Dave’s MS Blog

Because Dave was feeling quite well, we decided to check out the Traditional Market, also known as WuShan Square. Unfortunately, it was so extremely hot outside that we couldn’t stay there for very long. The market consists of many tiny shops and the shopkeepers are very much into bargaining with you. As a matter of fact, after they tell you the price of something, they hand you a calculator so you can show them what you will pay for the item. Sometimes they will accept your price and other times not. We absolutely had to get out of the heat so what did we find…but a friendly McDonalds! Dave and Jack spent the rest of the time sitting with Ronald McDonald while Jack’s wife, Sue, and I did a little power browsing!

Unfortunately, after eating at the golden arches, Dave got a bad case of hiccups (he never gets hiccups)! After we returned to the hospital, he continued hiccuping for about three hours. At that point I told him I was going to talk to the nurse and see if there was any ancient Chinese medicine to get rid of hiccups. I went to the nurses station where the nurse and one of the doctors were standing and asked their advice. The doctor explained how I should hold the pressure points between Dave’s thumbs and index fingers. Next, I was to push on the pressure points above his eyes. Then he was to take seven large gulps of water. This was all to be followed with a large cleansing breath in, then a slow exhale. Of course when I went back to our room and told Dave I could help him, he was like “ya,ya,ya…whatever”. After going through my whole ritual, believe it or not, Dave stopped hiccuping! I guess my new title can be Dr. of Ancient Chinese Medicine!

Pictures for today include Dave & Jack with Ronald, (they could be quite wealthy if they had charged for every picture that was taken of them by Chinese people. This city is definitely not a tourist area so the only non-Chinese people on the streets are those of us from the hospital).

We are amazed at how clean the roads are kept. The next picture shows one of the many street cleaners who are continually sweeping.

The last picture shows some of the farms that we see from our window. The farmers are out there from early morning until late at night. Everything is done by hand – no machines or farm equipment is used. The farmers carry two buckets of water on their shoulders from the green canal seen at the back of the picture. Then they spend hours sprinkling water over the crops with a long handled shovel. Very hot, tedious work. Each day we see a rickshaw pull up to the field and take some green crops to the market.

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