October 17, 2009

FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!!!!
It was 0800 Wednesday morning and the alarm was blaring in the corridors, Ayis scrambled about gathering their 3 little charges depositing them into a single crib and then pushing those cribs toward the door ways, they quickly made their way to the stair wells where an amazing spectacle took shape, the Ayis began to form a long chain down the 12 flights of stairs and an incredible baby brigade began, housekeepers passing babies into the stairwell and babies being received from hand to hand until they reached the end of the chain and were delivered into the hands of a cook, a housekeeper, a laundry lady , or even the security guards, who I am sure have never carried a little baby in their lives where reaching to grab two at a time and rush them to Dr. Zhia who was waiting to examine each one. In less than 10 minutes it was all over- the first fire drill for MBHOH! And the first fire drill any of our Chinese friends had ever heard of!!!
A little over a month ago as I did a walkthrough of our building with my boss, Rob Hill, he looked at me grinned and said, “I want you to have fire alarms and smoke detectors installed, then I want you to work out and execute a plan for evacuating the building in the event of an emergency- no one here has ever seen anything like this done so have fun.” I thought wow; he wants me to do what without speaking really good Chinese?!?! At that moment I was very grateful for all those Life Safety and disaster management meetings I attended at Beaufort Memorial, otherwise I would have not had a hint of where to begin or of any of the possible solutions for getting 60 babies off of 6 floors and down 12 flights of stairs FAST. So this week our boss flew in to observe. I think he was actually very excited to try out the fire hoses- yes we opened them up and actually ran them. We also gave the Ayis fire extinguisher lessons, lighting real fires and putting them out- they had a delightful time though I do think that aspect of the drill was more to the liking of the guards than carrying babies, they relit them multiple times as none of them had ever played with an extinguisher before and found it to be a thrilling opportunity. It did turn out to be a fun learning experience for all. I actually had the opportunity to observe and take notes from my 5th floor vantage point as we had a couple babies which fell in the “Risk outweighs the Benefit” category so I monitored them and the happenings below in order that all the Ayis might participate. It was a wonderful opportunity and has provided a lot of learning for all involved.
There are a couple little things that I just want to share almost as passing thoughts so if this rambles a little bear with me- I am simply trying to give you a glimpse and share with you some of my moments… Such as remember those dreams that every nurse has about beeping alarms- they are no longer my dreams, they are reality, I wake up and there really are beeping things that I need to check on or knocks on my door in the night calling me out of my sleep (not really often which I am grateful for, the ayis are pretty protective of my sleep time- they say if I do not sleep good I will get tired and leave them). I realized suddenly what an incredible respect I have for those nurses who lived in hospitals where they were going to school- that is about as close a comparison as you will find to this situation. Other things like the question I got about the “Universal Moments” photos on Snapfish, I can just see you all now rushing to find them and figure out what I am talking about… It is really one of those “silly” moment things which I will explain as I am sure you will see more of them in the future. A couple years ago plans were put in motion for a Universal Studios in Beijing- those plans have not yet come to fruition though you can go online and see the various sites and discussions regarding the matter, that aside when the talk began these large white coffee mugs were made by someone involved. However when there was no theme park hundreds and I do mean hundreds of them were donated to Hope. They are the standard of every kitchen, every water jug, and the standard cup for everything. We were laughing about how friends thought we were drinking lots of coffee or tea when we were really drinking water because we always have one around. So we started discussing the fact that they were in so many moments of our lives and yet the place doesn’t exist so the idea was brought up and suggested that I should make a book called universal moments to capture all the places that I saw the mugs or places I found to put it- who knows after some time in China I may publish my “Universal Moments Coffee Table Book.” And when you come to visit I promise you the opportunity to drink from one of these famous mugs.
I have also received several questions about the weather. It is fall here, though there is no real change of color in the leaves- they tell me that one day I will wake up and everything will be brown and dead. There is now a very cool wind that blows steadily reminding me greatly of Winnie the Pooh and his “very blustery day.” In fact we are having more frequent power outages as the wind often blows down power lines in various areas.
Another question…”Are you taking days off?” the answer is Yes- just differently than ever before because I am still in my home which is here where I can still hear what is going on. Or another way of looking at it is like a mom will find ways to have quiet or down time, some days it works others not so much. Saturday and Sunday are what we consider real “down time” I do not do computer paperwork, or nursing stuff except to check my babies in the morning and evening to make sure there has been no drastic change in their status. We also take opportunity to relieve one another for time during the week to go out and about. I actually spent several hours Saturday afternoon wandering through the old town market, the art stalls with the painters and paper cutters all at work doing beautiful craftsmanship. I had a really good coffee latte from KFC and fantastic dumpling soup along with some fun samples of various foods from the street vendors. My favorite stop had to be the cross stitch shop! For those of you who know about how much I enjoy cross stitch you will know how difficult it was to show restraint as I was like a child in a candy shop…There were women sitting all around tables doing incredible work and they were thrilled to not only see my work but also to invite me to sit with them and do some stitching. I managed to walk out with only one kit to work on and a promise to return soon to spend time stitching and allow them to frame the next piece I finish. I know some of you are asking, “Can she read the patterns and colors?”- yes! They are all in English and Chinese characters and the DMC colors are the same as ours what a delightful find!
That leads me to answer another question, “How is your Chinese?” It is coming, always slower than I would like. You know how much I enjoy talking and good conversation, let’s just say right now my ayis are very understanding and ask simple questions that I can answer with one and two words put together. I do manage to take taxis on my own and get things that I really need which is good. I have a teacher who comes for a couple hours several afternoons a week and she is very patient- I am very convinced that extra languages should be learned well before you are over 30!
I will close for now as this letter is growing long and I need to check on lunch. It was my turn to cook so we are having a beef roast with potatoes and carrots slow cooked in my toaster oven. We are up to 5 nurses here and as I am the only one who has ever used an oven for cooking, I am always being asked to make something using the oven because it is different than anything they have ever cooked. I am hoping today’s turns out as well as some of the casseroles I have done.
With much love to each of you,
Mariah