dailies
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Patients.
-7:43 PM
Today was the day where I had 2 very ngiao patients.
#1: It was her 2nd time at our clinic and she is an atas auntie I suppose. She has backache, scapulo-humeral periarthritis, neck pain, and stomachache. We have patients before her and are all attending to them. So she raises her voice and said “I’m here, where is the doctor, why is no one attending to me?” And so one of us students came out to explain that there is a queue and went back to attend to other patients. Not long after, she said “when’s my turn, when’s my turn?” She kept talking to other patients who were also waiting, exclaiming and complaining that she had waited very long.
Finally it was her turn and she was mumbling stuff under her breath. She was wearing a very heavy necklace despite the pain in the neck. Oh wells, what can we say? The doctor tried explaining that apart from acupuncture, she needed treatment from other departments too, like the Neuro-dept and she was giving all sorts of reasons as to why she doesn’t have to go, including saying that her CT taken ONE YEAR AGO showed that her brain is normal.
#2: This was the ultimately most irritating patient since my limited no. of days in Acupuncture. His first visit was yesterday and he was with a friend. He came in, told us that his shoulder was painful and he had problems moving his arm. We gave him a diagnosis and his next line was, ‘Doc, can I have a MC?’ My doctor was a bit suprised and told him that she can’t give him an MC that excuse him for a few days of work because its acupuncture, not something that makes one immobile. He became ngiao and kept insisting until my doc says she will only give an MC that excuses him for the time he takes to come to the clinic and so he gave in. My doc was busy and there were many patients and so she told him to wait and he kept insisting and wanted her to give an MC but she told him to wait cos it really wasn’t his turn. He hadn’t even pay for his visit ( In China, you pay before the doctor attends to you.).
He stuffed his medical book(a book that records the medical history of a person) in front of us before complaining why can’t we just give him MC and yada yada. We were glad to see him out of our clinic. It seriously looked as if he just wanted the MC.
In the afternoon, when his turn came, my doctor was still attending to another patient and I was sitting in her seat. He came and IMMEDIATELY asked me for the MC.-.-!!! I was like, wait, the doctor will give it to you, she will remember and he complained why wasn’t it done before he came. In my mind, I was like…hello, doctors no need to have lunch is it? Don’t have other patients is it??-.- Finally the doctor came, poke needles in him, put the electric clip ons, gave him his MC and send him away, not before we had an earful from him of course.
Today when he came, A and YC siam him like anything and asked me to attend to him. I didn’t want to but had no choice. So after the doctor poked the needles, I added on the electric clips and adjusted the strength and he kept complaining that it wasn’t strong enough and he wasn’t satisfied and that yesterday was better. I had already turned the strength to a very very high level and the needles and the area with needles were vibrating strongly but he still complained. He even wanted more electric clips, more than what the doctor had given and I said that the doctor said that this is enough and he said ‘no, listen to me, I want more!’ ARGH!
I called my doctor who explained to him but to no avail and so she just changed the location of the clips to a more sensitive area and he was pacified. But not for long! I shined the Infra-Red light onto this shoulder and he complained that it wasn’t hot enough, so I increased the intensity and brought it nearer. I was thinking in my head that ‘hope your skin becomes barbequed later’ cos there is a reason why we don’t put it too near nor on the intensity too high- The area will simply become unbearably burnt! But this time, don’t care. Even WJ 师兄came to help and I was a little indignant that this irritating patient become just a little more polite on hearing a guy’s voice!
He was pacified but not for long again. It was shortly after we had sat down when he called out and said he couldn’t feel the vibes. WJ 师兄went this time…and he went a few times cos the patient kept calling. When the 20 mins of treatment was up, we went to remove the needles and stuff but he insisted that because the intensity and vibes were not enough in the beginning, it is not counted and so we had to extend the time for him. There were not many patients by then and so my doctor just extended his time to shut his mouth. Seriously, for a man, ARGH! I pity anyone working under him. What an irritating person! I really wanted to increase the intensity to the max and maximise everything when he kept complaining non-stop in that highly irritating voice!
#3: This patient is the only one since I started to make me feel 心痛。A dad came in with his 2year and 7months boy and told my doc that his kid was referred over by the pediatrics dept to do acupuncture in addition to the normal medication because his left face is paralysed.
My doc and us included were shocked. The dad told us that his kid was under the air-con yest and in the night, they discovered the situation cos the kid’s mouth is pulled towards the right and his left eyelid can’t close completely when sleeping. At first I felt that the dad was a little fierce with his kid when he kept ordering the boy around but i heard something which changed my mind. I heard the dad mumbled ‘I rather I had the illness’ when other patients were talking about this case. I suddenly felt that the dad really loves the boy and when my doc told him that it would take at least one month for recovery and the boy had to come everyday for acupuncture, he thought about it, but still agreed.
The kid cried when he was placed on the bed and in the end the dad had to carry him and all of us were distracting the boy while my doctor quickly poked some points on his head. The boy could only see one needle-the one on his hand. One week later, the doctor would have to poke the points on his face as well. I wonder if he will really wail cos the boy is afraid of needles according to his dad.
As the boy fell asleep with the needles on his head and his dad holding him, I thought that the dad looked really sad as he wiped the tears of his child away. I sat in my teacher’s seat and felt really really sad, after all he is just 2and a half years old…
Monday, July 27, 2009
My fingers-one moment on the keyboard,the other moment, feeding the flames.
-7:02 PM
I had morning shift yesterday and so I couldn’t go to BICF. Instead, I went with some classmates,some local students to a Korean Church! One of our seniors in a Korean Christian and she brought all of us there. There were non-believers and locals amongst us and we were excited.It was at a really far far ulu place which upon arrival, we thought we were in the outskirts. But the building itself is ok,just that the surroundings look kind of ulu.haha.
We arrived early to practise Amazing Grace and a Korean song which we were going to present later on during the service because this church has a practice where new-comers can go on stage to sing a song. It was my first time in Bejing, hitting the keyboard in church while a small group sing. It has been my wish for a while to be able to do this again cos the last time I did so is about 2 years ago? I am so thankful to God for giving me this opportunity,what more, its with my friends and I had a guitarist and a drummer! So fun to play in a band again! Its a pity that we didn’t have any photos for the actual performance because we were on stage!
After practising for a while, we went to play games amongst ourselves. The high-light: THE BLANKET GAME. We normally play it during orientation in Singapore and everyone thinks that oh,its that boring game again. But haha, it turned out to be the funnest game, esp with our local seniors cos we can’t remember their names and they can’t remember ours too! And we did a lot of silly things to confuse the opposite team!
On the left is the D holding the blanket and the opposite team(oh ya, the one that loses join the opposite team) and on the right is HZ 师姐,the Korean that brought us to the church!
INtRodUcinG: My FIRST group-cos we kind of kena trash the first round till there was only A and I left. Wahaha~
It got rediculous that everyone was laughing so hard.
Second round where all the funny tricks started appearing (apologies for the lousy shots but I was really laughing so hard I couldn’t hold my camera properly):
#1: WJ 师兄using the board to block his face so that the other side will take a longer time to react. We thought we’ll be smart and initiate such a 招 but when the blanket fell, LH 师姐was hiding behind a guitar! hahahahahh~
#2: My team again! XQ with the blanket around her head! Send both teams into laughter and banging of floors when the blanket drop.
My senior used the same blanket to block half of my face when it was my turn! hahaha~.
#3: This was what I saw when it was my turn,when my face was half covered with the pink purple blanket. A and HZ were suppose to act like they were the ones I am suppose to guess but too bad, my group had a smokescreen too & I saw D in time so blurt out his name.haha.
Bet you’ve never played the blanket game this way before!hahahah!
THe next game: 007
Language medium: Chinese
One person says ‘0’ and points to another,the other says ‘0’ and points to another,that person says ‘7’ and points to another who points to another and says ‘棒’ and that person dies while the 2 ppl next to him/her has to raise both hands. But the one that dies start the cycle again by saying ‘0’ while pointing to another person and the game goes on until someone gets the 0-0-7 order wrong or someone forgets to raise their hands.
My senior doing her forfeit: Writing her name with her butt. Its new to them!
Game 3: Squirrel-Trees-Earthquake! (Mandarin Version)
They were playing this game while some of us were getting the music right: 
Thereafter,we had Korean dinner prepared by the church. Yummy! Its AUTHENTIC!
Service: Korean but with Mandarin Translation.
In Singapore, I used to attend a church with has English-Mandarin translation and I felt it was perfectly fine. Couldnt really understand why some people didn’t like it until I came here and realise that its a little difficult to get the whole message when there is a language I don’t understand. I would hear something in Chinese and then the Korean speaker speaks,by the time the Chinese comes,I would have forgotten what was said earlier. But its ok, I still really really felt it was a good service nonetheless. The Koreans really sing their lungs out…we should learn and sing this way, give our all for Christ. Musically-wise,not the best but in a community singing, its one of the better worships I’ve heard in a while. One can really feel their adoration for Him.
陪你去看流星雨落在这地球上。。。wahahaha~
It was 9pm when we left and suddenly I told CE a way to find out if one is left-brained or right-brained and because GF was the one that taught me, I asked him again if the method was right and hey presto! Everyone was doing it! Hence the above picture. :P
Incidentally, I discovered recently from the brain test and also from my hands-on that, I could really be a right brainer.
1.The test showed that I’m right brain.
2.Given a new-task,I tend to use my left hands to grab the instruments or use it as my master-hand instead of the right. Yes,my right hand has more strength but thats because I’ve been trained to use my right hand for 20+ years!
3.I prefer art/music rather than science and math seriously although I hate it when I do my mental sums wrongly or when I can’t deduce certain stuff.
4.I can draw and design stuff..some of them, hee, I’m secretly proud of. But I’ve given the nicer stuff I made to my family and NTZW.
***
During acupuncture intern this morning, I was doing 拔罐 for a patient and my senior was helping me change the cotton wad when mine got used up. I was holding the sugical scissors upright and he was stuffing the wad between the scissors and some of the ethanol in the wad dripped down along the scissors and onto my hands. I didn’t realise though cos its really just a bit.
Then I used the lighter and lit up the cotton and woah, the fire was big and it spread down the scissors to my HAND! I didn’t panic suprisingly but I gave a shriek and tried to use my other hand to hold the scissors and my other hand caught fire too. My senior was shouting to me to drop the scissors and so I did so while wacking my hands to my side and flinging my hands around and the flames on my hands disappeared. My senior was wearing CROCS and he stepped on the scissors and his crocs caught some flames and he was stamping the ground to put out the flames. All the flames died out finally, thank God, althought yes, the flames did spread a little on the floor.
THe senior grabbed my fingers and asked if it was painful. My teacher came and ask me to go soak my fingers under the water or take one of the 罐，fill it up with water and stick my fingers in but there were none cos they were all on the patient. I filled the sink with water and placed my fingers in. It was really not painful suprisingly but when I took it out, the pain came and I put it in again. But it really was a lot less painful than I expected. It was more of the spreading of flames which caught my attention and I cannot imagine myself in an area with flames spreading all around. That would be scary.
I thank God that when I finally got bored and took my fingers out, there were no blisters, no burned scars, no dead skin. My skin looked perfectly fine. Like a miracle seriously cos the flames were really on me. My senior felt bad but I felt that there was reason to feel bad cos i should have been more careful myself. A while later, I was doing the 拔罐 again. I was a little apprehensive,a little afraid of the lighter and its flame, wiped my hands one million times before doing but it was ok. Till now, my skin is still perfectly fine and I give thanks for it.
My fingers have always been a part of me which I treasure cos without them, I can’t play my piano and I thank God for protecting them the many times where they could have become de-formed. E.g. When they got crushed by the slamming of the door of the van which ended up with me wailing and a rush down to the best bone hospital in Xi’an and this time, when the flames were on me.
The experience reminded me of my FYP where my thumb got burned by the steam after I microwaved my gel mixture. That was utterly utterly painful,left dead skin and took a while before the scar disappeared. Well, at least it did disappear.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
After my 1st week as a 实习生(houseman).
-11:06 AM
Unlike the norm, we didnt have a Summer break. We started our houseman year straight after our final exams. I must say that working from 8am to 5pm every day while having to recall stuff which I’ve learned last year is TIRING physically but I like the fact that we get to do hands-on. I am currently in the Acupuncture Department with A and YC. Apart from poking needles into patients we are allowed to everything else. E.g.拔罐, put clip-ons on the needles poking the main acupuncture points to give electric stimulation, remove the needles etc. But because its something I’ve learned last year,I’ve forgotten a lot of my stuff and had to re-cap everything quickly because the doctor we are attached to will question us randomly. Thank God she is nice and will tell us nicely to check it out when we dont know.
Its interesting chatting with the patients,cos you get to know how they get a particular disease of illnesses and what they do. Most of them are quite friendly especially when they realise that you are a Singaporean! Some get excited and tell you that they’ve been to the Merlion and Sentosa (i had a patient said ‘lan-to-sa’ the first round and another patient had to correct him). Most of them said that Singapore is really small but really clean. Indeed a Singaporean or infact most foreigners will look at their own country under a different light after you leave home. We become proud of our country and we dont like it when people talk bad about our nation. We look forward to see our little red dot again and anticipate seeing Changi’s control tower while our airplane is making its landing.In fact,for this year’s national day, EVERYONE in our class have booked seats and are going to the Singapore Embassy in Beijing to watch the National Day Parade. I can bet at our age,if we were in Singapore, very few will be so excited even if they were to go for the live show.
Back to my patients:
Patient 1:减肥auntie-Shes really friendly and always smile at me although I can only smile at her with my eyes cos I’m wearing a mask. She came here to lose weight! It is true that acupuncture can help one lose weight! There are 2 methods, I name them Fast and Slow. Fast: We’ll poke the points which help you lose water quickly and so your weight goes down tremendously fast,maybe around 5kg in 1 month? But the moment you drink too much or eat too much it comes back. Not the right way in the doctor’s opinion cos its not losing the real fat. Slow: We’ll poke the points that reduce your fat (i highly suspect,though not very sure,that those points increase one’s metabolic rate the way exercise does so). The weight goes down quite slowly, about 1-1.5kg per month. Apart from poking, we also use 治疗仪 which are two pieces placed at the fatty areas which gives electric stimulation. We also use a lamp to shine on certain spots to improve blood circulation. (I’m feeling a little weird translating TCM to English,one of the reasons why i rather learn TCM in Chinese than in English. It just doesn’t flow.) And you have to come back several times of course. The auntie told me that once her weight went down, she didnt come and it came back and so she came again. haha.
Patient 2:Fat guy-He is one of those that has been to Singapore. When I first attended to him, he asked me where i was from and so I asked him to guess. He said he doesn’t know and so I asked him back where he is from and he said he is from Earth. I laughed and told him I’m a Martian from Outer Space and he was quite tickled by my response. He talks quite a lot although he is suppose to keep still when we are poking needles on his face. He came because he is recovering from Left facial paralysis. Once the needles next to the corner of his mouth dropped off and I didnt know what to do although my first impulse was to poke it back but I stopped myself in time. I asked the teacher and she said just throw the needle away and stimulate another point cos he talks too much.haha. Before he left, i told him its time for him to return to Earth and he said yea, the Earth is in his hands. haha~.
Patient 3:A pretty lady came in and I started chatting with her while putting her electric clips on for her. I got to know that she had her left face paralysed 2 years ago and recently in March, she had difficult with her left leg. While treating her illnesses, she also wanted to lose some weight although she isnt fat in my opinion and so the doctor poke some of the lose-weight points too. I was suprise to know that her face paralysis was due to the fan blowing directly at her face the night before! It isn’t a myth apparently and I immediately decided that i’ll either on the air-con or make the fan rotate when im hot,no matter what, its not going to blow at one spot on me.I dont want my muscles at that one area to tense up and I dont want my nerves to lose their sensitivity.
Patient 4:I saw a granny that look A LOT like my paternal grandmother, i was like oh my goodness. And she likes to look at me and scrutinise my face (or my eyes cos i’m wearing a mask) too.haha.
***
Oh oh, I found out that my Korean Senior is a Catholic cos he treated us to a Korean restaurant once and i kept observing him to see if he prays before his meals because there are many Christians in Korea. And I saw him doing the point-to-head,point-to-left-shoulder,point-to-right-shoulder thing before his meal and so I concluded that he must be a Catholic. During one of chats, he asked me if there were many Catholics in Singapore and I misinterpreted and thought that he was asking me whether i am a Catholic to which I said i’m a Christian. And that led to us conversing about which religion having the most number of believers in our own countries.
He is a nice senior who always allows me to practise 拔罐on him and always checks my administrative stuff to make sure its in order. YC,A and I were suprised to find out that he’s married with his Korean wife and baby girl in Beijing! And and, his wife is expecting again! They will probably go back to Korea for the wife to give birth as they did for the first because its difficult to find an affordable hospital with a good environment. :)
My coat which is a little crumpled cos I fold it up everyday and bring it home and back to the hospital everyday. I refuse to leave it in the locker room cos we don’t have our own personal lockers. and yes, i’m hereby 小玲 (they cant call me 小蔡 cos the 2 classmates with me also share the same surname) or 双学位实习生007。haha,i like my number very much actually though I dont think I’ll like being called using a number. A patient called me 蔡大夫 though.
I’ve got to work half-days on weekends. Today is my off day and tomorrow I’ve got to go back to the hospital. AHH! Some of my friends in the other departments have already started working night-shifts, not that I mind but I fall asleep quite easily nowadays and i wonder whats going to happen to my contact lens especially if its a impromptu-kind of night shift.
A start of a brand new year and the start of many things,it doesn’t feel as if I’ve had a proper break. But its okay, I think I’ve found a way to rest on and off during the day. I cant pia all the way cos i think we’ll all lost stamina.
***
I went to BICF’s Embassy (Young Adult’s) service last Thursday 22nd July 2009, which happened to be the day of the Eclipse as well! It comes only once in 60 years and though it was dark, we couldn’t see a thing cos it was so FOGGY! BJ should improve her air!
Thursday itself wasn’t a good day for me anyway cos for the past 4 nights,i always lie on the bed and fall asleep unknowingly and wake up at 2-3am to realise that my specs are on my bed, the light is on and my comp isn’t off and honestly,i’m becoming quite disturbed that I cant have proper sleep. On Thursday, my stomach felt queasy the moment I woke up and while eating breakfast, I had to eat very slowly else I’ll puke the very next moment. I went off for work. I felt really unwell and I couldnt stand for very long and kept resting. I didn’t want to make a bad impression but I really couldn’t take the long periods of standing and waiting on patients. I allowed a classmate to poke my 内关to stop the giddyness and the puking feeling and then i took a long needle, drag my chair to the teacher and asked her to teach me how to poke 足三里,a point which improves my digestive system.She was quite shock that i poked myself so swiftly but honestly, i couldn’t feel any pain at all,maybe my senses were numbed, i don’t know.
After that,the teacher and another Chinese houseman or graduate student were analysing my fingers after realising that my fingers are quite soft and curvy. They were quite amused with it and asked me if I dance and I told them I did Ballet and Chinese dance for a while before giving that up and continuing on with Pianoforte due to the lack of time.
During lunch, I seriously couldn’t eat and I came down late cos Senior wanted me to do 拔罐 so when i came down,only a few dishes remained and I ordered cucumber with egg without rice and its rediculously expensive at 4.00RMB when a cucumber cos 0.30RMB at Carrefour. Ok,I’m becoming auntie-fied. Anyway, it took me so long to finish the food cos if I was afraid I’ll become hungry later on if I don’t eat. Took me 45 mins? to finish.
THe afternoon was bad too. I was hoping that there would be fewer patients but ALL the hospital patients came down and because one of the other doctors was not on duty,her patients came to our clinic too and woa! I literally forced myself to work and had to really remember what the teacher tells me to do..normally, i don’t have to use that much brain power to remember.
It was raining in the evening and I was deliberating for a long time whether or not I should go for YA. I went anyway with YY and A. We took a cab to Sanlitun to buy certain basics from Uniqlo cos its super cheap now,i was tempted to buy guy’s shirts for my bro but decided he can choose himself when he comes, i’m a little broke after shopping at all the good sales at Zara,Bershka,etc (it rhymes :P). Btw, sales here is way better than in Spore I must say, really good and cheap and branded stuff. Then we were waiting for the bus to go church and I was speaking in English when we realise that these 2 guys were looking and kept looking at US. I shut up.
They thought we couldn’t understand Mandarin and said we are probably from the Philippines! ARGH! Fat guy patient had also commented that both A and I look like Malays! When they realise we speak Mandarin, they said we had to be Chinese and they continued scrutinising us and we moved away and they followed and we moved further away, glad that their bus came and they were off.
Anw, we reached church,sang songs, met M.H’s friend S.C and the sermon began. The sermon was by Greg Smith on ‘Finding Your Purpose in Life’ and it wasn’t meant to be a seat-around-and-listen session cos he spoke a little, giving the main points on S-Spiritual Gifts;H-Heart Issues(no its not BGR,its referring to Passion);A-Ability;P-Personality;E-Experience = SHAPE! and so we went into groups for discussion and all and A and YY both knew that I wasnt in the right frame of mind cos i was still feeling a tad unwell and my already-small eyes were closing and looked as if i was sleeping but no, i wasn’t! The sermon was good I felt, spurs you to think more about life, whether you are just here to start life, to get on with life, to get into the monotony of career and the norm of starting a family just cos you are of age, getting old and finally passing on.
When I got home that night, though unwell still, I thank God I went for the service cos its mind-intriguing, no more seating on pews and getting spoon-fed; YY,A and I shared our lives once again, something so rare due to our different schedules and busyness yet something precious.
“And all too soon this life will past, only the things done for Christ will last.”
-Anonymous-
Friday, July 17, 2009
Koinonia in the Outskirts of Beijing.
-11:35 PM
Koinonia is a Greek word that occurs 20 times in the Bible. Koinonia’s primary meaning is “fellowship, sharing in common, communion.” The first occurrence of koinonia is Acts 2:42, “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Christian fellowship is a key aspect of the Christian life. Believers in Christ are to come together in love, faith, and encouragement. That is the essence of koinonia.
Last Sat,11/07/09,some of us went to 延庆,a county in the outskirts of Beijing. It was supposed to be a rest and relax camp for us to quieten our hearts before God. So the housemate and I woke up at 445am,met the others at 515pm and headed for the bus stop. We took a couple of buses,met the other church peeps at 德胜门西before taking a long distance bus and then a mini van to the 农家 in 延庆.ALong the way we had ice-breakers!I got to know a chinese lawyer(there were A LOT of lawyers in this camp!)who is also from Fujian and she said that she could tell that Im from FJ too from my speech and my looks.Shes not the first to say that though.
My room which had 6gals.We slept on this long bed which can be electrically heated during winter!
I love the interesting deco around the 农家.
A cute dog with a hair clip like mine.
Cute stools/chairs at our friend's house.
Amazing Creation.
While waiting for lunch,some of us starting singing christian songs and it caught the attention of some Chinese aunties. They asked us to sing them some songs and quickly we decided which to sing,some with actions some without. We brought out our song sheets and shared them with the aunties while D strummed his guitar. We told them that Jesus loves them and they love our songs and understood that we were a Christian group. We got them to perform some songs for us too. The first of the many impromptus which made this 2 days so memorable.
After 农家乐午饭,we went to 大峡谷,a valley with streams!
We had to pay to 2RMB each to cross this!
Reminds me of Ubin,the quarry.
The free-but-go-at-your-own-risk path of crossing.
It really took a lot of effort climbing up and down, stepping along streams, having my whole feet into the water,getting wet, having frogs jumping around your feet,getting on all fours,getting your bum dirty to avoid falling while climbing up and down the steep contours and slippery rocks WITH MY HAVANAS SLIPPERS! While climbing down a steep er..i dunno wad to call it..its like a small cliff,this guy took his SLR and took pictures of me climbing down while exclaiming ‘她穿着拖鞋爬'! My friends and I wanted to retort and say that there was another on of us with slippers and a dress!Yea but along the way,the ppl wearing slippers were gaining much attention and the locals advised us to climb bare-footed if necessary.
After the whole climb,im more than ever convinced that yes Harvanas are expensive but its worth every single cent! 1.Its Pretty.2.Its hardy-I climbed trees and pluck cherries with my harvanas;I go hiking with my harvanas and though it got caught or was stepped on my friends,it NEVER once broke.3.It doesnt cut my skin regardless of what ordeal I put it through.4.It is not that slippery.I dont think I'll go for another brand of slippers anymore.
LIttle kids catching shrimps and fish along the streams with their fishing nets!I love the joy on their faces while they play.Its what my parents use to play when they are young!
Chickens!
I risked being stung for these pictures cos I was less than half a metre from the bees.I decided to move away when the bees came flying and landing on us and its painful okay.
Its name is Lion.A really really pretty doggie that apparently only likes female.I forgot to check its gender.It bites however.
We had bbq after dinner!
After a while,some kids from a local kindergarden came along and we said hi and started giving them some bbq food!They loved it and while interacting with them,we decided to sing a song for them, with actions!We sang 以基督的心为心 and they followed us with the actions!Later on,the teachers invited us to join them for campfire and said we could perform an item for them. Quickly we decided which songs to do,practice a few actions and off we went so excited with this No.2 Impromtu.
My fav kid.
We danced with the kids and their parents,making 3 concentric circles around the campfire.Out of all the songs used by the kids, I know one while my friends knew none and they came to the conclusion that I must be born in China!-.-
Our turn came and we did our 2songs with the actions and when the teachers did the closing song for the camp fire,we went around shaking hands and hugging the kids while telling them '耶稣爱你'.It suddenly reminded me of older people telling me that the way they got to know about Christ was when they were kids,some one told them'耶稣爱你'..I was touched and am glad that I can tell a kid God loves him/her.
At night,we taught some local girls english while teaching them a song 'All in all'.They had heard us sing in the day and wanted to learn it.:D Impromptu No.3.
In the middle of it all,we received smses and phonecalls that a fellow classmate who went with some of the other classmates to mongolia had gone into shock because of an allergic reaction to alcohol. Apparently, the guide forced them to drink and after they had done so,he forced them to drink more cups till they were all giddy and lying down in the yurt.They were using the contacts from my travel group the other time we went. When we went the other time,the guides did try to get us to drink but we were quite firm and whether we drank or not was our own decision..we weren sure why they were so pushy this time. Anyhow,our classmate went into shock and was sent to a small hospital which didn know quite well what to do. Over in Yanqing,all of us gathered and prayed out loud for our classmate cos it sounded as if she may not make it..the hospital in the capital was a distance from the grasslands,all we had was God. In the end, everything turned out fine,the puking ended,the cold sweat ended,the contractions ended,the shakes ended,she was breathing normally.:)
THe next morning,we woke up early at 5plus,did our own QT before walking out to an open grassland to spend 1 hr with GOd alone. Each of us found our own spot and started.I was looking at the creation and talking to GOd about certain uncertainties I felt etc.Suddenly I was pouring question after question to God.Not that they were all answered but certain important ones were,or at least I felt with certainty that God will be there for me.It brought tears to my eyes.:)
We went back for breakfast before heading to a local friend's house for the sunday service.It was a different feel for a service. No more pews and nice buildings. We sat in her little yard,got all the stools we could find and formed a circle. Some local aunties joined us with their daughters. Yes there were mosquitos and bugs but we were not bothered by those. I love the clean air in the forest-ty area..have not breathe such clean air in a long time. We sat on our stools while singing and while listening to our friend,M.H,an ABC from the States share God's word. Simple stools and nature and God and Christian company,Koinonia, I love it.
After lunch, we went for a walk up the mountain/hill/village towards 莲花山.We carried our guitar and were singing songs one after another along the way while the ocassional cars honked at us. When we reached another village,we stood around to sing and pray before walking back.
We got our things,got into our mini van and off we were for Beijing.For dinner,the 8 of us from class with our fren frm the States and another local friend went to this place that reminded me of MINDS cafe,near 后海.Its really cosy and had a couch,chairs,games and DVD player put together which reminded me of a cottage!We watched Lord of the Rings III while eating pizza and had to fast forward while M.H explained the movie.I only watched LOTR I and II. THe shows are all so nice,we plan to have a movie marathon at the end of this week! I really love the place,mayb i'll go back one day for a drink and soup,with my camera and a book.
A store selling books in my estate at night! Why? cos they sell pirated books.Its all photocopied.I bought a travel guide showing villages or 古镇 in china for 14 RMB.Shouldnt have though..the quality is alright but i can get an orginal with better quality for an inexpensive price too. Shall not do it again!
<em>"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." - 1 Peter 3:15-16</em>
