Orphange visit

The Middle School and High School community service clubs volunteer their time on Saturdays mornings at a local orphange. This weekend I decided to join them. I was surprised to find that the orphange is very close to school. I've passed it several times a week and never knew it was there. Now, I can't help but think about the kids every time I go by.

I had never been to an orphange before so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was actually a very nice orphange. It's one of China's model facilities. It was large, clean, and well heated.

I volunteered in the infant/toddler section. The room had about 20 babies and two woman taking care of them. All the kids, even the really young ones, were in those rolling seat things. (I'm not sure of their exact name.) When the volunteers came in all the kids started rolling towards us all at once. The smarter kids started crying so that they would be picked up right away. The other ones just passively waited their turn for some attention. After playing with the kids for about an hout it was time for lunch. The women brought in two large pots of a rice/soup/veggie/egg/pork mixture. Every child got the same amount of food, even the really little ones. They were definately not lacking for food. The bowls were big enough for adults to eat out of. After you shoveled food into one child's mouth, and I do mean shoveled, you moved onto the next. After lunch it was time for bed. All the beds were in the same room. I can't even imagine what it must sound like when one child wakes up from their nap. It must be a chain reaction of cries.

I didn't realize how many babies were at this facility until we left. We passed room after room of babies. Around 100 babies reside there. This really jarred me. It's really hard to imagine all these kids growing up without parents. It makes me want to take every single one of them home.

Harbin

This past weekend David and I took a short trip to Harbin. Harbin is in the north of China, about 2.5 hours from Shanghai to be exact. It gets very cold there. At times it can be somewhere between 0 and -15 degrees. Upon hearing this you may be thinking why in the world would anyone in their right mind voluntarily go to a place that cold? The big draw of Harbin is their annual snow and ice festival. Artists from around the world come to China and compete in ice and snow sculpting competitions. I have never seen such amazing sculptures, especially those made out of snow and ice. If you ever come to China in the winter Harbin is something not to be missed.

Back in China

After a thankfully uneventful flight, David and I arrived safely in China about a week ago. It actually felt kind of nice to get back. It was neat to ride back from the airport and be able to see things that I recognized. It made China feel a little bit like home. It was also nice to get back to school. The kids were all clamering to tell me about all the exciting places they went to over the vacation. The kids went to placce like South Africa, Malayasia, Japan, and most importantly, Hong Kong Disney world. This certainly isn't the States.

Not everything about coming back to China has been nice. Our Ayi (maid) lied to us about the amount of time she spent taking care of our cats. She said that she was here 24 hours a day. I highly doubt that because Oscar looked like he lost several pounds over the few weeks we were away. She also changed her story several times when questioned by my amazing classroom assistant, Michelle. So after several days of stress and drama, David and I decided to let her go. She knew it was coming because by the time we got home from school she was already packed. It was perhaps the most difficult thing I've ever had to do to another person. She was crying the entire time she was packing her stuff. It killed me, bt then again she brought these events onto herself. This was not how I pictured spending my first birthday in China.