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skittykittie · 7 years

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Kaiyuan to Jianshui

July 30, 2015 (written on the day)

My alarm went off at 7. I actually was able to make myself get up and make it down stairs for group breakfast... but it was only me, Jessica, and Sophie. Little by little, everyone else was getting too lazy to get up early to eat. Our hotel didn't provide breakfast, so the three of us got the task of finding a decent local place to find something to eat.

Luckily, Jessica was able to spot the entrance to a local farmer’s market not too far from our hotel. We walked across the street (through crazy traffic) through a small gap between the strip of stores and businesses. I couldn't tell from the outside, but the entrance led into a huge farmer's market. They had set up all behind the strip of buildings. There was plenty of fresh and hot food as well as vegetable and meat stands.

These were definitely where the locals came. We passed by a lot of people on bikes with baskets of their fruits they had picked. There were families that were shopping for the day's ingredients. We walked around a bit until Sophie found a rice noodle shop she liked. She ordered from there, and Jessica and I got some steamed buns for ourselves and the rest of the group. It was so cheap! Only 1 yuan (about 15 cents) for one bun, and they were big buns!

When we got back, it was time for our morning routine of putting all of our stuff into Dr. D's room, transferring all of our equipment for the work day downstairs, and checking out of our rooms.

It was a nice morning so I decided to walked the short distance to the hospital with FangQi, Jess, Zhangrui, Landy, and Sophie. The streets were much more alive than the evening previous. I'm starting to get the impression that these smaller Chinese towns really like the "the early bird catches the worm" saying.

Once at the hospital, we were warmly met and welcomed by the hospital staff, most of which we had met the night before. At the entrance of the building was an rolling banner of LED lights that read, "Kaiyuan welcomes the China California Heart Watch!" Wow. These people really knew how to impress.

The meeting with the head director and co was equally as impressive. We were brought to a large conference room with a huge table that was able to accommodate our whole team of 10 and their staff, who I didn't count. We were served tea in glasses, instead of plastic cups. They also introduced themselves one by one, making us do the same. There was applause after every person was introduced. Their head director spoke before we started our proposal and conditions for work, and it seemed as if he had memorized and pre-rehearsed it. Maybe he was just very articulate? I'm not sure, but it was pretty professional. Lastly, at the end, they had the typical photo taking with Dr. D and the directors, but they had them take it in front of another room where there was already big screen with a fancy background set up.

Kaiyuan really, really, knew how to welcome us.

We separated into our clinic and training groups. Clinic was set up on the pediatrics and OB/GYN floor. I don't actually remember how many patients we saw that day. Maybe 7 or 8? Half of our patients were infants, less than a few months old, making our job fairly simple. A lot of them didn't have much of a problem, some were just follow ups.

There was one family in particular that stood out to me that day. It was an 11 year old girl who came in with her parents. I could tell by her father's extremely dark skin and over worked hands and her mother's traditional outfit, that she was from a very poor family. As we interviewed them, Sophie and I realized they didn't speak Mandarin well. We had to get one of the other doctors to interpret for us. They had traveled hours from their small village to come into town to have her examined. They were also of an ethnic minority group, which explained why they spoke a different dialect of Chinese.

The reason this girl really stood out to me was because they were so extremely poor (well, most of our patients are) and she was very sick. We found several heart issues on her that were operable. With the funds and resources ChinaCal has, we were able to help arrange to send them to Kunming and accommodate her for surgery. They were worried because they had never been to Kunming and would most likely get lost, they were also worried about having to take time off work, but Shanshan and the other doctors helped work out a plan for them to get her the help she needed.

It is cases like this that make me remember why we are here and my motivation for coming in the first place. She is a prime example of what good all the donations went to. Many of the kids we see don't usually have anything direly serious wrong with them. Our purpose is to find and help the unfortunate few that do. I was extremely happy to see them get what they needed for their little girl. Without this organization, I don't think she would have ever even been seen for her issues.

Sophie and I finished well before 12 pm (our designated lunch hour), so we opted to go get a tour of the maternity ward. Similar to the NICU in Mile, we had to dress up in the whole gown attire. Unfortunately, this woman we toured with didn't realize I didn't speak Mandarin well. Sophie and I also didn't get a chance to really tell her, either, because she kept talking... and talking... But it was kind of cool to at least walk around. The ward was empty (thank Jesus), so there wasn't really anything for us to see besides the rooms and a little bit of equipment.

We hung out a bit longer, finding things to watch in the ultrasound room and the hallway. Pretty soon we went to lunch. Lunch was almost exactly like the day before, welcoming staff, lots of pre prepared food, and toasting. Most of us chose not to drink wine this time, though, including myself. My redness gets embarrassing.

When we got back, we had only one or two more patients to do an ultrasound examination on. The last child was one of those that was so afraid of the doctor's, he'd cry just by entering the room. He was really cute though, a little 2 year old boy. He had been so fussy before lunch that we told the family to go out, get him really tired, and come back after lunch. They came back and he was less fussy, his dad was carrying a large toy truck that was still new in the box. It was a cute attempt to try to calm him down, but he didn't care for it once we got him in the examination room. Poor kid.

I actually had to help with this one, he was so bad. He kind of reminded me of how I used to be with needles. We finally were able to get him to lay still and stop crying by playing a few episodes of Tom and Jerry that Jessica had on her iPad. It was like magic. He was mesmerized by the cartoon. His mom was also there next to him narrating the whole thing to him. It was adorable.

Once we were finished, we packed up and then... nothing. It was only about 2 when we finished. The training team had finished, too. We had 2 hours to kill while waiting for our car that would bring us to the next city at 4. I spent my time working on blogs out on this nice patio they had and watching the baby yoga and swim session.

What? Baby yoga swimming?! What's that you ask?

Probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen. It's an out patient service where parents bring in their babies to be given a thorough bath and let them swim around. Babies obviously can't swim, so what they do is put a round floaty right under their chin and around their necks. Then, the nurses have a huge sink of water, and let the babies float in there. It's seriously the funniest and cutest thing I had seen all trip. The babies are literally just floating heads. A lot of them really enjoyed it, they were kicking and swimming around, one even fell asleep. After their designated swimming time (maybe 15 or 20 minutes) the nurses would come over and give them a good washing. The entire team was so fascinated by this whole procedure. We stood at the viewing window taking pictures, video, and coo-ing over how funny they all looked.

Car came right on schedule at 4 pm to pick us up at the entrance of the hospital. I was confused at first because on the outside, it was just an ambulance van. But then the door slid open and I saw that it had been remodeled on the inside. There were enough seats for all of us, plus two extra! We were amazing able to fit every person and every one in that one van. It was also the most comfortable ride thus far. We each had individual seats, AC, cushioned with SEATBELTS (something that is not often seen in public transportation, let alone used at all in China).

This ride, I was less tired than before. I was actually awake for half of it, but that also could have been because the road was extremely bumpy at times. The road was very wound around the mountains, as well, causing me to get constantly bumped against the side of the van. Nonetheless, I was awake and able to watch the scenery. It was beautiful. We were finally IN the mountains, not just driving through them or by them. There were several turns where one wrong slip of the tire would mean us tumbling down a cliff.

We arrived at our next city Jianshui, our 5th city of the week, and it was only Thursday. We weren't greeted with a parade like Kaiyuan, but the hotel was extremely nice, the nicest so far. We had a western toilet (a valued commodity for Donna and I), a shower that was closed in (most showers just pour out onto the ground and everything gets all wet), a coffee table and a couch, breakfast was included in our stay... the only bad part was the wifi. It was terrible. I had to go out into the lobby to actually be able to use it at all.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some. We were staying there over the weekend, so I was extremely happy about that.

Around 7:30 we went out for dinner. We had to walk a bit to find a Muslim restaurant for Zhangrui's sake, but I'm so glad we did. We ended up at a place that had HOT POT. Even though it was the middle of summer, it was SO GOOD to have some real hot pot. I ate to the fullest I've felt all trip. I can't describe to you how amazing that place was. A group of people actually went back the next day for dinner again haha.

When we got back, our stomachs stuffed, Donna decided it was time to do laundry... by hand. She had brought soap to wash some clothes in the sink. Everyone in our group did it that way, too. My dad had told me to find a place with laundry service, but honestly, I couldn't find anything that said they had laundry service. The only place that had was my 5 star hotel in Kunming, and they charged, like, $2 per SOCK. Shirts and pants were even more.

Nope. I was going with Donna's plan.

We were going to be there over the weekend, so we'd have plenty of time to make sure our clothes dried. They had plenty of rails and a laundry wire where we both hung our clothes to dry. I also felt very safe and clean at this hotel, so I washed everything I could. It surprisingly did a pretty good job. Some of the water I washed in actually turned dark because of the dirt I was getting out.

After I finished that and showered, we got ready for bed and our last work day before our first "free" day!

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skittykittie · 7 years

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Mile to Kaiyuan

July 29, 2015 (written actually on this day)

Oh my gosh, my days are already starting to blur together. I began writing about today, but realized I was actually recounting YESTERDAY morning instead of today. (I even used the same words to describe it!)

Anyway~ This morning I woke up at 7:30, not feeling like going out to find something to eat. I had the sweets I had bought at the bakery from the night before so I filled myself with dantat and the sweet rolls with pork in the center. I know, so nutritious, right? I'm really not that into breakfast.

After finishing my snacks, Donna returned from breakfast and we packed our stuff. Like the day before, we put all of our things into Dr. D's room and checked out. We made our way to the hospital by about 8:15 am. As we drove through the city to the hospital, I was surprised that I didn't recognize where we were. I felt like I had seen a good portion of Mile when I came with Jason a few days before, but I guess Mile was larger than I had first thought.

When we got to the hospital, we were received by a couple of the staff on the first floor. We were taken up to a floor that was pretty empty. I'm not sure what the floor was supposed to be, but there was a large meeting room that suggested it was mostly used for more business than patient care. We were taken into this room for our meeting with the hospital staff. Though the arrangement of desks and chairs suggested that this room had not been used in a while (nor was it prepared for us, we had to arrange the tables and chairs ourselves prior to starting the meeting), and half of their staff came without white coats on, it still felt more "official" than the small cramped room in Luxi.

The meeting went similarly to the day before, Fangqi gave her proposal and the reason for our visit, they listened and asked a few questions, then the contract was signed. There was a lot of picture taking at this meeting. This seemed to be a bigger deal than Luxi.

Then it was time to get ourselves set up. Sophie and I got stuck in the hallway between the waiting room and the ultrasound room. It was alright, though, as long as it was away from the waiting room. We also had enough desk space to put our new toys, candy, and the triage equipment. Most of the patients we saw were babies, it was really fun yet challenging. Babies don't like it when you take their vitals. But the toys that Sophie and I had picked out proved to be fairly successful in distracting them! Good idea, Sophie.

A big difference between today's clinic and yesterday's was that the hospital staff was hovering over our shoulders. It was a bit annoying because I felt like we were being judged. They also didn't quite understand our system we had going and were sending us patients before we were ready. They were a big help with managing the sign-in list, though. They gave all the patients numbers and made a roster of the order of patients.

We got through most of our patients for the day before we were called in for lunch. It had been a busy morning, but it was nice to have a break. We didn't have to be back to see patients until about 1, and it was only early noon when we finished eating. One of the men that had greeted us that morning offered to take us around the NICU of the hospital. Most of us were extremely eager to see it, including myself.

Now, I had only been to two hospitals in China so far, but I had the impression they are less sanitary than American hospitals. However, the NICU was probably the cleanest place in the entire city. Donna even commented that it seemed more strict than the American NICUs (I've never been in one, so I can't agree or disagree). They didn't even let parents come in to see their child. Instead, they had cameras set up at each bed so parents could at least watch their child via video streaming. They dressed us up in pre-packaged and sanitized hospital gowns, put shoe covers on us (the shoe covers weren't even allowed to touch the ground in the entryway), we had to put our hair up and wear hair nets, face masks, and of course wash our hands up to our mid-forearm. All of these procedures were for the sake of reducing risk of giving the infants any other illnesses.

We were brought inside a large room with probably 20 small "baby cages." Many of them sadly were filled with infants. I have never seen so many newborns in my life. They were all so tiny and precious. Our tour guide was a nurse who worked in the NICU. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand what she said, so I just observed and asked Jessica questions when I could think of them.

We didn't spend a long time in the NICU since there wasn't much to see past that room. It was definitely cool to see, though. We exited back through the way we came, disposed of our protective gear, and headed back to the clinical site to see the remainder of our patients. In total we saw about 12 kids today. Many more of them gave me the impression of "village" people. I think it's because Mile is a bit more rural than the last place. Our last patient was a cute little boy, about 2 years old? He had a twin brother, too. They were so much fun. Sophie and I played with them once we finished triage.

Once he was taken into the ultra sound room, Sophie and I had a lot of spare time. Apparently our car to pick us up for the next place wasn't supposed to come for a few more hours. We spent our time in our corner talking about life. Well, mostly me answering her questions about college and life after high school. I'd like to think we bonded a lot during that time. I can tell she is a very driven kid, but still has a lot of years of experience to gain. I hope I can be a good example for her! Gosh, I'm getting old...

At 4:30, we packed up the ultrasound room and went downstairs. We were met by two cars, one regular sized one and one large van. I was ushered into the van with Dr. Li, Sophie, Landy, Fanqi, and Zhangrui. It was a bit squished, but somehow we were able to load all of our equipment and luggage that was at the hotel. We were headed to our next city called Kaiyuan. Despite being squished in the back of the van, I was able to sleep the whole way there. I don't even remember how long the drive was.

I woke up to the noise of the side door opening. Had we arrived? I opened my eyes, and all I saw was an aggressive looking Chinese man dressed in a military uniform staring at me, barking something that I didn't understand. I was confused because he was looking straight at me, but I had no idea why or what he was even saying.

All I was able to say was, "Huh..?" as I took out my earbud that was playing music. Thankfully, Dr. Li was sitting next to me and answered for me, "We're from Kunming." The others followed her example saying their respective cities. "Harbin." "Shanghai."

The guy glanced around our car and nodded, closed the door, and we were back on the road.

My mind took a moment to process what had just happened... we had gotten a car inspection. Wow. I guess they are pretty strict here in China. I'm glad I'm Chinese and he believed we were all natives. I wondered what happened to Donna's car. Did they stop them, too? Did she get interrogated? I was a bit afraid that would happen again in the future and I wouldn't be so lucky to get away with saying I'm a Chinese citizen.

I barely had time to try to go back to sleep because soon we arrived in the next city- Kaiyuan. Kaiyuan was beautiful. There was a beautiful view of the mountain sides when you looked down the street, and the city was fairly well kept up. We were in a busier part of the city, but I could tell it was overall more suburban than the previous two cities.

We checked into the hotel with a whole crew of hospital staff waiting to greet us! Wow. There were maybe 3 or 4 of them. They helped us unload the car and bring the luggage upstairs. Afterwards, they ushered us all to dinner at the hospital. That was good with me, I was starving.

We were loaded into a few cars and taken down the road to the Kaiyuan county hospital where we'd work in the morning. It was a pretty short distance, actually. I wish I could have gotten to see more of the city.

Anyway, we were led through the hospital cafeteria into the back where there were a number of private dining rooms. We entered into the largest one, where many more people were sitting, waiting for our arrival. They stood up and clapped to welcome us as we entered. There were 2 large round circular tables waiting for us with hot food and plates and bowls all set up for us. There were even a couple of waiters/cooks. Talk about a welcome party!

The hospital staff divided us all up, half of ChinaCal at one table, half at the other, and then did the same with their staff. I sat at the "foreigners" table with Jess, Dr. D, Donna, Fangqi, and Shanshan.

The food was delicious! It was the first not-muslim food I think I had eaten in awhile. We also had local wine to accompany the meal. And of course with wine came toasting and jingjiu*. I'm glad I had practiced this custom with Jason and his family in Mile. If not, I would have been so confused with what was happening. It was also slightly embarrassing because, like last time, I barely understood what people were saying when they toasted me.

It was still very nice, though. It created a lot of laughter and brought joy to our meal. I only had one glass of wine by the end of the night, but I could feel my face getting flushed as it usually does whenever I drink. It was slightly embarrassing, especially because one of the staff seemed to be taking a liking to my natural blush and kept toasting me to drink more. Donna told me after dinner she thought he was trying to hit on me.

...Awkward.

Anyway. After we finished dinner, the main hospitality guy took us around the outpatient ward on a little tour. He was very proud of this building because it was their newest addition to their hospital. It was pretty nice, though to me it kind of felt like a mall. It was very open in the center with escalators going all up and down the center.

We were able to go in to see their ultrasound equipment, too. That was more interesting for Donna than the rest of us, but we were able to get a glimpse into the patient care rooms.

After the tour, half of us opted to walk the short distance back to the hotel with our guide. I was one of them. I wanted to enjoy the cool evening mountain air. I was able to slightly keep up with the Chinese conversation, but half the time talked with Sophie about other random things. She told me that one of the staff members she sat with at dinner had invited her to see the maternity ward, and if there was a child birth, she could observe. She had asked Dr. D for permission to go after lunch, and he said yes. He also suggested to her I go with her... so... I guess I was going to the maternity ward tomorrow. I wasn't too thrilled at the idea of watching a childbirth and secretly hoped it would be empty when we went in.

We got back to the hotel and wrapped up for the day. We had work to do in the morning!

*Jingjiu: It is a Chinese tradition called jingjiu. It is when people take turns offering drinks to and for certain reasons, usually to one individual at a time.

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