Woke up at 2 am and Pastor KS sent a reassuring sms at 5 am. Fearfully hopeful we embarked on our 4 hour flight to Kunming. I was quite glad to be able to mark 2 classes of Maths HW on the plane!!!---workaholic--YES!
Photo of Lim Chun ad LG--- she paid for the air ticket with her credit card.
Upon arrival we were met by Ben, his friend Mr Lee, Dr Z's daughter and son-in-law and then whisked off for lunch. Tried to buy a china mobile hicard to make calls to Spore but was not able to get it to be roaming so Ben gave me one of his spare hi cards
From Kunming we travelled 160 km to CHU Xiong and then another 30 km up hilly and agricultural terrain. Dr Z's( in his late 70s) abode has got no direct road access and was definitely not meant to be stumbled upon by any unsuspecting passers-by. He is perhaps the only doctor in this world with no walk-in patients. I was told he devoted his entire life to research in medicinal herb. To be polictically correct, you will all not be able to see his photo. It was like a journey in the old kungfu drama in search of the snow-mountain lotus that will give us the elixir of life! Apparently he does not want to be disturbed nor does he want to treat anymore patients. Perhaps we have a little divine" guanxi" and so he's willing to take a look at LG!!
He was considered a national treasure and his team was recognised for their contribution for the discovery of herbs to cure SARS and recently for his work on H1N1! please check http://www.cxz.gov.cn/
The weather was cool and the air was indeed unpolluted. Most of the food consumed here are grown in the hills and the pace of life is definitely SLOW. The sakura and camelias(BTW they are flowers) would get most people very very excited
We were served tea that has been freshly picked in the early afternoon and they gave LG chicken soup that has been boiled for 4 hours with acorns and all the chickens were reared and fed with unprocessed grains.
Dr Z spoke in mandarin that has a heavy intonation ( a little difficult for me to switch from channel 5 to channel 8) and he talked alot of the history of chinese herbs, and the cause of illnesses as a result of the human body not being able to be in sync with Nature. He took LG's pulse and mentioned that LG must have been a very fit person prior to falling ill. He advocated that LG focus on buidling up his immunity system, letting go of all concerns, no stress, no depression,strict vegetarian diet and everything organic. Medication will be prescribed. Exercising and deep breathing of mountain air is strongly encouraged.He was told to tell himself : " I am a good man, I will be healed". Of course I cheekily translated it as " Jesus loves me and through his stripes I will be healed"
His diet should have a lot of beans/ legumes in his diet= plant protein--- no animal protein. We were served by ladies in military uniform whom we were told were his assistants that will go out with him to the hills to pluck medicinal herbs.He also thinks that it is a stubborn illness and it will take 2 years to treat it.
We were put up in a place called ZIXI shan zhuang that has seen better days and it is now awaiting demolition and in the process of being auctioned off. Dr Z's daughter thought that we will be staying here for a few months and so got it real cheap like 400 yuan for a month. The living condition within the chalet looked better on photo.
To be honest, I was quite impressed that such a neglected place uses solar energy to heat up the water pipes which contain hard water.
We had breakfast at a nearby " town-centre" and their menu can be seen with one glance at the kitchen. Our favourite item is fresh black fungus which we ordered for every meal. They ordered a chicken soup for LG again--- what happened to not eating animal protein? The answer is their chicken is special????-- not injected with any growth hormones and he should drink more. One egg is laid every 2 day by their hen and we baulked at the idea of eating 3 eggs in one day!!
They took us to CHUXIONG town -- about a 45 min drive down hilly and winding road to buy cooking equipment, medicinal pot and fresh green vegetable that is locally grown with no pesticide used.
Came back for lunch and met Dr Z and this time there was a group of delegates ( high ranking officials from Beijing), here on a research study to find out more about medicinal herbs from Dr Z-- though they did not speak with the typical Beijing accent and one of the ladies does not look like she is dressed for picking mountain herbs, we were introduced as his relatives from Shenzhen Guangzhou. There was also a group of tribal ladies doing a gig before lunch. ( their steps consist of -- side together side kick, right kick left kick and then this is repeated left once , right twice--- can I join their dance troupe? Perhaps I may have to when we run out of money ??!!)
See the chicken soup that was ordered for LG. The bird was the same one that was strutting around in our resort this morning. Felt quite guilty so I refused to eat the chicken meat and only drank the soup. Note the orange pumpkin, it is grown from the garden in our resort and the lady proprietress was not able to give me an encore the next day. She told me to wait another 2 days before she can harvest another one!!!###
Met a patient ( see photo below)of Dr Z who was nearly blind from diabetes with blood sugar hitting a high of 18. He has taken 4 sets of medicine and has stayed there for about 14 days. He intended to stay there for 6 months. Walked 3 hours each day and hey presto he regained his sight! We arranged to have his wife to cook breakfast for us-- she makes "buns" without using self- raising flour and blended nutritious meal using carrot, barley, rice or green beans!!!
Ben and his friend ( who collected medicine for his wife) left and I was given to understand that Mr Lee is a very wealthy businessman and he has sought cure for his wife with many western doctors.Ben even gave LG a sizeable stack of yuan and was constantly telling him "not to worry" and he would take care of everything!We are eternally grateful for such kindness from all his siblings!
LG was not keen to stay on as the place is really too quiet and also there is the problem of language and communication. I know he will feel miserable and disorientated. So we made plans for 6th uncle to fly up when we leave on Thursday.
9th March 2010 ( Tuesday)
It is a day of waiting as we were told that his medicinal herbs will be here but it did not arrive till late afternoon.
Opposite to where we stay we discovered a 2-star hotel on higher ground --compared to our ungraded one. This, of course got me excited and started to make contact and enquire about pricing. Of course the listed price can be further reduced by another 40%-- a tour leader is born!
If we come again for a review, we will definitely want to stay in this " WANG HAI SHAN ZHUANG". LGi's parents would be very excited about this place!10th March 2010 ( Wednesday)
This is Dr Z's original jeep which has just travelled to Tibet and China govt has given him a more modern one to use.
We were taken to town in this, gone was the comfortable MPV that we arrived in-- suspect that it was borrowed. We bought a lot of raw walnut that is unprocessed, not even roasted as it is a kind of protein replacement. Also bought some apples and pine seeds. I chose some apples and they were immediately removed by Dr Z's daughter as she wanted the "uglier" looking ones which she thinks is better???
The modern jeep--- a gift from the govt????
Prayer Request: Pray that LG will get used to the diet and the diet will really starve the cancer cells and the medication prescribe will strengthen his immunity that it will be able to "kill" the tumour. Pray that LG will remain faithful and strong in his determination and belief that his long life will be a testimony of God's goodness to us.
We were taken to lunch to a restaurant called "Jia Xiang Cai". It was the best meal I had so far.
By the time we reached our resort, LG was advised to take a rest which he willingly obliged as he was tired out by the journey to town.
11th March 2010 (thursday)
We departed from the "resort" at 7 45 am and only reached the airport at 11 am. We were a little flustered when we could not confirm LG's flight on the 18th March 2010 to come back together with 6th Uncle. It is the school holidays and the flight is full. He was on put on the wait list. We will pray that his flight can be confirmed the earliest possible, alternatively we will upgrade him onto business class.
I even managed to speak to my 6th uncle before the plane departed and the flight stewardess had to tell me to switch off my HP. Gave LG a call at night and spoke to 6th uncle who sounded terribly excited too be up there.May God bless him and his family for his kindness to LG and my family.
12th March 2010 ( Friday)
Today is LG's Bday and I sent him a Bday greeting and hope that he will get to see the scrap book that we have put together.After a long day in the school we had a prayer meeting and I was very emotional when we prayed. Cried out to God to have mercy on US
Plants grew on cement up there despite it being the dry spell. They did not have rain for quite a while and yet Nature has somehow allow plants to flourish.God is Good, God is Great, give LG the faith and strength to overcome this battle so that he will emerge victorious, and quoting Dr Lim " science can only do so much", with God Nothing IS IMPOSSIBLE.
Plants grew on cement up there despite it being the dry spell. They did not have rain for quite a while and yet Nature has somehow allow plants to flourish.God is Good, God is Great, give LG the faith and strength to overcome this battle so that he will emerge victorious, and quoting Dr Lim " science can only do so much", with God Nothing IS IMPOSSIBLE. 13th March 2010 ( Saturday)
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