Hi Everyone,

This week has definitely been a week of ups and downs. I found out this week that my Grandmother (Mom's Mom) is in the process of passing away after having been in the hospital for the past month with lung complications. It was very hard news to receive especially being so far away, but as I have thought about it more and spent time in contemplation, I realized that even though I am so far away on spiritual terms we are still close. One of my friends said, "Oh Rachel, you are so strong", but really I feel that my strength at this point comes from the support of so many friends and prayers. It is hard to make it through a time like this by yourself. Death is like birth, it is painful in the process, but the outcome is more beautiful than could ever be expected.

On another note, I am preparing to go spend a month in Inner Mongolia working at the wind farm. They are in the process of putting up the wind turbines and it is an interesting process. I hope that I can survive, with the cold and hard work. I will living in the padded work clothes which are sometimes called "bread" clothes. Life is an adventure, and sometimes you just have to ride the wave. However, as I am trying to arrange things at this very moment I am having to wait for all my paper work for my work visa to go through and the office that it has to be done at does not pick up their phone.

I went swimming at the local pool last night, it is quite nice. You have to do a health skin check before you can use the pool, although it is not very rigorous. Then the pool has an appropriate amount of chlorine, I can tell by how my skin felt afterwards and the smell of my swimsuit-dry. It is nice because it is a 50m pool so you don't have to change directions all the time. Although everyone was swimming lengthwise, there were no lane lines. There was a kids swimming class going on and one of the boys was about in the same lane with me. At one point I was passing a lady an the little boy happened to be swimming towards us. Neither of us saw him and we all crashed into each other. These are the hazards of swimming in China.