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Glimmer of hope

Our plane leaves for Guangzhou in a few hours, and Kaya actually smiled during breakfast. She waved her arms and smiled and even made a few happy baby noises. So, I think she may be getting adjusted to our little family. Just ever so slowly.

I'm finding it difficult to stay hydrated in China. You can't drink the water out of the tap, and at the restaurants, you get beer or water, never both. If you get beer, you get a big bottle. If you want water, you get a juice glass. So, after 2 weeks of eating a steady diet of rice and noodles, I've been searching for a box of All-Bran.

Last night, several of the couples in our group went to get a foot massage. A massage business is located in the theater next to our building, and the business has at least two dozen masseuses on staff. Our foot massage started with soaking our feet in hot soup while they gave us a back and shoulder massage. After we'd been pummeled for long enough, we turned around and lay back on the loungers to watch Mandarin sitcoms while they massaged our feet. Lisa had a very friendly boy on her feet who kept smiling at her, and I had a very serious woman that had fingers of steel. Neither of them spoke any English, so the normal "a little bit higher", "not so much pressure", turned into thumbs-up and thumbs-down. Near the end of the foot massage, our guide came in and asked us how it was. She told us the masseuses could tell us if anything was wrong with our bodies, by feeling the warm parts of our feet. Our guide asked them in Chinese, and then told Lisa that she was perfectly healthy. I was thinking, if she says I have "stomach ailments" I will be impressed. She didn't. After talking to my masseuse and chuckling to each other in Mandarin, our guide said "She says your poop is too dry. You need to drink more tea." So, I drank more tea.

Cheyenne has been in a very good mood. She is adjusting pretty well to a screaming sister, and tries to help soothe her when she can. Kaya responds very well to Asian people, and actually responded better to Cheyenne than to me or Lisa. One of the other couples in our group have a six-year-old son named Ben, and Cheyenne and Ben have become good friends. They chase each other around the halls and terrorize the rest of the people on our floor. Last night we made "Monkey King" masks out of paper, and they wore them while watching "Cinderella".

Spike's birthday was yesterday, and Kathy got him a cake. All of the families gathered in Spike and Peggy's room to celebrate with them. It was a fitting end to our stay in Changsh

1 comment:

Uberlander said...

We always suspected something was wrong with you....Dry Pooper!

Glad you got a bit of relaxation and hope for peace. It must be a terrifying thing to a child who can't speak and is all of a sudden be thrown to the Monkeykings.

Give Cheyenne a raspberry hello, and Kaya a bounce from us.