<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'>
<div style="font-family:helvetica,arial;font-size:10pt;color:black">
<div id="AOLMsgPart_1_edef5978-31ad-42a6-bba5-122907b881f2">
<div class="aolReplacedBody" style="background-color: #fff;">
<div id="ygrp-mlmsg" style="position:relative;">
<div id="ygrp-msg" style="z-index: 1;">
<div id="ygrp-text">
<div style="font-family:helvetica,arial;font-size:10pt;color:black;"><font color="black" size="2" face="arial">
<div id="AOLMsgPart_1_fead6fe0-8cf4-4436-a074-58dc93aa5c5b"><font color="black" size="2" face="arial">
<div style="font-family:helvetica,arial;font-size:10pt;color:black;">
<div id="AOLMsgPart_1_ebc065b8-053c-4220-bee9-aa37178c1c62"><font color="black" size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>The Good Earth</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Pearl Buck's novel, <i>The
Good Earth, </i>is one of her trilogy written in the 30s referring to the rich
soil in China's river plains. We now
brush into the ever-present particle that clings to clothes and fills the air
in the northeast: <i>dust.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><i> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Growing up in a rainforest coastal town in the Philippines
meant verdant fields. A speck of dust was
an intruder, the presence of its kind an indication of a duster's lethargy not abundance.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">With the accelerated cutting of trees from the forest came stirred
dust twice a day from passenger buses that plied the Aparri-Laoag traffic. Soon, dust was no longer a benign stranger to
be gently nudged out but an enemy to be banished, belligerently guarded
from. Their tribe multiplied with the
logging trucks.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Unless the rains failed to arrive as scheduled, Aparri's dust
drenched with the sand. We were a delta
at the mouth of the Cagayan River and the sand was more plentiful than their
airborne cousins. Still, I developed the
obsession of dusting while I grew older.
I tolerated or fought the dust, depending which nook of the planet I was
in, tolerating it in Saipan where one mostly grabbed the hankie while inhaling dust
at the motorbike races north of Banzai Cliff.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">It was in Kano, Nigeria where I was overwhelmed by dust in
the air, confronted for the first time by a humongous sand storm from the
Sahara forcing our Lagos-bound plane to prematurely land. I ended up in Ijede by the Lagos Lagoon so I
learned to tolerate the soil as part of the scenery rather as grime. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Specks of soil were my first nemesis in <i>Dong Bei,</i> not because they were present but because they were
tolerated everywhere. And, yes, it is
everywhere.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">I lived for three years ending last year on the 11<sup>th</sup>
floor of SAU's Friendship Villa where the faculty and staff of the International
Education College were located and where foreigners are billeted. For the absence of a northern sun in the room
assigned to me, I went for a south-facing room that received the sun all year
round. A mistake. It also faced a four-lane street to the
coal-littered grounds of the steam generating plant across<i>, </i>with swirling dust on the uplift of the Siberian winds that swept
down Manchuria's plains.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Spoiled for the adequacy of University heat and water, I was
tolerant of the outside dust as long as I had it under control in my room. A wet mop was a constant, never far from
periodic touches to the floor and accumulations in ends and corners got the
reach of hand rugs. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">The PMI (particulate matter index) alert is quite literally another
matter!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">When I moved off-campus, I realized how valuable the water was
and how the dust is taken for granted in peoples' daily lives. My solarium plants drown in H<sub>2</sub>0; my
neighbor's are misted. My plants are robust
while the neighbor's are like bonsai. She
favors plants that require little dampness.
Half of her garden grows cacti. My
spider plants with a taro and a few florae bearing white flowers that bloom in
the morning and pink in the evening join crawling vines next to the laundry
line while bell peppers droop their branches.
I germinate durian seeds in the cold! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">My neighbor washes clothes and utensils on the sidewalk. She uses the water well before it is thrown
out into the street to settle the dust on the ground. Sponged bath gets the children cleaned, with
liberal use of wash clothes applied to strategic lymph nodes to insure hygiene.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">I've since learned how to handle water, the kitchen faucets no
longer continuously heard running; ditto on shower spouts. I also discovered why the toilet bowl does
not hold standing water; one does not flush in doing number three. It goes down by gravity!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">My host family's home near downtown Shenyang proved to be a painful
venue of an unforgettable learning occasion.
The host Mama went out to the store after a festive meal while the house
Papa snored in bed, so I had the kitchen to myself. I did my hosts a favor, dusting off the piled
Chinese cabbage, washed the carrots, potatoes, and radishes on the kitchen
solarium. A mistake. It turned out the soil delayed the veggies
rotting, absorbing the dampness as it dried, giving it the protective cover needed
rather than the rapid wrinkling of the skin exposed to air after cleaned.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Dust bugged me in San Jose at Oleai. That was benign compared to the PMI that alarms
Dong Bei lungs. Temperature feels cold even
under sunshine compared to the greenhouse effect of smog that retains atmospheric
heat in the overcast skies; this welcomed paradox goes with the facemask. Host mother lost cover protection of the
cabbage outer leaves, and the carrot-potato-radish aged faster due to my
dust-phobia.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Turkey and pumpkin are in American tables tomorrow, started in
a rite of gratitude for the Good Earth's bounty when Massachusetts’s indigenes and
Pilgrim neighbors feasted on the fruits of the New England soil. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Dust on the food table these days is my good earth's bounty
in Manchuria; also, the color of my true loves hair!</div>
<br>
<div><i>j'aime la vie</i><br>
<div><i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</i></div>
</div>
</font>
</div>
</div>
</font>
</div>
</font></div>
<font color="black" size="2" face="arial">
</font>
<div></div>
</div>
<div style="color: #fff; height: 0;">__._,_.___</div>
<div style="clear:both"> </div>
<div id="fromDMARC" style="margin-top: 10px;">
<hr style="height:2px ; border-width:0; color:#E3E3E3; background-color:#E3E3E3;">
Posted by: <a href="mailto:wangzhimu2031@aol.com">wangzhimu2031@aol.com</a> <hr style="height:2px ; border-width:0; color:#E3E3E3; background-color:#E3E3E3;">
</div>
<div style="clear:both"> </div>
<table cellspacing="4px" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; color: #2D50FD;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="font-size: 12px; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; padding: 7px 5px 5px;">
<a style="text-decoration: none; color: #2D50FD" target="_blank" href="https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/INHS60/conversations/messages/7563;_ylc=X3oDMTJxamdoZXJtBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwOTcwMjE1BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTEzMDc2MgRtc2dJZAM3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3JwbHkEc3RpbWUDMTQxNjg4NTMwNg--?act=reply&messageNum=7563">Reply via web post</a>
</td>
<td>•</td>
<td style="font-size: 12px; font-family: arial; padding: 7px 5px 5px;">
<a href="mailto:wangzhimu2031@aol.com?subject=Re%3A%20The%20Good%20Earth" style="text-decoration: none; color: #2D50FD;">
Reply to sender </a>
</td>
<td>•</td>
<td style="font-size: 12px; font-family: arial; padding: 7px 5px 5px;">
<a href="mailto:INHS60@yahoogroups.com?subject=Re%3A%20The%20Good%20Earth" style="text-decoration: none; color: #2D50FD">
Reply to group </a>
</td>
<td>•</td>
<td style="font-size: 12px; font-family: arial; padding: 7px 5px 5px;">
<a target="_blank" href="https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/INHS60/conversations/newtopic;_ylc=X3oDMTJmYWhoaGZrBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwOTcwMjE1BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTEzMDc2MgRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNudHBjBHN0aW1lAzE0MTY4ODUzMDY-" style="text-decoration: none; color: #2D50FD">Start a New Topic</a>
</td>
<td>•</td>
<td style="font-size: 12px; font-family: arial; padding: 7px 5px 5px;color: #2D50FD;">
<a target="_blank" href="https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/INHS60/conversations/topics/7563;_ylc=X3oDMTM1MjJlbjEyBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwOTcwMjE1BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTEzMDc2MgRtc2dJZAM3NTYzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3Z0cGMEc3RpbWUDMTQxNjg4NTMwNgR0cGNJZAM3NTYz" style="text-decoration: none; color: #2D50FD;">Messages in this topic</a>
(1)
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div id="ygrp-vital" style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 10px;">
<span id="vithd" style="font-weight: bold; color: #333; text-transform: uppercase; "><a target="_blank" href="https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/INHS60/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmYmJyaTdvBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwOTcwMjE1BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTEzMDc2MgRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0MTY4ODUzMDY-" style="text-decoration: none;">Visit Your Group</a></span>
<ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0; padding: 0; display: inline;">
</ul>
</div>
<div id="ft" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 5px; padding: 0 2px 0 0; clear: both;">
<a target="_blank" href="https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJlbDVzcWcxBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwOTcwMjE1BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTEzMDc2MgRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQxNjg4NTMwNg--" style="float: left;"><img src="http://l.yimg.com/ru/static/images/yg/img/email/new_logo/logo-groups-137x15.png" height="15" width="137" alt="Yahoo! Groups" style="border: 0;"></a>
<div style="color: #747575; float: right;"> • <a target="_blank" href="https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Privacy</a> • <a href="mailto:INHS60-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe" style="text-decoration: none;">Unsubscribe</a> • <a target="_blank" href="https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/" style="text-decoration: none;">Terms of Use</a> </div>
</div>
<br>
</div>
<div id="ygrp-sponsor" style="width:160px; float:right; clear:none; margin:0 0 25px 0; background: #fff;">
<div id="ygrp-reco">
</div>
</div>
<div style="clear:both; color: #FFF; font-size:1px;">.</div>
</div>
<img src="http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=20970215/grpspId=1705130762/msgId=7563/stime=1416885306" width="1" height="1"> <br>
<img src="http://y.analytics.yahoo.com/fpc.pl?ywarid=515FB27823A7407E&a=10001310322279&js=no&resp=img" width="1" height="1">
<div style="color: #fff; height: 0;">__,_._,___</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</font>