Visit to Hong Kong / last days in Changsha

Hello everyone!  It is Wednesday over here and I leave Changsha and the Butterflies on Saturday morning - bound for the mountains and Midwifery with Altitude.  So I'm catching up before I go as there won't be many computers where I'm going, for a while.  

I believe your weather is improving - hooray for you.  It's better here too, although we have just had 5 days of torrential rain - but on the whole it is better.  The humidity is something else but even that is better some days than others.  I believe up at 4,500 metres it will be quite chilly so back to warmer clothes.

So - update on Butterfly.  The latest moving date is 10th June.  This may happen.  It all looks ready - except for one floor to be laid most of the installations are complete, or enough for us to move, anyway.  Not while I'm there though!  Two local volunteers from the art college have been filling in the time painting pictures on the walls and they are so great, so they'll be ready!

Our Butterflies have changed a little since my last blog.  Our 'bruiser' Paul has gone to Holland with his adoptive parents - I hope he will be OK; he really didn't understand what was happening and his new parents say he is not the boy portrayed by the comments in his Album - but he was chief man at Butterfly so it will take him a while to get used to his new surroundings.  Lots of tears when he left!!  I'm sure he will bounce back soon.  Little Emmanuel sadly didn't make it through his operation and subsequent problems. We all really expected him to do well so that was a sad loss.  The two new babies mentioned in my last blog are still with us - one is very poorly with brain damage and we are just keeping him as comfortable as we can, but he not really conscious and hasn't been for a while.  It will be merciful when he goes.  The other little girl has amazed us - she has very little working brain as shown by scans, and really is not 'with us' - but she came to us crying all the time, not eating and not maintaining her temperature.  Now she doesn't cry, seems to know we are around, will feed from a bottle and is winning hearts so gets lots of cuddles!  The little boy, Luke, who was my first 'new baby' has won everyone's hearts and our cook, Daphne, can be found often just gazing at him in his cot, or in the playroom, and will get a cuddle whenever she can.  Now he has filled out and grown a little we can tell he has Down's syndrome, so he is very loveable!  He doesn't appear to have any of the major problems associated with Down's, fingers crossed.  Hopefully he will be adopted sometime in the not too distant future.  So, the net result of all that is that we have 2 empty beds but the Welfare Institute/orphanage hospital hasn't got anyone they want to send to us at the moment - we are standing by.

In Changsha not a lot to report.  I went to the Botanical Gardens today - my last day off and I thought I should see something else!  The azaleas are out around the flats here so I thought the National Azalea Garden at the Botanical Gardens would be worth a visit.  The gardens were lovely, loads of trees so fairly cool and would have been peaceful if there hadn't been firecrackers let off from surrounding areas the whole 1.5 hours I was there!  It took me an hour to find the Azalea Garden as it is strangely signed.  You go in the entrance and the ticket collector doesn't know where it is or, even, where he is on the map they give you - (there are 3 entrances and I didn't know which one I was at).  You walk for 20 plus minutes before seeing a sign - which points back the way you have come.  So back down again but, at the 3 way road junction, which way?  I had taken a photo of the sign with the Chinese lettering on it but no-one, including garden rangers, knew where the Garden was.  So, after a wrong guess - which was a pretty part of the garden - I went on walking.  I dived in, to look at a sculpture, to find a sign, not visible initially, saying National Azalea Garden.  Hooray.  But no azaleas out - I guess the ones at the flat are rhododendrons...?  However, it was still an attractive visit.  The magnolias here are out too, huge flowers amongst lots of leaves, but none of the 34 species of magnolias at the gardens were out, strangely.

At the flat our new person from the last blog is great.  She's lovely, fun but sensible for her 21 years, and a good nurse to work with.  She is staying for 6 months.  When I leave on Saturday my bedroom will be taken by a Chinese girl who is coming to work in the office.  She has worked in America and her English is excellent so I hope she will enjoy sharing the flat with the others.

So, Hong Kong!  I had such a lovely few days there.  I was lucky in that the sun was out and the humidity down for the 2 days I had to look around.  I spent one day taking the ferry out to Lantau Island and visiting the Big Buddha and walking around.  Lots of wonderful views over other islands, the sea and the green mountains, with beautiful blue sky and fluffy clouds (which you can't see in Changsha due to the smog - I didn't realise how much I had missed the sky and clouds!). I then heading back by a different way.  The next day I took a Big Bus trip which went around Hong Kong Island, including Stanley, with a commentary, then over to Kowloon by Star ferry , then around Kowloon ending up in the evening down by the harbour to watch the laser show.  You could hop on and off the Big Bus so I saw the Botanical Gardens and Zoo there, Stanley Market and some other bits.  It was a full day but varied and interesting - mountains, beaches, amazing houses, Enormous buildings/skyscrapers, bustling streets or leafy quiet parts, big stores, markets - everything..  I can see why people want to live in Hong Kong - I really enjoyed it.  I was extremely lucky to be staying with my neighbour Sally's nephew, who lives there.  He has 2 apartments near each other and I had one all to myself.  The apartments are in an area outside and up from the bustle of Kowloon, surrounded by trees, with just one road up so really quiet and pleasant.  I had a balcony which looked over trees, and 3 beautifully peaceful nights!  Bliss!  (We still have the roadworks at the flats till early hours of the morning...!)

So, a brilliant 'holiday'.  It sort of demonstrated a civilised China.  No spitting/tobacco chewing, barging, queue jumping, and traffic stopped if you were walking across a pedestrian crossing.  Very nice!

Onwards.  Must start sorting out my things and packing up.  After 'up the mountain with Mary' it looks as though I may be able to get a travel permit for Tibet so I'm hoping that my plans may remain unchanged.  If not I will just go to Nepal earlier, I think, and do some walking, before I start my 6 day adventure there at the end of my 4 months away.  I'm looking forward to moving on, now.  Should have lots to tell you all in my next blog.  Heaven knows when that will be - could even be in a month's time when I'm back in Delhi, but hopefully sooner.  I'm not sure when I shall be able to pick up emails after this weekend - maybe not until 19th June, but possibly at odd times before.  

Enjoy the summer and Happy Jubilee.  I'm sorry to be missing that on the tele.  I hope the weather stays good this weekend and you are all able to enjoy whatever you are doing for the celebrations.

Liz xx

Update and Avatar Mountains


I've just come back from seeing the mountains where they filmed some of the movie Avatar.  Although we had loads of rain, it was absolutely stunning.  I thought Avatar must have had loads of digitally enhanced scenes but,really, a lot of it is just as it is in Zhangjiajie (Google it!).  Of course the mountains don't float but they stick up from very green forests in very tall thin spikes with pine trees growing sparsley out of their tops - and there are just thousands of these tall spikes.  It is astonishingly beautiful - perhaps enhanced by the misty weather with clouds weaving their way around the spikes.  I went on an organised trip with a coach load of Chinese people - again I was the only non-Chinese - but I was so lucky in that a lovely Chinese girl adopted me into her group of 5 friends and she was a nurse who also taught English so she made sure I knew what I had to do and see!  They were a lovely group and very friendly.  We left on Friday evening and got to Zhangjiajie around midnight, had Saturday and Sunday until about 3 p.m. sightseeing the mountains, lakes, river and parks, then got back evening Sunday.  It was the first 'adventure' outside Changsha that I have had and I loved it.  The air was clear and good and I felt very refreshed after the smog of Changsha.  Next week I am off on another 'adventure' to Hong Kong to get my visa restamped so I can continue to stay in China for a bit longer.  I shall be in Hong Kong for 3 days and it will be another good break, I'm sure.

So, some updates from Changsha.

First, Butterfly.  We are having a mixed time at the Butterfly Home.  We said goodbye to one of our longstanding butterflies - her adoptive parents came here from America to collect her.  She handled leaving us very well.  We had a party for her and she went with her book of photos, letters from the staff and volunteers, reports, etc.  The family have another adopted Chinese child, another girl, and I'm sure Hannah will be really happy when she settles in. On Monday we shall say goodbye to another butterfly who is going to be adopted by a Dutch couple.  He's a 'bruiser' of 2 1/2 years old - born with some of his insides on the outside but is very well now and a very live wire - I hope his new family have loads of energy!
We lost our little Benjamin - he died peacefully with lots of love around him.  We have 2 new babies now who have filled the cots left by Hannah and Benjamin.  They are both very poorly with brain damage - causes unknown - and are with us for palliative care.  They were in a bit of a state when they came to us so we have improved their lot in life but there's nothing we can do to save them, just keep them comfortable in their last few weeks/months.  Our little boy in Shanghai is keeping us awake at night at the moment, figuratively speaking.  He ended up having a big heart operation and did really well for about a week then, last night, started having complications and had to go back to theatre.  Last night and today has been a nightmare as first of all they thought he would be OK, then there was no hope, now he may pull through.  His name is Emmanuel so positive thoughts and prayers would be appreciated.
We still haven't moved, maybe next month now!  I don't think I will see Butterfly in its new home, somehow.  I am still sorting clothes and will have to hand over that job as I won't finish it before I leave.

A few other 'observations'...!
The roads around our flats are being dug up for pipework - everywhere.  There are probably over a thousand flats here and the workman continue working until about 1 a.m. most nights - drilling, throwing pipes around, driving diggers.  You would think they might realise people in a thousand flats may want to sleep... - obviously not!
The traffic continues to amuse me and I took a video the other day of people dodging traffic as they cross the road on a pedestrian crossing.  I should take a video of a police car on a mission:  they sit in the 5 lanes of traffic (which should be 3 lanes judging by the white lines down the road), with lights flashing and a siren of 5 different tunes going, and no-one bats an eyelid or moves a jot.  The police car just continues following the other cars in the traffic jam and gets nowhere!  People walk in front of it crossing the road, etc.
Health and safety is another fun thing to observe.  Workmen in the road, or around buildings wear jeans and t-shirts, no hard hats or high viz jackets.  However street cleaners have the high viz jackets!  We just saw workmen today trying to get up to the 5th floor outside a building so they balanced a ladder here, a few planks with another ladder on top further up, etc. nothing tied on, then they went up it - mad!
Smoking and tobacco chewing is everywhere - taxi drivers, people on busses, in shopping malls, restaurants - pretty unpleasant really.  There are big shops which just sell cigarettes, stacks of them literally.
The weather is improving.  It still rains great dollops but we have more sunny days now, and not all of them humid which is nice.  I am still trying to walk home from work every day.

Our flat has changed its tenants.  The volunteer who was here for 4 weeks left yesterday and another volunteer who will be here for 6 months arrived 2 weeks ago.  I go on 2nd June, for my next adventure with Mary to the Himalayas.  I have managed to pack a large box full of clothes and blankets which I shall send on ahead of me so we can take it 'up the mountain' with us.  After that my plans have become unsure as I may not be able to get a permit to travel through Tibet. They are denying these to individual travellers/small parties at the moment - they will only allow large parties of the same nationality in.  There's nothing I can do, just wait and see and make the best of what happens...!

I'll write again after I come back from Hong Kong and before I leave the flat.  When I am in the Himalayas I think I shall be out of communication for around 2 weeks but I'll let you know.  I've given up trying to get photos to you.  When I get home I can make loads of CDs and you can just let me know if you want one...

I hope you are all well and happy.  I hear you have had gallons of rain - which apparently you needed - but I hope, soon, you get some summer and enjoy your gardens.

Have fun,  Liz

A month in Changsha.
Dear All,  This is the third time I have tried to send this blog - I am hoping third time lucky!!  Last time I wrote a great blog - all 90 minutes of it - and then it disappeared into the ether.
So, I have been here a month, so have found out a bit more around Changsha and can update you on
Butterfly.
First, Butterfly...  We still have the same number of children as we haven't yet moved into our new premises.  We keep hoping "it will be in 2 weeks" but it doesn't happen.  We really need the space as the children, mostly, are quite well and need to be able to play constructively and whizz around a bit. We have 3 waiting for adoptive parents to be able to take them away, two more with adoption papers going through.  One little chap will be able to rest in peace soon.  Another is in Shanghai being assessed for potential heart surgery.  He needs this to live, but it may sadly be too late.  If he can have it there will be a flurry of fund raising activity as Butterfly will have to pay. One way and another we shall get more babies without increasing the number of cots, but we can take another 10 babies on top of that when we move.  Our 'new boy' Luke I wrote about last time is doing very well; he's put on 2 lbs in weight and looks totally different from the worried 'old man' we took in - we still are not sure what is wrong with him and maybe never shall know, but he's OK.  In our flat we have a new volunteer who has been with us for 2 weeks and will be with us for another 2 and, this weekend, we have another volunteer who will be staying for 6 months.  Both these new girls are newly qualified paediatric nurses from Ireland so good to get different ideas and information.  I have been carrying on turning out clothes when there are too many of us around - I am going, now, to take quite a lot of not needed clothing with me to the Midwifery with Altitude children which is good.
So, Changsha...  I've gradually been looking around and finding better things about this huge city.  With 'the girls' (our flat and Lana - long term volunteer who looks after the volunteers and does fund raising)  we have been out to dinner - dumplings and 'typical local Chinese'.  One night we went to 'the mountain' which is across the river and quite high.  We took a bus up and joined with loads of locals to watch the Saturday night fireworks which was great.  A lovely clear evening for a change, good atmosphere and good fireworks.  Lovely views of Changsha and its lights at night, with all the tall buildings and the river.  We walked all the way down and felt it on our legs the next day. Another day, the 'new girl' and I went to the island in the middle of the river and walked to the end to the enormous statue of Chairman Mao as a young man - just his head with his hair blowing in the wind - looks a bit like Beethoven!  We started off in sun and then the heavens suddenly opened and we got completely drowned in minutes.  We have had loads of rain, chunky dollops usually but I am told by a local that, on 1st May, the sun comes out.  Yesterday it poured, thunder, etc. all day but, today, so far, it is sunny-ish.  I have found a roof terrace where you can hang out washing so my sheets are out there with me looking nervously out of the window.  The humidity, however, is sometimes overwhelming, although some days it can be sunny and very pleasant.  The river is nice-ish - wide with Changsha on either side, and the island in the middle.  Pleasant gardens along the river bank.  The girls and I also visited a pretty park - quite big, not far from our flat with lakes, fishing ponds and ponds with fish, lots of trees and shrubs - mostly azaleas which are nearly over but still attractive, and some good walking around.  We get around by bus - you can go anywhere for 18p.  Lots of things here are really cheap - lunch of mixed fried rice, or boiled rice and different veg. for 60p - I don't bother to take lunch to work now!  You can go out for dinner for about GBP2 -3 - the other day we went to a posh restaurant for one of the girls' birthday - that was GBP5 including beer.  (Wine is expensive and not good on the whole..)   I had my hair cut for GBP4.50 and Lyn (Butterfly boss) and I went for a massage the other day - 90 minutes worth of kneading, pummelling, pressure pointing and reflexology for GBP9.  However, clothes worth buying are pretty much the same price as at home and an kind of 'international' food - eg muesli, tinned corn,pasta - is expensive.
China generally... Still on the subject of food - we have a 'wet market' near us which goes on for several streets.  There are most vegetables and fruit we know and some we don't sold everywhere - really nice condition and variety, displayed directly on the street, maybe onto cardboard/plastic sheets on the street, on trestle tables. There is meat of every kind, including live frogs, turtles, chickens, ducks which can be slaughtered for you as you wait (which is a no thanks for me!) - fish, eels, which you buy live in plastic bags and take them home on the bus, prawns running around, giant scallops, and I am told there is a dog meat street near here which I hope never to come across.  If you have a meat dish in the restaurant it is a challenge and all meat is just served cut into chunks with whatever bit it is just joined on - bone, gristle, chickens feet, heads, and intestines, pigs trotters and all 'insides' are a luxury.  We were invited to a birthday party of one of the Ayi's (nannies) and there was a whole chicken or two in one pot, a questionable fish in another, eels, tripe, and something of which origin we never discovered.  Add chopsticks and noodles into all that and the whole meal is still memorable!!  But it was still a happy party!  For fruit, my favourite is pineapple - they choose a good one, skin it, then cut all the eyes out sort of diagonally which makes the pineapple appear as a spiral. Top and bottom come off and it is gorgeous - always just right ripeness.  That is 50 p. max.
Non-food.. The roads are constantly being dug up.  Usually onto the pavement so, on the pavement you have piles of sand and brick (I have seen women in high heels climbing over these) or, if there is a gap,the scooters usually choose the pavement to ride on and the cars park in between the bricks.  It is marginally better to walk on the road - at least you can hear the cars (but not the scooters).  When they put the road back together they often don't fill in around manhole covers  and the patches are just anyhow.  A bus ride is always a bone shaker and I'm not sure how the busses last.
The streets are clean, however, as about every 200 yeards there is a street sweeper in his/her high vis jacket and coolie hat using a besom and dustpan on a long stick.  Folk just chuck stuff onto the streets as its going to get picked up anyway.  There is an industry in 'recycling'  - most bins you pass have people looking through with their bags of plastic, cardboard, glass, getting what they can.  They pile it into huge plastic bags and ride it away on their bicycle to somewhere which pays them peanuts for it.  The street sweepers have first pickings and their barrows will have bags of everything dangling from them.  However, the buildings are terrible. We are living in a block which is just 10 years old and I would have put it at 60 plus.  The outside is just filthy, inside the flats are damp, although quite nicely done up, but the water, gas, etc. comes and goes.  All the flats are the same which gives the city a very dingy look during the day (at night it looks very different with all the lights).
Etc. I still never see a non-Chinese face and people still stare and say hello. I have had to have my photo taken several times - once with a wedding couple!  There are not even other Asian or black faces around, just Chinese.  So all the parks, etc.they have here are just for their own benefit, which is nice.
They love fireworks and firecrackers.  About 3 or 4 times a day you hear quite long displays of fireworks being set off - even though you can't see them in the daylight through the smog!
And fashion... Mostly around here people are very casual, track suits, jeans (which suits me fine!).  High fashion you don't see, as we would recognise it.  What we would think of as a cocktail dress (quite often with a netting skirt like a tutu or long netting) is often worn with leggings and trainers and a mickey mouse T-shirt on the top.  It is not unusual to go out shopping in your pyjamas - with spangledy high heels.  The latest fashion accessory are spectacles without glass and walls of them are displayed in shops like Accessorize - it is quite strange to see people wearing them.

Well, enough, I think.  I hope you get this this time.  I am hoping soon to get away for a weekend to the area where they filmed some of 'Avatar ' - the bits with the tall thin mountains.  Its meant to be very amazing.  I was going this weekend but our rota has changed so we can give special care to our poor little boy in his last few days. We are all doing different shifts for 24 hour cover.  However, I think there will still be an opportunity to get there.  And, in 3 weeks time I shall be off to Hong Kong for 3 days to renew my visa so that I can carry on with my travel plans in China.  A month today I meet up with Mary and start my next adventure - but I will try and write a final blog before then:  I shall be incommunicado for a few weeks from that time.

Fingers crossed this gets to you,
With love,
Liz