blessed

Yet another few days have come and gone. Our excitement has begun to transform into exhaustion. BUT we still feel blessed by every day we have been given here and every experience presented to us.

Chinese New Year...what is there to say?! For these people, New Year's Eve is like Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year, and the 4th of July all mixed into one. Sonya and I were met by Dr. Lai and his son at our dorms and they drove us the 3-4 minutes to their home to spend New Year's Eve their family. Both Dr. Lai's mother and mother-in-law live in the home with the family. He was quick to point out how very different this is from families in the United States, as we tend to place our loved ones in nursing homes. Dr. Lai, however, has two young Indonesian "house workers" in his home. They virtually act as cooks, housekeepers, and caregivers to the elders in the home. But the love and appreciation these people have for the elders of the family is relevant, evident, and, quite frankly, beautiful. Although we may not take it to the extreme of ancestral worship as these people do, I think Americans could learn a thing or two about the respect these people have for the patrons and matrons of the family. Many of the family members that arrived (about 15 people, in all) were not introduced and did not speak English but seemed interested in the 2 blonds in their home. One of Dr. Lai's brothers was very eager to help Sonya and I learn new Chinese words, eat Chinese food, and play traditional Chinese games. This same brother is married to the nurse manager in the MICU so I had met her 2 days prior to the New Year. It was nice to see a familiar face. This brother and sister-in-law have a 5-year-old son whose chubby little face and high-pitched voice provided the entertainment for the night, despite a language barrier. As I have already said, being a vegetarian in this country is virtually impossible. I was fed fish balls, chicken ass (excuse my language, but that is the literal translation), cow stomach, pig foot, shark fin, cow tendon, and a few things that could not be translated for me. Dr. Lai's aunt is a great cook and worked in the kitchen throughout the whole meal, producing more dishes every 10 minutes or so. This is the reason I equate the New Year to Thanksgiving. I was STUFFED. Following the meal we went into the family room for tea and conversation. The tea here is unbelievable. The doctor and his wife and brother explained various teas to us, how they are grown, picked, prepared, and served and we were given cup after cup of the stuff. We were supposed to be delivered back to the dorms no later than 9pm because we were scheduled to work at 8am at the hospital and because the New Year in Taiwan is known as a night for drinking just as it is in the states. Yet, as 9:15 rolled around, Dr. Lai insisted we were having much too much fun and called Karen, the nurse who had hosted our professors for the night, and received permission to have us back by 10pm. Dr. Lai's wife works as a nurse for the government and she gave Sonya and I small red envelopes with two $10 NT coins in each. These were commemorative coins that are collectibles and considered particularly lucky. Then Dr. Lai presented us with red envelopes that had $600 NT in each (currently, currency exchange is about $30 NT to $1 US). Finally, we pulled out Majong, a popular Chinese game. We only had time for one round, but I am proud to say that I won. Before we knew it, it was about 10:30 so we were rushed out the door after pictures and another present of a big box of tea. Our professors, although slightly worried, were happy to see us arrived safely back at the dorms. Between all the tea that I had to drink, my too full belly, the excitement of the evening, and the incessant sound of fireworks erupting outside, it took a couple Benadryl for me to finally fall asleep.

The next morning, I groggily awoke late and quickly dressed only to walk downstairs with my Uggs on. Silly me. Everyone in the group had to wait in the lobby while I ran back upstairs to put some proper tennis shoes on. Needless to say, I was a little tired. I spent my first day in the Emergency Room with two wonderful nurse preceptors. They explained that on New Year's Day the Emergency Room is often very busy. Although the people do not celebrate Valentine's Day on the 14th, they knew that it was Valentine's Day for me and the nurses jokingly lined up a few dates for me with the young ER doctors. I was able to hook-up and read a couple 12-lead EKGs, witness some skillful IV insertions, perform an enema, and many more pleasant things :) A man arrived complaining of shortness of breath and dry cough and his x-ray showed a substantial amount of fluid in his right lung. Unluckily for him but lucky for me, I watched as the doctor inserted a "pigtail" into his chest. This is a type of chest tube drain that, after insertion and removal of the stent, curls up into what looks on an x-ray to be a pigtail (go figure). Lovely yellow fluid immediately began to poor out and, after about 800mL, was cut off because of fear that the draining of too much fluid too fast could cause harm. Also exciting to see was an older couple, presenting to the ER with severe dog bites. Their large dog had gotten into a fight with another dog and, of course, they tried to break the fight up. Without success. The husband was covered in blood and the dog had nearly bit clear through his hand where the webbing is between his right thumb and forefinger. The wife was less lucky. Although her wounds were smaller, she had suffered an open fracture on her right thumb. I watched as the physician cleaned both wounds. He then injected a local anesthetic to the woman's thumb and roughly cleaned then asked her to flex and extend to ensure that the tendon was still in tact. Fortunately, it was. Since dog bites are unclean and her break was severe enough, she will be admitted to the hospital for about 5 days so they can continue to cleanse the wound. Neither will have their bites sewn up for 5-7 days to ensure that the wounds are clean. The ER doctor laughed at the fact that the Taiwanese are careless people and never wear gloves; whereas, in America, he noticed we wear gloves for EVERYTHING. To add to that, the people here have a significant fear of respiratory illness. As a result, everyone wears masks everywhere all the time. Present a Chinese nurse with blood or pus, urine or feces, she won't typically even bother with gloves. A little saliva and two pairs of gloves and a mask are on before you can blink an eye. Another highlight to my day were more red envelopes. Although this is a huge holiday, a lot of people will work on New Year's Day because all the big wigs in the hospital come around with red envelopes for employees and if you aren't working, you don't get one. I received an envelope from one of the Superintendents of the hospital and one from the ER Department Head...$700 NT total. I made out like a bandit in less than 24 hours. After 6 hours in the ER, I snapped a few pictures with my sweet nurses and returned to the dorms. On Sunday evening we simply relaxed. We celebrated Alona's birthday with cake, candy, and presents. Then we just napped, caught up on homework, watched movies, and made fresh steamed veggies and grilled chicken for dinner in our tiny kitchen on the 6th floor. Fireworks were going off, of course, from the time it go dark until late into the night.

Today we had the day off. Five of us went down to the movie theater, grabbed coffee, then saw the movie Valentine's Day; in English with Chinese subtitles, mind you. The theater is located on the 4th flood of a small department store so we walked through that department store and the larger one right next door. At 3:50 the other half of our group met us on the sidewalk of the smaller department store because...drumroll, please...we had reservations at the Chili's located on the 2nd floor. The pastor from Taipei International Church and his wife also met us for dinner. After Chili's chips and salsa and a quesadilla explosion salad, my tummy was happy. We then walked with Pastor Kim and Stephanie to their 2-story apartment about 10 minutes from the restaurant. There they told us about their ministry and Stephanie, a dietitian, told us about a special study she had done about culture and diet. We watched a short video their son had made when they were working and living in the Philippines. This couple has been doing missions work for 16 years. Six years in Africa, 4 in the Philippines, and they are now in their 6th year in Taiwan. We felt at home in their cute little apartment. Stephanie made us homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream and chocolate chip cookies. My oh my. It was delightful! We prayed for them and said our goodbyes and they graciously sent us home with the leftover cookies. We then made our 30 minute or so walk back to the health building. After a game and devotions, we returned to our rooms to quickly finish some homework and catch up on emails.

Fireworks can still be heard outside. Most of the shops were closed today and will be closed for the rest of the week in celebration of the New Year. Clearly, it is a very exciting time.

It's after midnight here and I am tired. I will be back in the ER tomorrow and we leave for a 4 day trip to Southern Taiwan on Wednesday so the rest of this week should fly by.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! And Happy Chinese New Year!