Lending a Hand to Our Host in Guangzhou, China

We were visiting the city of Guangzhou and staying at Y.'s apartment for sometime there. For the first few days, we focused on helping him with small chores such as doing some light cleaning, making homemade soup and healthy food. We were willing and glad to do whatever we could to help Y. making his life a little easier as he was dealing with a lot at the time. There were some minor repairs in the apartment requiring some attention. Y. was concerned about the gas stove in the open kitchen which the previous owner renovated but might not have done properly following the recommended guidelines; the living room potlights also needed work as they were going on and off constantly. Since I had never used a gas stove before, Y. was worried about the possibility of gas leakage from the gas stove should I not turn it off properly after use. He told us better not to use it for cooking. We came up with a solution - electricty! We went shopping at the local mall looking for an electrical small cook top. This was when we found out that the big Walmart store where we were able to find most things was no longer there.

A few of the Walmart stores have been closed and moved out of China, for political reasons I guessed. That is too bad for the residents looking to buy what they need for everyday uses but good for small business people as some interesting shops have sprung up to take the space Walmart left behind. We went looking everywhere for a small electric stove top and found one at the mall where Walmart once was.

Having purchase the electric stove top, I was able to cook but had to plan the meals carefully as I was cooking with only 1 stove top. The fun part for us was shopping for fresh food everyday at the local stores. We went around visiting the meat shop, the pastry shop and the fruit and produce store. We started to get to know some shopkeepers as we were going there everyday.

With three adults in one apartment, sometimes We had to leave the place giving Y. some space and privacy for his online meetings and assignments. Many days the temperatures had been around 30 - 36 degrees C., therefore we visited the neighborhood KFC to enjoy some coffee and its air conditioning. Not surprisingly, lots of other resdients were there for the same reason.

Since One morning, while sipping our coffee at KFC, I looked out of the store window and saw a small group of women sitting under a tree singing happily. I went out and joined them!

They welcome me warmly to the group and we sang together with gusto. It was fun!!!

We did enough research and got information from the gas company and a few quotes for the replacement of the light fixtures. We were able to find a good handyman who would come to the apartment to get the job done. Thank God, at least we were able to help Y. with at least one thing while we were visiting China! R.T. Guangzhou, China O61925