The health care system here in China is so different to what we are used to in the Isle of Man. In the picture is a dental practice on a street near our flat. All of the dental surgeries seems to have the operating chair near the window, I guess so that passers by can see the quality of the dentist. It's certainly a far cry from the private little room that I am used to and seems pretty mad but it is just a different way of thinking, which is something that we seem to come across a lot here. Although we haven't tried going to a dentist here yet, Aaron, my brother had some work done at a local dentist, and when he got it checked out by a UK dentist, he was very impressed with it.
We have had quite a few visits to the hospital since we have been here. Mainly trying to get Tabitha's injections done. We were so thankful that we were able to find a clinic in a local hospital that is run by a western charity that has really good procedures. We had heard some horror stories about the Chinese system and whether true or not we really didn't want to risk Tabitha's health. The clinic is based on the 4th floor of the hospital. There is a massive difference between what is inside the clinic for the few who they can accept(they take in a lot of orphans and help them where possible), and the rest of the hospital which most native people in the area will use. The clinic is very clean and modern, while the local people had to put up with an old, dark and basic hospital. I'm not trying to criticize China for their lower standard of health care, as I'm sure before too long theirs will be much better than in the UK. But we felt sad that we had access to such good facilities and that other people who are no worse than us had to have something much less. One time while we were in the clinic a little girl probably 11 or 12 was looking through the glass door of the clinic to try and have a look at Tabitha but wasn't aloud in. It left us asking the question, what have we done to deserve better. The truth is nothing. All we can do is thank God that we are blessed with what we have and try our very best to help others get an improved lifestyle.
Fatty
In China it is considered a good thing to be fat. I remember when we lived in Tianjin, upon going to our favorite restaurant Jenna got quite upset after the owner of the restaurants wife thought she was paying Jenna a compliment by telling her she looked fat today. I guess the thinking is if you are fat it means that you can afford the food and you are rich. A couple of days ago a guy and his son got in the elevator with me. The father said with a proud smile on his face "your fat like my son", the son smiled.
Last week I went down to the furniture market to buy a chair for Tabitha's bedroom, and I was bartering with the woman in the shop to get the price down, she wouldn't budge on the price but offered free home delivery. A few minuets later and the delivery man was at the shop, not with a car or van but with a 3 wheeler bike with a carrying box on the back(I will try and get a pic of one up). The worst part of it was that I had to sit on the box with the chair while the bike rode a couple of miles back to our apartment. I asked the guy if I was too fat but he said it was OK(I probably weigh in at about 240 pounds!). Needless to say I felt pretty bad when we were going up a slight hill at a quarter of a mile an hour and the guy was panting for breath.
Blogged with Flock
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
