I spend a large percentage of my day just observing my new community. There is a simple rhythm to life in our complex.Most families are up and moving around 0600. You can usually find numerous grandparents out in the play area with the little ones till 0900. Some of the elderly are doing their morning exercises which can be walking, tai chi or an elegant dance movement to the sounds of morning. There is one elderly lady that tickles my fancy, she walks around the courtyard forward and then walks the courtyard backwards. I am assuming it is a balance exercise. While the families are out and about the gardeners start there day – there are a team of maintenance personnel in the complex. Men and women that spend their day taking care of the building and the grounds. There are hundreds of trees from maples to palms. Most I do not recognize but if I read Chinese many of them have plaques about their species. We also have dozens of water features and bamboo groves. It is truly lovely to walk around here, especially at night when everything is lit up.
The common areas in each building are cleaned daily. The lady that maintains our building is a robust woman that speaks no English. I laughed one day because she got in the elevator with me just to see what this white woman is doing. I say hi - she says hi and then she was embarrassed. Yes, women here do cover their faces when they get embarrassed. Every day this lady cleans the stairwell, elevators, apartment doorways and the entries. She wipes down the walls and the mailboxes.
The Gardeners: Masters of Adaptation
The other day, while on the phone with Travis, I heard a generator running. Strange. I go out on to the balcony facing the play area and there is a gardener with a tricycle that I do believe Hitler himself rode, it was that old. Behind the seat was a large trashcan full of soapy water and behind that was the generator. Someone had rigged a pump into the can to spray the water onto the higher areas of the trees. The trees were getting a bath. You think why not just use the hose. Sorry, no spigots here. Really, the things we take for granted are not the norm. At some point and time some little Chinese dude sat in his shed and made this thing. Wise man. I am sitting on the balcony, again, several days later. One of the gardeners brings out this ladder. OSHA never approved of this thing, I promise. People don’t make “real” money here. We have already covered this. Employers don’t spend money on equipment either. This guy made his own ladder. It looked to be made from pallets. Tiny steps and a burlap
bag as a “holding area” between the steps, he took some more substantial boards and nailed them diagonally to give more support to the structure. Up and down he went never once not trusting his creation. What he was doing though was more of a concern to me then how he was doing it….he stripped all the leaves off of two small trees in front of my building. What is that about? Best guess is that the leaves never shed on that type of tree so if you make it shed it will grow back fuller. (Uncle Johnny if you have better idea – let me know.)And we won’t even discuss the guys that were hanging off the roof by one rope and a piece of wood for a seat to paint the concrete slabs around the windows. Did I mention our buildings are 12 stories high? Those dudes were like Jackie Chan!
The residents of Renheng Bamboo Gardens, my complex, disappear till around 4pm. The little ones and families started arriving in the play areas, the water fountains are turned back on, the business people are coming home and out walking their dogs. The dogs here are mainly small breeds; Pomeranian, Poodles, Pekingese, Shelties with the occasional Lab, all of which look exactly like the pictures in the AKC books. Some of the families are walking to the local eateries or the grocery store to pick up dinner. The fridges here are tiny, like dorm room tiny. The mass wanderings go on till 9 – 10 then all is silent till the
following morning. Unless you need to have fireworks, last night, one building over, had a huge firework display for whatever reason that went on for 15 minutes nonstop. In china you use fireworks for everything, new job, boom, new home, boom, new baby, boom, new furniture, boom, kid made poopoo in the potty, boom, just damned happy to be here, boom. 
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