Quarantine

I awoke this morning to the sound of soldiers marching past my building. I imagine them, four stories down, perfectly in line with each other, their green uniforms of China so neatly fitted, with red and gold bands wrapped around their hats and arms. I didn’t look. I stayed in bed and listened to the sound of their feet pounding against the pavement, the leader sounding off with the rest echoing him. Or they may have only been security guards, lining up for their morning morale boost. As yet I was only half awake and thinking about all that has happened since I’ve come to this country.

The past week has been a whirlwind. My first day in China consisted of several officials in biohazard suits keeping five or six rows of the airplane detained on the flight after we landed in Shanghai. The eleven-month-old baby sitting next to me was teething and therefore had a temperature one degree higher than normal, which is apparently unacceptable to the Chinese government. Plus, I would imagine that the giants in white space suits scared the living Christ of out her. Poor thing.



Because these men were all Chinese, I had a very hard time understanding what was happening. I assumed we were being taken into quarantine, but for how long? And where would they take us? Could I make a phone call? Thanks to a generous friend, I had an electronic translator with me and it turned out we were to be taken to a hotel while awaiting hospital results about the baby.

After waiting two hours on the plane for a decision on whether or not to take us, they filed us into a bus, where we waited another hour for who knows what reason. The bus didn’t drop us off at an airport hotel. Instead, it shifted from highway to highway before each of us slowly realized we were lost. We stopped in the middle of the highway to let our escort pee on the side of the road in plain site of all who were interested in watching.

For two hours we drove through parts of Shanghai that made it clear to me I was definitely in a developing third world country. It amazes me that the ancient world of pagodas and emperors can still exist in the modern world of skyscrapers and smartcars. You still see old women carrying crops on their backs and old men with no teeth standing next to a school girl with a bedazzled cell phone. It’s truly bizarre.

We finally arrived at the hotel. It was dilapidated and obviously had been abandoned. The government must have seized the opportunity to take it over specifically for quarantine. This was to be our home for the next 24 hours. They fed us breakfast, lunch and supper, none of which I could eat, save for a little rice. Good thing I’d packed a few Cliff bars for the road.