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Sichuan Earthquake

God, where are you?

The world has broken and

I am surrounded by death,

It could have been me

And I am so ashamed

I’m here when young lives

They were lives once

Are lying in the broken world

Still like eggs in the market

When snow fills the roof

Bringing it to the ground

Burma Flood

Gods upstairs fighting

crashing and throwing

buckets of water

banging the pails

shaking trees like

rice in a winnow bowl

then the world filled with water

houses drowned and we ran

without hills to help us

no Gods put hills here

our houses were too low

so my daughter drowned

my wife was swept away

she didn’t come back

I am waiting for

government gods in Yangon

to undo the work

of the gods upstairs

but they have not come

my neighbour has the

bad shit another flood

and her body will be

a dry husk of rice

to be planted

never to grow again

This week I watched with mounting horror as the news of the terrible earthquake in Sichuan province of China became worse and worse. Today the floodgates of my heart overflowed when I received news that three of my students have lost friends or relatives in it and that others are waiting anxiously for news of loved ones in the area. Another girl used to impress me with her dedicated participation in an organization of student volunteers who go to poorer areas to help villagers. Today I learned that she was helping a year ago in one of the schools that collapsed and that the village she went to stay in for a week or more has been totally destroyed. I can’t imagine how you feel Christina. Your heart must be full of sorrow and you must be searching for reasons in your mind. Me too. I don’t know why such things happen.

My friend Carole is teaching my classes and that’s how I know about my students’ grief. Carole has been doing the only thing possible at times like these, opening her heart and her arms to comfort her students. I wish I were there to do the same. She cries with them and so do I. Carole sent me a link to a site with lots of tragic photos of scenes in the earthquake zone, including the horror of dead children in the ruins of their schools. Why look at such things? Because to see these made it real to me and I wept uncontrollably, as we all should.

The Chinese government has responded quickly and efficiently, pouring troops into the area to save who can be saved. The photos also illustrate their excellent effort. Well done China.

Let us not forget the people of the Delta area in Burma (Myanmar) whose government has obstructed international efforts to help and perhaps even taken possession of aid supplies without deploying them to the devastated areas. Now the one and a half million people affected by the flood are in danger of epidemics of diseases that flourish in the conditions left by the cyclone, of polluted water and the rise in populations of disease carrying insects. With almost all crops destroyed by the torrential rain and flooding they need food to be given to them and their government is obstructing its delivery. There is a real chance of many thousands more dying for these reasons.

It was early evening and I walked down past the Fish and Chip Shop with its lovely Vietnamese family and over the road and through the family recreation area. Nearby was the long stone jetty and I walked out on it drinking the cool sea air and looking up at the stars. Orion the hunter was slipping towards the horizon to my left as the Southern Cross climbed towards the Zenith on my right. The tide was out and I noticed a grey bird stalking over the mud flats. It kept pace with me for a while as I walked. Two thirds of the way out I reached the waterline and left the bird behind.

The jetty ends in a T and there are benches to sit on, which were my destination. As I reached the T I saw another grey bird in the darkness and a second flew to meet it from the direction of the shore. They greeted each other with guttural utterances. I moved slowly and carefully to try to avoid startling them and they stayed nearby for a few minutes as I approached the bench I wanted to sit on. I now know the birds are White-faced Herons. They stalked off together and vocalised to each other and seemed to be affectionate. I wondered if they were a breeding pair. The Herons remained on the T of the jetty.

I sat and relaxed on my bench in the semi-darkness, looking around me at the sea and the sky, experiencing the vast slow movement of ocean and the slower and vaster movement of sky, feeling the very light breeze and relaxing. When I got up I walked slowly and gently, hoping to pass the birds without frightening them away but they moved onto the main arm of the jetty and flew as I came within ten metres of them. As I looked down the length of the construction the light from the lamps spaced along it revealed a heron here and there. I wondered what attracted them until I saw one of them loft up gracefully, snapping at an insect in the light.

Coming to each bird I would ever walk more slowly and approach it cautiously. I tried mimicking the guttural cry once and though it was a poor attempt the bird looked at me and stayed a little longer than the others before flying off. Near the shore end I was able to stand next to one of the birds a pace away. It turned and casually walked past me in the direction I had come from. Just after that I came to a family with two dogs and keeping the same attitude of spirit I let the dogs explore me until they trusted me to pat them. The two women and their children were friendly too so we exchanged greetings and moved on. It had been a beautiful walk on the jetty.

Once I thought I could make more slime than anyone in the world. When I was a teenager I had hay fever from plants and house dust and worst of all book dust though I loved books. I spent days sitting in class blowing my nose. I produced litres of, let’s call it slime but you know what I mean. I was really embarrassed by it. There’s a creature that lives at the very bottom of the oceans that makes my slime producing ability look as small as David must have looked to Goliath. It’s called the Hagfish.

We can easily get a horrible picture of the Hagfish in our minds. It is long like an eel or a snake and can twist around really well because it has got no bones. Hagfish eat the dead bodies of other fish that die and sink to the bottom. Eew! Can you imagine a group of hagfish eating a dead whale or even a person who is buried at sea? Not a nice picture. Another habit of hagfish that we find very unpleasant is that they often eat a carcass from inside it. They get in through the mouth or some other opening. Very few people have seen hagfish in their natural home as it is too deep for divers unless they are in a special deep water vehicle. Some of the people who have seen them saw a dead creature looking as if it was alive. It seemed to be wriggling and bulging. After a while they realized it was full of hagfish moving inside it. Yuck!

I can imagine a really scary movie about hagfish that are affected by chemicals or radiation and start chasing swimmers. Even Jaws wouldn’t be as terrifying. In the movie they would be pretty long but the biggest kinds are not much over a metre long and most are little squiggly things. Let us remember that everything on this planet has its place and it is actually quite wonderful that hagfish can exist and live at the bottom of the oceans where it is freezing cold and really, really dark and most creatures would die from the pressure. Well the places most hagfish live are so deep there isn’t much light there anyway so it uses other senses so well it wouldn’t be concerned about being blind at all, so they have no real eyes.

Remember my hay fever? Why did I tell you about that? It is because the strangest thing of all about the hagfish is that it can make more slime than any other creature. It has slime glands all over its body. The hagfish can ooze slime out so fast that if another fish tries to eat the hagfish it can choke on the slime. Well, at least the slime can clog the gills which are the part of the fish that let it breathe under water. In fact, I can really sympathise with hagfish because its slime can be so thick it coats the creature all over and it is probably the only fish that has learned to sneeze to get rid of it all. The other crazy thing a hagfish does to get its own slime off it is tie itself in a knot and then slip the knot all down it to scrape away the slime. For me, slime was an embarrassment, but for the hagfish it is the most amazing protection and maybe it also helps it to slip around inside a dead thing it is eating from the inside.

You’re not going to believe this. Wait for it. Scientists are trying to find ways of using hagfish slime to help people. They are wondering about using it in cooking instead of the white bits of eggs. A meringue is a kind of cake made with a lot of egg white mixed with sugar. Can you imagine walking in your favourite cake shop one day and buying a Hagfish Meringue, or even worse, a Slime Meringue!. They would have to invent a more attractive name, like Mermaid’s Meringue. There are some ideas about it being used in medicine to clog up bits of people that are bleeding and make the bleeding stop.

Now I’ve told you, you can go and tell all your friends about one of the yuckiest creatures on the planet but in the end I would be really happy if you tell them that even the hagfish is special and its slime is a special ability. They won’t believe you when you tell them about it but when someone makes the Movies, ‘Hagfish’, ‘Hagfish 2′ and the rest, you can say, ‘I told you so.’

The experience of being a patient in hospital can be quite bizarre. It is an abnormal situation in that it is not a chosen part of anyone’s daily life and the routines and procedures often bear little relationship to the way most of us want our day to go. It is a low stimulus environment, apart from the high stimulus moments when a needle or other sharp object is used to penetrate the skin. In such an environment small things assume inordinate importance.

Meals are a highlight of the day, breaking the monotony of lying in bed hour after hour waiting for the next nurse or doctor to come and make ‘obs’, observations often accompanied by the aforementioned jabs to extract varying quantities of blood or insert a quantity of a healing substance. Bless ‘em, they’re only doing their job of trying to save ones life! I became hyper aware of even small things and had to tell myself it would be inappropriate for me to get angry when I found the butter was missing from my meal allocation twice in a row. My anger management technique was to start saying to myself mentally, ‘The king told the Queen and the Queen told the dairymaid, I do like a little bit of butter to my bread.’ That’s a misquote from A.A.Milne’s ‘Christopher Robin. Eventually I made it an opportunity for communication by telling the meal delivery girl that I would have to request a Commission of enquiry into why there was no butter on my meal tray twice and recited those lines to her. I also told a really beautiful young doctor who was one of the team looking after me. They both loved it. I guess hospitals and their rigid routines can be boring for staff too and a friendly patient can help make their day. I hope so. Glad to be of assistance.

Hey! Look at the strange creatures we have in Brisbane! I was really happy to find these three lovely creatures in George Street, Brisbane. The sculptor, Chris Trotter is very good and you can see more of his work on his website http://www.trotter.com.au/homepage/index2.html  Have a look. I always enjoyed the street sculptures in China and have been pleased to see that Brisbane has progressed in that area since I have been away.

Most urgent in my mind again is getting my house in order. It has become messy with the arrival of four of my boxes from China. I despaired when I saw the condition the boxes were in. They had been subjected to very rough handling indeed. I’ll put a photo on the blog. Part of it was that the Australian Customs Service had opened one and not sealed it up again very well but every box showed signs of having been thrown around and all were torn in some place or other. It was a big relief to find that most things were undamaged, particularly my most precious items. I was amazed that an ornate teapot set I bought in Shanghai had little damage. Five out of six little cups are unbroken and the teapot is intact. A pottery ockarina I bought in Beijing is broken but I was unable to play it and I had little attachment to it. I knew I had not packed it with care as one of the last minute additions and am not surprised it did not make the journey complete. One thing I am a little sad about is an ornament one of my first students gave to me for Christmas. It is a metal ‘Chinese gate’ with three bells hanging from it and a small hammer to ring them. The inexpensive metal it was made of broke under the handling the box received. Perhaps I can glue it but it will never be the same.

I rejoice that my most precious things among those which have arrived are intact. The lovely carved map of Hubei that Amy gave me and The china rabbit given me by Rita. My lacquer screen bought in Xi’an is no worse than when I packed it. It is in need of restoration but I don’t know where I can have that done yet. Pictures rolled and put in long cardboard boxes have travelled well. My books are safe and so are my Chinese learning CDs although one case has fragmented. Two nice bowls given to me by Catherine are in good condition as are my two Korean metal chopstick and spoon sets.

Lots of clothes arrived but most are suitable for winter in a more severe climate than Queensland’s. I have put them in a backpack which also arrived. I had to reassemble it and fit the metal frame back in it. Now it is stuffed with jumpers and jackets. The remaining two boxes have my Guan Yin statue and tripod but they mainly contain my lovely minority cloths. It should not be long before they come. As I write one of the last two boxes has arrived, but not at my home yet. I expect the other to arrive this week and my son will bring the two over here together. Then I can find ways to put beautiful cloths on the walls, it’s something I love in my homes.

OK my friends, it’s time I let you all know that my medicine is doing a great job of keeping me well and that the long process of moving into my home and organizing all my stuff is almost complete.

I am living in a lovely bayside suburb of Brisbane and can walk out of my house, stroll down to the end of my block and walk along the foreshore for kilometres, or as far as I want to go, looking at the sea. For those of you who don’t know the area, Brisbane sits on Moreton Bay, a large Bay whose outer boundary is formed by North and South Stradbroke Island and Moreton Island, islands largely made of sand in a very unusual natural phenomenon. Not far north is Fraser Island whose unique landscape is formed exclusively of sand. There are other smaller islands within Moreton Bay. This is part of the sea and sky scape I watch in wonder as I stroll along finding relaxation, peace and healing from the visually jarring urban landscape, unhealthy air and noise of Wuhan. My soul and body are finding healing here and it is not just the exercise and medicine that is doing it. Even though I am in a suburb of a city of over a million people it is a healthy place.

I also love the smell of incense (xiang) and often burn scented candles, use scented oils in an evaporator and  burn fragrant incense. The best incense is made in India and I can buy it very cheaply in this area. I am sure the scent is also a healing and restful influence in my life lately.

My home is full of furniture and goods which almost miraculously appeared from relatives, friends and from shops at bargain prices I stumbled upon. There are still some gaps but even today I happened upon two bargains, one of which I visualised about two weeks ago as a thing I needed but didn’t think such things were made any more at a price I could afford, a chair that converts to a useful small portable staircase. As I intend to hang some of my lovely Chinese cloths on walls and put at least one more shelf up it is essential. I walked into a second-hand shop today and there was the chair stair I had visualised. Wow! Am I being looked after or what?

Remember my experiences at the Post Office as I sent six boxes to Australia. (Read my blog about it.) Well, it wasn’t three months but it was well nigh two and a half and not all the China was broken but the boxes were a terrible mess. I’ll post the story separately. It’s already written elsewhere as part of a writing exercise I have given myself to keep me focussed.

You might remember my medical problem is a damaged heart that is arrhythmic and promotes fluid build up in my lungs. This is complicated by diabetes that I allowed to get right out of control in China. Now my sugar levels are brilliant every day and I feel almost normal in my energy levels except I cannot lift anything heavy as I once could and I can’t walk as fast or walk all day without stress as I once could. The many pills I take every day are working very well and enable me to keep up a level of exercise that might restore strength and better functioning to my heart one day.

The only setback lately is that I also bought a motor scooter and enjoyed riding it so much I neglected to walk for a few days and today when I started again I became a little more out of breath than a week ago! Daily walks are on again. However, it is great to have some cheap transport. Now I am on a Disability Support Benefit (once called an Invalid Pension) and will learn to manage on that while hoping to pick up a little more income here and there. I don’t believe I could handle even a part time job in any field I have experience in so here’s hoping that one day my writing will change from a hobby to work. It would be ideal as I could set my own timetable and number of hours of work.

Now I have a small backpack again my camera will be going to work, partly for fun and partly as another hope for a small income. Expect photos from time to time so you can see something of this lovely city but for now I will leave you with the assurance that I am back on track health wise and settling in to Australia again very well.

I thought I had finished writing critical appraising articles about China but there is one thing I rediscovered amongst my notes today that I will write because it holds an important caution for tourist thinking of buying electronic goods there and to any young student of mine who might one day think of starting a business in selling electronic goods. Don’t do it this way guys. It is really well known that one should never handle electronic circuits with uncovered hands or fingers. Those circuits are etched so finely that just a trace of oil from the hands can destroy the circuit or just a tiny spark of static electricity can wipe portions of memory, again rendering the circuit useless.

In Wuhan I had two experiences of witnessing shop assistants demonstrating ignorance or blithe disregard of those two essential pieces of knowledge. The first was when I went to buy an auxiliary hard drive for my computer. It was one of those little ones that fit in a small case and connect to the computer through a USB port. The drive came separately from the case and had to be fitted in and the sales assistant knew it was good service for him to put them together for me. I watched horrified as he put his hands all over the circuits on the drive and I had to complain to his boss. Fortunately the boss knew some English and together with my rudimentary Chinese we soon understood each other and he replaced the drive with another, and took great care not to handle the sensitive parts.

Not long after that I went looking to an electronic sales centre for additional RAM for my laptop and rejected stall after stall as I looked at memory sticks lying exposed on the counters and assistants handling the memory sticks with their fingers and ensuring that they would not last long. At last I was relieved to find a shop staffed by a person who obviously knew his work and handled each electronic product carefully by its edges, avoiding contact with the vulnerable circuits.

To Westerners looking forward to shopping in China I tell you that many Chinese shopkeepers do not know much at all about the products they sell. Their job is to sell and to do that they memorise the blurb on the packages and the manufacturers leaflets. They have little understanding of the functions of devices they have in stock and if it is not in their stock they will never have heard of it. The concept of keeping up with the literature has never entered their minds and is certainly not encouraged by the shop bosses. Rule through keeping the peasants ignorant was a common power ploy in Chinese history and perhaps most bosses use it to this day. This disadvantages any customer who wants real information also,of course.

After a few years of experiences of shopping in this kind of environment I found it almost exhilarating when I discovered a shop assistant who had knowledge of his or her product or even the stock she carried, without having to consult senior staff or a book. I remember one charming girl in a cellphone shop who was able to answer questions I put to her and I took two friends there to buy their phones. It was appropriate and a pleasure to praise her for her knowledge and tell her she was exceptional as a shop assistant because of it.

To my Chinese friends, if you are ever in the position of selling make it one of your interests in life to know your field. Find out everything about the rival products and be able to tell the customer about new models that are arriving next week or even in six months time. Then also get to know the products so well you can tell the customers the advantage of one over the other and, with cellphones, what services they can connect to, who will provide the services and at what cost. If you are clear, informed and honest and want the customer’s satisfaction instead of a one time profit you will get repeat business. This stuff is so rare in China, well, Wuhan at least, that you will soon rise above your competitors.

Three more days before I move into my new home. I have been given a lot of household things and furniture but have still had to spend a lot of time reading catalogues, visiting shops, talking to salespeople and finally buying things that are just plain necessary for a householder. I can’t imagine how I would have done if I had no savings at all. By the time I actually move into the place there won’t be much left but I’ll have a place that not only feels comfortable but looks good. That’s important to me. It will have my style stamped on it, even to the extent of disguising the floral pattern of my lovely mother’s good quality three-seater sofa with a couple of Indian cotton bedspreads and a beautiful Yi minority patchwork from China.

I’ll have all the necessities to cook and to eat what I cook and I’ll be able to wash clothes and clean floors. The Queensland government will chip in $200 because I bought a washing machine that is economical in both power and water. However, so far I haven’t arranged for the connection of power and gas and the internet. So far I haven’t been able to make the choice of internet service provider though I have found a site that makes it a little clearer. At least I know that the only company that does a proper national wireless internet service is Big Pond and it is way out of my price range. Now I have to choose a way of getting a home based fast internet service. More research tomorrow as the decision is urgent. After a weekend of arranging my home I will knuckle down and take a professional approach to writing.

The advantage of being regarded as pensionable is that I have a financial base, albeit not one which will keep me very comfortable. That will enable me to build up my writing experience on a hobby level at first and then to the point where I bring in enough money to say goodbye to the pension and become part of the respectable workforce again. There’s the plan, that and being healthy enough to have reasonable quality of life.

My bedroom is furnished and the living room is taking shape. I have two desks but no table to eat from just yet. One of the desks will do at first. I’ll buy a mattress on the day of the move so I’ll be able to sleep in the sheets, under the cool weather quilt, with my head on the pillows that I bought. Sometime next week I’ll be blogging from my new home.