A Third World

We declined breakfast this morning as waking up at 6am to get ready to eat breakfast and then wait until 8am to leave is not our thing. So mom and I slept in a bit longer, had a bite to eat in the room, packed up all of our bags, left out some clothes in our carry on to change into quickly before our flight this afternoon and went downstairs to the lobby to wait and wait and wait for our host to grab us two taxis to take to the Hainan Provincial Hospital. We knew that we were going to the hospital this morning, but not what we were doing at the hospital, so we dressed nicely as we were told to do so. We arrived at the hospital that at first didn’t look like a hospital- it looks like a worn down apartment building, falling apart, with lots of cars, mopeds and people outside. Today and for the past few days was a big holiday here where people “celebrate” the mourning of their ancestors. They buy flowers, food and fireworks for the dead and decorate the graves and set off fireworks. Apparently, the hospital was not quite as busy as usual because many people were away. It was still busy I thought though!

The head of the Emergency Department (that ended up being the large part of the hospital) greeted us at the door and began to give us a tour. The whole hospital did not feel like a hospital- all the windows were wide open, nothing seemed sterile, the nurses were dressed in movie-style clothing from the 20’s and 30’s and people were on hospital beds all around the area. We were given a tour of one hospital building, some of the ambulances and then we walked down a hallway that led outside and then into another hospital building. There was no air conditioning or heat and we learned that some of the rooms have showers that the water is heated by solar panels. We were taken to the second floor of this “newer” building (still seemed over 50 years old) and taken to a small classroom at the end of a hallway with the windows wide open and a large table with chairs all around in the middle. We all sat down and the Chinese doctors introduced themselves and the hospital and then dad and the other doctor we are with introduced them a bit. Then we were told that mom and I were going to see the Pediatrics area (as we later discovered that mom being a shrink for kids, adolescents and adults, that they some how misunderstood that she was a pediatrician). The pediatrician was a female that took us quickly up to the fourth floor and she was accompanied every second by her head nurse that was so elegantly dressed in the 30’s nurse outfit. This doctor was very nice and we went into her office (again windows open and she had a balcony that all the doctors coats were drying on) and she showed us the archaic charts they use- everything written by hand in large metal clipboards. Then she asked mom if she wanted a white coat to see patients and atfirst mom thought no, but then the doctor said she should, so she got mom awhite coat! I have never seen mom in a white coat before so it was very exciting to see. Of course when she was training as an intern and resident she wore a white coat everyday, but that was before I was alive!

We learned that there were 68 beds on the floor all filled with children that had pneumonia, asthma or other respiratory diseases, butlater we think that they are all diagnosed like that because they really have no idea what is wrong with the children because they don’t really practice medicine. It seems that do morepaperwork then focus on what is wrong or doing tests. The Chinese parents just want antibiotics through IV’s more than anything as they feel that is what is going to help their children. And most parents seem very depressed because their one child is ill and if something happens to that one child they are too old to have another child. So we start walking around the floor and mom and I had thought we would just be getting a tour, but then we started walking into patient rooms and the Pediatrician started asking mom to diagnose patients and asking her questions about the patients and what she should do to help them. The patients were also asking mom the same questions. They seemed to be grasping for any sort of medicine that would help their children. None of the patients we saw looked terribly healthy and the doctor kept saying all the tests are normal and we don’t know what’s wrong with them… to almost every patient! We went into many of the rooms and finally the last room was the “VIP” room, meaning the people had enough money to pay $150 dollars a night to have a little suite- two rooms in one room and a couch in the other room. I forgot to mention that all of the rooms had two beds in them and no curtains separating patients and the parents were sleeping with the children in the same beds- one parent isallowed to stay over night with the kids.When we were traumatized enough from those conditions, the doctor took us to the first floor to show us an IV clinic. It was very crowded and filled with sick people so we didn’t really want to go in but the doctor said we should and we walked further into the clinic and saw at least 500 people sitting in chairs with their children hooked up to IV’s. All of the chairs around the hospital have pole holes in them so people can walk randomly around the hospital with their children holding up the IVpole and then they can sit down and put the pole in the stand on the chair. Wow is all I can say.

The doctors at this hospital were very nice and at the end of dad’s lecture, they presented dad with an award and mom and I with two beautiful hand woven scarves… another 10 pounds of gifts we need to pack. Our luggage is very full. Before we left, mom and I needed to go to the bathroom and we asked where the bathroom was and the doctor took us to the “special’ doctor’s bathroom, which was absolutely disgusting. A hole in the ground (which we are used to by now), but it was dirty, no toilet paper, no soap and pee everywhere on the floor. If this was the “nice” bathroom, I certainly did not want to see the normal bathroom. We then left the hospital with the doctors and went to a lovely lunch with them. As we walked into the private room at the restaurant, the outside had many fish tanks with fish, eels, and other animals I’ve never heard of before swimming around before they met their death on our table. Ewww.

After lunch, we rushed back to the hotel, got our luggage from the back room where they had stored it in the morning and quickly ran into the bathroom to change for our flights to Yichang. I think the Chinese like to rush and are fine being late… we arrived at the airport 20 minutes before we were supposed to board our flight and the check-in process took half an hour and we had to pay a lot of money for our over weight bags. Finally we were checked in and then we were actually escorted through a special security line because we were late and then ran to the gate. Of course we were held up at security because mom had 3 water bottles in her’s and dad’s bags! Finally we got on the plane, got settled and flew to Guangzhou where we had about an hour layover before ournext flight in Yichang. We arrived in Yichang around 8:45pm and were greeted by a University student named Tong who was very nice. We got onto a mini shuttle bus and proceeded to drive for 1Ž2 an hour in the dark countryside into a much larger city. Yichang is lovely and so much more modern and civilized than Hainan. This is a nice change and certainly needed for us. The hotel we drove up to is one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever seen. Mom and I are sharing a room and dad has his own room.

The student who picked us up at the airport said that we should all be ready to leave at 8:30am the next day but could not tell us anything that we were doing. This is not our style and is very frustrating to not know anything.