Last Post from China

I only have a few minutes for one last post from China, so thought I'd leave you with a photo of me trying sheep eyeballs for the very first time! Yeah, they were delicious -- NOT! I also tried sheep testicles! Now I can say I've tried them and didn't like them!

I have more stories about eating strange things in China; hopefully, I will have time to post some of them when I get home. So much more to tell and just not enough time! We've got another travel adventure ahead of us, too, as we take a taxi to the train station, a sleeper train to Shanghai, then either a bus or another train to the Shanghai airport. It's truly exhausting. Then I've got a 14 hour, overnight flight ahead of me as well. Hm, somehow it's just not sounding so bad when HOME is at the end of it all!

That's it for now; thanks for coming along with me on this incredible journey! Next stop -- The United States of America!!!

Animal Rights in China...

...can be summed up in three words. There aren't any.
Cats and dogs roam the streets. Sometimes they are shooed away with brooms or feet, sometimes they find a handout, once in a great while someone will take partial responsibility for them and bring a meal every few days. Mostly we saw them scavenging, finding scraps of food in the garbage and drinking water from puddles formed when someone threw out the day's wash water.
There is a small trade in animals for pets. In Luoyang there is a row of shops where they sell cats, dogs, mice, hamsters, fish and birds. The conditions in the stores would never be allowed in the U.S. Many of the animals are in cages that are too small, too crowded, open to handling by anyone who comes along, often sitting outside in the hot sun, and with no food or water.




We'd like to have bought every animal and taken it home!

Even these pet shop animals could be considered better off than the cat in the following two photos. She is kept chained to a tree in front of a row of stores where there is heavy foot and bicycle traffic and dogs roaming free. Michael often brings food to feed her. I asked him if the owners minded him doing that and he said, "I don't care if they do or not."

In Zhouzhuang we came across this tiny orange kitten seemingly roaming free outside a small shop. Turned out she kinda belonged to the owner of the shop who said, "she attracts all the foreigners!" Poor little thing barely big enough to walk. We bought some sausage and she attacked it like she'd not eaten in days. We also brought water.
Most of the Chinese walking by looked at us like we were crazy to be so interested in this kitten.
SO tiny!
In that same city we came across a couple who had these strange-looking birds tied to a boat, on display, and they were offering to take photos of people with the birds for money. The poor things were out in the hot sun, panting, tied by the legs to the boat, and not even water to drink.
I snapped a quick photo but the "owners" didn't like that and came rushing over to stop me.
Here is the man coming over to make sure Michael puts his camera away. It's all about making money in China.

In Michael's university classes the students are amazed at the photos of my cats, Jack and Scout, living in my house, fat and healthy, because most have never seen an animal treated as a "pet," let alone as part of a family. Animals are expendable here, and that won't change until China becomes more developed. It's true that portions of the country are seeing amazing growth and prosperity, as anyone who has visited Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong knows. But the rest of China, the major portion of the country for the most part, still live under very harsh conditions.

People can't care about animals until they have enough to eat themselves.

Attending Class in China

Michael took me to his classes as a special guest. He has over 220 students! I think I went to class 4 0r 5 times before I met everyone. Each time when I walked in the door at the beginning of class the students applauded and were all smiles. Everyone wanted to meet "Michael's mom."

In each class we showed pictures of Michael as a little boy, his family and friends, and places in America. I had also scanned a lot of Michael's elementary schoolwork and the class enjoyed seeing the mistakes he made when he was learning to read and write. After the picture show we opened up the session to any questions the students had that they wanted to ask either me or Michael. I can't tell you how often, over the course of all the classes, I was asked whether Michael had been naughty as a little boy! Everyone wanted to know what he was like when he was small.

They were also very interested in my impressions of China, the Chinese people, and life in China. I also got questions about, of all things, women's liberation, and which presidential candidate I favored.
At the end of the classes we passed out the hand-made cards I had brought, and which had been made and donated by a lot of my scrapbooking friends. Beaded bracelets made by California girl scouts, and crisp new dollar bills, were given to the students brave enough to ask me a question. Suddenly I got TONS of questions!
A room full of very attentive students.
At the end of class the students posed with their cards and bracelets. I'm in this photo, too, but you probably can't see me. Let's just say I'm up to my nose in Chinese students!