There were snow that we played on too.......

When I had the Zambian picture show in Winthrop on Saturday, January 7th, the Lehman's insisted that we do it at their home and Charlie and Youngme also kept Bob and I at their home for the whole three days weekend.

We had snow shoed in their hundreds' acres of farm land, to the Twisp River bank and back to their house before all friends came.

All my dear Winthrop friends adopted Bob and me well. The morning before we drove 250 miles back to Bob's home we got another treat of morning tea with so many baked goodies from another group of friends at Chuch and Robin's place.

On the top of this whole load of the fortune of friendships, this time we had really stopped to see the sign of the history that Chinese people were in the Methow valley many years back.........and on the top of all, we saw the mountain goats on the almost empty road side that allowed me to take pictures of them from the opened car window for these animals can be unpredictable at times.

See, the cold snowy days were not all for the works and unconveniences only......Cheng 1/26/2012

Snow storm in Federal Way, WA last week.

This snow storm started on Saturday, January 14th while I was having 18 friends to come for my Zambian picture show and it came down on and off for the first four days all were about 5 inches on the ground. Wednesday there was good 10 inches of snow as weatherman reported. I went out to shovel the drive way and side walk; it was hard work for the snow was wet and heavy. Thursday morning, we were covered by a whole sheet of ice about half an inch thick all over every thing and every wehere, for it had rained down ice the whole night. Lucky that I did the shovel the day before; it would be way too heavy to shovel by this time. Bob did cleared the snow from the top of brushes; otherwise we would have them all broken down by this ice storm. The brooken down tree branches had brought down the power lines in many places so we got the power and internet outage for a few days. People who have generators were busy to get it work and rush to the gas station for fuel........we drove out ways before "a" gas station had power to do the businesses. Power was back on Saturday but the internet was not until Sunday night.

Well, if Dr. Friedrich's office did not change my appointment from January 19th to February 16th, I can't drive out anywhere on those icy roads anyway. So very thankfully, I believed another time that there is reason for any thing to have happened. Also it will be a great memory to talk about with villagers when I returned to Zambia. Cheng 1/26/2012

I visited friends and relatives in Indonesia.....

Since my wounds were better and allowed to travel aboard, I visited my friends and relatives in Jawa Island, Indonesia too. I just have to show and tell to all that I was almost all well and tell them what Peace Corps is and how my work in Zambia was trained and performed and how Peace Corps has being taking care of my condition after the accident as well as how my villagers in Zambia had been doing since I have left, etc. etc......

Everyone there were so eager to treat me anything special they can think and take me to places I would like to go and see. They concluded to have my neice Mia to accompany me to Yojarkarta in centrol Jawa for a three days trip and we went by air and back by train.

Mia treated me well and we were lucky to have a friend - Sindhu to take us around while we were there. One night we went for the traditional dance of a Ballet Show. It was so great. It was the most beautiful and wonderful show I have had seen since I started visiting them from 1990.

One day we went to Borobudur temple. I was there once in 1990. I remembered we drove very close up to the temple to parked and to visit the temple all around. Now we parked at far distance for there was a huge area around the temple managed as a park. This temple took 200 years to build, from 5th AD to 7th AD.

It is a earthquake country and the temple is a pilled up stone blocks carved with stories. If there is any earthquake damages, they were have to rematch the stone blocks according to the carved stories.......so there is a huge area of the blocks waiting to be rematched........What a construction in that ancient times.........the carved stories at all corners and turns were all perfectly made sence.....how the engineering for all of it been done and carried out perfectly....just look at the faces and body languages...... Another day we visited the last kingdom's (right before the Dutch time) musium, where the photography was not allowed......

Now I am back in Federal Way, WA., USA almost a month and just got phone call from Dr. Friedrich's office that they had to reschedule my appointment to see him on February 16th, instead of January 19th. Another month to wait and up in the air again.....well-oh-well, I will keep you all posted for any more news for the Doctor's visits..........you all have a possitive 2012.........Cheng 1-15-2012

Here are some pictures from the trip to Taiwan

My sister and I traveled around the Island of Taiwan and we spand a day at the central east coast of the Centrol Cross Island Highway which is about 180 kilometer from Hwa-Lan to Tai-Chung and we were in car and on foot for the first 40 kilometer from the east front. This section of the Centrol Cross Island Hwy is also called the Tarogo National Park. The water cut throught the gorge of jade, marble and crystal for many long years but the road was constructed from before World War II, before that probably nothing but hunting trails and got finished in late 1960s. Taiwan is in the typhon and earthquake zoon so this road is constantly crashing down by the water and stones so it is alway in the repair and reconstruction in some small sections here and there. But when the road is open for traffic and pedestrians that was a treat for the whole trip.

We didn't walk on any of side trials, loop trials for I was still need to be careful with my leg on its flexibilities and strength. My sister cared and supported me, my wishes and desires on going places as caring for her own child, no wonder, every day there were some people came up to either my sister or me and say, "You are so luck to have your MOTHER/DAUGHTER traveling together." I didn't think my sister was too much appreciated of these all...........Cheng 1-15-2012