This year GANSU, INC will have two teams serve in Gansu Province and three teams in Qinghai Province. The teams will be sending a report at the end of each week to give us an update of the mission work. These weekly reports give you insight into the activites of the volunteers while on their mission in rural China. As the weekly reports come in, we will be adding them to the web site. They will be posted as quickly as possible so you can read the most up to date information from our teams. If you are interested in receiving these weekly reports directly in your email box we would be glad to share them with you. Simply contact our office at info@gansuinc.org.
QINGHAI PROVINCE REPORT
The first team to serve in Gonghe, Qinghai departed the USA June 7, 2010. Reports from week 6 and week 7 are posted below.
Qinghai Team Report #7 Report #3 of Team 2 Gonghe, HainanPrefecture QinghaiProvince, PeoplesRepublic of China July 19th – 25th, 2010
Amazing Grace! We had a great final week in China and are now on our way home. The third Gonghe team completed the long trip from the US and is firmly in place, fully trained, and admirably performing their responsibilities. This week a total of 24 cataract surgeries were completed with one surgery cancelled due to the patient having a recent injury that required healing prior to the cataract surgery being performed. Dr. Bert also oversaw/taught two additional eyelid surgeries (blepharoplasties). This has become a popular request among the hospital staff and their friends.
The new team started their travel from the US and we monitored their progress as they all joined together in Shanghai. The new team is made up of Dr. Ana Rychwalski, Iona Holsten, Leesa Anderson, and Bob Smithers, with Chi-Ching Chen staying behind as their Chinese translator. In addition, our Tibetan translator has really become a full fledged member of our team. Alicia has proved herself to be fully capable of handling these duties with the hospital staff and with routine needs around Gonghe. In fact, I must tell you her progress has simply been heaven-sent.
As you recall from last week’s report, we were guided to support Dorothy, Joy’s friend, as we obtained a contact lens for her that would cosmetically cover-up her damaged eye. Dorothy is a 17 year old orphan and she was desperate when we told her that surgery wouldn’t be helpful to her. Well, this week Alicia wrote in her journal that she thanked our Father and hoped that Joy and Dorothy would find their one true Father as well. Needless to say we were filled with happiness to see how the Spirit had moved her. On Tuesday we had another moving experience as we shared a little prayer time with Za Chi Zhoe—she is our lead nurse that supports us daily on the ward during pre-op and post-op screenings.
By Wednesday we were eager with anticipation for the new team’s arrival as they would travel from Shanghai to Gonghe today. Due to unforeseen requirements, the hospital was short of vehicles so only the Secretary’s car was available to pick up the arriving team and their luggage. Chi-Ching sprung into action and volunteered to take the bus to Xining (three plus hours) in order to meet the new team there and then escort two members of our new team, Leesa and Bob, on the three hour bus ride back to Gonghe. The other two members of the new team were able to travel in style, but had no translator to help them and with some concerned looks, an eventual phone conversation between Chi-Ching, the car driver and the team members they got their message across and it resulted in a much appreciated and overdue “rest break” along the way. All four of our replacements made it into Gonghe safely. The Director and the Secretary wanted to show their appreciation by hosting a dinner. We ate and gave thanks with them until after 8:00 pm when we made our way back to the hotel to get our new replacements settled into their rooms for a well-deserved rest.
Thursday is transition day when a new team arrives as they learn the established procedures and routines and incorporate their own techniques to support their team over the next three weeks. This is a challenging day for the new team as they are generally tired from the time zone changes (12 hours difference from the US east coast) and the long travel days they have just completed. In addition, the new team will generally take a few days to acclimate to the high altitude (8,800 ft) in Gonghe. Despite these challenges, our teammates overcame them to complete a long day of training and learning. The day was abruptly interrupted around 2:00 pm as a loud and long cacophony of firecrackers erupted lasting nearly fifteen minutes. We investigated the interruption and found the celebration was due to the fact that the construction crew of the new, nine-story hospital had completed the “framing” of the top floor. This building will be complete in 2012; however, it is a common tradition to celebrate once the top floor’s frame is in place. And celebrate they did, as the firecrackers reverberated and echoed off the other buildings in our area causing a doubling and tripling of the loud popping that perforated our day.
Although a long day had been completed, I received a surprise invitation at 9:00 pm as Alicia relayed through Chi-Ching that there would be a traditional Tibetan Circle dance in the large square near the center of town. Well I couldn’t pass-up this opportunity so I hurriedly got ready and was off to see what this “circle dance” was all about. When I arrived I was surprised to see over 150 men and women in three neatly formed, concentric circles all participating in a traditional dance to the rhythmic beats playing over the loud speakers. In addition, many of our hospital staff and administrators were there and through some gentle coaxing, they convinced me to join in the dance. You could hear the laughter all the way to Llasa as many of the over 100 on-lookers must have thought this tall “round eye” had lost his mind. Little did I know, the next evening we would do it again with Bert and Connie joining in the fun.
Our final day in Gonghe completed the transition of the new team and we returned our hosts’ hospitality by inviting them to dinner at The Spring café. They all were able to sample a little bit of “American” food as the pizza, Yak burgers and spaghetti were the most popular dishes ordered. Of course we had to top it off with a little bowl of ice cream and the walk back to the hotel was a welcome bit of relief to help the digestion from the good and plentiful meal.
Saturday is moving day for the departing team and a welcome bit of relief for the new team as they have more time to rest and get their rooms and duties organized. Our day started with the three hour drive in the back of an ambulance over the hills (10,000 ft) to Xining to catch our plane through Xian to Shanghai. On the drive we reflected on how fast our time had gone by, how well our team had come together for His Will, and Bert provided an additional devotional on the spiritual gifts. We arrived at our hotel near the Pudong airport after a long day of traveling, found a quick bite to eat at Colonel Saunders’ eatery and entered a deep restful sleep for our next day’s adventure.
A full day of adventure is exactly what we enjoyed--we began our journey to downtown Shanghai to see the 2010 World Expo. Our day started in grand style as we boarded the Maglev, (magnetic levitation) train and sped up to 431 km/hour (268 mph) along our route—WOW, what a ride! After that exhilarating experience and a short subway ride, we were within walking distance to the huge expanse that was built over the past few years. We found the Expo to be bustling with people--up to 400,000 visitors daily--but despite the crowds, we found it easy to walk or find a bus between and around the various venues. We took time to visit many exhibits including Germany, Ireland, the Caribbean, Brazil, the Dutch, a Communications exhibit and of course the USA pavilion. After the sun went down we took the ferry across the Huangpu River which runs through the center of the city and were presented with a magnificent light display from all the special city and Expo lights that had been constructed. This display lit the night making this evening’s sky appear spectacular. Our trip home was an adventure in-and-of itself as we first discovered the Maglev had stopped running, and then found that the subway’s last stop left us several miles short of the Pudong Airport Hotel 168 where we were staying. We hired one of the many taxi’s available to finish the route “home” for our last night in China and a bit of rest ending the day’s adventure.
Our team leaves China with mixed emotions. We are all looking forward to returning home to the USA and to see our loved ones, family and friends, but we will miss the friends we met, the people we touched, and those who touched us. We will also miss the entire hospital staff that demonstrated such tremendous hospitality. Our prayers will go out to all of them and to you that have supported us on this trip. A special place remains for our teammate, Chi-Ching, who truly demonstrated a servant’s heart by staying in Gonghe an additional ten days despite pressing personal matters.
For team three consisting of Dr. Bert Bowden, his lovely wife Connie, our “cleaning machine” Cinderella- Hildegard, and our dear Chi-Ching, this is your humble servant Dave Razo signing off. ____________________________________________________________________________
Remember: You can write any volunteer at volunteer@gansuinc.org . Include the name of your addressee in the SUBJECT line. Many team members can be reached through their personal e-mail address as well.
Qinghai Teams - Report 6 Report 2 of Team Two Gonghe, HainanPrefecture QinghaiProvince, PeoplesRepublic of China July 12 - 18, 2010
This is Bert Bowden, MD, reporting for team 2 in Gonghe. We have completed 19 days here. We recognize the importance of what we are doing here as we continue to care for “the least of these”.
Last week we did 25 cataracts, totaling 60 cataracts done by Dr. Bowden along with the 60 done by Dr. Conrad. Additionally, we continued our teaching of Dr. Tia and Dr. Zhong, two of the 4 ophthalmologists here in Gonghe. Dr. Bowden was able to instruct and assist the doctors in performing 6 blepharoplasties to remove the excess skin on the patients’ eyelids. The technicians and operating room nurses also have seen the gift of teaching occur. It is interesting to see the increase in people coming to see Dr. Bowden for this. At first it was 1, then 2, and on a recent day we had 5 people seeking to have this done. It mainly is the staff at the hospital, but now the doctors have to keep a list so that the patients can be done in order. Since Dr. Bowden gave them his own instruments to perform this surgery, they are now basically fully qualified to do blepharoplasties.
The team is reflecting on the past days here and each has certain perspectives that they would like to share along with my help:
Hildegard, our “Cinderella” is a humble servant. She especially loves to smile at and see the smiles of the patients and their families. Everyone here seems to smile at us and all the little children, from the 3rd grade up, respond to “hello” appropriately. Even the sick patients on the wards welcome us with smiles. There is one girl in the restaurant (along with Joy, the young lady on whom Dr. Conrad operated for strabismus) with the biggest smile. It just makes our hearts feel glad and welcome.
Chi Ching is amazed (remember, whenever we say, “Isn’t it amazing,” that means our Father did it) to see patients who had light perception vision, who couldn’t even see a hand moving in front of their eyes, end up with 20/30 or better vision. The One Who Heals is constantly at work here taking care of the patients and spreading the True Light to the blind.
Connie noticed that we continue to see Joy (see above) in the restaurant. She has frequently cried tears of happiness, being so grateful to have her eyes straight and now to enter a new life at the university. It is in sharp contrast to Joy’s friend, Dorothy, who we saw. She had a bad injury from childhood and her cornea was scarred as well as her entire eye damaged. She hoped to be able to get something done about it, but we told her no surgery would be helpful. She had tears of despair and was deeply weeping about this. That did change when we were able to buy her a contact lens to cover her distorted, scarred cornea and make it appear as if she had a real, healthy eye. She was beaming when she looked at herself in the mirror.
We all have really noticed how the locals stare at us. It isn’t just a glance—it is a stop, drop-your-mouth-open, open-and-rub-your-eyes stare. They have no hesitancy to follow us and listen in to our conversations even though they may not understand. It is always fun to see folks when Dave (who is over 6 feet tall) is out walking on the street. The stares are everywhere.
Dave reports: This week we experienced some amazing transitions. First, our number of "groupies" has steadily grown from one or two regulars to now up to ten children, all under the age of 12. They visit our trailer daily for a little English lesson and some good fun that may include Frisbee, badminton, hop scotch or putting together a little toy courtesy of the "golden arches." The smaller kids who visit all get balloons which they are happy to receive except for the occasional POP! In addition to teaching the children English, we have a daily lesson with Alicia and Doctor Zhong and I'm happy to report both of them are improving every day. I'm a bit overwhelmed with their dedication to learn and their amazing graciousness. The people here are very hospitable with gifts of food, souvenirs and invitations to their homes a frequent occurrence.
Our equipment continues to support us thanks to a good supply of backups and some good old American ingenuity. We had a local tailor put a temporary repair on the tent trailers' zipper, and our A-scan probe has "short-circuited." Thanks to a ready backup, our pre-surgery evaluations have continued without a hitch. Finally, our YAG laser continues to operate with a couple of minor malfunctions. Our replacements, the last team to serve at Gonghe this year, will bring the laser back to the states and it will be repaired.
As a team, we did get to go to Qinghai Lake for a Saturday trip. We saw yaks that you could sit on for pictures and Tibetan outfits you could wear for pictures. All of this was at a price, of course. It was beautiful scenery and a wonderful trip.
Team 3 joins us in 3 days and we will be leaving Gonghe in 5 days. We will have a final report in a week. From Team Two: Bert Bowden, MD, Connie Bowden, Hildegard Moir, Dave Razo, and Chi Ching Chen.
Remember: You can write any volunteer at volunteer@gansuinc.org . Include the name of your addressee in the SUBJECT line. Many team members can be reached through their personal e-mail address as well.
GANSU PROVINCE REPORT
The first team to serve in Qin'An, Gansu left the USA July 9, 2010. Reports from weeks 2 & 3 are posted below.
Gansu Teams - Report 3 Report 3 of Team One Qin'An, Capital of Qin'An County, Tian Shui Prefecture Gansu Province, People's Republic of China July 19-24, 2010
A day in the life of GANSU, INC volunteers in Qin’An, Gansu Province:
We arrive at the compound about 7:10, having had a team meeting at 6:30 in one of our hotel rooms. Water does not come on sometimes in the morning, so we have to have some stored, just in case. Sam, our Chinese translator, and a very diplomatic man, will often intercede for us, for these kinds of comfort problems, and has taken on many such challenges for us, in a kind and loving manner. He has struggled with dialect here, saying it is completely/totally different, and thus we must go through a local person who understands Mandarin, as well as the local dialect often. It makes for interesting times, plus long patient histories when needed.
The key to getting surgery started is getting the generator out and running. This provides time for the dry heat sterilizer to go through the cycles to sterilize the surgical instruments and cool in time for us to begin the first surgery. Ken, our engineer person, is responsible for the generator. The generator is needed to assure we have electricity. We have had power outages, one occurring just this week in the middle of a case for an extended period, so the generator is essential.
Our nurse, Peggy, prepares the retro bulbar injections and takes them to the pre-op room, where the anesthesia is given by our Chinese liaison, Dr. ‘Melody’ (our American name for her) Song. She has been trained and is very proficient at giving these. Our ‘Cinderella’, Colleen, checks to see what is going on, will clean the bathroom as needed, and helps with breakfast before she joins Peggy in the trailer for her duties there. The team joins to get breakfast on the table, with help from our cook, Xiao Liang. We start the first surgical case in the trailer a little after 8:00 AM.
The ages of our patients thus far, have varied from 13 to 91 here. Ken, Sam, and Lucy mix with patient families while the surgeries are going on. This is our ministry part of the day. Ken started a really neat thing in interviewing the families, and even praying with them, as their loved ones were undergoing surgery. I have included a sample of these interview sessions from his written notes, just to give you a glimpse of one day this past week:
Patient #1: a 74 year old male; almost totally blind. He is a farmer of about 12 acres, living about 15 km from our location, with no animals or machinery to assist him. He heard about our GANSU, INC project from another patient who received good vision earlier. He has no running water, carrying it by hand from a location about 30 minutes away, round trip walking. He has had no formal schooling, only speaks local dialect, no Mandarin. He is pleased that the government subsidizes his efforts with 20 Yuan (about $3) an acre.
Patient #2: 91 year old male. He was carried on the back of a family member and lifted into the trailer bed by his grandsons. He is a fruit farmer. He cannot read, having had no schooling, speaks only local dialect, no Mandarin. He has a hillside tiered plot of 5 acres, is very deaf, and is loved by his many family members who brought him, to assist him in his quest to see them. (Note: He walked with assistance into his post-op exam.)
Patient #3: 70 year old female; one of the first females to drive a tractor in this area. She has had two years of schooling yet speaks only limited Mandarin. Her daughter-in-law learned about GANSU, INC on the Internet! She is supported by her children, which is the usual custom in China.
Patient #4: Came with four family members. All are farmers who farm on those beautiful terraces which are distinctive to China. They heard of the GANSU, INC project by word-of-mouth. Patient had very poor vision, no schooling, speaks local dialect and very little Mandarin, and is almost deaf. One of few to have running water but it is from a rain filled reservoir which is by gravity flow and thus not pure.
Patient #5: 73 years old, accompanied by 6 family members, from about 1 hour away, and was referred by the hospital. No schooling; little Mandarin. They are acquainted with Christians, because they have neighbors who are Christian and can hear them singing hymns.
Patient #6: 60 year old widower, who lives with his daughter, came with 5 family members by bus. He has farmed 12 acres by hand, and has had grades one and two as a child. He has a cousin who is a Christian believer, and has noted that he shows actions of kindness and helpfulness.
All of the above had only either hand motion, or light perception vision. Those of us in the trailer have never witnessed such huge and dark cataracts, looking like puffed raisins. I have one ‘bagged’ at the side of trailer, and have witnessed the struggle of Bill removing them with the other surrounding ‘globs’ of cortex. They are such ultra-mature cataracts; we just can hardly believe them. Then, I marvel at how much care we have available to us in the US.
One more team member we have had the privilege of serving with is Lucy Ma, a recent High School graduate (Valedictorian, by the way!) She has been fun, drawn young people to us, has been helpful, interested in, and very relational with patients, family members, and our support staff from the hospital. We have all enjoyed her very much, and find the youthful touch a welcomed asset to our otherwise ‘mature’ team.
Thanks for hanging in there with this rather long report. We have had many such experiences with the local, rural, people, in service and ministry to those around us, but have also been ministered to, and consider it all joy (most of the time—cold showers are tough!) to be here and part of this community.
We remain Team One, Qin’An, Gansu Province: Colleen and Ken Hopkins, Sam Wei, Lucy Ma, Bill and Peggy (your reporter today) Conrad
Gansu Teams - Report 2 Report 2 of Team One Qin'An, Capital of Qin'An County, Tian Shui Prefecture Gansu Province, People's Republic of China July 11-18, 2010
Sunday, 11 July, after an “exciting” five hour travel in an ambulance we finally arrived at our destination at 8 PM. Upon our arrival a lavish banquet with numerous Chinese delicacies was waiting for us. Meals are served on a huge round table and we were surrounded by about a dozen Chinese dignitaries who had come to welcome us. Several county officials and the directors of the local hospital made the team feel so appreciated, no doubt based on the track record of previous teams.
After some welcomed sleep we began the work to set up the mission the following morning. Unfortunately, the medical supplies, previously shipped from Georgia, could not be opened until the “rookie” local Inspector, from the national Chinese Inspection and Quarantine Department, came Monday afternoon to insure the medical supplies were valid for use on Chinese patients. The next several hours were spent in trying, unsuccessfully, to persuade the Inspector the supplies could be used—a bureaucratic roadblock. Some of the confiscated supplies were absolutely essential in order to continue with the planned surgeries.
Fortunately, as a result of concerted prayer by the team, and the confidence developed by Dr. Conrad with national Chinese officials, directions eventually worked their way down the various levels of bureaucracy, resulting in the essential supplies being released for use. Nevertheless, this delayed the preparation (set-up) period from three to four days. In addition to the supply related obstacles, various equipment obstacles were encountered but resolved on day four, answering team prayers.
Except for the Conrads, the team members were shocked at the severity of the need. Almost every patient is legally blind, at best! It is extremely touching to see the compassionate family members helping their aged parents and grandparents through the pre-operation procedures. Almost all of the patients were filled with hope, having heard about the opportunity from persons who were "blind, but now they see." The family members looked for every opportunity to be helpful. All offers of prayer for a successful outcome were warmly received. To compensate for the delayed start in the surgeries, patients were also operated on Saturday this first week.
The team worshipped with local Christians Sunday morning (one hour of preaching) at the local registered church. There were about 400 persons in attendance, most with Bibles open. The visit, after the service, with the 89 year-old preacher, was a special blessing. Now we are looking forward to week two, counting on your prayers that as physical eyes are open, so will be the eyes of the heart.
We continue to appreciate news from home, and look forward to your correspondence. You can write any member of the team at volunteer@gansuinc.org Remember to place the name of your intended e-mail recipient in the subject line of the e-mail.
The first team here in Qin'An is excited to be here - it is comprised of Bill and Peggy Conrad (Surgeon and Nurse), Sam Wei (Team Translator), Lucy Ma ('Can-Do' young lady), and Colleen and Ken Hopkins ('Cinderella' and Engineer).
