Self Care Day -- With An Education

Today was Meg and Deme’s Self Care Day.

It began with Banana Pancakes and Jack Johnson (and Jack’s banana pancake song). Flour, salt, egg, yoghurt, water, cinnamon, cloves and banana slices combined, then fried with fish oil (you work with what you got!). Stacked three high, with two layers of marmalade jam, we topped these babies with a drizzling of honey and a sprinkling of additional spice. Sliced peaches on the side!

Breakfast was followed by a 1½ hour foot massage at a little spa down the street (for $5 US). This began with a soak of the tootsies in a wooden bucket of HOT tea. After skillfully working her fingers into and around every muscle in each foot, the masseur moved onto heavenly work on the calves, and later in the neck, shoulders, and back. It was marvelous!

OH, but this indulgence was not merely physical! My brain enjoyed a working as well. During our massages, Meg shared with me her study experience in Senegal, and I talked about my experience as a union steward. We discussed responsible and effective international social/development work, and lamented at challenges inherent in forming intercultural friendships in the context of some perceptions of particular economic power dynamics.

All this pampering was, of course, just further career research—Deme Yuan, International NGO Consultant. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

An additional treat followed in the form of a manicure date with Columbian friend Laura. We three foreign gals gossiped as we took turns at having our nails painted. You gotta mix it up: the heavy and the light.

For my last evening in Chengdu, a group of us went out for a great Sichuanese dinner. Dinner was followed by drinks at “Little Bar”, where we were quickly invited to join a trio of local business people for a bottle of whiskey. Oh, China!