25 days in China..Part 1

So I am  writing this blog from my room in the Hainan University exchange hotel, Haikou City China. I never would have guessed a month ago, this is where I’d be at this moment in time. In fact, on a Thursday morning I would be at my clinic going crazy trying to juggle patients and getting the payroll for the hotel done and hoping our bank would process it on time.  To cut a long story short, 4 invitees from Samoa where brought over  by the Chinese Embassy to attend a 3 week tourism seminar/conference. Unusually, Samoa has the largest number of participants (4) whereas other countries have either one or at the most two invitees- makes you think a bit doesn’t it.

Anyways, it has taken 2 whole days of traveling to get here. An overnight in Auckland, a 12 hour flight to Shanghai- 4 hours killing time in their aiport and a 3 hour flight to Haikou, which is on an island South of China ( had no idea it was on another island!lol) 

The flight to China was Long to say the least…we got dinner and breaky and I got maybe 4-5hours sleep. Arriving in Shanghai the first thing I noticed was ?fog. Then I remembered my mother in law telling me how polluted the air was in parts of China and if this indeed is the extent of that its pretty scary. Surrounding the airport was what appeared to be a thick fog blurring even the nearest airport hotel across the road from the airport.  We didn’t do much exploring in what I am sure is a huge airport, only because we suddenly felt so miniscule in the big pot of China 20 something million people in this city alone…, were a little scared we’d get lost so went straight to locate our departure gate and then parked up at a coffee shop charging our cellphones and calling home.  A young Chinese lad came and asked to take photos with us which was kind of funny…

So my first taste of Chinese I guess would be the meal  on Southern China Domestic  airline which was a noodles and mince concoction. My hopes for enjoying some traditional Chinese cuisine were not satisfied by this option but I put it down to maybe just bland airport food?? There were like 3 other small packet things , one of which I opened and looked to be some sort of fermented cabbage?? Like cabbage in a sauce which smelt terrible…..hmmmm

Arrive in Haikou and its bloomin 34degrees Celsius. Even for an Island girl getting above 30 is really not to my liking and I felt like a sweltering pig in my wooly top picked to keep me warm on a long plane ride! The two young ladies from the university who collected us were friendly and looked dressed to be at a beach with very short ripped jean  shorts and airy cotton topsJ I immediately regret not bringing a pair of shorts L

The drive to the university had me and a friend joking about the road rage our driver appeared to have but also secretly ensuring our seat belts were fastened and clinging to our doors! The roads were narrow and lots of bikes and carts and in some places the rules and lines seemed to blur and we, more then once appeared to be heading straight towards an oncoming vehicle one of which was an ambulance lol!! Our driver honked her horn practically the whole way to our hotel and by the time we reached here I was truly relieved and almost wanted to yell something along the lines of “Hallelujah!”…

Our room is on the 4^th floor of a building whose elevator is out of order. We are now all joking about how much weight we will lose  while we are here! Dinner last night was broccoli and some other vege?? Sliced beef, ?duck…chicken wings, deep fried chips, fried rice and fruits….Im still waiting to be awed by Chinese food. Im sure it will be any day yetJ

2) it’s the morning of day 3 in china and I am awake at 5am. I’ve woken at 5am every morning since arriving and struggle to go back to sleep.  You can hear the echo of birds bouncing off the hundreds of  large brick buildings that make up the apparently 9 universities housed in this complex we are staying in. Ive never seen so many 7 story buildings lined up uniformly in the same area before. I counted 22 X 7 story buildings  this morning on an attempt at some exercise and this is only in the one small block we are located in…. It is kind of weird but in a way- very Chinese. Its reassuring to hear the sound of birds because sometimes when I stand on the hot balcony of this hotel room, the thickness of the air and heat  make me wonder if this is just Hainans climate or if the air is thick with pollution.  At least the birds are not dropping dead midflight which is almost what I expect with what I see,  so perhaps that is a good sign lol

Yesterday was our first day of lectures. Our first lecture was in introduction to China and its history. It was interesting to learn about how ancient the Chinese civilization is  and the struggles they have faced. But it was kinda amusing to hear so many ancient proverbs being used to justify things being done in such a modern era lol. They’d talk about bigger neighboring countries and use expressions such as “we will not be bullied”  and “when going up the mountain, be prepared for vicious tigers” ….there was also particular reference to a particular neighbor (se malo uncle Sam) and one could easily read between the lines that their emotions towards this country were not happy ones lol.

The lectures are really tiring because they are done in Chinese and translated by a young lady whose English is not very good either. We’ve had about 5 questions being asked so far in class and not a single one was answered, I am sure it is because of the language barrier but it’s a bit frustrating at times. One question asked was whether the Panda is a protected species and the answer was to describe to us that Pandas are a symbol of peace to the Chinese. We have given up on asking questions now….learn quick. We’ve had a right jolly time trying to communicate basic things with hotel staff where we are staying using our phone translator apps. We spent a good afternoon trying to find an iron from reception and would enter the text into the translator to write into Chinese “I need an iron please” and the response we got was “iron is your translation”…we couldn’t figure out what the hell the receptionist was going on about as this was always his answer but it later worked out that he had given the iron previously to our “translator”  and was trying to say  it was with her!lol…

We are grateful to know that our meals are all provided. But its been a bit of an underwhelming experience so far. We have to walk through a local cafeteria to get to our meal room and when its busy there are people with really interesting looking things on their plates…but our table always has fried rice, steamed veges and Fries. Two basic meat plates like fried chicken and beef stir fry…and watermelon for desert. I kid you not with the fries, we get fries for breakfast (yes breakfast!) lunch and dinner. Served with Coke and Orange juice!lol….its amusing but we think that perhaps they see us as foreigners and think this s what we want!lol…Ive made a subtle request for dumplings and local delicacies to our host so fingers crossed that we might get to sample something exciting soon!

We went to the night markets last night. There are several shops mostly a mixture of clothing, jewellery and accessories and food. It was hard to find a shop with my size though and took me the whole night to find a t-shirt that looked to fit me. Everything else you could see appeared to be fit for size 6 size 8 stick think figures!lol. The ladies at the clothes shops kept laughing when trying to sign out the size of my ass (ie for pants)  and I have since learned that in China, Im a XXXL...dang it!

Day 4.

Today we get to go sightseeing in  the countryside. Apparently we will be going to the beach. In one of our lectures earlier, a lecturer described Hainan as being equivalent to Chinas “Hawaii”.  Having never been to Hawaii before I cant help but at this moment in time think the only thing they have in common is the weather …although I am not entirely sure even Hawaii has weather this hot. The tour guide was eager to tell us there was a beautiful Beach but then went on to add “but you must remember that China is a very Pollution..so don’t go far into the water”!!!....this seems to be a common tone in a lot of their lectures and descriptions- owning up and reminding everyone that “China is a lot of Pollution” …whats sad to see is I don’t really see any effort to majorly tackle this issue. They say they are developing Hainan to be Chinas Hawaii…but the streets are full of rubbish, the air is polluted an so far every river I have seen is a thick dirty brown….there are just too many people and I don’t know if they will ever be able to deal with this problem!!

Yesterday we went to the big city and very quickly one was swallowed in the enormity of Chinas Population. We had asked our tour guide if he could stop by a shop where we could buy a simple phone to call home, and the place they took us, along the way, was some 4 or 5 story building (shopping mall with 4- 5 levels) with I am sure over a million products, all electronics . Phones cameras laptops wires. It seemed like every store sold the same thing and was crammed from the floor to the ceiling with shelves full of electronics. There were so many stores the isles were small and crammed too…  I couldn’t help but start feeling a bit claustrophobic and just absolutely flabbergasted…what started as an itch to see if I could buy a nice phone ended in a tarpit of indecisiveness and uncertainty over what was real and what was fake.

The Samoan lot soon found ourselves outside by a food cart trialing some Chinese Hotdog (savoury sausage on a stick…who knows what kind of meat it was haha) and some Chinese round puff pancake things. The other thing about Chinese is that probably 99.9 percent of them are thin. And you can see the whole place is geared so that people are not encouraged to be lazy…so many buildings with NO elevators….everyone just takes the stairs- that’s just normal… when I bought 1 hotdog and a small bag of 8 pancake things (just a little bigger then the size of a marble) the shopkeeper exclaimed that I was “eating a lot!”..lol…as we stood outside the electronics mall I watched all the stall vendors, one guy quite close by was eating his lunch which consisted of 3 small round metal containers which had lovely steam fuming off it. In these 3 he was  scooping into a small bowl in front of him,  Rice, what appeared to be seaweed and boiled watercress. That’s it. I couldn’t help buy envy him. If I tried to introduce such a diet in my homeland of Samoa I am sure I would be shot!lol….

Funnily enough, our sponsors took us to Mac Donalds for Lunch. As my sister in Law did warn, even McDees tasted a bit Chinese with the chicken burger having two options of mild spicey or very spicey…and it certainly was more of a Chinese spice J Was rally thankful to  be there though as they had a Mc Café (YAY) And I had my first decent coffee on the trip which immediately killed a lingering headache Ive had the entire time in China (Coffee addict!) I was not impressed with the toilets however, the ladies had 4 toilets and they were all SQUAT toilets (OMG) our group had a good laugh describing each persons attempt at trying to figure it out, didn’t know which way we were meant to face and having to take all our bottom half clothes off in fear of accidents OMG…like I will NOT miss this ever. Funnily our chinese hosts claim to prefer these!

  Heading into town was an experience. From seeing fields of Taro planted in swampy land, to the several sky rising buildings…and not just several like a handful…several like rows and rows and rows, old ones new ones half complete ones… I felt like I was watching something from star wars where the drone army surely must be kept….on this day I really felt the enormity of the population of China…so many people they have to live on top of each other….we are so fortunate in SamoaJ  What I thought about though while watching all the skyrising buildings was another statement our Chinese History lecture said which was that they are not afraid of being bullied by the big powerful countries because one of their weapons was a huge mobile human workforce…hmmmm….they moral of the story is- don’t mess with the Chinese.

Another Day in Paradise

 If there is one thing I have always been weary of in my job/role. Its unneccessary praise. I am not sure if its just me  or its from years of very subtle low key celebrations of our achievements as kids (!LOL ) but when someone starts ooing and aaing about something that is related to me... I kind of shrivel up and feel like Im being set up for a fall. I'd rather not people praise me just incase one day I dissappoint them. I dont know...sometimes I think maybe I think Im just a big fake and one day someones going to point it out lol. Other times I have all this energy fueling me to do something complete a project throw my energy at something- with my mums whispering in my head telling me I could do it, I can do anything if I just put me head to it. Talk about split personality lol.

So today was one of those days. PAtient after patient...I think its a cultural thing too...a whole lot of new patients today and all the conversations start off with praise- they had heard from who and who that this was the place to come...etc/ Sometimes I worry because their relative came in with a straightforward infection which required a simple antibiotic and bazzaamm...they were better (not really any magic in that but thats what people see here....) sometimes I think people are so used to all simple illnesses being lengthy and drawn out because when they see fofos with the same thing, I think the fofos just help ail their symptoms while their bodies go through a natural fight and recovery phase (that sometimes results in a loss!!) but to have the same illness resolved within days with a pill is nothing short of a miracle!  So I worry that now this man with terrible arthritis thinks I am gonna cure him...crap....so save your breadth buddy all the showers of blessings is not going to sugar coat the hard and fast truth I am going to have to tell you...and unfortunately only serves to make me squirm in my seat.  Anyways, now you know how I feel about the subject ha ha. I dont mind a thankyou after Ive done something, but i dont need the whole ula-lole type ordeal. Especially before Ive done anything!!

Penis-es. (if there is such a word) Man why are guys so obsessed with their willys. Even in the big ol Island, there is a constant murmur in the male grapevines on this subject.  Fortunately being a woman, I've not had to deal with these enquiries directly myself, but my poor husband, and brother in law. They are constantly being pulled to the side and asked I have in in my clinic "fualaau faaku ai le mea" and also "fualaau faa-kele" and "fualaau faaumi".....no jokes. OMG. Ok so the first one at least exists, but the other enquiries??OMG>>. One day my husband was sat in a delivery truck (his brothers') surrounded by other people and some random person he doesn't even know called him (who knows how he got his number!!) and was asking  pe maua gi fualaau e faalapoa ai le mea. What was even more hilarious is my husband actually had a hard time trying to convince this guy that no such pill existed. He ended his phone call with a "well ok if you find such pills in your search please let me know about it as well" :)   Fair to say his audience to the phone call were cracking up in fits of laughter after overhearing this.

Kids. So my eldest daughter is going to a pretty good school for the big island. Sometimes Im a little over impressed with some of the things they do (like make yr 1 students sit exams that require them reading an exam booklet and following instructions printed on it  etc when they can barely even read) etc etc etc....lately though. Ive been a tad egg-ed with them. Don't get me wrong I do believe that alot of your childs education starts at home and when I can I do try to read and do math and do writing etc with her at home. Sometimes she is a little short -attention-spanned but I figure what 5 yr old kid spending the afternoon inside doing this as opposed to climbing trees isn't? Anyways, when I do do work with her she is pretty good, she completes full pages of letters when working on her writing etc. However, lately her report card (and she gets this progress report card every week) actually, all of her comments on the report card have been along the lines of- "your daughter looks tired sometimes in class, you should put her to sleep earlier" and " she hates writing and reading, we pray that soon she will be able to write and read" and the last one " your daughter talks too much, but when it comes to writing she is hopeless and fiapepe...we hope and pray she can read and write soon" WTF is that?? honestly what about some constructive criticism mate...like could you point out what she is struggling with? which words vowels what?? the last parent teacher meet I went to all I got told was "yea she'll get there, shes a good girl" I would actually appreciate if I were told she is behind in a certain area she needs to work on some sounds or pronunciation.  Where is she lagging compared to other kids with writing??Honestly give me something I CAN USE. She seems ok when I do writing skills with her. Honestly "we hope and pray " like lets just all SLEEP and pray  on it and see if it will happen?? for goodness sake.errr... it just bothers me that I have no other options of anywhere else to take her on this island.....hmmmmmm eh

Anyways, just thought I would update you on the happenings in Paradise.:) Just another day in Paradise

small steps

Some things I am trying to achieve in small steps....
is shed the baby weight. Honestly I lost weight during pregnancy due to something going on with that tummy (nausea loss of appettite) etc but my ass exploded thereafter. And my closest most cherished family never hesitate to tell me- "ua kele a lou goo" thanks...
 so number 1 is- EAT HEALTHY
like I said . Baby steps. Before running a marathon and going on a radical diet, Im trying to make more nutiritional less calorie choices...like instead of toast 2 tablespoons of butter and marmite (yum) I had a 1/4 esi for breaky...don't worry, it was a big esi

the hubby is almost 99% sure he has gluten intolerance/coeliacs..and is staying away from pasta flour wheat bread... so lots of really healthy stuff as you'd be amazed (or appalled!) at what has gluten in it...flour bread, batter, sauces, flavourings, BEER...you name it. He cant have it. So Im trying to be a supportive wife and avoid all those finger licking gluten laden foods too.....just as well Savaii doesnt have pasta...or choices for good pasta....

number 2 is - LESS FREAKEN TECHNOLOGY- and specifically- PHONE TIME.
if I had a dollar for every time I exclaimed that phones are driving people NUTS I'd be rich. Seriously. We are missing out on life because we are checking facebook on our phones. We are forgetting how to interact with people...thats all FINE for your merry loser introverted self, make that decision, but we also imposing it on our kids. Sometimes I feel like (and I am one of the ones that has fallen into this habbit) we are not even raising our kids...because "this is my me time" "im just reading a paper" etc...all our kids see is their parents staring at their phones and not talking to them. in 20 yrs time I am almost conviinced the studies will start rolling out- this behaviour is going to make our kids either stupid-er, introverted psychopaths or at least some radiation induced tumor will have been linked...they just dont have the data now because, we are the first generation living this kraze.

3. Be nicer to people. Not everyone understands what a shit day I might have just had, and like da momas are always telling us, that short fuse and quick tongue may one day come back to bite us- I need to remind myself that I also dont know what shit people have gone through prior to seeing me. Perhaps we have all had shit days but we needed to see each other and our days will get better as the result of our meet, but we bring the sack of shit that happened int he morning and let it affect the afternoon?? Anyways , you get my drift. This is a typical me on a wednesday when Ive rushed from the hospital not having a break (and not to mention the horrendous morning there) and people at the clinic raise their eyebrows and exclaim how long theyve been waiting...lord-help-me  but also help them, they had a boil the size of a breakfast plate on their ass so now I get why they were so eager to see me.....sorry

4. Get-to-church. Stop saying it and do it. Stop letting the moment pass because- it got to busy, they were sleeping and I didnt want to wake them, I need to help make lunch/toanai....etc etc. Just do it. For good ness sake ..(note to self)

5. Keep in touch with people...this whole no news is good news saying- its shit unless you are at war someone fighting. Keep in touch with people or regret it.


ok thats all for now. All the above in baby steps. Watch this space for the progress:)

OMG Krazy day...

OMG having one of those nutty days where every other person I see is a 'raised eyebrows' kind of consult. May I vent for a second, while at the same time sending a faasilasilaga to people who obviously have never or may never see me anyways so really quite pointless in aiding my frustrations BUT makes me feel a little better to say it...to the laptop....

PUH LEASE, and ESPECIALLY , if I have never seen you before/are related to you/are a work colleague acquaintance etc....don't come to see me and ask me for - A medical clearance....for ...one of your relatives ...who is now already overseas and cant come see me himself, to get a clearance to..wait for it...travel and live in that country that he already is in. OK, that's just dumb...like I really legally, need to physically see him measure his blood pressure and prove he aint got some fatal disease or TB etc..I can NOT just fabricate that crap. Please don't come and ask me for medical certificates for last week, when apparently you were rolling around in pain with some mysterious bug which has miraculously cleared completely now leaving me nothing to actually be convinced you were actually unwell...especially if you are not a regular client of mine and I don't know you..or your brother who couldn't come but you've come to get his pepa mai. I am not a paper pusher.

Please don't come and be rude to my receptionist at the front, this office, is not your village...you may have everyone at your beck and call when you are sat in your throne at your village, but here at this medical center, the receptionist is not your fai- feau , she is not obliged to run to the shop at the front and buy your coke, and when she politely tells you she cant leave her desk/cash register unmanned, it is not fitting for you to lose your marbles....please dont pester her to harrass me to get prescription meds without a docs review or a prescription...especially for things that could potentially kill you...e kasi a le mea e ave ai enquiries ga o le ofisa leoleo faamolemole lava.

Please don't ever come to see me , to get that medical letter that you need apparently, to "kala your NPF" because you have decided to build a house but NPF say the only way they will release NPF savings early is if you leave the country permanently or , if you are disabled permanently and are verified by a doctor that you can not physically work anymore. When you walk into my office with a mouth full of instructions without so  much as a twitch in your eyelid or a limp...you can work. Full stop. You don't get to just tell me " I haven't worked for 30 yrs, last job i had was when I was 20, so I know I cant work anymore" ...Mate, it aint as simple as that. OMG...and then please don't proceed to have an argument with me about this and my job...my job is most certainly not to- receive a mere 20tal from you, and then aid in your illegal fiasco to release thousands of trallas from the NPF..mate, this thing on my head...yea you see it..its called a brain...not a mirror.

OMG...and please last but not the least. I am not a vet. Full stop. One day, your antibiotics and BP pills you keep feeding your dog, might be bad/the wrong dose/the wrong thing altogether to give him..and he may die...and I kinda don't want to be part of that. Full stop

good bye