Guanxi

Sunny and I. Sunny dressed up for

a traditional American Wedding for the cultural component of one of our classes

Leading games today. Working as camp counselor and youth teacher taught me that in any competitive activity, team names are very important. So today I was prepared for usual competitive lineup of names like “the Annihilators,” “Team Number One,” “Team Kick-ass,” etc.) . The class quiets down and team one shouts their name. “Moon!” I turn, “Moon?” I clarify. “Team Moon” Team 5 objects, “That was going to be ours.” I’m baffled. “Okay, team 5 you guys can think of a new name. Team 2, what do you have?” “Happy.” “Happy? Just Happy?” I get eager nods. After taking each team name, we have the final intimidating lineup of teams Moon, Sky, Dream, Stars, Happy, and Sun. What? This is not competitive material. This is the ’97 line of GAP fragrances.

And then I realize that imagery and emotion is more embedded in Chinese language than in English. It was strange to encounter the more poetic speak that some of these students use, but I've really started to enjoy it. Especially the conversations that I have with the girls in the dorms late at night. Its a community of authenticity and openness. I have felt so loved and the students here are so warmhearted, and it wasn’t until the last few days that I realized that sarcasm was almost entirely absent here. Still working on this.

Not to say its all like that. There's also the stereotypical "relationship" or guanxi experience through the lens of the business world, where Chinese businessmen network through karaoke bars and drink . .a lot. But students here take seriously the role of host, and are so generous. These eager expressions of love to a stranger, the laowai, are humbling, and a reminder to me to give as i have been given.

Photo per request of my little friend at Tiananmen Square

Surviving Swine '09

One of my favorite parts of China so far has been living off less than a dollar a day buying from local food carts. I was in heaven for the first week. It turns out that one of my cheap meals, however, was accompanied by cheap Salmonellae. So after getting really sick, I had to follow TIP policy requires any associated students or faculty with a fever to check in at the hospital. And so the adventure begins.

We (me, and Sky, an amazing friend and translator) approach Beijing Haitain hospital, a pepto bismol pink (how appropriate for the day). We spend 3 hours at Haitan hospital, and 6 hours of questioning, testing, waiting in the hall. Blood tests, throat swabs, temperature monitoring for 10 hours. It was the most inefficient, inconvenient and exhausting procedure, but it was really interesting to see how the hospital was run.

I found out there are many things I love about Beijing Haitain hospital. Like doctors wearing flip flops. The best part, though, was our fourth interview conducted by two petite men clad in Tyvek bunny suits who after questioning us get sprayed down with what looks like the weed sprayer my dad used to use on the front lawn. In fact, I think that made it all worth it.

As always, Sky brightens the day :)

lindy.

Meet Lindy, a student and volunteer at the Haitan church. Lindy’s family wanted her to go into finance, so she attended school at the local university and engaged in the rigorous schedule common for most University students who want to get ahead and distinguish themselves from the pack. All students I talked with who are currently enrolled in Universities have no concept of free time during the week. Hours not spent in school are spent in the library. Lindy’s dream right now is to go to Bible school. Against her parent’s wishes, she pulled out of the finance program to pursue what she feels called to do. The lack of employment opportunities, however, is a reality, and many who graduate with degrees have difficulty securing a job.

Lindy describes the competition here- and its pretty hard for me to grasp. The students experience a lot of pressure to perform well and at the top of their class, because you have to stand out if you want to get anywhere. Part of the enthusiasm toward westerners is the hope that these connections will open doors and I think it’s a good representation of China’s interest in networking and strengthening its global presence. The fixation on academic performance partly accounts for China's high suicide rate in young adults. Lindy, however, has a strong support system in her church, and although she is challenged in finding a job right now, she's secure in what she is doing.

Beijing will forever have a place in my heart . . .and lungs.

I came with no preconceived image of what such a populated country would look like. So the amount of people here is a shock. Imagine rush hour at 5, like in the states. Now imagine rush hour that drags until 11 o’clock at night. This is Beijing. The subways were packed at 7:30 on our way to Silk street, and crammed on our way back at 11:30 PM. Shopping? Imagine Costco on a Sunday. On crack. Every day.  Welcome to China.

The Male Midriff: a trend coming soon to the US.

English at T.I.P

Visit to Great Wall our first Saturday. On arrival, Richard Nixon said, "I think you would have

to conclude that this is a great wall." Brilliant Marketing.

"China has at length come to the hour of her destiny. . .The contempt for foreigners is a thing of the past. . .Even in remote places we have ound the new spirit- its evidence, strangely enough, the almost universal desire to learn English. . .as knowledge of English is held to be the way to advancement, the key to a knowledge of science and art, the philosophy and policy, of the West."

- W.Y Fullerton

We will be working on Beijing University campus, with T.I.P, or "Total Immersion Program." I pasted below a quick summary of the program and what it does:

The Program
The Total Immersion Program (TIP) is an innovative, dynamic immersion program that first began in 2005. TIP. empowers Chinese students and shatters the traditional barriers that hinder their ability to learn English. The focus of the program is to improve oral English, with minimal to no emphasis on grammar. Students are put into classes of about 20-30, separated by levels. The students are very dedicated, and are diligent throughout their 15 hour days. The students stay in dorms, up to four in a room and eat at the cafeteria. The program is 2.5 weeks long, and there is a strict English-only policy. While TIP is in session, students must stay on campus 24-7, so as not to break their English-only environment.

The Students
Students come from all over the country for various reasons, ranging in age from 11-77 years old. Our student population is made up mainly of Chinese English teachers. But we have in the past prepared many graduating students to go abroad and vocational students in impoverished regions seeking a better future. Our training program now also includes populations of Chinese pastors, seminarians, engineers and disabled people. Some students we train for a fee, and some for free, but all revenue, if any, are finally steered towards training teachers from Western and impoverished areas. Applicants do not need to worry about the teaching assignment for we always prepare them adequately to do the task. But if any individual has strong reservations about teaching a particular category of students, let us know in advance and it is most likely that we can make some re-arrangement.

my whine about Swine. . .

Quarantine. According to Webster, is from the Old French quarante or forty, the number of days that ships were detained offshore when suspected to hold contagious disease. Its been the word of the week since being notified that our group was expected to do a week-long “self-monitoring quarantine” until it could be assured that no one traveling with us has H1N1. Considering thats just enough time for your body to just start feeling the hit of jetlag, Chinese tap water, and the apocalyptic haze that greets you in Beijing, its going to be interesting see how people's bodies adjust.

To be fair, we can’t blame them when just three days ago an Oregonian traveling in a student group tested positive for swine flu. The only thing worse than getting the swine flu and ruining one vacation is getting the swine flu ruining 65.

Other instructions include to "avoid coughing," to "report any coughs" that occur while in the airplane and to “stay 3 rows distance” from the person coughing. So in essence. . .cover your mouth like you've got SARS.

So relax.

Take a deep breath. . .

. . .and hope that it lasts fourteen hour ride.

motivation.

An excerpt from Our Culture, What's left of it: The Mandarins and the Masses.

"I chose the disagreeable neighborhood in which I practiced because medically speaking, the poor are more interesting, at least to me, than the rich: their pathology is more florid, their need for attention greater. Their dilemmas , if cruder, seem to me more compelling, nearer to the fundamentals of human existence. No doubt I also felt my services would be more valuable there: in other words, that I had some kind of duty to perform. “

I had the shock the other day of realizing that working in a hospital unit will involve a limitless chronic problems that are usually related to high blood pressure, obesity, and poor lifestyle choices. Not quite the on-the-edge medical career I'd imagined. In fact, its been uphill the last few months staying motivated in nursing school because of the amount of protocol and machinery education that feels so irrelevant. But less than a year to go, right?

For the Reading

Tracy Kidder's story on Paul Farmer grabbed my interest and got me hooked on anthropology in reference to poverty and disease. Some other books that address health and human rights in an interesting way. . .

Mountains Beyond Mountains, Tracy Kidder

Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and The New War on the Poor, Paul Farmer

Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, Paul Farmer

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, Paul Collier

Where there is no Doctor: A Village Healthcare Handbook, by David Werner
(this one deals with health on the field with limited medical resources, a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants guide.)

Herbal Medicine in GC

To what level does herbal medicine play in the healthcare of Guadalupe Carney? Throughout the surveying, one name, Maria Suela Mejilla, came up repeatedly. Maria, one of the last traditional healers in the village, chronicles information passed down from respected healers and runs her own business making herbal medicine in the form of capsules, tonics, elixirs, and tinctures. I decided to pay a visit.

A half hour later I arrive at her hut, an outlier in the 450-family
community of Guadalupe Carney. Her distance affords her an expansive backyard that quickly turns into jungle. Herbs, weeds, vines, Maria strolls and plucks up plants with the same familiarity I shop in the produce section of Fred Meyers. Quebra pedra, Absinthe, hoja de aire. . . For a moment I’m lost in the luxury of a backyard pharmacy.(pictured to the left, Hoja de Aire, ground and made into a paste as a chest rub for asthma.)

Beyond making medicine, Maria teaches classes on practical health topics. One of the many resources she uses in her work is Where there is no Doctor the ultimate survival medical guide covering everything from delivering a baby in the middle of nowhere, to flow charts determining the cause of diarrhea.

The surprising part? “Not many people use this kind of traditional medicine anymore,” Maria shrugs. “Chemical medications are cheaper because of socialized medicine. People find that chemical meds bring quicker recovery, and we find that less and less of the village come to a traditional healer for treatment.” It seems that even the removed community of GC is not immune to the instant-gratification complex that characterizes this age.

At first it seemed counterintuitive that a village nestled in nature can't afford natural medicine, but then it makes sense, because in a way, the "natural" lifestyle in Portland is more expensive. In the same city bottled water became this symbol of healthy hyperindividualism, an "ipod for your kidneys", herbalized medicine had grown madly in popularity, everywhere in the Northwest community. And 38% of American adults use complementary and alternative medicine, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, vitamin therapy, and biofeedback. Irony that herbals fall low on the priority list for GC? Maybe. . .

In the Garden

A few plants common to the region, and their uses:

Quebrapiedra or “stone-breaker”

Used primarily to treat kidney stones, or renal calculi. Villagers use this superfood by steeping the leaves and making a tea of it.

Ajejo or absinthe wormwood

Used in herbal medicine to treats fevers, cramps, stomachache and

also used to expel parasitic worms (they use for malaria). Also serves as an antispasmotic and antiseptic. The oil is used to improve circulation. Best known in its liquor form by the same name.

Noni: A super-antioxidant that boosts immunity and energy levels, fights high cholesterol and diseases like cancer and gastritis. Used to make juices, tinctures, and tonics. (to the right; immature noni fruit)

Meet the Missionaries

The sewing school, a micro-enterprise started by Diane Karper. Diane works with the ladies in the village to develop their skills into marketable products which are sold in a local co-op.

One of the highlights of this trip was meeting Scott and Diane Karper ( listen to a segment about their work on NPR) , missionaries who've dedicated their lives to working with the people of Guadalupe Carney teaching them animal healthcare and earning income. I was really impressed with Diane's emphasis on implementing sustainable change. Scott, by educating farmers on animal care, helped turn the village's struggling population of sickly cows to a healthy 1400 and a thriving milk and cheese industry thats been a primary source of income to Guadalupe Carney. Diane works with the village women developing crafts which they then sell to earn money for food and other necessities.