July 31, 2009

Dear Ones,
Today has been fairly quiet. We were in bed early last night and slept well till around midnight when we had a wonderful storm—lots of thunder, lightning and rain (reminding us of home) and then the power went out. It had already been quite hot but without the oscillating fans it became stifling. We just laid there and prayed that the power wouldn’t be out all day (as has happened in the past) and around 6:30am the power came back on—YEAH!
We had a nice morning chat with Joyce…clarifying expectations and getting a list of assignments for our time in Luoyang. We met with Marsha later in the day and we are now booked to fly to Luoyang on Monday (Aug. 3rd). We are very excited as that means we will be able to attend Sunday services with the group here before we go inland. Mariah, spent time reading through policy and procedure manuals for the palliative units and found out she will have her “apartment/room” on the 5th floor of Maria’s Big House. There was also some time for resting which is what we were told to do so that we can well adjust ourselves to the time difference and get ready for the busy days ahead. It appears at this time that e-mail communication is going to be very sporadic as there is none at the unit and the closest places to connect are across town so pray that the unit’s internet will soon be up and running. Another one of our fun stops today was by the Nemo Room where little Janessa is. Janessa’s visa appointment has been set for August 5th.
This evening we went with Rose, Mona, and Anna to dinner down the street. It was so good to have REAL Chinese food again. Rose is one of the Filipino girls that have been here for a couple years so it was good to catch up with her happenings. Mona is a Filipino nurse who has been here about 2 years , and Anna is an attorney from Australia who is here to work in the kindergarten for a few weeks before heading into town to do research for her thesis paper. It is fun to see many of the little ones we met on our last trip who are now so “grown up”. Talking with Mona it sounds like there are 3-4 little ones in Luoyang that we worked with on our last trip that are still living in the unit—we can’t wait to see them.
Our Mandarin skills definitely need some improvement…we spent some time today copying medical phrases and practicing our vocabulary. Mom, if you haven’t already ordered a phrase book for the house, try to get the Lonely Planet English to Chinese dictionary/phrase book instead of the Rough Guide one. I’m not really happy with the Rough Guide phrase book we brought and I really liked the Lonely Planet version that I gave to the Filipino nurses last time we came…I think it will be more helpful in communicating everyday things with the Ayi.
Tonight we should either sleep much better or freeze—they installed air conditioning units in the rooms today. They’re really nice but we haven’t quite figured out the proper settings…it’s all in Chinese you know.
We will try and write again before heading out to Luoyang on Monday but if that doesn’t happen, know that you are thought of often and loved greatly.
Lots of Love, Mariah & Melissa