Wednesday, November 16, 2005
SHUANGJIANG, CHRISTIANS AND CHICKEN
OK, so we're in Shuangjiang (Shuang means pair...I have a feeling jiang is river based on the character, but I haven't seen one, let along 2 rivers here.) After 15 hours on a bus we arrived at 8 this morning. We stay here today, then go to the village. This afternoon we met the engineer in charge of our project. The first question he asked us was "ok, so who's Christian?" Since nobody came forth and Chay figured the question was "who's Californian" he pointed to Megan. So Megan is our group Christian. Katie and Dean will also be representing the Gentile team. Apparently the village we're going to is all Christian already...god forbid a CHRISTIAN group help someone they hadn't already converted. Apparently our project will be digging holes to install pipes for running water, since the village currently has no running water or electricity. A member of each family currently has to spend about 6 hours gathering water per day.
For those who haven't been following bird flu, China has been quite ridiculous lately. Things going on with birds in China:
1) Today the government announced plans to vaccinate all birds in the country. Thats a nice idea, except with a few problems. There are 14 billion birds, the government has 40 million vaccines. Many birds live in peoples houses or roam wild.
2) Chinese consume about 10 billion birds a year. Most of these are consumed in a way I like to call "Chicken a la Lawnmower." Lawnmower Chicken is chicken that has been hacked into tiny pieces with the skin and bones still attached...as if run over by a lawnmower. Apparently at one time Chinese people could cut meat well, since there are some old Daoist sayings about cutting chicken, but that skill must have been lost somewhere a few thousand years back.
3) According to the "experts," bird flu can't be transferred by eating cooked poultry. Well, the 12 year old girl who died a month ago and her brother who died a few days ago in China beg to differ. After quickly proclaiming that the girl's death was NOT bird flu and creamating her body, her brother got sick too, and the government has been forced to acknowledge that not only is it very likely that the boy has bird flu, but its almost certain his sister had it too. Oops. Maybe this explains why the price of chicken in China has fallen 1000% this month, from $2.50/kg to $0.25/kg. That having been said, poultry is a main food staple here and due to lack of other choice I will continue to eat it. Plus, Peking Duck is so tasty. Here's to hoping Tamiflu works.
Apparently the soap opera died as quickly as it had started, with everyone now wanting to go north. It will either be Beijing or Shanghai and Kaifeng (the town with Chinese Jews claiming to be a lost tribe.) Trevor is still leaving after the service project and while I continue to think he's insane for village-hopping up along the Burmese border by himself, I've done some crazy things too. I just hope he stays alive long enough to tell us about his solo trek.
OK, so we're in Shuangjiang (Shuang means pair...I have a feeling jiang is river based on the character, but I haven't seen one, let along 2 rivers here.) After 15 hours on a bus we arrived at 8 this morning. We stay here today, then go to the village. This afternoon we met the engineer in charge of our project. The first question he asked us was "ok, so who's Christian?" Since nobody came forth and Chay figured the question was "who's Californian" he pointed to Megan. So Megan is our group Christian. Katie and Dean will also be representing the Gentile team. Apparently the village we're going to is all Christian already...god forbid a CHRISTIAN group help someone they hadn't already converted. Apparently our project will be digging holes to install pipes for running water, since the village currently has no running water or electricity. A member of each family currently has to spend about 6 hours gathering water per day.
For those who haven't been following bird flu, China has been quite ridiculous lately. Things going on with birds in China:
1) Today the government announced plans to vaccinate all birds in the country. Thats a nice idea, except with a few problems. There are 14 billion birds, the government has 40 million vaccines. Many birds live in peoples houses or roam wild.
2) Chinese consume about 10 billion birds a year. Most of these are consumed in a way I like to call "Chicken a la Lawnmower." Lawnmower Chicken is chicken that has been hacked into tiny pieces with the skin and bones still attached...as if run over by a lawnmower. Apparently at one time Chinese people could cut meat well, since there are some old Daoist sayings about cutting chicken, but that skill must have been lost somewhere a few thousand years back.
3) According to the "experts," bird flu can't be transferred by eating cooked poultry. Well, the 12 year old girl who died a month ago and her brother who died a few days ago in China beg to differ. After quickly proclaiming that the girl's death was NOT bird flu and creamating her body, her brother got sick too, and the government has been forced to acknowledge that not only is it very likely that the boy has bird flu, but its almost certain his sister had it too. Oops. Maybe this explains why the price of chicken in China has fallen 1000% this month, from $2.50/kg to $0.25/kg. That having been said, poultry is a main food staple here and due to lack of other choice I will continue to eat it. Plus, Peking Duck is so tasty. Here's to hoping Tamiflu works.
Apparently the soap opera died as quickly as it had started, with everyone now wanting to go north. It will either be Beijing or Shanghai and Kaifeng (the town with Chinese Jews claiming to be a lost tribe.) Trevor is still leaving after the service project and while I continue to think he's insane for village-hopping up along the Burmese border by himself, I've done some crazy things too. I just hope he stays alive long enough to tell us about his solo trek.
