MORE THOUGHTS

16:23BST 7/14/2008
COUNTRYSIDE - YANG LAOSHI JIAREN DE FENGZI

so ive stewed upon it and have more to say. im in this big house right and there are two small girls. yang laoshi de nuhai (her little one) brought a mouse in a cage to play with. before we left, i asked her how old the laoshu was, she said brand new. i can now guess why. what started as innocent carelessness quickly turned into downright carnage. now in the countryside and hopped up on sugar, she was tossing the little mouse high and higher into the air. on the highest one, she let it fall to the ground. i thought that would be the end of the xiao laoshu, but i guess theyre on the cat system of nine lives.

speaking of cats, this house has one, and while it looks way cleaner than a lot of the street animals (usually dogs), i didnt trust it for a second. sure enough, when it was just me in the living room tap tap tapping away, the cat comes and plants itself in front of the coffee table. it sat there, not moving for maybe 3 minutes when all of a sudden it launches itself at the now caged mouse on the table. the cat knocks the cage off the table and begins furiously swiping for the mouse... i sincerely doubt that the poor laoshu will make it to see wednesday.

after seeing the restroom facilities, im a little concerned about making it to wednesday. ive got this amazing habit of not eating or drinking a lot when i know its in my favor, but wednesday? i just dont know. while i didnt go inside, the restroom is outside the house, outside the courtyard, down the road and without a door. im guessing its like an outhouse, only i think id be happier using a squatter than a western outhouse. still, if theres no running water, i wonder where you take a shower? in the bathrooms that ive seen thus far, the showers are over the squatter so that it all goes down the same hole (maybe george wouldnt have gotten busted for peeing in the shower over here). so maybe theres a seperate facility? who knows.

more than anything, im afraid of getting sick out here. ive dodged the bullet thus far (knock), but seeing all of the flies and knowing the quality of the water makes me wonder.

theres one darling little girl here, shes 15 and i think her name is mi. she practiced some of her english with me and shes not too bad. she likes to draw (hua hua) and shes very good at it. she wanted me to give her an american name, so i rattled of a list of western names that i could think of. i was really happy when she chose kerry!!! i will have to remember to take a picture of her so that the roomie can see her namesake :).