Ok, so I forgot to drink my water. For more than two weeks, I didn't have any water or juice to drink. I had ran out of my Tropicana orange juice and my tap water, for some reason, tasted horrible. So I was super dehydrated although it took me awhile to realize that. I would wake up in the middle of the night with INTENSE thirst which I tried to ignore as long as I could. When I couldn't take it any longer, I would get up and force 2 or 3 gulps of my tap water down my throat and go back to bed. I was tired and sleepy even though I had enough hours of sleep. I had headache, and very dry skin. My diet did not contain much liquid as it was mostly rice with some side vegetables. It was only in the third week that I realized my symptoms were that of dehydration! DUH! How could I have been so dumb? The answer was that I just wasn't paying attention to my body or my health.
I immediately bought myself coconut juice (delicious), a pack bottled water (never mind what I said about bottled water being evil), and bottles of Gatorade (they're not that healthy, but thats for a different post). I drank those like a scorched earth in a monsoon, and boy did I feel good. Well, it took about 3 days of healthy drinking before the intense thirst at night went away and before I felt energized again.
I learned a very valuable lesson about listening to your body. While I have never been a super-drink-a-gallon-of-water-a-day type of girl, I always had juice, tap water or soup to drink with my meal. Unfortunately, my tap water tasted bad, I did have time to make soup nor did I have the time to go buy juice or water. And my body noticed it big time and was SCREAMING at me to get some water which I ignored and filed away as trivial. All because I was too busy to slow down and process what my organs were saying. They body knows what it needs, and will tell you. If something is off or amiss, slow down and listen.
Now, one of the reason for not buying water/juice, other than lack of time, was because of money. As part of growing up, I decided to put myself on a budget and my next food shopping was not for another few weeks. The money issue was really created in my head and it is only a teeny, tiny contributing factor to my dehydration. However for some Chinese parents, money issues was the CRITICAL contributing factor to their dehydration of the soul.
Okay, I may have gone all hyperbole on that last sentence there. Imagine your child, your flesh and blood, taken from you without you knowing where the child ended up or even the child is alive. Horrible, eh? Now, imagine the police found and rescued your child from human traffickers. Won't you be overjoyed to have your baby back?
Well, police in Jiangsu, China rescued 10 babies from traffickers but none of the parents came forward to claim their babies back. It was determined that all 10 babies came from Liangshan, China, where the average annual income is less than $400 a year. Now in the scenario I had you imagined, your child was kidnapped. Well, in the case, they were sold to traffickers at a large sum. Selling children to traffickers is not unique to that region, as it is a very lucrative trading. Some child can be sold 10x the annual income. Police suspect that the parents may be afraid that they have to give up their money and/or of the additional tax they would have to pay for the 2nd child since China has the 1 child only policy.
I first thought the parents heartless when I first read the headlines but with additional information, I sympathized with them. Poverty compelled them to sell their kids and poverty compelled them to refuse their kids a second time. Both times, the parents must be heartbroken to have to make such a choice. So although, I earlier accused them as devoid of soul, I'm not so sure anymore. The money from the sale allows them to take care of another child. And usually, these trafficked children are sold to couples wanting to adopt, so they too end up with better(?) lives. Maybe, the poor parents should never have children in the first place. Then, I guess we would be venting at the cruel injustice of poverty denying them the joys of having kids. But then again, they don't seem to have much joys when they did have kids since they had to sell them. UGH! I'm on a fence,I want to blame someone/something but I don't know where to point my finger at, other than satan.
The only conclusion I can arrive at, which many others before me have also achieved, is that Life is unfair. Source
P.S:Sorry about the two completely unrelated topics. And the unrelated pics. I decided to only use pictures I took from now on.
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