The Blogger Ninja

Today I was introduced to the world of web proxy ninja freedom fighters....
Yesterday my friend Scott and I took the back way up a mountain towards a lucky monastery hoping to find some dirt to put underneath our tires. Our wish was granted as pavement gave way to a muddy trail that had been cut to pieces by horses as the slipped their way up the trail. Keeping our eyes out for horses we charged up the trail only to find ourselves surrounded by farmers fields half way up the mountain with the real trail to the top no where in sight. Thinking we saw the trail threw our bikes over our shoulders and tip toed across a farmers field. On the other side we ran into a thicket of thorns and an almost vertical slope of mud and grass. Then a nice Chinese farmer came out and told us that he had been trying to get our attention for the last 30 minutes since we passed his house to tell us that we were going the wrong way. Eventually we followed his directions and found the path, it was covered in stairs so we again shouldered our bikes and hiked to the top passing Chinese tourists as they admired our bodies.(thats actually what they said, (wa they have nice bodies) but not exactly what it means)

Congenital Heart Failure An Earthquake and snow covered mountains.

Right now I am sitting in a room full of smoke and computers. They call it an internet bar the bar part must be why it is full of smoke and the internet part is why I am here. Here is a quik list of my recent adventures. Came to China, got to the airport with three phone numbers and a partial address. Made friends borrowed phones got another phone number for the friends that I am going to stay with after calling their grandma and uncle who, it turns out, only speak Sichuan Chinese wich over the phone doesn't sound very much like mandarin. Decode Sichuanese get phone number and address, take taxi to their house. Start to build my cross bike realize peices are missing, eat hot and spicy food realize that it is spicy at both ends. ( if you have to think about that, then you probably shouldn't). Watch Nanjing Nanjing, it makes me sick in a way that a war movie should, violence is bad. Get a phone call invitation from Nana to go to the mountains the next morning, pack wake up three hours later, meet new friends, enjoy green mountians covered in snow and the first quiet that I have heard in weeks. Thank God for nature, get excited to be in China. Start working at the hospital, learn about diagnosing patients in Sichuanese, see doctors use catheters to implant devices to fix holes created by congenital heart disease. Feel really excited, learn about congenital heart disease, watch a temporary pacemaker inserted by catheter to stabalize an 11 year old with a sickness that has blocked the transmission of nervous signals from her to her right ventricule. Transelate for a meeting with heartlink to discuss support for the training of a new surgical team. Buy a cheap bike with a friend Luo Lili who has helped me get a gym membership, a bike, bike parts and taught me tons about medicine. See Nana off on her long worldwide trip. Ride my new bike home from where I bought it in the city center. This takes an hour and a half and navigation of streets whose names constantly change and the help of many really nice traffic officers. Make a makeshit shim out of coconut milk and soda cans mount my handlebars, ride my bike into the city looking for real parts to replace the cans with. Success, ride home really fast, run into rope, land on my feet, scar a guy getting out of a car, tell him everything is okay, ride fast again. Go to church, leave church get in a car go to the place where the earthquake was, feel sad, like the people, pray for them, come home get excited to go to work, realize this is the first time I have looked forward to going to work. Wonder why I like it so much, think it is because of the team work and the constant learning, don't care why, get up eat bread while I ride to work, don't get lost.

And that is my life in China.

Until Next Week,

Zaijian.

Rain drops falling on my head

First backcountry adventure today. (With a beacon and with out a class) Two solid days of rain melted the snow that we were planning on skiing and drenched us as we hiked. Practiced with beacons and dodged rocks and dirt on the way down with grins on our faces.