Day 8 - Tibet - Road Trip and On The Streets

Summary:
Had an early start to Tibet's 2nd largest city, Shigaze. It's a 6 hour drive through the country side. It was a very scenic drive where I plugged in my headphones, listened to praise music and reflected. I had another hot/burning sensation...which is a good thing =). Our 2 goals in Shigaze are to 1) visit another hospital 2) talk to the locals and get usage statistics on cell phone usage. These stats hopefully will provide the foundation with numbers on internet and text messaging usage to help with a special SMS project. We were on the streets for 2 hours while Jason surveyed Tibetans in chinese while I scribed and recorded results. Had a relaxing night.

Day 8 Photos are HERE!



Details:
The hospital visit was humbling. There was huge remodling, renovations, construction all over the place - there was dust and dirt EVERYWHERE. New hospital buildings going up and lots of dirt roads. I don't know how safe and healthy this place was because there were a lot of people smoking IN or right by the hospital doors, too much incense burning and there's all types of sick people (many kids) just breathing in all this dirt. I was really in disbelief that people actually could recover in these conditions...but it just made me pray more and to continue to ask God to have his hand over these people to love and to heal them. It's so very sad to see each innocent child suffer so much. I don't know what some of these kids had, but the symptoms they had were severe - blindness, heart problems, digestive issues, all kinds of wires/hoses connected to bodies...just a tough place. Made me reflect more on my own 2 boys to be ever so grateful for their health. Thank you God for protecting and watching over to all our family and friends for being in relative good health.

During Quiet Time and reflection heard these great songs...which led to another hot/burning sensation:

• Indescribable - Chris Tomlin
• Who Am I - Casting Crowns (I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow)
• Salvation is Here - Hillsong
• You Never Let Go - Matt Redman (VBS 2008 version)