Chopstick Rookies: Extreme Highs and Lows

walking up the old city streets of Kashgar

This past month has been memorable... in many ways! On a positive note, our family took the most incredible trip through the southern part of the region that we live in. We saw sights that were breath-taking, pedaled more kilometers on bicycles than I thought we could handle, laughed with friends in the midst of camping in the rain, and ate things that I'd rather not mention!

The gooz (grassy wetlands)

jewelry store / dentist combo

There are two American families in the city where we are who have started a company that does tourist excursions throughout Xin Jiang, the far western region of China. They had several bike trips planned for different tourist groups this summer, all of which fell through, but since the itineraries were set and bikes already lined up, they decided to allow those of us who live in their same city to participate at a reduced cost. Originally the plan was for only older kids to be able to ride, but then with the number of younger kids we had wanting to attend, they made provision for even Noah (who just turned 8) to do some riding. So after a two and a half our flight to a city well known to be a cultural hub for one of the main minority people groups of this region, we started off with a group of 28 western tourists (and two Chinese friends--our Chinese teacher and her older sister were dying to go when they found out what we had planned!) to bike through a huge part of the mountainous region where we are. Every aspect of the trip was spectacular. We had our eyes opened to all sorts of cultural things that we hadn't previously experienced (the tour group arranged an amazing race for us to do a scavenger hunt through major tourist attractions in the first city we were in, which included everything from the largest mosque in the region to the old city built on a crumbling wall that was there for protection against invading enemies)... it was fascinating! I even found some pottery to bring back home as my souvenir! One of my favorite finds was when I was out shopping with a friend before we left town. We entered into one place that looked like it had antique jewelry and pottery pieces. It did, and it also had a dental chair with a patient sitting in it--right behind the jewelry counter! It was a hilarious blend that caught my friend and me totally off guard. I managed to discreetly take a quick photo...

Stone Fort of Tashkorgon

4 countries within 50 km!

We then bussed the 7 hours to a remote location--a small city rich in culture and history, and dominated by fascinating minority people groups that don't look anything like what you picture as being "normal Chinese." Because of the location, we were stopped probably 4 different times on the route to get off the bus and walk through security, with everyone showing their IDs. It was only because our tour guides had done such excellent preparation (and providential grace!) that we were able to make it to our final destination! Add to the security issues the geographical factors (we were winding through a huge mountain range that makes the US's 14,000-feet peaks look like a joke!), and we were so grateful (and a bit car sick) when we finally arrived. We had topped out at 12,000 ft. at the highest point on the road during our journey, and we all felt the effects of the altitude (light headedness, some nausea, etc.) at this part of the journey. The next two days were spent exploring. We were able to check out an old stone fort (in the background within 50 km of this photo of Kevin is the meeting point of 4 countries--Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China) and spend the day romping around the "gooz"--the wet grasslands where the local people allowed their livestock to graze. We also attempted a 50 km bike ride, which turned into more like 38 km due to our slower-pedaling group, people getting hungry, and bad weather setting in!

traditional meal in a yurt

The next day we did a longer ride that had a large amount of downhill, so the km went by much more quickly! We saw more breath-taking views and even met some of the locals. Some of the Tajik people had us into their yurts (it's like a round tent that fits a lot of people inside; this is where they live, eat, sleep, etc.) They cooked an authentic meal for us, which included milk, milk, and some bread! The rice served had milk in it. And the other dishes all were dairy-based (from the goat that they raise). My biggest shocker of the meal--the tea had salt in it! It was the saltiest tasting drink I'd ever had, and honestly, quite hard to get down. But the experience was unforgettable...

traditional Tajik game--get the goat carcass into a hole!

After that we headed on the road to do more biking to a campground run by some Kyrgyz by a lake. The only bummer on this leg was the weather. We had days of rain, which unfortunately leaked through the yurt's canvas top, leaving us all soaked through. I was shocked how cold it got at night (can't say I was totally prepared with how I packed for us all!), so we were a bit chilly for those few days. But memories were made, nonetheless, and the kids had a ball playing in the mud and playing inside card games, too. (They had their two families of best buddies along on the trip, so everyone was having a blast getting their tanks filled with sweet friend time!)

Kev and Noah on wheels

The trip wrapped up with some more biking and a final day in a hotel with a swimming pool (such a treat!) and some quick souvenir shopping. We flew back home after the week-long trip, feeling like we'd experienced a part of the country that was previously totally unfamiliar. And the cultural insights were enlightening and also served to open our eyes to the vast differences that exist in this one small pocket of the world.

We returned to discover that our uninvited house guests--aka, bedbugs--had truly vacated our apartment! We moved right back into our normal living arrangements (with the boys back on the floor of their bedroom) and have continued to have NO BITES since that time (which was about 6 weeks ago)!!! We're so thrilled to get to stay in our home, and only at the cost of the boys' furniture being tossed out and their room being somewhat torn apart. They've continued to be great sports about the whole thing...

Noah and his broken leg

The Lows that we've felt as of late have mainly been due to health issues. Almost 3 weeks ago, the boys were outside playing a game of tag when Noah fell really hard and hit his shin on a concrete slab around the edge of a building...resulting in a fractured tibia (shin bone). He immediately knew something was wrong when he fell, shouting to Eli, "Eli! Go get Mom! I broke my leg!" Eli came up calmly and got me (Kevin was out meeting with a friend at the time) and we went to check on Noah. I honestly thought he was being dramatic, as there was no visible outward sign of the injury that had taken place, but after continual tears and his unwillingness to put weight on his leg, I ended up carrying him upstairs to our apartment (it's only 3 flights up, but the boys kept saying how glad they are that I do CrossFit with them so I could carry Noah that far!). After 15 minutes of him still being in a great deal of pain, I called Kevin and asked him to start heading home. We then got on the phone with our American doctor that's in our city to get counsel from him. None of us thought it was broken at the time, but did decide to take him in and get x-rays to confirm that and see if he'd maybe done some other damage. At this point, Noah had been crying out in pain for about an hour, and that is really atypical for him. His brothers like to say that he really only cries when he's mad, not because he's hurt (because it just doesn't happen that often!).

kids' sleeping arrangement for Karis to be on-call night nurse!

So Kevin and I left the other kids at home with a phone and took him to a nearby hospital where we were able to get him x-rayed remarkably quickly. Kevin's Chinese employee at his baseball company, who is also a dear friend, came with us to help navigate the Chinese hospital and to make sure we were understanding the details of what the doctors said. A Chinese hospital is unlike anything we Americans would call "normal." The hoops you have to go through, the lines you wait in, and the sheer number of people are all pretty incredible. So we went through the whole process to discover quite quickly that Noah had definitely broken his tibia and then the doctors suggested surgery. We knew we weren't going to have surgery there. (One of the main rules about getting medical work done here is that you don't want to have anything invasive done; there isn't the same perspective on germs and sterilization that we have. This is evidenced by the fact that there is no soap in the hospital bathrooms. [There aren't even dispensers to TRY to keep soap stocked!.] There was bloody gauze that I had to move and blood smeared on the table where Noah had his x-ray, with no concern by the medical personnel in the room to remove it before the next patient comes in.) So we had a cast put on it by the doctors there while we scrambled to be in touch with our American doc for his counsel. The doctors who put on the cast told us to return the next day for a more permanent cast to be put on.

game of chess to pass the hours on the sofa

We did, and spent 5 hours at the hospital only to find out that this specialist didn't want to put a new cast on, so we left with nothing to show for our long visit. We did return the next week to get the promised new cast, but also found out that the bone seemed to have moved more in the week, leaving the bone more off-set than it had been when it was originally broken :( So through many tears of my own, we had to let Noah know that the doctor wanted to try to re-set the bone with his hand and then re-cast it. It was horrible. Kevin had to help hold his leg down while the doctor pushed gently and then with much more force on his broken tibia. The whole process with the doc probably lasted 5 minutes, but it felt like forever.....Noah took it like a champ. I helped get him through it by promising he could have whatever he wanted for dinner. He chose ice cream. And ever since that was over (the whole process took 9 hours that day), he's been feeling great. The bad news is that the x-rays taken after the attempted re-setting of the bone don't look any better than the ones taken before the doctor tried to reset it, so there's still a chance of surgery down the road. But for now, we've been blessed to have four doctors look at the x-rays and all agree that surgery is not necessary at this point, but it just needs to be watched and x-rayed regularly to see if it doesn't straighten out a bit more in the natural healing process.

getting a head start of fall school work

After our nine-hour day at the hospital, poor Kevin was so tense that he went into his CrossFit workout the next morning probably more tightly strung than usual. He ended his workout early after tweaking his overly-sensitive back (thanks to too many pitches thrown in his former bball playing days). His back went steadily downhill, and within the next 36 hours he wasn't going anywhere. He had to spend the next 4 or 5 days pretty laid up, resting and taking muscle relaxers to try to get his back to get back into working condition. It was a long week for all of us! Between Noah not getting out of the house (and making him generally less agreeable than normal), Kevin's back hurting, and our temperatures reaching about 100 degrees for about 4 days in a row (our apartment temp was only getting down to about 90, and that was with 3 fans running in the living room!), we have all been stretched to an extraordinary degree as of late.

We did have some fun celebrating Kevin's 41st birthday on Tuesday, the day when his back really started doing better, and we've even had the temperatures drop into the upper 80's--which makes a huge difference in all of our energy levels! I had one really funny exchange with our landlord (not the crazy, flower-eating one, but the other lady). She saw me outside with Hudson and Eli as they were running around together, and knowing about Noah having broken his leg, she questioned what the boys were doing. Not really understanding her meaning, I explained that they were running, and confirmed that yes, Noah was upstairs resting his broken leg. She kept pushing me on the matter, and then I understood. She was questioning why I was allowing the other two boys to keep running and playing outside when I had the obvious results of such actions laying on the apartment sofa! She made it clear that they should be inside, too, after Noah had broken his leg! When she asked, "Well what will you do if they fall down also?" I was able to respond, "I guess I'll take them to the hospital as well! At least I know where it is now..." I'm not sure she appreciated my humor and she left shaking her head in disbelief!