Come What May: China, A Quick But Unique Experience

As previously mentioned, my class had been planning a trip to China for a couple of weeks before we all started our fourth year externships. We had planned on providing some humanitarian audiological work in an orphanage and educational training in a hospital in Tianjin, a city a couple of hours outside of Beijing.

Well the trip was planned to be from 5/14/2010 - 5/27/2010. We arrived on the 15th in China. The first thing I noticed was that it was green and beautiful in the countryside. The next was that driving was much different in China. Even though dividing lines are present for lanes, they might as well not exist. Even the sidewalks and shoulders are treated as though they are a main traffic lane. I was amazed at what to me seemed to be chaos. There seemed to be no rules, rhyme, or reason to the driving of everyone there. I was afraid for my life almost every moment on the road. On top of that, I never saw anyone wear a seatbelt. Traffic lights seemed to be ignored and everyone just drives, bikes or walks across the intersection when they want to, and everyone else must get out of the way. I was impressed with the amount of bikes on the road. Millions of people ride bikes around the city, and that is no exaggeration as the city is home to over ten million people.

We were given a day to rest before we started work. We went for some shopping in the old traditional section of town. We found a shop with silk stitched art. This was the first thing I found that I knew I wanted to get before leaving China. They were almost like cross-stitched pictures, but were much more elaborate and the silk and material shined giving it a gleam finish that was beautiful. We later found paintings that were also beautiful. Cylynn and I have very little art work for our home as it is always so expensive. Therefore, my goal was to purchase plenty of art work to decorate our house with.

The next day we went to the hospital. In the morning we were given a tour of the hospital. It was very busy. I was impressed with the equipment there and enjoyed seeing their protocols and learning from them. China does not have audiologists but some of their ENTs specialize is the work that we do. We have had some affiliations with this hospital in the past and were asked to come back and give more educational training. We gave lectures in the afternoon on varying topics in audiology. I gave a lecture on medications that are toxic to the ear and how to monitor hearing to protect the hearing after treatment. It was a learning experience to give a lecture that needed to be translated and to try and make it understandable for the audience. I enjoyed it and I think the lecture went well.

The next day we gave more lectures and prepared to work in the orphanage the following day. As we drove to the orphanage it was in a very poor area and I was worried about the facilities the orphanage would have. I was very surprised to see how nice the orphanage was. The food was wonderful, the toys the children had were nice and new and the orphanage had plenty of donated funding. The orphanage was for children with disabilities and we tested hearing on all of the children and made referrals when necessary. It was a wonderful and once in a lifetime experience, the children were beautiful and so fun.

The next two days we were able to visit disability centers with children with hearing loss and mental disabilities. We tested hearing and toured the facilities. It was a tough but educational experience testing children I could not speak to or did not understand my language.

On our last day of work before we were going to start site seeing in Beijing, I had a family emergency and had to rush home and cut my trip short. I never got to see the great wall or forbidden city, but I am sure there will be another time for that. I am grateful for the experience and look forward to visiting China again sometime. Here are some pictures of the trip.

One of the restaurants had a live seafood market in which you could pick out the dish you wanted and they would kill it and cook it.