minutes of teaching and then did a concert with puppets and dramas. There were about 40 children - I think word had got around that we were coming and every child in the village turned up. We left the village and after walking our 30 minutes back to the bus we arrived back at the hotel at 2:30pm for a late lunch.
When we eat at the hotel we sit at three large tables holding 10-12 people on each. We have a large bowl of rice and 5-8 dishes to share on each table. The dishes are a mix of vegetables, fish, pork, prawns, chicken, tofu, and egg. It's been interesting to explore different foods or familiar foods prepared in different ways.
We had a free afternoon today so we caught up with clothes washing, sleep and shopping for snacks. Andrew Chan was sleeping so I borrowed his laptop and plugged it into the the internet cable in our room to clean out my email. I had 496 messages in my Kingsley inbox. In the 3 hours I had the computer I had two 10 minute blocks where my email pages loaded properly. The internet connection here is very patchy. The Age newspaper and Baggygreen were loading ok, however, so I had a chance to catch up on news and cricket. I'm glad Cameron White got picked in the one day squad - funnily enough I had a dream last night that all these obscure unknown cricketers from other states were picked to replace the retirees and Cameron White was overlooked - I was very disappointed.
When we were out shopping last night were noticing people spitting on the footpath - which apparently is ok here. But we also noticed that people were spitting on the floor in the shopping centre too - you have to watch where you step. We've also noticed that a lot more people smoke here. Itls been difficult to adjust to eating in smoke filled restuarants and even though there are no smoking signs in the lifts (the only ones we have seen so far) people still smoke there too. I took a good photo of bamboo scaffold on a building of around 20 stories and will post it if I get an opportunity.
Welre going to church tomorrow and doing a concert and medical clinic from the church building in the afternoon.

Sunday 7th January
We left the hotel at 9:30am and arrived at the village at 10:30am. Our big bus could not take us all the way to the village. We parked off the main road and a vehicle form the medical clinic ferried us to the village in 3 loads. The medicos and translators went in first and started treating people. The medical clinic was set up in the village church which was about a 100m walk down a steep rocky path which was quite difficult carrying four cases of pharmaceuticals and all the PA Gear and musical instruments.
We packed up the clinic and had lunch in one of the local houses - they killed and cooked four chickens for us. The church service began at 1:30pm and our team did songs, dramas, testimonies and Ron Freeman preached. There were around 100 villagers in attendance. The church is state sanctioned but they are allowed to operate freely. Following the service the medical clinic was reopened and we left the village at 4:30pm. Around 50 patients were treated with the most common ailments stomach ulcers and arthritis and most of those treated were elderly.
We were treated to dinner by the foreign affairs officials - which was a real gesture of goodwill since it was these same officials that initially blocked us from teaching in the high school.
We went to what I could only describe as a Chinese Propoganda Theatre Restaurant. All the staff were decked out in chinese military outfits and there was singing and dancing on stage. It was so loud we had to put our hands over our ears. The chinese singing was extremely high pitched - I'm surprised the glasses weren't shattering. Our group got up on stage and performed an item in English to a rousing ovation. We got back to the hotel at 9pm and packed our bags ready to travel to JianHe tomorrow.

Monday 8th January
We left Kaili at 8.30am and travelled most of the way to JianHe by expressway which made the trip smooth and uneventful. So smooth that most of the group slept through the journey of 90 minutes. We arrived at JianHe and transferred into 7 four wheel drives for the 30 minute drive to the village. The road was equivalent to a fire access path in an Australian forest. The new village primary school has just been completed and some of the money was contributed by the Balwyn church. The whole village was there to greet us when we arrived and most were in traditional Miao costumes. We participated in the official dedication ceremony. Ron Freeman gave an address and talked about the truth of Christ because the school is called Truth of Christ Primary School. Ben Sia spoke on behalf of Partners International who organised the fund raising for the school and a representative from the Seattle Chinese Baptist Church (another major contributor) also spoke. There are three from the Seattle church who have now joined with our group. I did the prayer of dedication and other local dignitaries spoke. One of them spoke of Miao custom. They have a saying: If you can talk you can sing, if you can walk you can dance and if you can eat rice you can drink wine. The team did a drama and puppets to close the festivities.
We had lunch in the house of the village chief. All the food was grown by the villagers. On the way to the village we passed some pear orchards which are maintained by the same village - there were men pruning the pears.
After lunch we drove back down to JianHe and to our hotel. We were very spoilt at our hotel in Kaili - it was four star and very comfortable. Our hotel here is adequate at best - the rooms are cold, the bathrooms are dirty and wet and it is in a general state of disrepair. However, this is the best hotel in the area. The kids had a lukewarm bath and we all went to bed at 8pm.

Tuesday 9th January
We had breakfast at the hotel this morning - rice porridge, eggs, and steamed dumplings. We left the hotel at 8:45 in a 20 seater bus and 2 four wheel drives. I didn't think the bus would make it up the road but I shouldn't be surprised after what I've seen over the past 10 days.
We spent the morning walking around the village and seeing people doing their daily chores of gathering water, weaving and cleaning. We played a basketball game agaist the village boys and won 17-10.
In the afternoon we taught english and ran a medical clinic. The clinic attended to 30 patients and will see more tomorrow. We left the village at 4:30 and arrived back at the hotel at 5:30pm.

Wednesday 10th January
We went to the same village today leaving the hotel at 9am and getting to the village just before ten. We ran the medical clinic all day and saw another 50-60 patients. Yesterday there were two villagers with presenting problems that required ultrasounds to determine the extent of the problem in each case. One man, the only Christian in the village had a growth on his thyroid and a seven year girl who hasn't been able to walk since birth has recently lost her ability to speak also. The team donated 1000yuan to each of these cases to get them to Guiyang and to have an ultrasound conducted.
In the morning we played games with the children and the female members of the team were fitted out in traditional Miao costumes for photos. Matthew and Tom were also dressed in boys costumes. We taught English in the afternoon and made kites with the children. We left the village at 4pm and arrived back at the hotel at 5pm. Annette sorted out the three cases of pharmaceuticals before tea. Our three doctors are all unwell and the full day of clinic has taken a lot out of them. We had dinner at the hotel and had a team debrief because we're losing some team members before tomorrow night when we arrive in Guiyang.