I have arrived back in my Yangtze rivertown, Luzhou!   

         Although I have so many tales to report, I am currently still not connected to the Internet.  I am using the office computer at the moment.  Little Flower is with me as we’ve been doing the campus walk this Saturday.  After so much rain and darkness upon my arrival, we are finally have a lovely sunny day!  It’s my opportunity to take lots of pictures to share with all of you very soon, which I’ll be so happy to do.

         My father is stable but the doctors are not pleased with his progress, which was not much.  He is on a ventilator and sedated.  According to my mother, he will be like this for some time until his lungs can open up more.  Every morning, my brother drives her to the hospital at 6:30 a.m. and she and he (when he is able) stay for most of the day.   He has practically a private nurse who is on duty all the time, checking equipment, giving meds, monitoring whatever.  My mother is so impressed by the excellent care and the professionalism, plus the kindness, of all the staff.  She is getting to know them very well now.  This is Terre Haute Union Hospital, for those who are wondering.  How very blessed we are to have such excellent medical help nearby.  It’s only 15 minutes’ drive by car from Marshall, IL, which is right on the Illinois-Indiana border.

        I am slowly unpacking boxes and putting things back in order.  I asked for a professional cleaning company to be hired to completely clean the apartment before I arrived.  It was a cost of only $18 to me and they did a truly fantastic job.  It was a mess when I left it and hadn’t been lived in for an entire year. I  guess two rats made their home there for some time.  Catherine (the foreign affairs director) is in charge of making sure everything is ready for the foreign teacher and she gave me that report several weeks ago.  I had two rats one summer vacation when I went home and I wondered if these were the babies.  Sure enough, after I came to school 2 days ago, I opened a desk drawer where they used to live and found several lovely nests in there.  This was the only criticism I had for the cleaners.  These 3 drawers were the only ones they didn’t check because they were locked, the keys still there. 

         Who would have thought anything dastardly would be in there?

        Our only family member not with us is Little Ghost.  She’s with us in spirit, however.  Although LF is certainly not at all missing her, I still do.  Always hard to lose a pet but this is part of life.

         Please keep checking my space for news of a new city and a new life in "small"town China (3 million).

 

       From Luzhou, sending you your first "Ping An!" (peace)