The circle of life

Today, a man from our host family's compound died. He has been ill the whole time we've been here. He has been inside a hut nearby, so we haven't met him or seen him, but we've heard people going in and out of the hut to take care of him. Right now, we're holed up inside our huts, trying to stay out of the way as the villagers gather outside Rose's hut for some sort of mourning ritual. I'm not sure exactly what's happening: many people came to our compound, and they seem to be sitting quietly on the ground and on chairs and mats, while a few men speak softly in the background. In the morning, we'll be able to talk with Modou, our language trainer, more about it. In the meantime, I'm left feeling curious and somber.

This is the closest (physically speaking) that I've ever been to someone who is dying. This afternoon, Modou and I were sitting outside maybe a dozen feet from this man's hut, chatting with kids and having our daily language lesson, when the man's sister emerged from his hut, crying and upset. A few moments later, we saw his brother come by, also crying. Modou heard what they were saying and told me that the man had died, and that we should stop our lesson and go to our huts. I went to tell Rose and then Doug, and then we decided to stay together in Rose's hut for the evening, eating dinner there like we usually do.

As the night went on, Rose and I took turns peering out the small holes in her corrugated tin door, trying to see what was happening outside. I felt like a spy, but we decided it was OK since we were not being disruptive. When it came time for Doug and me to go home to our hut, we tried to walk as quietly as we could through the group of people sitting right outside.
* * *
Another hour has passed, during which I heard some men chanting and singing, and then things got pretty quiet again.
* * *
We feel very close to the circle of life here. A baby was born in our compound on the day we arrived. There have been two naming ceremonies for new babies in the village in the past week. Just like animals here are not confined to pens or cages, birth and death are not confined to hospitals. They are right here next to us.

Quote of the Day

Heard tonight over a delicious dinner of baked beans, vegetables, and macaroni:
  Rose: "I really don't care where Tiger Woods' dick has been."
  Doug: "As long as it hasn't been in our food."

Photo #3 from our trip within a trip

Eddy's Hotel, Farafenni: I am soooo excited to spend the night in a room with four sealed walls that keep out bugs and critters! And did I mention the yummy omelet we got from a street vendor for dinner? Yay!

I have to post each picture separately because I'm using my phone, but you can get the full scoop on these pics in the longer, text-only blog entry that l'm hoping has already posted to the blog.

Photo #2 from our trip within a trip

Eddy's Hotel, Farafenni: It may be hard to tell from this photo, but Doug's expressing his glee by swinging a power cord in circles. We get to recharge our phones!

Photo #1 from our trip within a trip

Here's Doug in our room at Eddy's Hotel in Farafenni, enjoying a nice cold drink. Hallelujah for electricity and refrigeration!

Our trip within a trip

I am grinning from ear to ear. Why? My hair is clean. My feet are clean. My hands and fingernails are clean. Even my toenails are clean! I just took a shower for the first time in a week, and it's everything I'd dreamt it would be.

After a week in Sanchin Daxaar, our little village, Doug and I have ventured back to Farafenni for a "trip within a trip." We're spending the night at Eddy's Hotel and doing a bit of shopping tomorrow morning before we return for our second week of village living. We stayed at Eddy's back in 2007, and at the time, I thought the place was dingy, dirty, and uncomfortable. I remember thinking the floor was so dirty that I didn't want to walk on it in bare feet. I was grumpy because had to take a cold bucket bath, and I kept waking up during the night to strange sounds from outside.

Today, though, Eddy's feels like a palace. When we walked into our room, my first thought was, "It's so clean!" OK, so it's not clean by Best Western standards. But to someone who's spent a week pooping in a hole and squatting in the dirt to take cold bucket baths, a linoleum floor, a single light bulb, and a flushing toilet sure look like heaven. Better yet, Eddy's has a working shower this time! People, people... I am SO happy.

Strangely enough, I've also gotten pretty happy in the village this week, albeit in a different way. Maangee janga Wolof ndanka ndanka (I'm learning Wolof, little by little), and I'm adjusting to being dirty and to being a spectacle. I've learned enough simple words and phrases to exchange greetings with the folks who live in our village, and I like sitting outside and playing with the kids, especially the young girls who've taught me how to shell peanuts. Last night, we sat outside with our host family and some other villagers and shared a sweet hot milk drink, and I got to try out a few Wolof sentences on them, to their great amusement. Doug's right, this is a great way to learn a language, since I am surrounded by opportunities to practice. The villagers seem entertained by a toubab (white person) speaking Wolof: everyone is friendly and welcoming, and they're happy to chat with me and teach me new words. (Well, everyone except one woman we've dubbed Bitch Lady, who lives in a nearby compound and who jokingly threatened to hit me with a stick when she first met me. Luckily, we've only seen her twice, and everyone else is pretty cool.)

In other news, Rose has become an expert at carrying water on her head in a bucket! Every night, she and our host mom Faana go to the pump and carry back buckets of shower water to our huts. I hope we remember to get a picture of this before we leave!

We've been using our D.lights a whole bunch in the village, and they are a HUGE hit with the villagers! They are so much brighter and sturdier than the dinky flashlights that they normally use for light. It makes me feel good to think that we can help illuminate villages like this in the months to come. In the meantime, I'm going to go soak up the joy of our overhead lighting here at Eddy's by reading myself to sleep. Ah, the simple pleasures of life!

Village Life, Day Three

I didn't puke today. Nor did I have diarrhea. This is a vast improvement over yesterday, during which I learned how to have diarrhea while squatting over a latrine hole, and how to scrape straw over my vomit when I couldn't make it to the latrine.

Yesterday was awful. I was spewing out both ends all day. It doesn't help that I had to walk past at least a dozen people to get to the latrine, so the fact that I was sick was embarrassingly public knowledge. Oh, well, I'm sure the public barfing on the straw outside my hut helped, too. Ew. Doug and I got sick off little frozen juice baggies that we bought at the market in the nearby city of Farafenni on Sunday. Oh, goodness, it was bad. I was 100% ready to go home, even though we'd only been here 2 days. But I felt soooo much better when I woke up this morning; what a relief to eat food and have it stay down! The simple pleasures of life. I think we'll stay here about 1 more week, and then return to the urban area when our rental house repairs are complete. We'd planned to stay here in the village for 1 month, but I think we'll be ready to go next week.

Life here seems like endless work, especially for the women. Carrying water home from the pump, pounding millet for meals, scrubbing laundry in buckets, feeding all of the farm animals, caring for the children... these women are always working, always doing something, never resting, as far as I can tell. Everything is hard here. No light switches, no dishwashers, no washing machines, no faucets, no clean floors, no toilets...you get the point.

People and animals live together here. I just took a break from writing to help Doug shoo a frog out of our hut. On our first night here, the three of us removed an entire menagerie from our hut: two chickens (I stepped on one by accident!), a baby chick, several frogs, a dozen spiders, and a cat. I woke up with a start the next morning when one of the chickens snuck back in and jumped on my bed right in front my my face! Smaller animals like sheep and goats aren't fenced in, for the most part. Instead, they wander around outside (and sometimes inside!) freely. There's a space for larger animals toward the back of the compound, and we walk through their space to get to the latrine. So when I need to poo, I parade past the sheep, goats , cows, and horses, stepping nimbly over their turds on the way to make my own. It's one big happy, smelly, poopy comingling.

It feels so hard to get clean here. We take bucket baths in a fenced-in dirt area in the "backyard" of Rose's hut. (Doug and I are staying in another hut that doesn't have its own yard/shower area.) No matter how much I clean my feet during my shower, the water from my bathing always splashes mud back onto my feet and calves, so they never feel fully clean. We don't have a lot of surfaces here, either: no tables or shelves, so chopping vegetables and washing dishes both take a lot of coordination. (The floors inside are packed dirt; the ground outside is also dirt. Where, then, should I put my "clean" dishes?) Doug & I have our stuff in little piles on the floor and bed of our hut. Rose is lucky: her hut has two nails in the wall, so she can hang up a few things.

We're having an adventure, that's for sure!

I'll sign off now, since I'm trying to make my cell phone battery last as long as it can out here. Hugs all around!

Doug says: "Bellenger, this one's for you!"

Last night, Doug and I made spicy lentils a la his Peace Corps days. In his own words, "Bellenger, this one's for you!"

In other news, our first shipment of lights has arrived. Hooray!

HOME SWEET HOME!

Hello, friends! Exciting news: We got the house we wanted! We put down a deposit this week, and the landlord is starting repairs on Monday. Once it gets a fresh coat of paint, some fumigation, and a few other forms of TLC, it'll be all ours! And in case you're wondering, those extra bedrooms are for you. That's right, YOU! Who wants to come visit? I know you're excited about drinking lemonade in our soon-to-be rooftop garden at sunset. Or perhaps you're more keen on relaxing on one of the balconies, walking to the beach, or playing with our (as-yet-unacquired, but still dreamt of) cat and dog. All it takes is a current passport, a few shots, and a visa. We can help you out with the plans. We're serious, people. This house is way too big for just the two of us, and we want to fill it with friends and family (and maybe a nice Peace Corps Volunteer renter). 

Front entrance

Kitchen

Master bedroom

Master bedroom balcony

Guest room #1

Guest room #2

Guest room #3

Sitting room with balconies (2nd floor)

Stairs up to the roof

Roof entrance

Roof view #1

Roof view #2

Driveway to garage

Side yard

Boys' quarters 

Outside washing & cooking area (attached to "boys' quarters," which are typical in the Gambia, but which we will NOT fill with servants!)

In other news, we are both super-excited that our friend Rose is arriving tomorrow! We can't wait to show her around and take her on our crazy adventure, which involves living in mud huts in a tiny village and learning some Wolof.

P.S. Happy belated Thanksgiving, everybody!

Gambian Mish-Mash

I've been putting off blogging these past few days, not because there's nothing to say, but because every moment brings something new and unfamiliar, and I don't know how to capture it all in words. Instead of trying to tell you everything, let me at least give you a few snapshots of the week:


Tobaski Time:
Gambians are getting ready to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Tobaski, which will be this Friday, November 27. What this means is that the streets are full of rams! Apparently the central part of Tobaski is sacrificing and eating a ram, which celebrates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his own son to God. As I understand it, each family is trying to buy their own ram, which I think explains the sheep that ended up in our taxi last week! It also explains the flocks of rams gathered in various places on the side of major roads. In one place near our hotel, rams are being kept in a makeshift pen that I'm guessing people only built a few weeks ago. Doug and I decided it's the Gambian equivalent of pumpkin patches or Christmas tree lots: Tobaski ram lots seem to just spring up out of nowhere for the holiday. (Can you imagine turkey stands for Thanksgiving?!) Tonight, when we were walking to get a taxi, we passed through a spot on the side of the road where there were several different flocks of rams standing close together. I heard a loud crashing sound, and glanced over to see two  rams, well, ramming into one another with their horns. They ran at each other a few times, banged their horns together, and then the shepherd with them cracked his whip a bit and they chilled out. Rams are a lot more ornery than Christmas trees! (More on Tobaski, if you're curious: http://tinyurl.com/y93cftn)

More Food in Baggies:
Most mini-marts, grocery stores, and gas station shops sell not only the water baggies, but random frozen bags of colored icy stuff. I finally decided to give one a try, and boy, are they tasty! I think it's the Gambian equivalent of frozen yogurt. The one I had tasted literally like plain yogurt that was frozen in a baggy. You hold it a bit while it thaws out, then you can suck it out and it's all sweet and cold and refreshing. I am a big fan.

Eating with Omar:
Thanks to some Peace Corps Volunteers, we found out where Omar's Peace Corps Kitchen shack has been relocated. This is a place where Doug used to eat when he was a volunteer, and now Omar's shack has moved to a different location. Omar makes really tasty local food, plus he has a cute dog that hangs around. We've had nice chats with Peace Corps volunteers both times we've gone there, which is another added bonus.

Gambian Adjectives:
In China, we came up with a chant to describe all of the new food we were eating. It went something like this: Salty, Oily, Greasy, Saucy, Thick, Oozy, Spicy, Salty, Greasy, Saucy... you get the idea. Tonight, we came up with a new chant to describe the Gambia, only this chant refers to the air and the climate instead of the food: Sandy, Gritty, Dusty, Dirty, Diesel-y, Sweaty, Dusty, Gritty, Dirty, Sandy... you can improvise as you please. Walking outside tonight after sunset, I could see the air illuminated by the streetlights because it was so filled with particles. I'm not sure how much was sand and how much was exhaust/smoke, but it was pretty nasty. Doug and I both came home smelling like we'd been to a barbecue! The air gets smoky because people burn their trash. Plus today was rather windy, which blows around the ubiquitous fine red sand and gets sand in our mouths (hence "gritty"). And the diesel fumes that we smell as we walk up and down Kairaba Avenue: ick. Do diesel cars make stinkier fumes than gasoline cars or something? It really seems that way, or maybe it's just that we're so much closer to the cars here than we'd normally be when walking around back home. The air isn't always as bad as it was tonight, but tonight was definitely bad enough to warrant a new chant!

In other news, we've started to make plans for traveling upcountry in December. It looks like we'll be returning to the village where Doug's original Peace Corps host family now lives. (Doug and I visited there in 2007.) We'll stay there for a month with a Peace Corps language trainer, and Rose and I will have a chance to study Wollof, one of the local languages. I'm excited and nervous - it is REALLY isolated out there! No electricity or running water, and I think maybe 200 people in the village. But it's also good because these are exactly the type of people whom we're hoping we can help with our business, so I'm looking forward to understanding more about the realities of village life. Wish me luck!

And Sheep Makes Six

Yesterday, Doug and I took another taxi into Banjul (the capital) to collect our tax ID cards. After 10 minutes of trying unsuccessfully to get onto a van taxi, we opted for a more expensive yellow taxi ride. We climbed in, as did two other passengers. Then the driver opened the hatchback, and I thought, "Oh my goodness, they're going to put a passenger in the trunk?" And they did, except the passenger was a four-legged one, not a two-legged one. With some grunting and shoving, the driver and another man managed to get a SHEEP into the hatchback of the car. Doug was sitting in the backseat with two other people, and unfortunately for him, the sheep's butt was about two inches from his head. I suddenly felt very happy that I'd climbed into the front seat of the car! Every time the driver honked at another the car, the sheep let out a loud bleat. It was really funny and also a little unnerving. I was afraid the sheep would poo on Doug or something, but it worked out OK.

Halfway to Banjul, the man in the backseat started speaking urgently to the driver. I couldn't understand what he was saying, but the driver pulled over and slowed down. Suddenly I realized that the air around the car was filling with horrible smoke. Doug told me that the men were saying we needed to get out of the car. As the smoke enveloped the car, we climbed out and walked quickly away. When I turned around to look, the car was totally engulfed by a huge cloud of disgusting brown fumes. Apparently we have bad luck with taxis! We started walking toward Banjul and walked for probably about 1/2 a mile until a taxi pulled over to offer a ride. It was the same driver! I guess he figured out some way to fix his car. He drove us the rest of the way to Banjul and we got the receipts for our tax ID numbers but couldn't get our actual cards because "the printer is broken." Sigh.

On the drive back, I used my phone to take some pictures out the window. I hope these give you a bit of a sense of our surroundings.

In other news, today we went house hunting! We found a place we really like, and we're hoping to negotiate the price down a bit and sign a lease tomorrow. I took some pictures of it, but I don't want to post them yet until we know it's ours, since I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high in case for some reason it doesn't work out. Cross your fingers for us, though!

 

A city mural honoring the president

Notice the girl with the tray of water baggies on her head

My view from the back seat of the van

This is the same type of crowded van taxi that we rode in our on way home

A mosque in Banjul

A shop on the side of the highway on the way home from Banjul

Crossing the bridge to get home from Banjul (Banjul is a small island)

A herd of sheep alongside the highway

A taxi stand (notice all of the old Mercedes)

First impressions

This is not my most flattering photograph, but I'm posting it anyway because it's the only photo we've taken so far, and it shows you one of the many new things I've experienced in the past 3 days. Right now, we're only drinking bottled water, though in the long run, I'll probably give my stomach the chance to adjust to the local tap water. And in our marathon day of running errands today, I needed a cold drink more than once. It's pretty easy to find bottled water at a mini-mart, but even more prevalent is a bag of water. It's a sealed plastic bag of water. You gnaw off a corner and then drink from the little hole. It's like guzzling water from one of those air pockets that come as packaging when you order books from Amazon. The bags seem less wasteful than producing bottles; why don't we have this at home? The only downside I could find was that that the ink from the baggie came off onto my lips and cheek, so I got home and realized I had weird blue blotchs on my face. Niiiiice.
* * *
In other news, we had an uber-productive day of running errands! After activating internet on our phones and registering with the U.S. Embassy, we ventured into Banjul, the capital, to investigate things like residency permits, driver's licenses, tax ID numbers, customs tariffs, and opening a local bank account. It's funny the way things happen here. It's only been a few days, but I'm starting to realize that there's (surprise!) a different way of getting things done. For example, when we went to the immigration office to investigate residency permits, we walked up and there was a large crowd of people waiting in chairs outside. We spoke to an official-looking woman in a brown uniform, who took us over to talk to another man in an even fancier brown uniform, who was hanging out with another group of people in the alley alongside the immigration building. He and his associate took our passports, walked us inside briefly, then informed us we couldn't meet with the head officers because they were still doing prayers. (It's a Muslim country, and we arrived at the office during one of the five traditional prayer times that occur during the day.) So they wandered with us across the street to a little cafe, and explained the policies of residency permits to us. Once we decided which option we'd take, one man ran across the street, fetched the appropriate stamp, and brought it back to the cafe. So we never actually saw the inside of the immigration building. Instead, the entire transaction took place in the driveway and alleyway, and then in the cafe across the street. And now we have a visa stamp that allows us to stay through the end of January, and we'll apply for official residency permits in 2010.
* * *
We take ancient Mercedes Benz taxis everywhere, since they're cheap and plentiful. Last night we came across our first dud. Perhaps our first clue should have been the way the springs in the seat cushions were completely shot when we sat down. Instead of the seat rising up to hold my weight as I sank into it, I just kept sinking until I hit a spring and the seat couldn't sag anymore. Not that the other taxis are particularly posh; they're all Mercedes Benzs in various states of rusted disrepair, but this one was a whole new level of broken. After it died on the side of the road about halfway to our destination, we got out and walked maybe 1/4 mile down the highway until we could hail another ancient taxi to take us the rest of the way.

Welcome to life in the Gambia!

Shenzhen photos

Two blog posts in one day -- I think it's a record! The previous post about my spa marathon is one reason why I wish I'd been better about taking pictures. But this post gives you a look at the few photos we did manage to take during our two productive and fun weeks here. Tomorrow, we head (finally!) to the Gambia. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post next week, but please send us good thoughts for our 40-hour traveling bonanza!

Out to lunch at a local cafeteria

All smiles at the food court

Walking back to the office after lunch

 The alley of pet shops near the office

How much is that doggie in the window? ... er, cage.

More puppy cuteness!

Doug on a hike in a park (in back: Deng Xiaoping statue)

 

More views from Doug's hike

I'm sad I missed this hike (it was day #2 of my cold)
 

The busy shopping street near the office (this photo does not accurately convey how packed it gets!)

Pictures I wish I'd taken:

1. The man riding a bicycle this morning with three full or queen-sized mattresses strapped on the back! No joke! He was wobbling and weaving a bit, but managed to stay upright.

2. The man riding a bicycle carrying 25-30 tins of cooking oil (each about 1 cubic foot), which were presumably empty.

3. The man carrying two long poles, one across each shoulder, from which dangled a collection of cages holding small bunnies and guinea pigs (headed for pet shops, not restaurants, according to our friends' speculation, though not all animals are as lucky...see #4).

4. The tanks outside our favorite neighborhood restaurant, which hold live octopi, shrimp, eels, and fish. I like watching a wriggly octopus dance its tentacles along the glass, though I don't like thinking about its fate.

5. The bloody fish head that stared me in the eye today at the grocery store. Freshly chopped, with blood glistening around its neck.

6. The all-gold skyscraper that I see on our walk to work.

7. Walmart.

8. Anything and everything at the spa!

A massage hits the spaaaaaaaaaat

In addition to being an international center of commerce and trade, Shenzhen is also known for its spas. And since Dorcas and I have both spent the past week recovering from icky colds, we decided to treat ourselves to a spa day unlike any other...

We entered Queen Spa and Dining at 2pm. The female employees in the lobby, all of whom were wearing crisp white suits with huge fan collars a la the Jetsons, welcomed us and gave us red identification bracelets to which all of our spa services would be charged. Then they ushered us into the female changing area, which is is the poshest locker room I've ever seen. The lockers were covered in purple suede, and a narrow changing room was hidden between the lockers like an upscale airplane bathroom. We stripped down, swathed ourselves in large towels, and padded off to the shower room in our red spa flip-flops. Mind you, this is the first hot shower I'd had in two weeks, since the hot water heater in our apartment bathroom is broken. Needless to say, I took full advantage of my private shower stall and steamed myself pink! There were all kinds of soaps and shampoos in there, including a bottle that proclaimed: "Living the Skin Almightiness / Washes Noodles Milk." Um... I didn't use that one.

After showering, we proceeded to the sinks and were invited to brush our teeth -- a bit unexpected, but also pleasant. Then we trotted past a large soaking pool to the pajama room, where we traded our towels for spa-issued pink pajamas and disposable underwear (which is not as gross as it sounds). Clean and clothed, we took the elevator four floors up (this spa is 5 stories, people!) to a floor full of spa goers that looked like spa meets Vegas meets WALL-E.

Here's how it works: You stake out a private recliner in a row of recliners. Each recliner has its own TV screen, cup holder, and ottoman. All around you, people are sleeping, eating, watching TV, talking on their cell phones, or getting spa treatments. Oh, and smoking, too, which totally grossed me out; luckily, there's also a non-smoking section. In the middle of the floor are several snack bars offering fruit, soft-serve ice cream, juices, teas, popcorn, and miscellaneous salty snacks. Their full-service restaurant is also open 24/7, and people can play pool and check their email in other lounge areas. (Seriously, does anyone really want to check her email at a spa?! Given that you can stay here for 24 hours, though, I guess some people actually want to...) In the arm of your recliner is a spa "menu," from which you can order all sorts of different treatments. 

While Dorcas and I were mulling over the menu, a server brought us water and sliced watermelon. I felt like a princess, or at least like I was flying first class. Over the course of the day, we opted for foot massages, hand massages, and neck/shoulder massages, each of which was at least 45 minutes long! (Note to self: 60 minutes on just the neck and shoulders is a bit much. But the hand and foot massages were awesome!) We decided to pass on the other treatments, which included full-body massages, pedicures (which don't involve nail polish), foot scraping (yikes) and back scraping (double yikes). Sadly, this spa didn't offer "blowing the foot," so I may never know what that mysterious procedure entails.

For a massage, you could choose male or female masseuse, but it seems like more people chose female. Our first masseuses were dressed like glamorous nurses, in embroidered blouses and scrub bottoms, and the later masseuses looked like cheerleaders in their itty bitty pleated skirts. I felt really strange when I glanced over at another patron's recliner and saw his masseuse leaning over to massage his back, thus flashing me with her underwear. Even though I didn't see anything overtly sexual happening, there sure was a undercurrent of sexuality and decadence infusing the whole place.

In between massages, Dorcas and I hung out and chatted in our chairs, watched a movie, had scrumptious noodles for dinner, and wandered around to get snacks. Like Vegas, the blinds were mostly closed, so it was hard to tell what time of day it was. It was also strange to hear the clamor around us, since I'm used to the Western idea of a spa where people whisper and tiptoe around. But since I don't speak Mandarin, it was easy for me to tune out the TV noise, chattering masseuses, and cell phone conversations as mostly white noise. 

Finally, we started to yawn, and decided to call it a night. As my mom would say, better to leave wanting more than to leave having had too much. We retraced our way back through the showers and locker room (I snuck in another hot shower, just for good measure), and traipsed back out to the lobby with our little ID bracelets. Lo and behold, when we went to pay, we discovered we'd spent EIGHT HOURS in the spa! And all for the low price of 234 yuan... about 33 bucks.

My authentic Chinese experience

I've spent the last four days getting over a nasty cold. While my spirits have stayed pretty high even as my energy's dropped low, I found myself alone in the apartment today while Doug and Daniel were at work, and I started feeling a bit stir-crazy. I decided to cheer myself up by venturing out of the apartment to take part in something authentically Chinese. That's right: I went to Walmart.

OK, OK, I know: Walmart is anything but authentically Chinese. And normally, going to Walmart is a good way to bum myself out, not cheer myself up. But in a land where everything is unfamiliar and still has a sheen of novelty, going to Walmart turned out to be a good way to have fun.

The big, smiling face of Sam Walton beamed down on me as I rode the escalator ("travalator," according to a sign) down into the store. That's right, the Shenzhen Walmart is underground. Instead of going straight for the snack I had in mind, I decided to stroll each of the aisles just to soak up the flavor of Walmart: The China Edition. First of all, walking all of the aisles takes nowhere near as long as it would at home, since this Walmart is about the size of a small-ish grocery store in the U.S. Despite being on the small side, the store has salespeople everywhere, nearly one in every aisle, wanting to talk to you about buying things. (If I looked like I spoke Mandarin, I think they'd probably have approached me, but they left me alone.) At home, if I have a question in Walmart, it feels futile to go searching for an employee, since: a) they're never around, and b) they usually don't know where things are even when you do find them. But here, I was bombarded with opportunities to chat with employees, should I have wanted to (or been able to!).

I spotted lots of familiar brands in the toiletries and household goods sections: Pantene, Neutrogena, Head 'n Shoulders, Vaseline, Maybelline, Tide detergent, even OB tampons. Their foreign equivalents were there on the shelf, too, but I was surprised by how much I could have purchased familiar brands if I'd wanted to. (They're pricier, of course.) This incarnation of Walmart is mostly groceries, though: fresh produce, dried goods, cookies, candies, milk, yogurt, soft drinks, water, sauces, and other staples. Again, I saw familiar brands (often with Chinese versions of their logo; see Corn Flakes, below) alongside Chinese brands, and it all seemed pretty familiar. Then I rounded a corner and ended up next to tanks of live animals available for purchase: fish, eels, crabs, and--my personal creep-out--hundreds of live, squiggling, nearly transparent shrimp. Ew. Oh yeah, and next to the tanks of live animals were large baskets heaping with these critters' dried equivalents: dried fish parts, dried bird parts, dried sausages, and a popular snack, chicken feet.

Then there was the soundtrack. At first the in-store music didn't register on my mental radar. But at some point I realized I was humming and mumbling along with the music drifting from the ceiling. When I stopped to listen more closely, I realized they were playing a string of U.S. one-hit wonders circa 1997: Sophie B. Hawkins' "As I Lay Me Down," Savage Garden's "Truly Madly Deeply," Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn," and (brace yourself) Hanson's "I Will Come to You." (Don't remember that one? I didn't either at first, but I bet you'd recognize that prepubescent harmonizing on "na na na na na na na na na na...") What's worse, the store wasn't playing the originals. Instead, they were playing remixes by singers whose English pronunciation was pretty decent, but whose vocals sounded like they'd recently placed third in a citywide karaoke competition. As I started to recognize the songs, I also remembered that I'd heard Toni Braxton's "Breathe Again" piping from a shop on my way to Walmart. Apparently Shenzhen is where one-hit wonders come to die. (Or be resurrected, one of the two.)

I don't feel like I can rightfully end this blog without showing you a picture of my Walmart spoils. From left: paper towels, a Chinese Snickers (I have to do a taste test), guava juice, mango juice, aloe vera juice (my new favorite! comes with aloe chunks), Corn Flakes (for Doug, from a previous trip to Walmart. Yes, I've been twice.), a sponge (only 15 cents), a 6-pack of yogurt (which is pretty watery here, kind of like kefir), rolls (think Hawaiian sweet bread), and dried peaches. Minus the cornflakes, today's loot cost me about 6 bucks. Not bad.

P.S. On my way home from Walmart, I stopped to read the services menu at the spa that takes up the first 4 floors of our apartment building. (Shenzhen is famous for its spas and massage parlors.) In addition to offering services like Chinese massage and Thai massage (for super cheap -- $15 or less!), the spa in our building also advertises a service called "Blows the Foot (One Time)" for 50 yuan (about 7 dollars). The spa seems pretty legit, so I am really, really tempted to go in and request this service just so I can find out what blowing the foot entails. More on that in a later post!

Dessert for dinner at RBT

Even though we haven't yet eaten in the Modern Toilet Restaurant (and thus cannot attest to either the yumminess of its poo-related foods or the cleanliness of its toilets), we've still been having plenty of food adventures here in Shenzhen! Tonight, on our friend's recommendation, we had a strange but tasty dinner at a cafe chain called RBT (think rabbit). We were on our own, but luckily the menu had pictures and English subtitles (hooray!), so we were able to order with our well-honed pointing and smiling skills. I even managed to branch out from the menu and ask for boiled water to drink (since you're apparently not supposed to drink plain tap water). 

Most of the vegetarian options were on the sweeter side, so Doug ordered hot chocolate, french toast, and fried tofu, and I ordered fruit salad and a waffle with red beans and cheese balls. The french toast looked french toasty enough, but it tasted more like an original glazed donut than actual bread. The fruit salad with aloe was refreshing but a bit odd: in addition to oranges, cantaloupe, and apples, it came with tomatoes (I guess they ARE technically fruit!), some weird albino kiwi chunks (kinda tasteless) and chunks of aloe (which I quite liked). It was also covered in thin swirls of mayo. Ew. The "cheese balls" that accompanied my red beans and waffle tasted more like a hybrid between ice cream and cream cheese. Everything was yummy, I just couldn't help feeling like I'd gone to dinner at a really high-class version of the Donut Wheel! I think I'll lay off sugar for tomorrow...

 

Doug's enjoying his french toast

I love their logo!

Doug dives into the fried tofu and fruit salad (notice the mayo drizzles)

QEOTD (Quirky English of the Day)

This afternoon, Doug and I took a break and walked through the bustling shopping area that surrounds the D.Light office. Among other things, we spotted a huge sign on the third floor of a tall building advertising the "Modern Toilet Restaurant." The sign included pictures of toilets and urinals outlined in blue and pink. I hate to speculate on what types of food they serve...

Shooting hoops in Shenzhen

We made it to Shenzhen! Our flight was incredible: it was the longest flight I've ever taken (14 hours), and I slept through nearly the whole darn thing. We took off at 1:30am, and I just slept on and off for about 11 hours, walked around the plane a bit, went back to sleep, woke up, ate breakfast, watched a movie, and we were there! I didn't even read a book, which anyone who knows me will find nearly impossible to believe. Flying at night is my new favorite way to fly.

Our home for the next two weeks is an apartment in the Luo Hu district where several D.Light Fellows live. We have a great view of Hong Kong from our 15th-story porch! We spent yesterday with our friend Dorcas (from D.Light) and Daniel, a D.Light Fellow who lives in the apartment. They showed us the local grocery store and took us out to a delicious vegetarian meal at a restaurant next door. Dorcas also took us to the D.Light office neighborhood and a fancy expat grocery store (think Andronico's). Knowing how to get around and where to get food always helps me feel at home!


This morning I went with Daniel to shoot hoops at a basketball court next door to the apartment. I don't think I've touched a basketball in 10 years, so it was novel and a lot of fun! When we showed up, there were two groups of teenagers shooting on the court, but Daniel told me that we could just join in a group. We just walked up and shot our basketball, and then when it rebounded, it was up for grabs for anyone in the group. So they grabbed our ball, we grabbed theirs, and you just took a ball when you could get one. No one passed the ball to anyone else or shared it, so I just had to jump in there and go for it. It was fun and a bit chaotic. I liked the fact that it was a little competitive, since you had to fight for the ball a bit. But the kids weren't all professional or anything, so I didn't feel too intimidated. I shot and missed a whole bunch of times, but I made a few shots, too. It was a fun way to get some exercise first thing in the morning. I walked back to the apartment alone while Daniel went to breakfast, and a few other kids smiled at me and said, "Hello! Go NBA!" It was cute.


Afterward, Doug and I went for a walk in the city and found our way to a crazy shopping area that was jam-packed with people. There were shopkeepers yelling for people to enter their stores, food vendors yelling about their foods, and lots of loud music blaring from all sides. My jet-lagged mind felt foggy and overwhelmed by all of the stimulation, but it was still fun to be out and about! I'll try to take a picture next time. We had lots of food success today: we ordered fried spicy potatoes from a street vendor by pointing, got some yummy pearl milk tea, and ate lunch at the same restaurant next door to our apartment. (I think they'll be seeing a lot of us!) There are so many tall, shiny buildings in Shenzhen - in addition to big skyscrapers, the apartment buildings are each at least 30 stories, and there are tons of them! Here are some photos from inside our apartment:

Dining and living room

Another view of living room (entrance hall on the left; bedrooms through the door on the right)

The kitchen

  

Our bedroom - small but cozy

View from our balcony

 Another view from the balcony - the green hills are part of Hong Kong, which is just across the border from Shenzhen