The CDC Story

I woke up the other morning understanding that we would be going to a “bar” to meet the “waitresses”. A prostitute house essentially. It is illegal here but I don’t think anyone really cares too much that they are still running. I think they have resolved just to allow it but regulate it to a certain extent. How can you close them down when the people who would be able to close them down are the main customers? At 1:30 we started our trek to the CDC… that’s what they call it in Chinese too! A change of plans… not to uncommon here. In a nice conference room on the top floor of the very nice CDC building we sat down in nice chairs around a huge table. People started filing in and we were left to guess who was who. We finally understood that the man at the head of the table was the director of the CDC. The students we went with were presenting a project proposal. I don’t fully understand how the cooperation is supposed to work or who initiated the project but the initial meeting was a success apparently. We sat there while there was an animated discussion about the project and how it would be carried out. Connie leaned over at one point and tried to help me understand what was going on. The six women and one man that sat across from us were the owners of these “bars”. The project was to initiate a peer education program with the waitresses. But the challenges were that the waitresses are undereducated, from different areas in China or even other countries, and are very young! The graduate students are going to be training some of the older waitresses who have been around a while to talk about healthier life styles to eventually talk about AIDS to the younger waitresses. It is a three year project and it will be interesting to know more about this project.

After the meeting, three of the men stood together discussing something and lit up their cigarettes! At least two of them were employees of the CDC. I ate my watermelon.

Later I wondered if we would ever have the director of the CDC, students from the public health school, and owners of prostitute houses all in the same room in the U.S. having a conversation about AIDS prevention?

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Last night was a series of unsuccessful events … in optimistic language it would be called a series of learning experiences. Walking back from the CDC (another story) I asked Amy if she wanted to go to a movie. Not shy of any challenge she accepted. A few hours later we were on a bus to the Times Plaza where we had heard there are two movie theaters. With popcorn and Pirates of the Caribbean on our minds we walked the streets until; through a bit of sign language with a woman on the street, we found the movie house! Yeah. And Pirates of the Caribbean was playing in a few theaters. Great! So we got the help of another young woman with the knowledge of a few words of English to help us get tickets. She kept on saying, “Talk, talk.” That didn’t make any sense to us so we proceeded to try to buy the tickets. Finally she said, “No English!” And at that point all of our dreams of seeing a movie faded away. They had dubbed over Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp with Chinese voices! If we hadn’t been so depressed we might have actually bought the tickets just to be amused by the dubbed over voices.

By that point we hadn’t eaten so eating was to be the next adventure.

KFC. This would not have been an option in the U.S. but we thought at least we could find something resembling food there. All of the advertisements were in English but… the menu was all in Chinese. This was very unhelpful to us. We walked out dejected. We passed by all of the street vendors and at one point the food on the sticks actually looked good. We resolved that the next restaurant that wasn’t hotpot would be the place we ate. About 10 minutes later after passing many cheap shoe stores (that Amy was dying to go into) we found a little hole in the wall place. We sat down and the women cooking waved her hands at us. Apparently she didn’t have any food even though there were people in there eating her food. Oh well… on to the next place. We found a McDonald's, which again would not have been an option in the U.S. and strike two… the menu was all Chinese! Walking out yet again we found a Chinese restaurant that we had been to before. So with a sigh of relief we sat down, pulled out our notebook that has an entire repertoire of our “favorite” dishes written in Chinese, and proceed to try to order what we wanted. A few minutes later I received a huge dish full of fried rice and pork! Most of you know that I am a vegetarian and in the notebook the order specifically said, “Bu yao zro (no meat)”. I showed this again to the waitress and she giggled nervously and hesitantly took the dish back. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that she was standing near the kitchen with my dish and all of the servers congregated around her discussing my dish. At first I thought they were just going to bring it back to me but then they took it back to the kitchen. Later it came out with only a few bits of meat in it! They had proceeded to just pick out the meat and give it back to me. I’m not complaining… at least I didn’t have to do it! There were still a few mysterious bits of meat left but with my mad chopstick skills I put them to the side and ate up! Amy got the “rolls only served in the spring” (Spring rolls) and they arrived in all their fried glory! She’s been wanting them for a while and asking for them everywhere so I think she got them out of her system last night!

A change of events happened as we went back through McDonald's and noticed the ice cream cones. The cashier brought out an English menu for us and we pointed to the ice cream cone and asked for two. We sat outside, watched people walk by in their gorgeous dresses and high heals, and ate our wonderful .50 cent vanilla ice cream cones. We looked at our arm clocks and it was about 9:45. The bus stopped running at 8 so we had two options—walking or finding a cab. We had walked back before but it took us over an hour and we only had a general sense of where “home” was. At any other time during the day we would have chosen that option. But the mosquitoes were out and wanted to eat us so we opted for the cabs. We tried for about 30 minutes to get a cab along the very busy road. Desperately we walked to other streets to find a cab. Finally another young woman stopped us and pointed to the end of the street at the corner. She was speaking in Chinese (obviously) and I immediately said, “Wo bu ming by” (I don’t understand). But she insisted and finally I understood that she was telling us that we could find a cab at the end of the street. She was right! The cab driver took us right to the gate of the Huaxi campus and I arrived in my dorm room with a few minutes to 11! After a much needed shower I jumped into bed to watch some consolation tv!

Pictures taken

"Pictures say a thousand words"
--Someone. (I don't think I ever have heard a person claim this quote but I thought I should at least be courteous in case someone famous actually did say this).

These are some of the pictures that Amy and I have taken.

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2144592&l=89a7d&id=2736860

We got our picture taken today! Some guy on the street actually pulled out his cell phone, stopped, and followed us with his phone to get a good picture of us. I was highly amused... although I don't think all foreigners would be. I just thought of all the pictures I want to take but am to chicken to actually take. This guy had the guts to pull out his phone and actually take a picture of the weird weigoren (foreigners). I rewarded him with a big old grin. I even held my fingers up in a "V"... that is classic picture taking protocol over here.

My feet, legs and knees would like to take this opportunity to thank the "New Balance" shoe company today. Unashamed propaganda to follow...

Since we do not have what it takes to get bikes and follow the masses in the rat race of bikes we have stuck to the rat race of walking and dodging all other forms of moving vehicles.
20 minutes to Grandma's kitchen
25 minutes to Sabrina's Country Store (where no Honey Bunches of Oats box is safe!!)
20 minutes to the Fu River
30 minutes to High Fly Pizza
10 minutes to my favorite fruit stand
hours getting lost and finding new roads!!

We walked around for more than 4 hours today. This is not untypical for our days. No longer am I conscious that Amy and I are the ONLY ones in sneakers. I watch these women walk around in their beautiful dresses, umbrellas, and HIGH healed shoes and can only imagine the awfulness. Do their feet hate them? Have their feet just resolved to take the punishment everyday? Beauty is a funny thing. I think my pink and black New Balance shoes are the most beautiful thing in the world. My feet love me right now.

In other news... the 20 minutes to Grandma's Kitchen this morning was so exciting. A routine and things to look forward to is always a good idea especially when in a new place. I knew they were making my pancakes as we arrived! We go every Sunday morning, sit at the same table, and order practically the same thing, which for me comes with unlimited amounts of coffee. We read the English newspaper and enjoy our forks and knives. I brought my own peanut butter this time for the pancakes just in case they decided they didn't have any this morning. It was worth the carry. In fact I carried the pb around all day today! The pancakes were amazing... the coffee even better!

Tomorrow is our third workshop and we're really excited about meeting more students. They seem eager to learn. I am wondering about their history though. Their personal history and their history as a people, a country. History influences everything and everyone in a culture even if they don't know it. I asked one of my Chinese friends about the history of her country. She smiled and said she learned it for a test and then forgot it all (not unlike we do in the States). Unfortunately, she doesn't realize how much her thought process, her way of being, her belief system is all influenced by those who have gone before her to shape the culture that she lives in. How do I get them to understand this? Not that I'm trying to change the way that they think but if you don't know your history then it's like showing up 45 minutes late to your own life. You don't know the beginning. How can you make any sense out of your life? How do you avoid repeating the bad parts of the past if you don't know them? How can you know really why you do the things you do without knowing where you've been? So many questions but all in an effort to realize and appriciate our differences!

Hot Pot

This experience takes chop sticks skills to the new level. Hot Pot is a Chinese sort of fondue only they've had about 5000 more years to perfect it! (I'm well aware that this is my second post about food-- but In Chengdu there are more restaurants than there are people--okay, not really but everywhere you turn you smell the red pepper and the other spice that I still can't identify)

Our hosting professor took us to his favorite Hot Pot restaurant and invited two of his graduate students along. They were thrilled with the treat. When we sat down the server brought out the yingyang bowl of "broth". One side had red chili peppers floating in it and the other side was a yellow broth that had onions and a whole fish floating in it! The prof ordered a bunch of food and we waited watching the fish float around on "our" side of the bowl. They we gracious enough to give us bu ma la (no spicy) broth but the fish complete with the eyes was looking up at me was a little unnerving.

Around us families and groups of friends enjoyed laughing and pulling mysterious meats and veggies out of the big boiling pot with chopsticks. As our food arrived I thought of this as my graduation ceremony of learning how to use chopsticks! The prof dumped in the meat (slices of cow muscle, the cow's stomach, chopped up fish, and... I stopped watching after that) the veggies were a little foreign to me but much more comforting. There were about 6 orders of different mushrooms, lotus root(yum-- water chestnuts), green beans (still crunchy--Merf!!), lettuce stalk, sea weed, onions and much more.

So the trick was to go after what you wanted with your chopsticks but it could be kinda of nice for the undeceive people because you get whatever you can grab if you're a beginner. If your more advanced you might get part of what you want and be happy with the other things you pulled out as well. If you're advanced then you can laugh, talk, and pull out exactly what you want!

Once you pull it out you put it in a bowl of peanut oil and garlic to tame the spice! So you have to get pretty good at dunking with the chopsticks as well or you loose all of the flavor of the spice and are just eating peanut oil garlic covered lotus root! So it's tricky and complicated but overall I think I've graduated!!

We had pizza last night from Muts Nuts Pizza. You just pick it up and put it in your mouth! Maybe after 5000 years we'll be eating pizza with chopsticks or something else a lot more complicated!!

A possible problem!

"What is culture?" Half way through our discussion group last night Prof. Zhang asked the group this question. We had been talking about cultural differences for a good hour. The students went completely silent. It had not really occured to them to ask that question. Amy and I had talked about this question and decided to talk about different aspects of culture: family, community, food... instead of talking about the philisophical question of "culture".

However, I guess our Prof was not satisfied with just hearing about how much I value and love my family and friends. To me family and friends is a huge part of our culture! And the students really just wanted to hear about academics. We got the impression that this is a huge part of their culture in a different way then it is in the States! So we started talking about college. Amy talked about the Georgia Bulldogs. And I talked about student government!! But they wanted to know: what was our major in undergrad? How did we decide that? How did we decided to go into public health? Who is our tutor? How much money will we make? What job will we get? Do we LIKE it? "Of course I like it, why else would I spend 2 years getting a masters?" I later found out the latter question was loaded .

They don't really choose their major! Okay, this is 2007... I've heard rumors that they had/have a "different" government... but common!!

High school students take a test at the end of their education. This test determines their life! What ever score they get they may have a few options for majors and colleges but in general it is basically chosen for them based on their score and what is needed for the government and what their fathers may want!! I would have been a basket weaver...no, the person that hands the straw to the basket weaver based on my SAT scores!!!

One of the graduate students stopped me on the way out and said, "Tell me again why you want to be in public health!" I had explained earlier that I had visited Honduras in college and realized that I could help more people working in preventive medicine and not being a doctor, which I had previously wanted to do. So I explained it to her again not realizing how shocked she was. How could I have given up on medicine if I had the chance to go to med school? How could I not really care about salary (don't worry g-ma I will get a job to pay off my loans)? She just couldn't believe that I really wanted to be in public health! Few students actually want to go into Public Health here as a field. It is a step down from clinical professions and other sciences. It is for students who don't get high enough scores!

PROBLEM!!

You can't force these students to care, to serve, to put forth effort, or to find purpose just like you can't force anyone to love! Not to insult your intelligence, but this can't be good for the public health of this country!

I am sad but not discouraged! Maybe we can be a little part of helping them love public health!

Photographs I Wish I Could Take

This is the first installment of "Photographs I Wish I Could Take"

1. Walking down by the river the men (mostly older) sit around benches, tables or any flat surface they can find and play poker all day long. If they are not playing they are actively involved non the less and are even more actively smoking. But it is an insiders only club. Unlike most Chinese they are completely uninterested and unaware of me, the foreigner. I walk by and wish I could capture the mood and the image but it seems too private, too personal, too intrusive even though they are doing it completely in open, public space.
2. I sit by the pond in the mornings to read and write. It is a very comforting familiar every morning. All of the old women will sit on a bench and tell the lasted gossip and the old men sit on the bench on the other side (three to a bench) and sit quietly enjoying each other's company! There are benches around the pond and bamboo plants fill in around the benches. But through the bamboo I can see a few older people doing tichi or kongfu for their excersise! This morning a older gentlemen was fasinating to me with his sword and Chinese fan doing his kongfu rutine. He was showing off for his granddaughter who was adoring him. I was listening to a soundtrack and he seemed to be listening to it too because all of the moves were sincronized, beautiful, and purposeful! It was a pleasant surprise that early in the morning.
   

BTW... I can not see the comments on the blog so please just send your comments to jnllwright@yahoo.com. They are comforting and help me stay close to my friends and family. Do not assume that because I'm in another country that I've dropped off the face of the world or that I do not have time. I love to hear from you!

Day eleven-- I learned that cafe Americanos at Starbucks are worth $2.50!

Highlight (and maybe the most exciting part) of the trip so far: Amy Reagin, my counterpart in crime here!, ate a "100 year old egg". Yes, it was absolutely impressive. I watched in slow motion as she grabed the slimmy yellow egg with her chopsticks. All six of our Chinese hosts were watching, which doesn't help when you are at the mercy of two tiny sticks to grab something slimmy. Finally she got a piece into her bowl. And trying not to think about the experience she was just about to have I watched as she put it in her mouth. Words hardly describe the look on her face, but all of the following were clearly, if for just a few moments, all displayed on her face:

Petrified... distraught... dismayed.... concerned... disturbed...

In the next moment she did and very extrodinary ritual that not until later did I fully understand. She ducked her head behind my chair very quickly and then popped back up with a nervous smile on her face. I thought she had been leaning over to tell me about the experience but later I found out how unfortunate it would have been if she had gotten close to my ear. The egg apparently was not too happy about being swallowed and neither was her body too happy about her swallowing it. But alas, her will conquered and the egg stayed down!! A story I gladly with let her boast about!! Impressinve is the meat she tried that night - but the egg surpasses all!

This blog was intended to share with those who are interested in our work here in Chengdu, China. I think this is a less presumptuous way of letting people know what's going on half way around the world then mass e-mailing. This should not be considered a complete picture in anyway of all of China or even all of the city of Chengdu for that matter. I am one person living one life in a huge city of over 9 million (all of which I think have tried to run me over in a car, a motorcycle, or bicyle...hehe). Please take what I write as just that... one person's perspective of what's going on. In general people tend to see what they want to see but I hope to have my eyes open to what is around me and give an accurate account of what I experience and see. Please be generous and forgiving with my punctuation and grammer. I may start to slip into Chinglish (the only excuse I have for the lack of learning all those grammer things in 7th grade... sorry Jo and g-ma!).

We are at Starbucks this afternoon planning our workshop for tonight, which is more of a discussion group with undergraduate students who are interested in practicing English and learning about American culture. Resolved: Will learn more about there culture too. Will ask good questions even though we should generally stick to topics of animals and the weather.

Explaination of the name of my blog and intial thoughts on my experience will come later.