Balloons go past at Hope Plaza
I'm leaving China the day after tomorrow. Nearly sorted, all that's left is the stuff I'm taking home and the stuff I'm leaving behind - clothes which Elder Sister Wang says she'll give to the Hope Project for me, things like that. I posted twenty kilograms of things home today. Outstanding Friend 2 helped me carry it to the taxi through the freely flowing raw sewage that surfaces in my block whenever it rains this heavily - help I won't forget in a hurry, thank you Outstanding Friend 2. The taxi driver was not impressed with our soggy selves until I gave him more than twice what I owed. Then it became a game to see how close he could get the taxi to the post office door without breaking any glass. (Money.)
Edge of the World gave me a wonderful parting present: the classical Chinese dictionary he used at school. It smells of old books and is blue and full of quotes from the ancients.
One morning last week I answered an automated phone call expecting it to be my telephone company. I was amazed to hear a woman's voice giving a long and involved report about Gao Zhisheng, a human rights lawyer in Beijing who has worked voluntarily on behalf of certain spiritual movements with the same initials as Fine Gael, and exactly what the authorities are doing to him, his family and his career. It could be that recent events in Xiamen (the relative success of a big popular movement in preventing the construction of a chemical plant) have made other people braver about using the communications infrastructure to rally support.
No queue, friendly service, free consultation, and drugs at one-fortieth of the price? For fun, I thought I'd catch some kind of stomach bug. Hurray! Autumn Truth suggested that since it wasn't serious I could just go to a nearby clinic - a basement-of-the-local-pharmacy affair - so I did. There was no queue and I waited three minutes at most. The doctor was a bright and sympathetic ayi who suggested I get some "nuofushaxing" 诺氟沙星 or norfloxacin, a fairly hefty antibiotic of the type that inhibits organism growth at the DNA level thus curbing bugs. I went upstairs and bought two boxes over the counter (no prescription) for RMB20 (€2).
Is norfloxacin especially cheap to make? The box says it was made by 上海华中药业有限公司 in Shanghai and I can't see the mark of any foreign pharmaceutical. Its effects and side-effects are very like those of ciprofloxacin, an almost identical drug which I've taken once before in China for some stupid reason. I don't know what norfloxacin costs in the west but two boxes of ciprofloxacin, patented by Bayer and the recommended emergency drug to have with you in China, cost me over €80 (RMB800) in Ireland. So why did the norfloxacin cost a ridiculous €2? Problems with fake and counterfeit Chinese drugs notwithstanding, what is going on with Western drug companies?
I can't really believe I'm leaving. Maybe that's why I'm sitting here writing this instead of cramming the last few things into my flimsy holdall. I'd much rather talk about people than fluoroquinolones, but how can I do justice to all the people I've said goodbye to in the last few days? Autumn Truth who ends her texts with 忙你的不用回, Edge of the World who's been a source of comfort all year, As a Rock who's so earnest and ambitious; Teacher Woodchild who works full time and cooks and cleans on the evenings when she's not studying for a masters in Public Management, Teacher Order who STILL calls me Negga Shei, Clear Logic who's becoming his father; Zhao Qian who helped me with the Zhang Ailing issue, Ever Basic who came back from Korea for a visit, and One People who took me to his dad's theatre to see some "er ren zhuan" 二人转, a Dongbei comedy form involving bawdy wit, acrobatics and singing by small droll gabby men and giant beautiful women; and Dawn Hill who has so many books that she can't move house without getting scolded by the movers! 总之, I'll miss this lot.
The end of the year abroad wouldn't really be the time to meet a kind, idealistic, intelligent, modest, six-foot-something, very handsome, single Dongbei biology graduate interested in doing good and walking in parks - would it? ... You would think not, eh. But you'd be wrong! Ha ha ha!
Kyoko is here, she magically healed both broken legs just in time to come to China and move all her things before the lease ends. Yumiko and her Korean boyfriend surnamed Oh came over this evening with an entire delicious meal that they'd made at home; it was still warm, which was good since we've sold the microwave.