Well you probably thought you were lucky enough to have finished my long e-mail's about our travels west.  But now that we have been back for a little while and some more things have happened I thought I would fill you in on the latest.

When we got back from our trip from the west at the beginning of August, we almost immediately went on an all expenses paid trip to a small island about six hours from here.  One of our teacher's and his wife (Tina) and child (Tony) took us there to meet Tina's friend from Tax school and her family.  The island is called Putuo San and it is famous for being yet another ancient Buddhist retreat.  The islands were beautiful and my favorite Buddha, Guan Ying was there.  They built a HUGE statue of her over looking the sea water, I can't remember how high it was but the entire thing was covered in gold.  The boat trip to the island itself started out with Tony puking all over the waiting room floor ~ rice and stomach water EVERY where!  I was sitting next to him and it splattered onto my leg.  Let me tell ya, the trip definitely had it's moments.  Of course, this was before the suicide attempt. 

Tina's friend's name was Assai and at first it all seemed okay until Sidney started filling us in on the family problems and why we were really there.  Here it is in a nutshell.  Assai's husband cheated on Assai with another woman (it's very common here).  But the husband, who seemed like a pretty decent guy except for the infidelity, regretted it and asked his best friend to talk to Assai into forgiving him.  Well the "best friend" put the moves on Assai and in order for her to get back at her husband she cheated on her husband with his best friend.  So now Assai wanted a divorce and the husband didn't and the entire time we were there Tina was counseling her friend and the husband.  After the second night there James got sick and we were supposed to go to the beach that morning.  James stayed in the hotel while the husband took Tina, Tony, Sidney and myself there.  Half way to the beach, which, by the way, was a 45 minute drive, he gets a call from Assai on his cell phone and then the husband whips the car around in the middle of the road and starts driving back at 100 kmph.  That's when Sidney told me that the night before, Assai tried to kill herself by taking 8 sleeping pills and that she had to go to the hospital to have her stomach pumped.  Now she was awake and she wanted to leave the house and we were on our way back to stop her from doing anything else drastic.  Well, that's when we hit a very large rock and it put a hole in the car's tire and we had to stop on the side of the road to get picked up by a taxi who then quickly took us back to the house. 

When we got to the house their little (adorable) girl was crying and it was a complete mess.  We ended up staying there for 3 hours while the four of them talked in Chinese and I listened ~ HA!  All the while, James is sleeping in the hotel room with no idea what is going on.  Then Sidney asks me for some marital advice for Assai ~ HA HA!  I told him that in America we have counselors and if they are going to sort out there problems then they need a mediator.  It was obvious Assai needed some serious help herself.  But there are no such thing as counselors in China, especially in the remote areas so it is very difficult for the people, they always turn to their friends and family members or no one at all and that's really too bad.  I did my best to give some simple advice but it was really up to them and who knows what got lost in the translation of what I was telling Sidney to them.  The problem is that when a woman divorces a man over here she has no rights and is stigmatized big time.  Infidelity is very common, in fact one of our teachers is going through this right now, her husband (a vice-head master at a local school) left her and his beautiful, intelligent daughter for another woman and it is all Judy can do to keep it together.  Sometimes I think she has completely lost it and if it wasn't for her daughter's needs I think she would.  But the whispers and embarrassment for these women must be unbearable.  So everyone is trying to convince Assai that divorce is the last thing she needs and that's all that she wants.  In the meantime, the husband truly seemed repentant and the look of distraught on his face was enough for me to feel sorry for him, Assai and their beautiful daughter.  What a mess!

After all the talking we ended up going back to the hotel to see how James was doing and we ended up going to the beach after all.  A summer camp for our school's students were near by so we went to a small private beach to visit there.  The funny thing about this place was that it was a summer camp for students AND for the Chinese army.  So when we parked the car it was next to camouflaged jeeps and a unit that sort of reminded me of M*A*S*H.  When we walked on the sandy trail to get to the beach we had to walk past a group of military personnel who were all hovering over a miniature landscape of the local terrain.  They were plotting out tactical maneuvers or whatever.  But you can imagine their shock as two Americans walk by their little war games site, witnessing their plans of attack on God knows what.  So they said something in Chinese to the people we were with and we were told that Americans were not allowed on this property and since we were only teachers they would graciously let us stay, but we were not allowed to take any pictures or look in the direction of the men training.  They also said that they captured an American this morning who was taking pictures in the area.  Nice huh?  So the entire time we were on the beach there was a platoon of men who were running/crawling in the sand, doing hand to hand combat training, and practicing drills with their rifles.  We tried not to look at them and they more than gawked at us.  I mean after all, we are sort of the enemy, right?  But I couldn't help and measure up their skills and having two brothers in the military there isn't a snowballs chance in hell these guys could do much of anything.  When we walked back on the same trail I was so tempted to say to the tactical maneuver group, "I see you!  I see you!"  Probably not the smartest idea I have ever had but it was only fleeting anyhow.

So the trip wasn't a complete disaster.  It was an interesting place to visit and we got to swim in the ocean.  James and I body surfed the small waves they had there and I don't think the Chinese have ever seen this done before.  The neat part about this trip was that Sidney and Tony had never seen the ocean before or been on a boat so that was really fun.

Assai is still alive and the latest update is that they are doing better. 

* * * * * * *

It's mid September already and we have already begun teaching at the school.  I am so grateful this term because I get to teach fifth, sixth, and seventh grade and James graciously took the little ones over.  I also get to teach the English teachers this term because James did last term and I am not sure yet if I will be teaching the regular teachers again or not.  Something else I am excited about is that I have decided to try and take Chinese with the first graders and I start my classes tomorrow.   Wish me luck!

This term is incredibly easier than the last because we have been through all the trauma and now we are liked seasoned staff here.  All of the students are especially sweet and it's still fun to hear them react when either James or I walk by ~ "May Gwa Lao Si! May Gwa Lao Si!" (American teacher! American teacher!)  It's really hard to believe that we only have four months to go, not counting the rest of Sept. or the entire month of Feb. which is our last month and most of it is vacation time.  A lot of the teachers and our friends are trying to persuade us to stay longer but I really can't imagine being here for more than the time that I allotted myself ~ that is ingrained in my being.  Any longer would seem like overkill.  But there are some things that I will miss dearly about this place and some things I won't miss at all!

One thing I won't miss is the huge cockroaches that find way into our home periodically.  In all fairness I also have cockroaches in Virginia and surprisingly enough the Chinese ones and the Virginian ones are about the same size ~ two to three inches long and DISGUSTING!  Since we have had a large whole in our wall plugged up there hasn't been any cockroaches in the house really.  Except the other week I found a really big one in the kitchen and when it ran under the sink I dosed the entire place with enough raid to snuff out an army of them.  The next day when I swept there were four our five dead in the dining room area and that was pretty gross.  But worse than that was what I discovered the other day after I went on my morning walk.  We live on the third floor and there are six floors to this place altogether.  Every other floor there is a chute that you can throw your garbage down and it splatters on the first floor and everyday the caretaker picks up the garbage, recycles the plastic and cardboard and gets rid of the rest (I have no idea where).  Most of these people don't tie the bags very well miss the chute half way so there is always dead fish, bones and other disgusting pieces of garbage that makes the place stink to high heaven as well as difficult for me to open the garbage chute myself without dry heaving. 

The garbage chute sits on top of the sewer drainage system that runs underground but there are water drain slits that run along in front of the buildings.  This particular morning I went out it had been raining and the garbage hadn't been picked up yet.  When I got closer I noticed that there were cockroaches squirming all over on the ground and at first I thought that the rain was drowning them in the drain so they were crawling up to save themselves.  But when I looked even closer they were flopping all over the place and after I finished counting there were over 30 of them, some dead, some alive.  A few had been stepped on, not a pretty site and the ants were already doing their clean up job, some of the cockroaches weren't even dead yet and the ants were trying to tear them apart.  It was so disgusting and yet I couldn't take my fascinated eyes away from this gory scene.  James thinks someone put raid inside of the garbage chute and all of them were dying from poison.  One by one when they would crawl up to die, someone would step on them (that is something that I will never be able to do, I can't stand the crunching feeling of a large bug under my shoe, it gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it and in fact recounting this whole experience is making my skin crawl!).  Some of the cockroaches made it up the steps and there are still a few dead ones just sitting there that I pass by everyday.  The rest of the ones below were swept up by the caretaker but I will never forget such a sight as this one.

And I have two remaining thoughts from this ~ if there were over 30 just in our one garbage chute imagine how many more there are just within the compound I live in ~ AND ~ did the ants die from the same poison that killed their meal after they munched on the dead cockroaches?

Speaking of walks in the morning, James and I are trying to recover any shape we had when we first got here.  Now that we have gotten used to the place both of us are exercising anyway we can in a country that doesn't really cater to the fitness minded.  At school they just got a brand new nautilus machine which is great.  I haven't used it yet but James has.  There is a brand new basketball court too and the Chinese love basketball.  They are always calling James to come a play.  I on the other hand have taken up walking in the morning every other day.  It took me several times to find a route that wasn't ridden with people or traffic.  I just want to exercise not get stared at or hit by a car.  The first time I went walked past where the jobless people who have no homes either sit and wait for work.  Because there isn't really any public place to use the bathroom they go to the bathroom right on the sidewalk and it was like having to dodge a mine field.  Not to mention this man was standing there with this pants open peeing right in front of me (a common occurrence).  So I needed to find another place to walk.  The second time I accidentally found my way past the death house where they murder and de-feather the fowl for the market that I so detest.  It was a horrid site and I walked by quickly with my ears closed.  The third time was the charm and now I have found a place to walk safely and fairly clean.  There were some piles of pooh on the sidewalk the other day and I have to be careful not to get hit by any taxis or bike riders.  About three days ago, when I was walking home from school I was crossing the street and looking to my left for oncoming traffic.  It never occurred to me to look to my right in case there was someone driving in the wrong direction, towards on coming traffic.  Sure enough, I get hit by this lady that is riding a bike.  All I heard was some grunting but it was too late for me to get out of the way and since she had no brakes on her bike, there skidding feet weren't enough to stop her momentum.  Over half of the bike riders here in YongKang ride bikes with no working brakes.  And in order for them to stop they must try to stop with their feet or jump off the bikes before they get hit by whoever else can't stop in front of them.  It's madness and my leg has a nice bruise on it.  I am lucky it isn't worse and it should teach me to look BOTH ways before I cross a street, right?

The banking system here leaves something left to be desired.   I have had to deal with sending money back to the U.S. to take care of my bills there.  I can only send 30% of my monthly pay check here and when I do I have to go to the Tax office every time to get proof, approval from the school, and my first born child.  When I sign, it is usually in blood and if I don't have all of the proper things in order there is no way they will help me out, even if I have been there before and they know who I am.  So I thought I found a short cut by getting U.S. dollars from the black market and since I can send up to $2000 U.S. at a time it seemed like a piece of cake.  They even exchanged my black market money right there for me at the bank.  Well, who knows what rule they found in their endless books but someone somewhere decided I couldn't do that even though I had done it before.  Even after they took my money.  I am very relieved that I will only have to do it once maybe two more times while I am here.

* * * * * * *

Fall is here and most of the time we spend our time indoors, trying to avoid either the extreme heat, pollution or the rain.  It's always warm rain though and usually the rain is heralded by the thunder and lightening ~ a phenomena that I wish I could record somehow to always remember the immensity of the power of nature over here.  The thunder cracks right over head and when it does it's like a hundred cannons going off in our ears.  It makes you duck down and run for cover.  If we are sleeping and the thunder unfurls itself, it jolts me so much out of sleep that at first if almost feels like the world is coming to an end and our building is falling down around us.  Then the lightening comes.  About a month ago the lightening was in a cloud that flashed every few seconds.  It glowed and moved and lit up the entire area.  We had never seen anything like this and it was like looking at a space ship or something.  When the flashes would fill my pupils I felt like I was going blind and my retinas were spasming.  Two days ago the lightening was so low and frequent near our school and house, when we came home we found that our computer monitor, printer, and scanner had all been fried through the electric plug by the lightening.  Thank goodness James turned off the hard drive before he left other wise that would have gotten it too.

James turned 30 last weekend and I threw a surprise party for him.  It was a lot of fun but the best part of the night was when I introduced sucking helium to the Chinese.  They had never seen, done, or heard of this before and since I asked for 30 balloons, after I showed them how to do it, everyone wanted to try.  It was like listening to the Lolli-Pop Guild from the Wizard of Oz ~ "we wish to welcome you to munchkin land!" 

Our friends who helped me put on the party are always trying to learn English from us and we try to learn Chinese from them.  The other day James was trying to figure out how to say "I have" instead of "I want" ("woh yo" as opposed to "woh yaow")  So James said, "woh yo lianga gee," which means, "I have two chickens."  Well the girls quickly let us know that they can't say these things out loud because "gee" not only means chicken but it also means a derogatory comment to a woman ~ a loose woman, so to speak.  If you say, "gee" to a woman you are basically calling her a slut and when James innocently said, "I have two chickens" in Chinese, well, you can imagine the reaction.

I tell you what I will dearly miss when I leave China is my pet chicken.  Yes, I still have the chicken (the one I rescued back in June) and since I have returned from our travels s/he has grown quite a bit.  At first I was told it was a female and then someone said he is a rooster, the comb is turning red and I can't really tell at this point.  In early August I released the rabbit into the wild so say a little prayer for him.  I thought he would bound off into his freedom when I released him from his gunny-sack but instead he sat on a rock with a look of bewilderment in his eye as he chewed on a blade of grass in disbelief.  Even when I threw rocks at him he just sat there so I took pictures of him at his release site and just hoped that he wouldn't be rabbit stew anytime soon.  I am sure he enjoyed his freedom while he had it and the place that I released him was truly beautiful and seemingly safe.

But I still have the chicken and seeing that he isn't old enough to make it on his own yet in the wild I have to wait till he is full grown, which will be until about the time I am ready to leave.  I haven't named him really except the nickname, "pooper."  I let him out to follow me around and get some exercise when I am home and if he isn't busy attacking my feet when I wear my purple slippers then he likes to sit under my chair while I type on the computer.  He leaves little bombs for me everywhere he goes so I am constantly following him around with a roll of toilet paper and antiseptic spray, hence the name pooper.  When I cook dinner at night he stays in the kitchen with me and if I walk around while he is out of his cage he runs as fast as he can after my feet while flaps his wings to try and keep up with me.  But the floor is slippery so he always looks as if he is about to crash and burn and half the time he does.  It always makes me laugh.  But he's my little companion and except for constantly having to clean up after him, it's almost like having a dog. 

I was feeling guilty about his poor little feet having to walk on our hard floors all the time instead of a nice green garden so I went out and found him some dirt to scratch in.  When I let him get on it he attacked it like it was chicken gold and he started to eat the rocks and dirt.  I was so afraid that he was doing something bad for him that every time I went to take him away he would squawk and scream bloody murder.  Then I found out from my mom, to my relief, that chickens are supposed to eat gravel to help digest their food so it was a blessing in disguise.  Now all his little bombs have rocks in it and there is dirt all over the house because he likes to fill his feathers with it at night.  As long as he's happy . . .

I truly will miss the chicken when I leave and I have had thoughts of trying to bring him home with me.  How many people can say they have a Chinese chicken?  But I know he would be happier on a farm than in my dog's teeth.  So that's the end of that.  But my friends here think that maybe the chicken won't do so well on the farm since he has been raised by an American and fed good food from our kitchen.  I don't know about that, I just try to feed him whatever he will eat.  He's a picky little sucker.

James' friend is coming here at the end of September and the three of us are going to travel to Kunnming or possibly Tibet.  It should be pretty exciting.  Got to take in as much as possible while I'm here right?  I may never pass this way again.

Well, that's all for now folks.  It's Sunday today and we are going to teach at a factory this afternoon.  Hope you enjoyed this edition of Kim and James' Chinese Times. 

Take care of yourself.

Till next time.