Hi everyone. I hope my posts have not been too long. I am working on a video/slideshow to update you on the photos. I have to upload each one separately for the blog. Hopefully the video will work better and I will put that in a separate post.
I left off at leaving for lunch, etc.... Lunch was good. There was plenty of white rice, a very sweet chicken and green beans and a few other things. Very filling. The meals are served on a lazy susan, sort of buffet style without leaving your seat. My boys were not happy at lunch time - still mad about the coloring books. We had to get Paul to come over and help us to get them to eat. There was a lot of crying, which is completely understandable. Most of these kids have never seen anything other than chinese people so it is scary for them to see us. It takes a little time but trust is slowly being earned. After lunch the kids go down for a nap. I used this time to get our flights squared away for our trip Saturday back to Beijing. I am crossing my fingers they are fixed. One of the chinese staff members here got on the phone with them to make sure.
We met the translators after the naps downstairs and headed off to KFC. Boy were they (KFC) in for a shock. Even with such a small week it was a large invasion of the establishment. They were very accommodating. the kids actually had some sort of egg pie? I couldn’t really tell you what this is. The Ice cream was a no-go from the orphanage. They said they were not allowed to have cold food... Actually many of these kids have never had anything cold such as ice in a drink. They were happy with the pies and didn’t seem to mind either way. The volunteers all got ice cream cones - pretty good for soft serve. The kids spent a lot of time in the play area. MiMi must have gone down the slide about 100 times which is why she didn’t make it to the waterslide time. She passed out on the way back to the campus. The kids all had a blast and loved just getting out. Oh, and did I mention the arm wrestling matches in the restaurant - that was a riot (and extremely loud, but fun).
So returning to the campus we all changed into swimsuits and headed down to the water park. Tiffani and MiMi and one of here translators (I’m still not good with the names) went up to their room to let MiMi (actual spelling is Min Min) sleep. She passed out. Tiff was able to have a nice long talk with her translator which she really enjoyed.
The water park was cool (literally). We filled it from a fire hydrant. Yes, I did make it down the slide twice and there should be some photos of David and Morgan and even Jenny went down a few times. I think the kids would play in this all day long if they could. The had a blast. For the kids that didn’t want to go down the slide there were water guns, buckets, etc.... Oh, and someone snuck up behind me and dumped a bucket of this ice water down my back while I was taking photos to which they were blindsided a minute later, hahaha, to which I was blindsided back by his offspring... (I wont mention any names). It was really a fun time! There are plenty of photos and videos coming soon int he misc photo post, next.
We all headed back to the rooms to dry off and then down for dinner. Surprise, two good meals in a row. A very very good peanut chicken (I think) and more rice, fried ice cream, etc.... Can you guess which dish was gone first? The kids made up for not getting ice cream at lunch. MiMi had been sleeping until just about the end of dinner. I think she got about 2-1/2 hours? And this was after a nap time so I think the KFC slides really wore her out. She is just a doll. Hopefully she will start to trust us a little more and open up.
On a side note - Most of the kids that you see in these photos are adoptable, except the ones that I want to take home (sorry Deb, they are just too cute). In all seriousness we will be getting information on many of them at the end of the week.
From dinner we went to an assembly time and then movie time with the kids. The translators would go to a meeting to help them better understand the workings of camp and go over any problems that they may be having with the kids. The assembly time is more silly singing and dancing and then a story. The one that they are doing has to do with Esther. The kids really like it and get to participate. For being so small they pay attention very well. The movie time was some strange Chinese cartoon that the kids seem to like. It kind of freaks me out a little but they like it so it’s a good time to rest and talk with other volunteers. I got to spend a lot of time talking to Mike here. They have adopted from China and Russia and they are in the process of adopting again from China. Awesome family!!!!
After the movie the translators came back to take the kids to bed and we were able to have a w-rship time. Just a handful of us were in there. It was a good time.
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So, more about David and Morgan. They are having fun from what I can tell. Once you get here at camp and paired up it is a little like chaos. I can say that they had a blast at the water park, even if some of it was at my expense (payback is coming). I found out they they are paired with two boys, one is 9 and the other is 3. I may have already said this but the 9 year old has a dwarfism genetic disorder. He is an amazing smart kids that knows quite a bit. He was asking David questions about our country and what our countries moto is and why there are stripes on our flag, I think. All sorts of things. He is also a very helpful boy and looks after the smaller child. This is actually the same for Jenny (Tiffs girl). She looks after MiMi a lot. I still do not know much about the other boy other than he is three and that he has not smiled or laughed until they got him at to the slides at KFC. He was laughing a lot there and even at the water park some. All the kids seem to warm up by day two or three.
Well, it’s 12:19 am right now so I should probably get to sleep. I think everyone else passed out about two hours ago. I may try and go downstairs and upload this if I want to brave the mosquitoes. Not sure, we will see.
Oh, I was able to get Jenny to smile once or twice just before the end of the evening. I think she will come around soon too. She is a very nice, sweet girl who is very observant. I think she wants to communicate with us but doesn’t know how. I’m just trying to get her to trust us. I think some lollipop bribes are going to happen tomorrow. (Hey Deb, can you read my mind yet? Yes, I have lost mine if I am thinking what I am thinking.)
I love you all and thank you for the pr-yers. We can’t wait to be home and share all the stories but I also don’t want the week to end yet either.
From Yantai, China, 00:24 hours.
China Team out.
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