the joy of ease...

i have a bed every night.
i have seen erin once in the past week. for twenty minutes.
we sleep in heat controlled rooms and our meals are found by our mother's or on menus that seem to take forever to read.

we've both made it home.

it was an important trip.

fruit gummies and second hand smoke...

i'm a procrastinator... all of you know that. and if you don't, let this be your lesson.

i've been putting off writing a blog for two reasons of late:
1. i haven't wanted to take the time to make the time and would rather spend my time that is unclaimed wandering the streets and replying to the 'hello' s of this city's children, most of whom are learning the basics of english (hello, goodbye, what is your name) in their schools.
2. we've been utilizing our friend's laptop, which has the temperment of some of the shower's we've found, and every time i've tried to write something long, it has been mercilessly deleted through some crash or freeze.

so now i find myself in an internet cafe, or as they are known here; internet bar, which i found by saying (with a questioning and idiotic look on my face, because i can't do tones) "Na li you wang ba?" then following pointing fingers and the heels of kind chinese friends. the guy next to me has been chain smoking and playing internet poker for the past hour or so, and he shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. behind me, there is an entire group (about eight guys) who just came in to play world of warcraft. they're intense.

we're still in xining, and we still love it. we just put in the request to Tibet yesterday, which means we'll be leaving to go to Lhasa on friday night (hopefully).

we're getting really good at filling our days. i have so much to write about. i'm trying right now to decide how to organize it all, either by day, by event or by category. i think...

CATEGORIES!
i reccomend taking a break while reading this, i'm afraid it's pretty lengthy... sorry.

Xining

Xining (say it: sheening) is amazing. it is on the edge of the tibetan plateau, and it is at a higher altitude (about 7200 feet) than the rest of the places we've been to. it is the largest town in Qinghai Province, and the city erected by the two million who live here lines a valley in the eastern corner of the province between barren mountains of varrying shades of brown. The difference in the people here is astounding, and we noticed it as soon as we walked out onto the street. There is a ton of diversity here, due to the location of Qinghai and the promise that xining offers as a living destination. In Beijing and even HK we were aware of hordes of people, but they all (and yes, i am slightly generalizing) had black hair, small stature and asian style. but here there are Tibetans, Tibetan Monks, Muslims (of many colors), and a variance of Chinese. I'm not claiming to be able to tell the difference between tribes or clans, but there are different sounds, colors of clothing, worship and skin, and it is refreshing.

one thing that xining does not have is a large population of foreigners, so we are a bit of anomalies and points of interest here. Currently (like, right now) there are two guys who work at this internet bar looking over my shoulder while i'm writing and sounding out the words that i am typing. they say they have never really seen anyone type in english. i'm just having to get used to having a lot of attention paid to small things that i do.

So, one big plus (besides having a change in visage scenery) of having a diverse population is more types of food, and erin and i have been fully partaking in that (okay, almost fully partaking, but i'll write about that later).

It is really nice to be in a smaller city (compared to beijing and hong kong) because we are more able to feel like we know our way around. We're starting to recognize people, we can walk almost anywhere, and when we need to reach destinations speedily we've figured out how to take the right busses (with only a few mishaps).

One of the deciding factors behind our choice to spend time in Xining is the children's home that they have here. Our friends who live in xining got us some contact info, and we've been able to volunteer a bit of our time there.

Children's Home

This orphanage is amazing. i am really excited about it. it started about ten years ago as the only orphanage in Qinghai province, and it was extremely necessary. It is run in tandem by a non-profit organization out of HK and the chinese government, and is the only home of it's type. it may or may not come as a suprise to you, but most of the orphans (like 80 percent) in this area (and in the home) are either physically or mentally disabled, or a combination of the two, and these children are often abandoned at birth. Unlike what you may have seen on BBC's "Dying Room" documentary of chinese orphanages for the handicapped, the Xining Children's home (web site, if you want to check it out http://www.christian-action.org.hk/child/2nd.htm ) is doing an exemplary job of caring for the children of this area. they have one of the first physical rehab centers of any orpanage in all of china, and from what i've seen, they are doing their best to love these kids and help them overcome the trials their bodies and lives have presented them with.

Mostly we've been able to come in and help with the feeding of some of the children, and we get to play with the kids before and after the meal.

i was honestly worried that it would become depressing to be around some of the more handicapped children, just knowing (slightly) the state of their lives, and erin told me that she had been feeling some of the same trepidation, but she told me something that totally changed my mindset. on the first day, she was in a room with about 8 kids who all seem to have something that keeps them from being in much control of their limbs and actions. she said that at first she just really felt sorry for the kids, but after playing with them for about an hour, it dawned on her; their joy is real. these kids have some of the best smiles and laughs that either have us have seen in a long time. seriously, who are we to pity the fact that their joy looks different than ours. it's is wonderful to have a change of mind about that, and the peace of mind to know that they are all loved. We've seen one of the more mobile kids that we've been playing with (he has such spunk, he grabs us around the knees and dances with us) be taken into foster care in the short time that we've been volunteering, and it is really encouraging to see that the community does help this home and these kids.

we also were able to go swimming with some of the older kids from the home. we were able to teach some of the kids and other adults that went how to swim a little, and we avoided parasites (we hope) from the disgusting water. the six kids that we went with are amazing! the pool was not. but the children, they're some of the children who aren't handicapped, and they all live together in a little wing of the seven story children's home. they have a little family, the six of them, and it makes my heart jump just to think of it. they are beautiful and giving and friendly, and the girls are our friends. one of the boys is moving to washington state, and we gave him and the rest of the children some postcards and photo books of washington scenery (thank you adrianna), and then we all shared photos. some of them had photos of them when they were children with their families, and i wish that i could know their entire stories. i love them. every time we go to the home for feeding now, we stop by their apartment and say hello. there are two girls, both about fifteen, and their (english) names are cathy and jessica. they are so sweet. they sang for us and played the piano and were such lights in our lives.

all in all, the children's home is something that i hope to be involved with in the future. they are doing a great job, their staff are some of the most caring people i have met, and they are providing stability in this area of china for those who need it the most.

Bodies
would you call this yellow...or green?- this has been the question of the day, most days, and erin has been manning up regularly and answering 'umm... yellow, i think. isn't green more well... green?'
as i mentioned before, i've been sick.
i've been afraid that my sinuses would necesitate antibiotics (and an akward and lengthy doctor's visit to get the perscription), especially after we got to xining and what i think is the high altitude caused me amazing pressure and a week long headache. but i think my body (and erin's ears, thanks to my coughing, spitting(i fit in here), and yes, sometimes complaints) is persevering. it seems to be clearing up, slowly but surely it is taking me less and less time in the morning to clear everything out, and i don't think i've asked erin to do color comparisons for at least a day or two.
erin, on the other hand, is all ceared up. she did get a bit sick, but has stopped sniffling for about a week or two.
but, all isn't smooth with the body of amy.
lucky me, but i guess i needed to slow down for a day, because i got food poisening on sunday night.
for those of you who contributed to raising erin, i thank you. know that she will be an amazing mother someday. she rubbed my back, got me buckets, made me salty water and sang me lullabyes while i had the most painful night of my life. we were up until seven in the morning, with me on the cold tiles of the bathroom for most of that time. then we slept. it was awful, but i feel fine now and am back to eating this amazing food. (i think it was food that we left out that made me ill, at least that's what i'm telling myself)

Food

as you may have gleaned, we are fans of food in xining. we are staying in the muslim area of town, and we are witness to food that we've never really had access to. chinese muslims work wonders with potatoes. they make fries, chips, wedges, bread, funnel cake like things, noodle things, and a bunch of other variations that have escaped my notice or memory. my favorite are the potato rounds that are about a third of an inch thick, deep fried till cooked through, then seasoned with somthing salty and spicy. generally speaking, i am not a huge fan of hot spice in china (erin and i have decided it's due to the lack of flavor and ability to numb the tongue), but this spice is a different story. it is so good. these potatoes are so good.

we've been getting really good at going into restarants and pointing at either pictures or food that other people have on their plates and saying one (igga) or two (lianga), and we've been pretty lucky thus far. we've instituted rules to govern what places we eat at.
they must:
. have at least two parties already dining
. look clean
. not be too creepy
. have napkins
we've broken a rule or two here and there, but so far we've had pretty decent meals.

another thing that is abundant in xining is dumplings. steamed, fried, doughy, baked, crispy, small, big, they have them all. and in our part of town, they are mutton dumplings, and delicious. along with the dumplings we've been having large amounts of mienpien, a muslim noodle dish that is made with square noodles and long noodles, green peppers, zuccinin-like veggies, mutton specks and some type of brothy sauce that is pretty good. last night a friend that we met took us to his favorite spot, and i had the best mienpien thus far of our trip. erin had this stuff we call chinese spaghetti, and it was also really good.

a neat thing that we didn't expect is that we haven't even seen soy sauce since we left the states. but instead, in a little pot on every table we have been given something similiar to basalmic vinegar. we put it on our dumplings, in our noodles, and it is really rather good.

okay.... i haven't covered nearly everything, but it's getting rather late, and i need to get back to erin (we split up today, and i'm really good at losing track of time). it's almost midnight here, and food places close around now, and i'm still hungry.

i'll try to write again tomorrow or the next day, definitely befor we go to tibet.

we love you, and are becoming rather excited to see our washington friends soon.
thank you so much to the people who have been emailing us, we love hearing from you.
do take care.