Trains!

I like trains.

I think it started as a kid when we used to travel to my gramma's house by train a couple of times a year. There is even a memory of traveling by train with my sister at a very young age, alone, in the care of the conductor. We spent time with him in the caboose where he had a little stove in the middle of the room, with a steaming kettle. He took us out to the porch at the back so we could stand and see the stars and watch the the tracks falling away behind us as we sped along.

It is different than that here.

Here, we had tickets for the train from the city of Changsha to the city of Shanghai. There is a fast train that runs this route... but we didn't have tickets for that, they were sold out weeks before. We had tickets for the overnight sleeper train. I was so excited. Last time I was on a sleeper train, except for not sleeping and the very nasty toilets, it was quite fun.

This trip had unexpected challenges.

Here's my expectation... a little room, two bunks, clean linens, small table between them, window... thats about it. Toilets at both ends of the cars, one squat, one bowl, made of stainless steel, both as nasty as possible with slopping wet floors and terrible bad stink, open drains that you can see the ground passing by beneath you.

My expectation was too high.

Our train had no little rooms. Nope, open three sided alcoves... and (sigh) two bunks of three layers each... yup three, each with clean linen. There was a window between the beds and a very small table and a thermos of hot water for drinking. Above the window was a small TV screen with some chinese ads I think, or maybe music videos.

The first level bunk was close to the floor but high enough to slide most suitcases under (not mine though) The second bed was about eye level for me which means you could sit on the bottom bunk without bumping your head, if you were short enough. I was fine.
However sitting on bunk two was not an option... it had lying down space only as the space between bunks is far less than whatever it takes to sit upright. The good news is, you could see the TV screen from there.

Bunk three was up a ladder at nosebleed height.

Can you guess which bunks will be ours? Yup... you knew. I couldn't even reach to put my coat up there before climbing up to bed. The ceiling was about 18 or 20 inches above the bed so forget changing to your jammies, taking off your sweater, coat, or even socks... or turning over for that matter. But climb up we did, fluffed our pillows and ate ourselves silly with snacks and junk food, giggling all the while.

The TV screen was below our bed level and the very bad music coming from the ceiling speakers was underscored by the very bad music coming from the TV. Our ceiling had a bright light that they turned off at 10 pm along with the TV screen.

And the toilets... they were much smaller rooms than the ones I had used in Vietnam (just room enough to squat) and maybe they were less smelly. It means there was reduced danger of losing your balance and toppling over on the floor as you rocket along cause the filthy walls and small grab handle were in reach. And the toilet was right next to our bunk (!) as we had the last alcove at that end of the car... ya... less than ideal. The toilet didn't have a view of the ground passing beneath your bottom but you could hear it going by and feel the breeze.

Just outside the toilet closet there was a row of three sinks, so all your other bodily care was done there, out in public. It also means that, as always in China, everyone would gather there to hork up a lung or two and spit... I can't say where. One of the sinks didn't drain so with the movement of the train, the water in that basin continually slopped onto the slippery floor. Wear boots.

There were lights along the wall at each alcove and lights on in front of the sinks and toilet all night... in a word, not dark. And at 5 am the ceiling lights came back on with a brightness akin to the sunrise, 18 inches from our faces.
But doesn't it all make for an interesting story?

The Real Secret Garden

One of the joys about spending time in a new place is seeing the neighbourhood. It stops people in their tacks to see my face wandering about. It really does make them gaze in wonderment.

Within the view from my 12th floor window there is quite an extensive market among the dense housing. In fact within a short walk in two directions there are street market areas. There are also the three "super markets", the largish store like buildings that carry their goods inside, out of the weather... but not out of the cold.

The street markets are my favourite places. In some places I've been, the people actually live right there at their little store front. They just close up shop at the day's end and climb up to the bed in the loft or the bed behind the curtain at the back of their stall. But not at the market here in my area. Here, they come and bring their wares every day and go home when they've sold out, or get tired. I have seen the market double in size on a warm day, and shrink to minimal in the cold and rainy days.

And everything happens there. The stuff of life. The families are there, kids and merchants, and seniors... the card players, and game players. They have tents with food, like restaurants, kinda, that feed all the people who work there, pass by or are on lunch break. The park where they gather and play is in this same place.

Here's part of the mystery... where does all this fresh food come from? The place is teeming with fresh veggies and fruit but I never see a truck delivering anything. OK, it likely happens when I'm not looking... or still sleeping, sure. But just the other day, while busy getting un-lost, I discovered a small source, two in fact.

One area lies just a block or two behind the busy downtown street... the other is the waters edge. Since they have had so little rain here since september, the water level low enough that the industrious ones have planted greens along the river side. Very clever this... and the watering is so easy as the river is right there. Just don't think about about that water going on the food you will be consuming and you'll do all right.

The garden in the heart of the community is blocked by the shadow of the high rise apartments on the main street. I think this is a very old area. The houses in close seem to be from another time. But the gardens are lush and each small garden plot is watered by hand (actually bucket) from open cement wells. Again, you aught not look too closely at the water. And think of the inherent danger to the local children?
We in Canada are such sissies.

Not a good example, but part of my local market.

The heart of the city - who could tell?

The green at the river's edge.

Maybe a stick of sugarcane? Or a tipi of sugarcane?

Or a bag of eels?

Chinese Laundry

I have noticed that here in China, especially in this cold weather, the laundry at my house takes days to dry. We have no outside place to hang things so they get hung in the extension of my bedroom.
There is an apparatus for this very task. It's two metal rods, side by side and hung down from the ceiling by cables. These cables run across the ceiling and down the wall to a manual crank so you can raise and lower the bars to your liking. I guess you can put them up completely out of the way in case you have tall people walking around who could hang themselves accidentally.

Now some of the apartments have places outside the windows or in small balconies to hang their laundry and others just get very creative in the community.

I need to tell you that the air here in Changsha is maybe the worst I have ever seen in my world travels. From my window on the 12th floor I can see only about 1 kilometer distance because the air quality is so bad and at best I'm looking through constant haze. The only things I actually see are the ghostly outlines of the tall buildings rising above the 3 or 4 story buildings that fill the area below our window. The sky may have some sun but never gets beyond it grey colour, blue skies don't exist here. In late afternoon, you can see the sun as a red ball but you never see a sunset. The pollution close to the horizon blocks the sun long before it gets to the setting position. I'm saying all this so you will appreciate that not hanging out your laundry is a good thing. I'm thinking this because when we open our windows to let in "fresh" air, the window sill is black with dirt in half a day, and that's when there is no wind.

As I do my little walkabouts in the neighbourhood I get to see laundry hung anywhere it will dry. I have included a few photos of these creative clothes "lines" for your enjoyment;

These lines are just wrapped around the trees and you can find the laundry and the meat chunks and the chicken halves

and the fish all sharing the same lines. Note the pink trousers, the ones with no crotch yet... the child will still be toilet training.

This laundry is in front of the school hung wayyyy up there on the power lines... you can buy special sticks from your local super market for this task. They telescope out so you can reach very far up.

Towels from the spa on the bushes cause all the clothes lines were full

More laundry hanging from the power lines.

Stinky Tofu

All you China experienced folks must know stinky tofu, so this is for the non-initiated.

Well my friends, I need to 'fess up.
My last trip to China, I became aware of said "stinky tofu" as you would become aware of the sewers backing up in your basement.
It was that really bad smell that surrounded the little tofu wagons on the street. We're talking "cross the road to avoid coming too close to the nasty smell" behaviour. I could describe it like that forgotten hockey bag, some gym shoes in your locker that had been forgotten over the summer vacation. Or worse, but I'm a sissy.

Now the reality of the smell is that this brand of tofu is black, fermented until black... just imagine it. Then they deep fry it in questionable oil, and of course it's on the street with all that that would include. So my first trip to China had me wondering what amount of brain damage would allow a person to willingly approach the little wagon, pay for their purchase and then actually be able to put it in their mouths? I was dumbfounded.

Yes, you guessed it. I am living in the city that is famous for it's stinky tofu. Famous...
And my young flat-mate, Leman, actually eats and enjoys this stuff... really.
So what is a person to do? I had to try it. It wasn't easy.

After they pull it out of the hot oil, they kinda squash it with chopsticks to break the surface and then cover it in some variety of flaming hot sauce. It's served in a wee bowl and they give you your own chopsticks. uummm... it is actually delicious. I know, I know, sometimes I'm wrong about things...
I've had it twice...

Must be a surrogate?

Really, I'm thinking they can't all be hers, she can't even sit on them all at once.

Interweb connection

Yesterday, as I hung up laundry, I was smiling to myself about the guys coming to hook up our internet and putting the wire through the window. The window, of course, no longer closes but it's not like any of the other ones do either. What I had not noticed was where the wire was coming from...

Now I know... it's tied with a slip knot around a big staple and then drops, as you see here, down ten stories and across the neighbour's yard, a loop or two around the tree then off down the street, kinda tree to tree. Creative yes?

The next morning...

...picking up where we left off with the New Year's celebrations...

The rooster in the room below us begins his urgent calls long before the sun was even thinking of getting up. I find myself imagining a nice hearty rooster broth (sorry Victoria, I was tired) to warm my still very cold, now bruised body.When there was finally light, it was splendid to see sunshine and find the outside temperature was warmer than in. I went out.Our breakfast was noodles and leftovers from the meal last night... I was careful to keep my eye on my favourite dish, bamboo (safe).

It was around this time that I noticed the front door. The night before people were going in and out and living it open, and it was freezing out. I thought at least they might close it to keep in the body heat and keep out the breeze. And I didn't mention that at dinner, they put a small radiant heater under the table as we ate. It had the same heat effect as if it had been a candle, in a word, none. So now this open door thing was very troubling to afreezing foreigner. In the morning I am able to see it's a metal gate! Just bars and in some places, a bit of screen. I smile to think that the night before I think keeping it closed would have helped.

It's very odd to be surrounded by many people and yet be so isolated by a language barrier. There's so much that you want to know and your host is somewhat tired of constant

questions and has a look that says "don't you know anything?" I am surprised each time there is a plan that everyone else knows about but me, and I'm not ready...

So the first day of Spring festival is spent with the father's family (patriarchal) and the second day with the mother's. This means we are off to Leman's dad's home in the country. Leman's parents divorced some years back so it adds complications to the celebrations.They load Leman and I in the former "school bus" mini-van and at breath stopping speed and unsafe driving habits we rocket off to the rural area. The driver keeps a cigarette burning non stop while driving, and the radio volume at ear damaging levels. He's one of those drive, drive, beep, beep, drive, beep, beep, beep, drive, drive, beep... headache in a few short minutes, destination 90 minutes away, roads less than ideal.

Leman's dad's house is similar to her mom's, familiar square box, cement floor, bathroom and toilet the same room, (you just take the bucket of water in with you and be careful where you step) I must admit I had not enough courage to think of removing all my clothes at once and getting wet at that temperature... so I went a few days with no shower.

The kitchens were similar but her dad's house had no fridge at all... hence the vegetables on the floor and the fish and pork pieces on a hook on the wall, of course.

You see the veggies in cold storage on the floor... I don't know what happens in summer...

...and the fish storage...

The cook stove

And the dining room - note the rice cooker on the floor by the door, and the photos of the generation before hanging on the wall in a place of honour.

Leman walking across the road where we had to get off the motorcycle and walk because three on a bike couldn't make it either up the hill or across the impassible road. (It looks better than it is, here)

Leman and her dad - he's preparing lunch.

...more to come...

Gone shopping... or gone crazy?

Culture Shock... Size Twelve

We, here in China, are in the mist of the Spring Festival (New Year) celebration.
It started on February 2nd and lasts until the 17th.

I was given the gift of returning home to my flat mate's home village to join her family for a few days.
Now I fancy myself a little experienced in travel and new cultures but this trip was a jaw dropper. It opened my eyes a little wider to how terribly sheltered my life is.

We started late afternoon in the city of Changsha, on the local city bus that took us to the inter-city bus. In about two hours we were in the community of Zhu Zhou (sounds like Jew Joe) where Leman's mother lives. We hailed a cab from there and within about ten minutes we were stuck on the road... hung up on a rock near the edge of the road. It took only 15 minutes or so to free us and we carried on another 5 minutes only to disembark at the side of a very dark road. We started down a lane in pitch blackness, Leman holding my arm to keep me upright (in fact to keep me from falling off the lane and into the pond)

Her mom's home was a welcome sight and I was more than a little surprised to walk into a large room with a cement floor, the room temperature of which was the same as outside. I might just say it was on the lower side of minus. In fact you could see your breath... if only there had been more light.

They had been patiently awaiting us and the dinner was long since ready.
Someone brought in a small table (about one meter square) from another room, followed by a large round table top that they placed on the top of the small table... this extended the table to fit about ten of us, rather close and personal.

The dinning room and small square table... and the red door is the fridge.

The round table top is just to the right against the wall... and Chairman Mao, a feature of every home, hung on the wall.

Next came a liberal sprinkling of water so when they put on the plastic bag covering, it stayed in place (I mean it didn't blow away in the breeze)
Food came pouring out of the kitchen and onto the table and people came from another room and filled the stools. Leman told me what was in each dish, just to help with my diet and my heart... there were some dishes I would want to be avoiding. I might mention here that there was a single bulb that hung from the ceiling to light the room and it was not hanging over the table... it was good to be able to identify the dishes from where they were placed on the table because everything looked quite unfamiliar and pretty much the same.

And so dinner began with much animated conversation and laughter. Leman's mother reached into a dish that I would have avoided at all cost... I won't say what it was to protect the sensitive heart of my niece Victoria, and placed two helpings into my dish. Leman, not missing a beat, firmly grasped my arm and smiling sweetly said "that is a gesture of love and welcome". She was really saying, just eat it or you will offend my mother.
What a test. I passed on some level.
I wasn't quite ready for the activity that accompanied the fish bones, pork bones, nut shells, or anything else that you might not want to be swallowing. You simply turn your head and spit them over your shoulder, or beside or between your thighs... yup. Sweeping up after dinner is most necessary.

Shortly after dinner, Leman left to visit her boyfriend's family, leaving me freezing and tired in a house where nobody spoke english. I had figured out the toilet facilities but not the water source. Toilet was down the "hall" from the kitchen, and across form the chickens... They draw their water from a well but I'm still not sure from where. I retired to my bed without my normal "routine" hoping to warm up.

Shower on the left, toilet on the right... the rooms are the same but for the footprints on the floor of the toilet.

Chickens live in the structure in the middle, though a bit dark in this photo.

Part of the reason for the chill - the square at the the bottom of the door is the chicken door

I retired to my bed without my normal "routine" hoping to warm up.
So the bed... made of three or four inch diameter logs... sliced in half, rounded side up... covered in a thick pad like affair... about as comfortable as you are imagining. And the worst was with the temperature below freezing, the cold came up between the logs so it was impossible for me to get warm the whole night long.

My bed, on the left, looks innocent enough...

Front of the house in daylight, note the non-stop ma jaing game

to be continued...

My Apartment

(First, a little note - I've figured out how to go back and add photos to previous posts, and have added a few precious babe shots to the last one, and will try to add some apartment photos to this one too.)

Well my apartment here is quite spacious by Chinese standards. It's a pink, 17 floor apartment and we are on the 12th floor. And they have an elevator, two in fact.

It has two bedrooms. I have the larger and my flat mate, and her various sweet girlfriends occupy the other. I have only had to share my bed twice to date, quite luck, really.
One wall of my room is a curtain that divides it from a glassed in porch where we hang the laundry. I can hardly wait for weather warm enough to open those windows. My window faces west and I'm thinking that is the direction for my prayers... the shortest distance to the Holy Land. There is a closet like structure that we share to hang our clothes and above my bed... a heater!! It makes all the difference between life and freezing. i put it on before undressing or dressing and other times when the shivering is just too much.My bed has no bamboo mat like last year but I have to say the softness (or should I say hardness) is about the same. Some would call it extra firm. But it is a queen size so I'm not cramped. I have two weighty quilts for the chill of night that are so heavy it's a real effort just to turn over. Sure am glad I have them... them and my two pairs of jammies that I wear at the same time. And Nonie, it took a week until I remembered the hot water bottles! For those who don't know, you can make yourself a hot water bottle from an empty water or pop bottle. It feels real good against a shivering body.

The living room/dining room area is large with some pretend leather furniture and an actual table and chairs that we never use. All our meals are eaten on the coffee table in front of the TV... sound familiar to anyone?

And yes, a TV. There is an english language station with international news that seems mostly about China... but that's great cause that's what I'm here for. I might also say the TV is not on all the time, but when it is, I nearly rupture my eardrums as I strive so hard to hear any chinese sounds that I can make into a word. I know one day it will happen. I'm starting to hear words in conversations around me... but really, how useful is hearing "OK, OK?"

We have a walk in, back out kitchen but have been known to have two people productively cooking in it. There are some really grim areas in it that even I won't venture to scrub... I just keep the cupboard doors closed. There is a gas stove, one burner works... and that makes one wok just the right amount of pots. Since this is cold weather time, I hardly ever see any bugs... another perk I'd say.

Our final room, the bathroom, so glad we have one and with a toilet bowl, not a squat toilet... joy upon joy. We have a hot water when we turn on the tank and for me I keep it always at least warm, cause with this cold, I can't manage freezing water too. The floor doesn't slope to the drain, but how many do, really? and the toilet flushes most of the time as long as you don't put anything in it but liquid. The floor feels like an ice rink so we need wear plastic shoes when we shower but other than that, it fits all our needs.

The Babies

I know I promised a story about my apartment for this time but I've just been grabbed but the heart with the baby bathing routines here at the Maria Maternity Hospital.
This just couldn't wait.

So it goes like this... they wheel the tupperware bed with baby into the bathing room. (I will try to include photos of the whole affair) They will have prepared the baby bath water ahead of time but the room temperature is about 23 degrees. They strip baby down and do a little scrub in the tub but use no soap? Also, nowhere to wash your hands and nothing to dry them on?

Then if baby is to do it's floating routine, it gets lifted over to the swim tub, a plastic water wing affair gets attached around it's little neck and it hangs there in the tub floating about for maybe 5 minutes or so. And here she is, just relaxing in the bag lined pool. I think it makes clean up easier, and cuts down on cross contamination.

If only they would use a fresh towel for each baby.

Meanwhile mom or any number of the babies relatives, nana, dad, big sister, etc watch from the other side of the class doing all the normal, smiling, waving, googling behaviour new babies bring out in us all.

This is the "swimming" part with the family looking on from outside, mom and gramma were allowed in.

Note how everyone is dressed in their coats,even mom and big sister. Actually, big sister liked that rubber ducky a lot more than she seemed to like her new sister.

Mom gets no "hands on" bath experience with

her baby until she gets it home. Then, I'm told, it will be one of the grammas that will do this work for the first month since the mother is not to be "touching water" for that time? So that also means no shower for mom either. A bit hard to imagine I must say. It could be I don't have all the facts yet since I know only how to say "hello" in Chinese. The normal hospital stay is 5 days, I think two weeks for caesarian sections ( and I'm told there a

re plenty here... the moms are afraid of the pain and the doctors get more pay from surgery than just baby catching)
Back to babe.
Now some of the babies like both their baths and their floats and some like one or the other, and, of course, some like neither and howl the house down. After the water stuff is complete, babe is lifted to the towel down table (sometimes the same towel for multiple babies), dried, umbilical cord attention, sometimes a heel prick for blood work, maybe put on the scale, sometimes head and chest size measured, a massage with baby oil and then the dressing.
You won't believe the dressing part.It starts with a diaper... always disposable but some without sticky tabs? They just put a very loose elastic around the baby's tummy and tuck the ends of the diaper under it? I'm sure it must be a lost cause for effectiveness. Next a light weight two piece sleeper outfit, some with boots attached, some without, so then they will need socks. The top is like those old fashioned baby shirts that crossed the chest and were held on with ties. The knickers are a wonder to me still. They are a flat piece of material with two little legs that hang off of it. They baby's legs are stuffed in and the cloth has strings that tie behind the baby's back. The diaper is still exposed! The ankles have extra little ties to keep the feet in place.

The next layer is much like the first, little crossover shirt that ties on, same pant affair, same exposed diaper... but this layer is made from a medium weight usually quilted fabric. The final layer, (yes, they are not done yet) is yet another crossover shirt, same knickers, same exposure on the caboose, but the weight this time is northern arctic wear, snow suit weight! By now these are truly "star" babies... you know the kind that when they get all their winter gear on they can't move or bend arm nor leg and can just stand or lie there looking like a star. The final ties go around the upper arms (if they can find them) to keep their arms from slipping inside the sleeves. I think I counted 16 ties in all... it takes a considerable time to dress these wee ones.

And the final accessory... the toque!The babe is now ready to be wrapped... you think I'm kidding. It is wound in a receiving sized quilted blanket that is held on with a velcro strap... then, for the finale, into it's tupperware bed folded like an omlet into a winter weight duvet with their own tiny pillow, always on their back... and wheeled back to mom.

Need I say more?

China... The Cold

I'm here in China for a wee spell... until April ish.
It's the city of Changsha, inland a bit and on the latitude about half way between Shanghai and Xiamen, so get your google maps out. The flight from Shanghai to Changsha took about two hours so if you can translate that into distance, you'll have it.

Now it's cold here, I was told. So I packed a light winter jacket that is rain proof, grabbed some gloves, scarf, turtle necks, sweaters, tights, cords and flannel jammies. I think I've done well... not so. I'm from Canada, eh? I know cold, and being too smart for my own good, I don't get that it's cold in China... inside, everywhere, always! Who knew? Seriously? People go to work in their coats and don't take them off all day.
The supermarket, hair salon, hospital... all staffed with people in their winter outside attire. The newborn babes in the hospital lie in their wee tupperware beds dressed for a day at the local mountian. I can't imagine the chill of having a diaper changed. I must say that of all places, not counting the spa, the hospital ward was the warmest and I can only imagine the room where the babies are bathed must be warm as well. But even though it's warmer in the ward rooms, the moms are all wearing their winter jackets.

The snow came four days ago and is showing no sign of wanting to leave. The first day there was about 10 cm, followed by 10 cm, followed by 10 cm. The good thing was the first two days the temperature stayed at about freezing, just enough to keep most of the wet heavy snow on the ground. Yesterday the temperature dropped so this snow is firmly attached to the frozen everthing; roads, stairs, trees, fences... I have yet to see a plow. I think they may not have plows here but yesterday I saw a guy with a shovel, shoveling out a path through the hospital parking lot! Better than that were the three guys shoveling the road! In all fairness only two had shovels, one had rigged up a board with a rope attached and as one pushed, another pulled the rope along cause the snow was so heavy.

The weight of the snow on the tree branches, especially those trees with leaves, has caused the branches to break and crash to the ground everywhere. Nonie, you remember that storm in Banff in september? Same thing.The roads are all blocked with branches and it's very dangerous on the sidewalks too. This city is multi level so along the side streets there are stone steps (everything is made of stone here) covered with snow and ice... impassable. I have worries of losing my footing and sliding down those stairs with nothing to stop me but the non-stop traffic on the busy street. I'm sure the underside of a car would stop me dead, as it were.

next installment... my apartment
(It's the giant pink one in the pictures. And the last photo is the hospital.)