Bittersweet

Facebook is definitely a blessing living so far away from the life that I knew, and I've been able to keep up with so many life events of friends from around the world. And while most posts are usually cheerful, there are some which make you cry. And there isn't a whole lot you can do about it but cry and look for comfort from a very faithful Friend.

Since I've lived in China, I've mourned the deaths of several people who were too far away to say goodbye to. One includes an incredible Chilean woman who died about a year ago from the side effects of chemo therapy. And the most recent is a childhood friend of mine who I always liked. She was the type of person in our early adult years that I would run into at various shops around the city we grew up in and stand and talk and catch up while the rest of the world went about its business. Meanwhile, we were probably running late for something somewhere. As children, we played softball together. As classmates, we talked. And though we were never best friends, I knew she was a real friend, and I am grateful for the friendship we shared.

When these things happen, it seems natural to want to be there, to once again touch the memory of a life that was a part of your life, to verify that it is really true that they are gone, and to help comfort those whose hearts hurt so much more than your own. I am thankful that I have a Father whose arms are long and who can comfort so much more than I ever could.

The Little (And Not So Little) Things

I've been back at Sias now for a little over a week, and overall life has moved along as I expected. Shops have started opening again. Students have been returning. And even the weather has been getting warmer. Teachers have returned and work has resumed, albeit slowly and perhaps a little bit grudgingly. It's hard to come back to winter when you've been in summer and sunshine for 6 weeks.

I found a couple surprises coming back to my apartment including a wooden fan that some small insect feasted on, a plant that is almost dead, and a kombucha culture that is dead. Fortunately, the fan is still intact, the plant may recover, and my friend is also brewing kombucha, so I can get another culture.

Internet speed is something I've resolved will always be an issue. Though someone announced that the bandwidth is supposed to be increasing in the near future, I am somewhat cynical - I will believe it when I am streaming Hulu videos with more than a few pauses. Today I battled the copier at the front desk, but that isn't surprising; the copier usually rebels in some way if you try to make more than 20 copies at one time, especially if you want it to print double sided. But I did finally get my 140 double sided pages printed even if it took 45 minutes.

Perhaps the biggest trial the residents of Peter Hall will deal with this week is the lack of hot water. The engineers here changed the location of the boiler from the nearest boiler on the east side of the campus to another one on the west side. And, according to another teacher who seems knowledgeable on such matters, the people who set up the system don't know how to flush a line. And so the line is cold, essentially, when the hot water turns on, and it takes a very long time for it to ever get warm. This morning the water coming out of my shower was slightly warmer than the air, which right now flows around 68 degrees Fahrenheit. I've been told that it should get warmer when more students are here using it... The thought of sharing hot water with the entire population of west campus does not evoke much confidence in this new system. (We have 25,000 people on campus.) And I wonder if our hot water hours have been changed to match the time students get hot water. Before yesterday, we could expect hot water from 6:00AM-9:00AM and 6:00PM-11:00PM. Students get hot water until 8:00AM in the morning and 10:00PM at night.

I am thankful, regardless of these issues, to be working again and spending time with people I've missed during the holiday. And even if the hot water issue isn't resolved soon, I have friends with hot water heaters and, beyond this, I have a hot plate and a big pot, and I can take a bucket shower.

The Light Situation

I was lying in bed this morning, half awake, thinking about the work I needed to do today, half wondering why it was so dark until 8:00AM and when I was finally going to push myself out of the comfort of warm flannel sheets and use the bathroom. Somewhere in my indecision, having held it for probably thirty minutes or so, I heard someone knocking at my front door. Still groggy, I threw back the covers and called out, "Who is it?" but heard nothing in reply. Knocking came again, and as I was putting on a sweater, I again called out, "Who is it?" and, again, heard nothing in reply. Had I opened the door right at that moment, I may have seen a raven swoop in, light on my dimly lit chandelier and crack open his beak to say "nevermore," but I was awake enough by the second knock to realize that the person on the other side did not speak English. And while in Poe's world there would have been a raven, in mine there was a repairman, more specifically the light bulb repairman, with his makeshift ladder and an iPad sized box in hand. He said something to me, but it was in Chinese and I didn't recognize any words so I reached for the box he held up. It was the light for my bathroom which had been out since sometime early in November. 

He had actually come to fix my light situation two days ago, the afternoon when I first arrived back at Sias, but he didn't know about all my issues. While I had told my friend at the front desk that I specifically needed my bathroom light fixed, she only heard the word "light." So the repairman came with the same makeshift ladder and bulbs in hand not long after the water repairman, who had come to turn on my water which had been shut off while I was gone for the long holiday. They worked together to find the valves (at one point the water repairman was pointing to the vinyl tile covering the hole cut out specifically for the kitchen vent, which will never be installed) and had quite a lengthy discussion about it until discovering it in small corner of the bathroom which has been aesthetically covered with tile. As I heard the sound of water pushing its way out of the faucets, I kept happily repeating, "hao" or "good" and smiled in appreciation. The light bulb repairman, meanwhile, started replacing my canned lighting with energy efficient, annoyingly bright bulbs. At least these bulbs should shine longer than the 2-month and 6-month version bulbs...which is another matter of electricity and wiring and circuitry all together - or so I have been told. 

After replacing the bulbs in the front room, I showed him the light in my bathroom, which is what I thought I had told the front desk girl needed fixing, as well as the now four burnt out bulbs in my chandelier, three of which have been burnt out since spring semester last year and another one which recently gave up its last lumen. I can't remember how many times over the last semester I had taken broken light bulbs to the front desk and asked for replacements - for some reason they won't give you new light bulbs without the old ones in exchange - and been told, "mei-you" (may-yo) or "don't have." Occasionally they did have the canned light bulbs; but until this morning, never ones for the chandelier. 

This is probably the best time for repairs - not everyone has returned, so they come pretty quickly to fix your problems. But the key to having repairs done, even something seemingly as simple as light bulb replacement, is persistence. One of our leaders always says, "the squeaky wheel gets the oil." If you don't ask, and keep asking, you will never receive, and you may live in shadows and darkness longer than needed.