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Thursday, March 02, 2006
SOME WHO WANDER ARE LOST: EXPATS IN CHINA  An expatriate is cut from different stock. Expatriates do what many forever dream of attempting: they leave everything that is familiar to them and trek to foreign lands for compassion, love, adventure, religion, escape, Military mandate, career advancement, enlightenment and self discovery or a host of others reasons. We are made up of all the classic archetypes: King, Magician, Warrior, Lover or even Parsifal in search of the Holy Grail. Some return and others stay to adopt new homes, and new languages. They reinvent themselves and new histories while the stories of childhood family and friends evaporate from conversation and memory. I have often joked that I am the oldest living resident in the world's nursing home. As a military brat, soldier and itinerant teacher I have attended more metaphorical and authentic funerals than anyone in a retirement center. It can be magical and it can be the very edge of a lonely abyss. I met one expatriate who had been away from his home of birth for more than two decades. His family and friends have all moved, been mourned, or are now indifferent and no longer write or call. He is alone. Worse than alone, he is sick. He has a life threatening disease. And he has only the few dollars a professional expat' teacher in China can save and hardly enough to save himself. His contract, like that of many teachers, does not provide for him to be ill. He gets neither time, money or insurance to ease the burden. He fears discovery of his illness because it is serious enough to be cause for deportation (they can terminate most contracts after 30 days of illness) and he has nowhere to go. He called me yesterday only to say goodbye. Before I could intervene verbally or mentally catch my balance he had hung up. I have had enough of those calls through the years as a teacher and health care professional that I knew he was serious. He was not reaching out for help. He was emotionally shaking my hand goodbye. He has been trying to find his way across the Styx with a drink in one hand for many years. He lost his wife a few years ago and now, sick and tired of being sick and tired, he is leaving for good. I have no way to contact him. I met him only occasionally where expats chance into one another. I only know his name and a bit about his life. Like Ms. Yue: he cannot take pay for his care and is choosing not to burden the people he has met in his his many travels. No, it is not me. But, it well could be. It could be any one of us wanderers who are untethered and unsure of how we came to be so old with little more than the clothes in our closet and a scrapbook full of forever younger acquaintances. I am hoping he calls again. And yes, I will look for him in familiar haunts. And if he reaches out to shake my hand again I will try not to let it go.  China Asia Blogging China Blogs China Blog Cancer Treatment Expatriate China Medical Care Teaching in China Expats Cancer Working Overseas Lonnie Hodge Blogs at: ONEMANBANDWIDTH Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by Lonnie at 12:36 AM |
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