Day: May 6, 2006

Food.

Serge is fatigued.  Today he has an intestinal problem and a stomach ache.  He’s not in top form.  It’s true that as soon as he eats less he has less energy and for the last two days he hasn’t had much appetite.  He says he needs meat and fat, he who normally never eats fatty meat is now greedy for the fatty cuts.

In China, we find oil but no butter or cheese, in spite of the sheep and goat’s milk.  Milk is drunk plain or with salty rice for breakfast.  Chinese breakfasts are made up only of salty food; a variety of marinated vegetables along with the soup of rice and milk.  We are very far from western flavors.  The Chinese very rarely drink coffee, they prefer green or black tea, which is part of their culture.  Most often they drink tea with meals.
 
Serge doesn’t like tea, he always drinks his “Nes” in the morning but he has eliminated coffee from his feedings because he has the feeling he isn’t digesting it.  He still eats the “Petits Lu” biscuits but without a good layer of butter on them he doesn’t eat as many.  Breakfast is less copious than usual and that doesn’t have a positive affect on him.  During the day, Serge eats well and Ludo and Daniel watch that carefully.  He is back to eating his rice with milk, his energy bars and his Bolinos brought from France.  On the spot, we have found some lyophilized noodles.  Serge still hasn’t started eating apple sauce again, even though he liked it a lot, especially when it’s hot.  In the end, feeding is not completely routine and over the months we have had to make changes and adapt.

Where are we?

What are we doing?

Serge went around the city of Aksu, still on the famous highway 314, where we follow the mileage markers.  This morning we left at marker 1035 and he stopped at marker 960.  The scenery has changed completely:  a succession of villages, a lot of cotton mills, a lot of people and a very special atmosphere created by hundred of poplars, which have been planted in lines between the highway and the fields.  The rows of poplars go on for miles and miles.  We can imagine what they are used for:  their roots maintain a relative humidity and their leaves give protection from sun and sand, which is always in the air.

At 14H00, a change of teams: Thomas and Laure went in the 4-wheel drive to handle feedings and Daniel and Ludo went to the hotel in Aksu with the camper.  So, after one week, they could do their laundry and some shopping: stock up on water, fruit and cassettes (because they haven’t enough music in the 4 wheel drive).  The next city we will stop in is Kuqa in 3 days.

I was about to forget: after 5 nights and 6 days we have rediscovered the joy of turning on a water tap.  Good-bye to dust and filth and dried sweat…. The wipes are on strike this evening.