thai ways

while the rest of the world and life-as-i-knew-it toils on outside of china, the rest of banna relishes this sunny sunday.

finally in a web cafe with access to blogger somewhere in an internet cafe in xishaungbanna, or banna for short. life has been treating me rough. but not in an unenjoyable way... but more of a caked-in-mud, sun-burnt, sweaty, dirty, dearth-of-good-relaxation type of way.

since my last post a week ago, time has flown by ever so quickly. my english has deteriorated so very rapidly, so pardon my lack of embellishment. i shall say it all in simple, succinct sentences, ie chinese-style.

on tuesday (1/8) , the 3 of us left alex at the bus station, 3 of us teary-eyed and despondent, eyes blood-shot from the follies of the night before. then, on the most dreadful mode of transport known to china : the sleeper bus.. *shudder*, we took an 11 hour voyage, supine, from kunming to jinghong (capital of banna).

on wednesday (2/8)- thursday(3/8), we took another 2 buses to menghun, from which aiwendan came to pick us up in his jeep. aiwendan, an inspiring altruistic village doctor took us in for 2 nights at his home, where he taught us the experience and knowledge 10 years of being a village doctor has imparted him. it was here that i

• rode on a motorcycle across the rice plains of banna, the sun setting in the distance, emerald hills in the yonder, eyes on the best scenery i have ever seen
• reached the 'whatever' stage of consciousness where there is no longer fear of danger /death despite the perilous circumstances, while riding as a passenger on a motorcycle in pitch-black darkness, down a rocky stone-laid mountain path, headlights revealing only 2m ahead of us, travelling as fast as our china-brand motorcycle could take us.
• hiked for 2 hours up to a pagoda, 1 hour of which was in tropical rain
• did not bathe for 2 and a half days (post trek and motorcycle ride)

friday (4/8), we met up with a bo and team to set out to dadugang. after food-shopping in the bloodiest meat-market in the world. (think fats, guts, hearts, heads, ears of animals - skinned and unskinned astrew EVERYWHERE) we took a 2 hour long jeep ride (love em jeeps) to the tea planatation of mr fu. there, a team of 9 of us (mr fu + wife included) toiled for 3 hours in the hot sun digging trenches for his tea plants. (think mud, mud, rain, mud, muddier）we survived, sweaty, rain-drenched, muddy, muscles sore and sun-baked, and made it back to his humble hut for a meal prepared by a bo...

"HCl! HCl is there for a reason." - jo, on food preparation of the meal at mr fu's.

...will be in lijiang (see map) on thursday. more updates soon..+ photos to follow.

one man left behind... alex

the sleeper bus rules...

aiwendan's abode - home and village clinic

the labourer's work... mr fu's@ dadugang, outwith jinghong:

my muddiness.the kitchen.meat market.digging trenches.

the city in the centre of the world

sitting in an internet cafe in kunming now... around me, i'm surrounded by chinese men shouting at each other, smoking pungent honghe brand cigarettes, spending their sunday afternoon playing internet games with each other...

yesterday was only the 2nd day i have been in kunming, the capital, since coming here to yunnan... we've been to 4 towns and 3 villages in these last 2 weeks, i can't remember the last time i had 8 hours of sleep and i can't remember the last time i wore clean clothes before yesterday... these last 2 weeks have been the the most memorable of my life. i have...

-helped clean a leper's sores
-brushed my teeth on a rooftop at 6am, over a bowl, to the sound of roosters, spitting out over the roof
-eaten twice the recommended servings of vegetables in a day for the last 2 weeks
-played basketball in a village
-inhaled an insane amount of second hand smoke
-spoken more chinese than i ever have since junior college
-shared a village meal with villagers
-touched a TB lymphadenopathy lump in a 7 year old girl who will not receive treatment in the near future
-dangled off the tops of cliffs in 4wd jeeps
-shared a bus with pigs under the seats, roosters on the roof and birds in the front
-attempted and practised handstands on rooftops and basketball courts
-heard the most amazing christian testimonies
-not spared an american endless hill-billy jokes and anti-american slander (all in good humour)
-bonded with 3 other christian chinese medics in a way i have never done so before...

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
the four musketeers
deserve a whole blog entry on our own... me, a singaporean chinese, alex, a canadian chinese, weiyao, a malaysian chinese, and joanne, an australian chinese. despite only having met alex and jo 2 weeks ago, we are like 4 peas in a pod just now. it's crazy! together, we have.. helped translate classes for the village teachers, fought off deadly mosquitos and 2-inch-long-dung beetles, cockroaches and bees, been packed on china buses together, waded through mud, pushed broken down buses, hung out with lepers, ate yucky vegetables that taste of fish, suffered the aches of china toilets together, got drunk on bai2 jiu3, watched amazing sunsets, trekked through a cemetry, played one too many games of cards, etc etc....

so yes... china has been amazing.. at about the halfway-point of my travels. 2 more cities in the next 3 weeks.. updates to follow soon!

leprosy village, outwith jianshui

yaohe, alex and i with the village kids, sanchun, outside mojiang.

jo and alex- roadside ways

crazy kids

the 4 musketeers!

good as g-old

this makes carol happy. but first....
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

flying off to yunnan this weekend.. it's going to be lots and lots of :
1. rain
2. mud
3. evil toilets that swallow babies
4. chinese
5. first aid
6. marriage proposals
7. rice

there will be none / very little of the following :
1. ipod
2. comfort
3. air conditioning
4. dry socks

so... in an appeal to all of you reading this now... PRAY FOR ME!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

meanwhile, carol is loving the feeling of familiarity and the underated charm of old things... esp old friends and clothes. but esp the former...

the depth of my superficiality

the first sunrise after a long time...
serious bumming, reading, guitaring, sleeping, photography, sleeping, deep deep conversations.

listening to myself has never been this therapeutic before.. but it's funny that i no longer think in words: "acoustic #3" - goo goo dolls, "kashmir" - led zepellin, "heartbeats" - jose gonzalez
i no longer think for myself: "name" - goo goo dolls
and i no longer think for today.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

on a lighter note, how to enjoy singapore:

is to take a deep breath, dive in, and leave your thoughts on the surface. "don't ask" - julie doiron

juxtaposition

the best medsin.

pedalling extensively

whoever said anything about conflict being bad? for this must be truly what is meant by the apostle paul, when he wrote, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." - 1 cor 13:12. for what is love? what does it mean to be Christian? every day we struggle... for struggling is all we do in this life. but in this gasping for air, in this mad clamour to get there, in all these desperate extensions of our limited knowledge, experience and strength, there in is the search for truth.. and for now, that will suffice. now i know in part....

Humans are one of the few species who survive past the age of procreation.... Wisdom from elders a divine blessing of age that we fail to see the salience of? the recognition of patterns...

the difference between monkeys and man is that man can stand on another man's shoulders... learning from someone else's mistakes. how else is it exponential?

also, the importance of fellowship in the new covenant.

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
we feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
all are one in thee, for all are thine.

- 'For all the saints' by William How

the itchy and scratchy

oh for the life of me, i can't get to sleep.. i can only think of a two obvious reasons : it's wayy too hot to get to sleep in this atrocious heat and i'm still on GMT 0...

comment #1
how on earth does anyone get anything done in this climate? if i was ever complaining about the capricious glaswegian weather, i take it ALL back... glaswegian weather gave you hope, at least.. u could get up to a fine, fair morning and come home in the sharp brutality of a hailstorm (but at least it gave u a morning, damnnit!)... now, i wake up every morning to the squelching heat and humidity that whacks you the moment you step out of the air conditioning.. a merciless heat wave that strips you of all energy, motivation and life... immediately coercing beads of perspiration from you... and then the afternoon comes and the sun just shuts everyone up indoors and any attempts to go outside will only bring more sweat, fatigue and hopelessness...

comment #2
i hayyyyteeeeee histamine.. i utterly HAAYYYTTEEE YOU! non-infectious conjunctivitis and sinusitis and heat rash!!! oh for the life of me, you are the plague of the atopic peripatetic in this modern globalised world!!!!! ARGHS.... clarinase... you are all i neeed.

comment #3
some singaporeans have the most embarassingly low standards of their use of the english language... i refer especially to a certain singaporean headlines today on a certain newspaper i spotted this morning at a newstand.. it had something along the lines of : 'she used me for my seed in order to fulfill her greed. and after she had fulfilled her need, she left me.' i kid you not, aaron pan of bloomberg, those were the headlines (in more or less words) on a local newspaper on friday, the 7th of july 2006.


so amidst incessant perspiring, rubbing, scratching, sneezing, blowing my nose and trying not to snigger at singlish-english, i have been trying to have a good time back in singapore. but somehow, i miss glasgow for all its inadequacies. (?#$!#$!@#?????) and i miss my pedantic, sub-standard life as a medical student even more. (!#@$!@$#$%@#$!#$#@^&#%^@#?????????)

but then ask me again after my routine of full body massages, facials, shopping sprees, hawker-food frenzies, late nights, 2am suppers, girly-chats, mahjong-sessions (this is a shout-out!) and i might just have a change of heart... ;)

mad rush

eyes awash with pain, feet so ready to flee.

le geneve et francais voyagent.

 

fiona et rob. lac geneve.

lac geneve deux.

 

geneve centre-ville. la petit garcon dans lac geneve. moi hand. lac geneve.

fiona. andrew boris heslar mcniece. jenna, beth, me et sharyl a la charlie's angels. andrew, rob et richard snowy.

 

le french alps tres beau!!
naomi, andrew, sharyl et beth. (top r.)
rob (botrom l.)

jenna (bottom m.)

le alps : andrew, richard, fiona(foreground), judy (middle row), jenna (back), me (foreground), beth (middle), sharyl (back), naomi

 

geneve la nuit (1,2,4). park du' chateau (france). ILO (geneve).le reviere (france). le rouge croix. le reviere deux. le rouge croix deux.

le magnifique neuf :
1. rob (captain)
2. andrew / boris / heslar
3. richard / snowy
4. jenna
5. naomi
6. beth
7. fiona
8. sharyl
9. me.

places visited :
1. ornex, france
where we stayed in the gifford residence - site of bountiful banter and food.
2. geneva, switzerland
(our nearest town)
lake geneva - pedalled, swam, sang.
the red cross museum.
3. annesy, france
annesy city centre
lake
4. chamonix, france
french alps, mer de glace, mont blanc - 2h 10 min trek to top, cable car down.
chamonix city centre - fondue dinner with malcolm and judy.

starring : rob (captain). me. fiona,beth. richard.naomi.naomi, sharyl judy, fiona, rob.rob.andrew.jenna.

FIN.

 

bel etranger

i.can't.stop.smiling.

cardiovascular

'Where do you go with your broken heart in tow?
What do you do with the left over you?
And how do you know, when to let go?
Where does the good go? Where does the good go?

Look me in the eye and tell me you don't find me attractive
Look me in the heart and tell me you won't go
Look me in the eye and promise no love's like our love
Look me in the heart and un break broken, it won't happen'

It's love that leaves that breaks the seal of always thinking you would be
Real happy and healthy, strong and calm
Where does the good go? Where does the good go?

Where do you go when you're in love and the world knows?
How do you live so happily while I am sad and broken down?
What do you say it's up for grabs now that you're on your way down?
Where does the good go? Where does the good go?

- 'where does the good go' by tegan & sara

just sitting in the western infirmary library, waiting for the caffeine to kick in.. i have developed such a high tolerance to caffeine, each cup contains about 4 times the amount of caffeine as it did in my first year in glasgow. and i'm drinking at least 2 cups of the drug a day... and i'm not even in proper term time! cos when that was going on, it was a proper 6 cups. oh... the highs of substance abuse. sinus tachycardia and palpitations and hypertension, the silent killer... oh u bad boys...

my Love

cheers to you, God, for the best weekend in a looong time! and not only just fun, but that chance encounter.. there and then, without me even anticipating.. and then that answer to my prayer.. at the very last hours of my sunday...God, you are the best father of all.. you keep Your promises.. even the ones i forgot You made.. and then.. You totally blow me away.. bringing to light YOUR light, YOUR life-giving, YOUR separation, YOUR distinction, YOUR holiness....from the darkness... your righteousness... '...in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left....' 2 corinthians 6:6-7.

too busy to blog...

no time for words.. only photos.. too much going on in my head to rush it now anywas, not when the music of the next party is beckoning through my window... the WEST END FESTIVAL MARDI GRAS.....

samba party girly night out

samba!

capoeira!

chilling out time - park and pubs

picnic in the kelvingrove

prodigious birth

carol has been having a prodigious whirlwind of a time.. effectively my last 3 weeks in glasgow before i make that epic flight back to sunnier shores. (you mean it can get any sunnier than this???)

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

1750

Number seventeen, Hanover Square. It is past noon on a late April day. Spring is in the air. And inside the handsome, four-storey house with its big sash windows, five across, Lady St. James is about to take her bath.

Two footmen have appeared - crimson livery, white silk stockings - carrying the metal hip-bath and have set it down in the middle of my lady's chamber. They return three times, bearing huge, steaming ewers of hot water; they fill the bath, then retire. Her ladyship's maid tests the water with a small, plumb finger; indicates that all is well.

And now, my lady comes from the great bed with its richly embroidered coat of arms. She walks across the floor, her nightgown a wonder of blue ribbons and white lace. She hovers by the bath. A dainty white foot appears, an elegant ankle peeps from under the hem of the nightdress. Her foot touches the surface of the water and there is a tiny ripple. Now a little of the lace parts and a slim, bare calf is revealed. Her ladyship's maid stands close, reaches up to take the nightgown. There is a faint rustle, the whisper of satin flesh upon silk; the maid's arms draw back.

And - at last - she has emerged: slim, flawless, delicately scented. Her leg has slipped beneath the still water which now surrounds her high, round breasts, and laps those alabaster shoulders....

She rests in a chair, robed in a long silk gown, sipping a cup of hot chocolate thoughtfully. When she is done, her maid brings her a little silver basin of water and a brush; sprinkles a little powder on the brush. Carefully, but thoroughly, her ladyship brushes her pearl-like teeth. Then she is a handed a small, curved, silver scrapper. Elegantly, making a pout, she sticks out her pink tongue and, while the maid holds a looking glass, she scrapes it to ensure that not a trace of dark chocolate nor of whittish fur disgrace its surface.

- London the novel. by Edward Rutherford.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

though not as prodigiously luxurious or extravagant, my life has been this prodigiously relaxing.. been dipping my feet into all walks, all activities, been soaking my mind in all forms of books, art, film, conversation and thought. so yes, is carol's life rich now? yes it is. is it fun? indeed!

but above all that, people can do lots of fun activities but not receive joy our of them. but blessed am i, because God has blessed me with joyfulness despite everything that i'm going through just now.. 'oh please, how rough a patch can carol be going through?' you might think.. haha.. i kid you not, i have problems so colossal it's surreal. but God has been good.. He has shown me how to... 'stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.' - eph 6:13 and it is so like God to make the one thing that matters so simple to do...

born again. and i can tell you, it is a prodigious birth. (and no, we're not talking about material things)

the answer : look to Christ. because it is only and ultimately in Him that salvation comes.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


so anyhow, i did get my hair cut.. after complaining to ____ about how i can only trust one hairdresser in the world, and after a whole half hour of 'internal conflict' of whether or not i should make the hairdresser's appointment, i turned up, gave her strict instructions, and walked out of the saloon looking almost like what i did when i walked in! which left me in a slightly confused ambivalence, for:
1. paying all that money to look the same.
2. feeling safe for not looking too different.
3. thinking that if it were gill instead who cut my hair, i'd be pleased no matter what the outcome, which led to:
4. am i basing my opinions on a cut on the hairdresser or the cut itself?

meanwhile, over the last 2 days, i've had 3 passers-by and 1 friend calling me beautiful. if i extend this back to the last month, it'd be an additional 2 more friends. i'm not the type to get too big-headed about such things.. i mean, i've heard it so many times, i'm totally inured to it.. but it's just left me thinking.. wow, God, you're truly amazing. i've not come to realise it, but You've shown me what You've done using the mirror in people. (and no, we're not talking about superficial things.)