Today it is terrible hot here in Portugal and the memories from China pop up.
These days are nothing compared to how it was in Fuzhou during the summer and I am going to put some pictures that tell the story.
The pictures above are of my wonderful gardeners, or 2 of them. Then there is the one with me and the men making the road usable! I got permission to try and that was fun. This was during a rainy season and the work that should have been finished after few days took weeks. After all time in China is different from the Western world! Tomorrow might be next month, you never know and that I experienced often.
Luckily we did not have to walk between the office and the houses. We had of course a private driver and he took me where I needed. The other photo is of the security guards.
During the summer we had some university students working as security guards and they were fun. How we could laugh and enjoy ourselves was perfect. One of the students was also my teacher. He taught me Chinese and that was also interesting and fun sometimes but most of the time hard work but he did not give up on me and eventually we managed to get the words out of my mouth not sounding like a horror movie.
Sometimes we had thunderstorms, terrible wind and bad weather, even during the summer. There were floods and the workers had to protect the houses where the water had found a way inside. It was hot and it was wet. They are wearing the yellow things but took them off and sometimes they wore just their boxers. Terrible hot and hard work demands extreme solutions. Sandbags did come handy.
The public transport was different, we had motorbikes just as everywhere in China, we had the green thing which I have no idea how to name and then we went by foot.
Hats we did not use a lot but sun umbrellas are everywhere and wonderful. I still use them here in Portugal and people look at me like a thing from Marc or somewhere around the universe!
Working in the garden was of course part of my life when not teaching or writing or doing whatever I did. My car was in the garage during the hottest time and during the winter when my house was freezing I sometimes just got into the car to have some heat in my body. The winters in Fuzhou are cold, I can tell you that. The summers are very hot and the air condition working 24 hours. I hate the sound of the air condition but during the night it was impossible to sleep without it.
Anyway, this was just a memory trip to my beloved China and remembering the good times there.
Hulda Björnsdóttir
My thoughts shared with you 