Just another day here in Paradise...

Compliments of a 'Shanghai Mama':

Today (Tues, Sept 2) at around 4:15pm I witnessed a very unfortunate poop incident in the outdoor pool (by the slide, not the shallow side) at the Ambassy Club on Huaihai Lu. A child of around 4-5 yrs old had a pooping incident and was probably so freaked out by it that he sat in it on the ledge (that's submerged in water before you go into the actual water) until his Chinese ayi came and forcefully picked him up and got him out. What happened after that and how the Ambassy Club handled it was extremely disturbing to me that all Ambassy members should bring the issue of Sanitation and Hygiene to the attention of the club management as I have, and will continue to do so.

While the child was being coerced out of the pool by his ayi and before she had to physically scoop him out, the lifeguard at poolside did nothing until I had to walk over to him and bring it to his attention. As the child was being taken away, the lifeguard assessed the situation for a little while and then finally acted to get a bucket and try and scoop it out. Understand some time has passed and I am also standing and looking at a cloud of matter dissolving into the rest of the pool. There is no one helping him nor does he call for help. Some time also passes for him to logistically carry this bucket of water with what he can scoop out and toss it and then return and repeat this action. I told him that he really should alert the people who are in this side of the pool that the water is contaminated and they should get out. He ignores this and so I do what I can to let people know. By this time a few of the other pool personnel come out to see what the commotion is but they are all standing at the gate entrance and not doing anything to help him or to help with the contaminated water.

I call the assistant general manager who then calls the recreation manager and explain to them the situation and implore them to close the pool or at least the adult side of the pool. They do nothing. I see people still in the pool, new people coming in and nothing is communicated to these members. The assistant GM tells me they won't drain the pool, because they have recycled water systems in place to clean and filter it out. I am disgusted that this club who caters to an international client base would have such low hygiene and sanitation standards on premises and their pool staff is not trained to handle such situations. This is not an isolated incident. There was a similar incident that I witnessed in the baby-side of the pool about 2 wks ago and the lifeguard stared at this small pool of black dirt until he was convinced it wasn't feces.
Lucy

Ok...#164 on the list...do not go in ANY public/private community pool while living in China. Uh, CHECK haha

I hope your day was better than Lucy's!