Update:

[RAFREE]

Hello all,

I notice Murray has said he was off to Japan. I was about to phone him.

My son has become ill when he arrived in China, and without going into too much detail, the school where he was supposed to be teaching is not letting me talk to him. They keep putting me off about it even though they know I am very, very, concerned.

I will be here very sporadically until I can figure out how to get him home. He is three hours from the nearest airport and without the school letting me speak with him at all, I can't really make arrangements to get him out of there. They were the ones to originally picked him up and drove him so their unwillingness to let me speak with him means I highly doubt they will drive him back out.

I cannot contact him on the internet, I've had some very strange interactions and it is NOT at ALL like my son not to contact me this way especially if he is ill....

Anyway, I am doing all I can but, obviously this is extremely upsetting. I know my son and he would have called or got online by now and the one time he was online he said he was ill and did not sound like himself. The school officials keep telling me one thing after another that doesn't make sense as to why I cannot talk to my son.

Wish us luck. I will only be on here when I have this sorted....I don't know when.

[Optixmom]

Family always comes first. All our best to you and your family.

[SoCal4Hillary]

This sounds very scary and, well, suspicious. My thoughts are with you for a speedy resolution to this problem.

[B positive]

We are with you, RAFREE! Take care ! :)

[Patsy]

Hello all,

I notice Murray has said he was off to Japan. I was about to phone him.

My son has become ill when he arrived in China, and without going into too much detail, the school where he was supposed to be teaching is not letting me talk to him. They keep putting me off about it even though they know I am very, very, concerned.

I will be here very sporadically until I can figure out how to get him home. He is three hours from the nearest airport and without the school letting me speak with him at all, I can't really make arrangements to get him out of there. They were the ones to originally picked him up and drove him so their unwillingness to let me speak with him means I highly doubt they will drive him back out.

I cannot contact him on the internet, I've had some very strange interactions and it is NOT at ALL like my son not to contact me this way especially if he is ill....

Anyway, I am doing all I can but, obviously this is extremely upsetting. I know my son and he would have called or got online by now and the one time he was online he said he was ill and did not sound like himself. The school officials keep telling me one thing after another that doesn't make sense as to why I cannot talk to my son.

Wish us luck. I will only be on here when I have this sorted....I don't know when.

RAnnie, I am so sorry to hear all this.

It is very possible that he is in such a remote location that internet communication is unavailable unless he can get a ride to another locale. When you say interactions, do you mean phone or internet and they have been both strange and sporadic?

My suggestions to you are this. This can not wait until you have spoken with him and are satisfied that his health and well-being are all right.

Did he go through a local school or program for this as part of a grant or exchange? If so, contact the American end of it and tell them what is happening unless that is the branch with whom you have been speaking about already.

If no satisfaction, they you do the following:

You call the American Embassy closest to you immediately. Explain the situation explicitly. They will contact the Embassy in China who will be able to to locate your son, assess the situation and help you to get him home. Aldo contact the Senators and Congresspersons who represent you, Republican and Democrat. They are elected to serve you and will contact the State Department on your behalf.

If you receive no answers in this category to your satisfaction, you may email me at csa4@ec.rr.com and I will hammer mine until they do what I need.

I am good at that and my congressman is always doing for us here on trivial things and I will be happy to speak to Mike about it. If he can not do anything himself, then he will be able to tell me with whom we do need to speak.

Sorry about butting in, but I feel very strongly about this and want everything to be resolved quickly and will do whatever I can to help. That I promise you.

Kitty

[CGP]

Hi Rafree,

Sorry to hear about your son being ill and the noncooperation of the school at the other end. I had been wondering if everything was going ok :confused:

Kitty had good advice and I think contacting the American Embassy is a wise move to get some quick action.

Keep us posted & I am sure everything can be worked out.

M.

[RAFREE]

One of this schools selling points was that the place they house the teachers had internet access. Well, they don't. He is never able to get online at all save that first day for about five minutes.

The phones? Not one of the numbers he gave me to call for the school works properly. I got a cell phone number for the foreign liason but, she is very, very hard to get to. She promises me the moon that she will immediately get my son on the phone and then there is nothing but, excuses.

He is there on a Canadian passport. He is twelve hours ahead so I have been staying up at night so I can talk with him if he finally gets to call. My one big condition with him doing this was that I MUST hear from him at least once every single day. We were going to use "Skype" so it wouldn't cost much.

Thanks for the offer of help. I have some people working on this...trust me, if I don't hear soon, I will be on a plane there myself...and he WILL leave with me.

I am not going to go on and on about this here as it's really a private matter but, I felt like I had made a commitment to be here and let people down not showing up this way. I thought I ought to at least explain somehow.

One thing I do know is that my son would never, ever not contact me this way. His phone isn't working, they do not offer to let him use the land line, nor do they bring him to the phone, there is always some nutty excuse why I cannot talk to him. Three days of this and he's in Asia?? Nope...as I said I've got people working on this.

[Patsy]

One of this schools selling points was that the place they house the teachers had internet access. Well, they don't. He is never able to get online at all save that first day for about five minutes.

The phones? Not one of the numbers he gave me to call for the school works properly. I got a cell phone number for the foreign liason but, she is very, very hard to get to. She promises me the moon that she will immediately get my son on the phone and then there is nothing but, excuses.

He is there on a Canadian passport. He is twelve hours ahead so I have been staying up at night so I can talk with him if he finally gets to call. My one big condition with him doing this was that I MUST hear from him at least once every single day. We were going to use "Skype" so it wouldn't cost much.

Thanks for the offer of help. I have some people working on this...trust me, if I don't hear soon, I will be on a plane there myself...and he WILL leave with me.

I am not going to go on and on about this here as it's really a private matter but, I felt like I had made a commitment to be here and let people down not showing up this way. I thought I ought to at least explain somehow.

One thing I do know is that my son would never, ever not contact me this way. His phone isn't working, they do not offer to let him use the land line, nor do they bring him to the phone, there is always some nutty excuse why I cannot talk to him. Three days of this and he's in Asia?? Nope...as I said I've got people working on this.

Family comes first always. You have my information if you should find you need anything.

Kitty