Dali, China
Patients fitted: 613
Today is our final day of
fitting in Dali.
Today started with a whole pile of young kids, which made
Rosaline extremely happy. We also had the cutest kid in the world from
yesterday return, and believe it or not, she seemed to be hearing! She was
joined once again by her teacher and today her brother was there as well (who
was also hearing impaired). She seemed to respond when asked if the boy beside
her was her brother. Tani fitted both her and her
brother, and as far as I know they were both hearing. I never got a chance to
follow up, but I did get a couple more great pictures.
We wrapped up the day rather uneventfully
(the hundreds of fittings are all starting to blur together) and Rosaline had
fun handing out candy to as many kids as possible. There is a lot of candy left
over, however, which we'll be bringing to Lijiang.
After the fittings were over
Rosaline, David and I went for a walk looking for a place to eat. I managed to
find a couple Lego figures for Drew and David managed to get a Red Bull poster off the wall of a convenience store (people here really are amazingly friendly)
during our walk, and we finally decided to stop and have hot pot for dinner.
This was a new experience for both David and I, but Rosaline talked us through
it. It is essentially fondue, except instead of cheese, you have a boiling pot
of soup, and instead of bread, fruit, or whatever else you would dip in a
fondue you have meat, vegetables, noodles, fish, etc. It was really good, and
it was a really cool experience. Once again we had Rosaline to thank for
helping us experience something new. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this meal!
After dinner, there was a
group tour of "Old Town" arranged for us. Apparently there is an Old
Town and a New Town of Dali. Old Town was extremely cool, and is a warren of
tiny shops, bars, hotels and street vendors all set in an extremely old, walled
area of Dali.
We wandered around and just browsed for two hours. I didn't buy
anything but lots of other people did. There certainly seemed to be some deals
to be had if you knew what to look for.
I'm now back at the hotel
updating this journal (I let it slip for a couple of days and it is hard to
catch up!). Tomorrow morning we leave for Lijiang. We have one day of fitting
there and one tour day and then we leave for home. China is beautiful and this
has been a wonderful experience but to be honest I am ready to get back to my
normal life. I miss my family and I can't wait to get back home. I've met some
absolutely wonderful people on this trip, many of whom have left already (Todd
and Wayne left just this evening, and before that there was Britta, Joe and Bridget, Gary, Sabrina, Patricia, Scott, Marti...am I missing anyone?). I'll definitely need to collect some email
addresses before I leave so I can keep in touch with them!
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