Sunday and Monday

Hello everyone,

We had the week-end to ourselves so we explored a lot. We went to many places around the city and found the people to be very nice. If there have been any earthquakes or aftershocks we haven't felt them.

We traveled to the Sport Stadium and really didn't as many people there as were camped out after the second aftershock. We did see people setting up tents outside their 7 story apartment buildings, just in case they needed to run out in a hurry.

We had a broken gas line in Phoenix and a couple of summers ago and people lined up at the gas tanks "just in case" they ran out of gas. It created a lot of havoc at the pumps. It seems as if the people here might be taking tents away from the disaster zone in case something happens in Chengdu. The city is very stable.

We then went to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception which is very close to the stadium. A young man, a volunteer there and a teacher at the local Christian school was very helpful and had lots of information for us. My classmate Sheila brought baby clothes and money to help in the relief effort. We will travel there this coming Saturday and the young man, Soloman will help us get the clothes and money to the relief workers.

Soloman will be introducing me to the leader from Texas because they want me to help with the psychology and counseling efforts with the children at the disaster site. Of course, I said that yes I would help. I promise to take it easy and duck if I hear any rumblings.

The food can be extraordinarily hot but I think that many of you knew about this. :-) My poor American stomach is having to make some adjustments. People don't stare at us too bad and were very freindly and helpful to us on the streets. Sheila has a pocket electronic "translator" that they are very interested in.

Since I'm on the internet clock, please excuse my misspellings as my best freind Mary Lou will clean them up when she can get to them.

I got 2 chinese massages from students at the school and I must say that a therapuetic massage from the Chinese is not the same as one in America. Wow! I think they found places where I didn't know that I had places.

I stated clinic rotations in the Hospital this morning and learned more in three hours than I had in a long time. Not that I'm not learning at my school in America, but when you have a patient lying there and a Chinese doctor asking you questions, you better come up with an answer in a hurry. Dr. Li is very passionate and helpful and funny. He makes all of us laugh and he speaks to us Americans in English and to the advanced students in Chinese.

They do both Eastern and Western in the Hosptial and we had a quick tour this morning. It is a huge hospital with lots of in and out patients. We saw several eldery stroke victims this morning. They have a huge pharmacy for Chinese herbs, one for powders, one for decoctions and one for raw herbs. They have one small phramacy for Western medicines. The Chinese doctors here have to have a Western background and be able to read CT scans, x-rays, lab tests, etc. They have to be able to switch back and forth from Western and Eastern diagnosis and treatments. So do we.

The air is very sooty and black from the industrial pollution. I think that I'm the only person walking around with a surgical mask on. Everyone wonders why I have it on and look for the dust. They think the air is fine but masks are only for dust.

The traffic is very congested (but not as much as Beijing or Shanghi I'm told) and I really can't understand if they are any traffic rules. The only one that people seem to pay attention to are the Cross Walk signs. I keep thinking that I'm going to see a bad accident soon but everyone seems to avoid everyone else.

I'm on the acupuncture clinic rotations with Sheila and my other classmate (who doesn't want his name on this blog) for two weeks. Then they switch over to Respiration and I think I just stay on the 7th floor.

We got our lab coats this morning and had our Opening Ceremonies. There are 5 new interns. The 3 of us, one student from the Oreintal School in Oregon and a young chap from Australia who ust came over unannounced and showed up to help this morning. They took him because of all the cancelations that they had.

I can't "see" my blog when I'm done writing as it is blocked from my view. I can only access the editor and type. So, if anyone has written any questions, I have to wait for Mary Lou to e-mail them to me.

Miss all of you.

--Donna