A Little TLC is the Best Medicine

The silence this past week has been due to my being sick. For the last several days I have been down with a sinus infection, added to my regular winter cough and I have been feeling pretty miserable. It was the type of week that I would have just liked to stay in bed and groan (which I did get to do some of).

But despite how I was feeling there were things that needed to be done. My own visa was coming due, which meant I had to go to the school and pick up the proper paper work, which then
had to be taken to the city police station and submitted (I should know by Wed. if I have a new visa for the next eight months).

Also a new couple moved to town and I had offered to try to help them settle in. Once again getting set up out here takes work and a lot of running from office to office obtaining the proper red stamp. There are trips to the school, meeting the landlord, the local police, the city police, medical checks, setting up cell phones, and home phone and so much more. I tried for the first day or so, but my head was swimming so badly and I was so cold and feverish that I could barely focus, much less translate well. I was so thankful when a friend stepped in and offered to take over. He willingly interceded between them and the landlord, accompanied them to the local police station and even set up their phones.

I have been offered so much advice over the past week on how to get better that I almost drowned in it.
There was the obvious advice of :

• Wear more/thicker clothing
• Drink tea with honey it

But I was also told:

• Put Vicks on the bottom of my feet
• Drink snake tea
• Eat black nan
• Eat only Hot foods
• Use a humidifier and air purifier
  
• Drink flour and water mixed together
• Go get an IV (Uyghur cure for everything)
• and so much more
  

All of these suggestion were given in love, but what I really needed was rest. This weekend one of my friends invited me over to her house on kind of a retreat. She told me to just come lay on her couch and she would take care of me. Another friend came by and made me homemade chicken soup. I think these acts of loving kindness have gone further than any home remedy to helping me feel better. To have someone jump in and take over with responsibilities that I just couldn't handle, to have someone buy the soft tissues so that my nose wasn't getting beat up by a fourth roll of toilet paper, to have chicken soup, to be given a hug, all of these things have demonstrated the love of my friends out here. Thanks guys!