Morning Musings

Mornings are quiet times here in Lincang. I’ve just had my breakfast of a steamed bun, a hard-boiled egg, and a glass of warm soymilk (because apparently the store isn’t planning on restocking yogurt any time soon), and now I’m sitting in the library. I’m done with my class prep, so I’m just futzing around on the net for a bit before heading over to training in half an hour. There are a few other folks in here readying their classes and skyping/emailing folks back home (speaking of, I do have skype. I don’t want to post the name up here, since this is an open site, but if you want to connect let me know and I’ll shoot it your way. I love talking with folks!) Mornings can also be my most homesick moments, if I haven't gotten emails overnight (which is the day during the states). Most of the rest of the day is too busy.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that the library is one of two places that we know of on campus that have wi-fi. The other is the computer lab downstairs. Our rooms don’t even have outlets—just two fluorescent lights—so the library and lab have also become our default power strips, with everybody jostling for plugs. It sounds more cutthroat than it is, and my computer is pretty much brand new, so I can make it last for a long time without a chord.

I’m looking out a window over well-clipped school grounds and dorms, with mountains and clouds not too far off in the background. Actually, a lot of the clouds are hovering well below the mountain summits. Andrea, CEI’s CEO, is in town for a few days, and he mentioned that Yunnan (which means “south of the clouds”) is also an abbreviation for two words that mean “colorful clouds”—a much more apt description. You can get a sense from my pictures of why that is, but unfortunately my camera’s not the best.

This morning also marked my first ibuprofen since arrival, because my calves still hurt like crazy from our stairmaster hike the other day. The mobile medicine cabinet is being put to good use, although I haven’t had to take anything for my belly for the last three or four days. Last night I even ate a little of the egg-tomato-MSG dish, to see how it did, and I was ok. I can’t exactly say I’m thrilled that my body’s no longer upset when I pour MSG into it, but considering the alternative….

It’s amazing how quickly you get used to life conditions around here, or probably anywhere. Things like having no power or net in our rooms, having hot water as a likelihood but not a certainty, using the bathroom without a western toilet, eating only prepared or packaged food, never ever drinking tap water…it’s still annoying, but after a week or two you think about it much less. And really, when it comes down to it, life is pretty consistent. My bed here, wooden board for a mattress or not, is a bed. My food,however differently prepared, is often made up of ingredients I use regularly in the states—things like eggplant, tofu, rice, cucumber.

That matters to me. It matters to me that I’m able to wake up and see the same calendar I had hanging in Minneapolis, the one I bought with my family in Charleston last summer. It matters that I’ve got a Harry Potter book and Ender’s Game sitting in my room, that I’m wearing clothes I got in the states. These are all material things, and normally I don’t care about that kind of stuff, but when it comes to distance from people I care about and places I love, the material takes on more weight. I know that, as time passes, I’ll get clothes here, and a new calendar, and a new toothbrush. But hopefully by then I’ll feel more settled into myself and this place.