Bu Keqi (pronounced "Boo ker-chee")

Today was my first day in the Chi Mei Hospital! Although, once I got to the hospital I found out that I was apart of the community group so I actually was not in the hospital very much today. The four community nurses like to have fun and giggle a lot. When they first met us they told us how nervous they were and that they don't speak very good English. Which is so not true because you can understand what they are saying pretty much all of the time. Its just when you start talking about subjects that don't deal with medical stuff, they don't know how to say those English words as well.

My community nurse's Chinese name sounds like Ray Gene so that's how I'm going to spell it :) Ray Gene is really nice and very sweet. Lucky for me Ray gene speaks fairly good English so we only had a few glitches in the conversation. As I was going around the community today I was really wishing that I knew Chinese that way I can interact with patients more.

While Ray Gene and I were out in the community we went and visited the homes of 3 of her patients. all of them were elderly and have one or many chronic diseases such as Diabetes or COPD. Even though they have these long term diseases, we mainly went to their homes to change urinary catheters, cystoscopy's (catheter going to your bladder through your abdomen wall) and NG (naso-gastric) tubes. It was really fun to go with her and see the things that she does. It was also really sad to see the living conditions that many of these people live in. One man lives in the back of his sons shop. The shop is completely open to the outside and the man lives and sleeps in his bed behind a curtain.

Going to see this man had its funny moments though. A friend or relative came up to me and pointed at my arms and said the word "hair" and smiled and laughed. I couldn't help but laugh too because I've never had anyone find the hair on my arms so amusing. :) I've never noticed before, but I guess Asians don't have much hair on their arms.

After I went finished seeing patients with Ray Gene, I joined up with Rainy and her nurse (a girl from my group) and we went to 4 other patients home. At the last home we visited, we saw a patient who had a cute little grandson. Well cute is just one word to describe him. He was actually kind of wild and all of over the place. We took a picture of him and then he ran over to Rainy to try and grab the camera. Rainy put it in her pocket and he started putting his hands into all of her pocket to try and get it out. It was really funny.

A patient we met saw... He saw Rainy and walk up and noticed that we were Americans and wanted to take a picture with us.

A cemetery we saw while driving with Dr. Wong and Nurse Pie Ting

Dr. Wong and Nurse Pie Ting

I used a squatter!!

Here is an added note about our beds. My roommates and I were laying in bed just talking and Sarah realized that the underside of our beds were a little softer... not much... but a little is a lot in these circumstances :)  We also decided to open up out mattresses and see what actually is inside... Have a look at this!!

Oh and guess what?! We had an earthquake last night! It wasn't big enough to hit the registers (less than 3.0 I think) but it was big enough to cause me to wake up to my bed swaying :) I guess that being on the 8th floor of a building makes things move around quite a bit. No worries Mom! Just remember how Carli said that the farther away you are from a natural disaster, the closer you are to the next one. I'm not sure if I quoted that right, but it sounds good to me :)

Also, Bu Keqi means 'You're Welcome' in Chinese

Okay I thought I was done with this post, but I just remembered how earlier in the day I really think that I might have offended my nurse. She bought me sushi for lunch and I tried half of the first one. I got through that half with only gagging on it once :) The second half I wasn't so lucky. I almost threw up. Yuck! I felt really bad that I couldn't finish the rest of what she had bought for me, but there was no way that I was going to be able to finish the rest. I'm just guessing... but I don't think my nurse will try to buy me any more food :) Hopefully she will be forgiving of my weak stomach.

I hope that my blogs are making sense :) I mostly write them when I'm really tired and never read back through them... Enjoy!!!