I'm sorry that I haven't been keeping all of you totally up to date. My reports have been backlogged and now that I am actually in Wuhu, things have started to blur. So I'll try to keep up the work on my end.

I just talked to a friend yesterday who was in China about two years ago. She asked me what my first impression of China was. I could only say that I was too tired when I came off the plane to really make an evaluation. She said, "What about the dust?" Oh yes, that's right, dust.

I have had an interesting experience with dust. The hotel people (the Foreign Guest House doubles as a hotel) decided to install new air conditioners in our bedrooms. And on the side, I must say they have been truly valuable.

Anyway, when they installed them, my bed was covered to prevent the dust from piling up on it, but I didn't think that the dust would travel clear across the room. Well it did. There was a thin film, sorry, I should say substantial film of red dust on everything in the room. I was really surprised at how well dust travels in China.

Then I decided to clean a part of my wall to get rid of the red dust. As I cleaned, I noticed that more came off than just red dust. There was a fine black soot film on my walls. The other day I decided to wipe two wallpaper panels on my wall. The difference between the cleaned and uncleaned walls is like night and day. If I find more time, I'll get around to the rest of my room. My roommate says he's waiting to see if I'm gonna just give up. I'm not sure I will. It's just that living in a clean room gives a sense of joy and comfort. However, it's hard to scrub everything off.

So yes, the dust in China can be immense at times, but I think people here just learn to live with it. The rest of my teammates certainly have. I'm sure I'll tell you some day in the future how things turned out.