Our third evening meal has been my favorite so far. We ate in the staff kitchen with Clay and Jewel (from Oregon), Sarah (Chinese Staff member who speaks English) and 3 orphans (Grady and Wendy, who are from Aidan’s orphanage and Stacy) who are all teenagers. They made “Hot Pot” which is a pot that has a broth that you sit around and cook a variety of items (Chinese version of the Melting Pot) – the food was wonderful as was the company. I shared pictures with everyone from our previous trips to China.
We found out that a teenager will be joining us here for a few days. Nobody seems to know much about her - she’s from the states, traveling alone at age 15, hadn’t planned to come here but some other arrangement fell through. A young couple and their 4 year old son from the states who are in Beijing for work for about 6 months were here for the day yesterday. I do enjoy having others around that I can speak to. I kind of like to talk- in case anyone reading was not aware of that.
We lost our Internet connection last night and this morning, so we were unable to email or Skype home. I felt so desperate to talk to Mitch and the kids. I was grateful when Clay was able to get it working well enough that I could go to the office and get online to communicate. After our call we went to a house to see kids.
As desperate as I was to talk to family, the kids are to be held. At one time I was holding 4 kids at once. Sometimes they hit and pull at other kids to get them off you so they can sit on you and can be very mean in their attempts to get what they want. It made me feel guilty for being so desperate to check on my own family and let them know we are OK. Hannah, somehow managed to get a bunch of kids that don’t speak English to play “Duck Duck Goose” four of which were wheelchair bound. Two of them could pull themselves around with their hands and I eventually picked up the other two and carried them around. Lots of laughter – it’s great to hear them laugh.
There is one very sick child in one of the houses. She is very ill and I fear she’ll not live long. Seeing her makes me feel very helpless.
Love,
Wanda & Hannah
Happy to hear you are enjoying your work. Sounds like you are finding good things to eat too. Mom is here...showed her your blog and the photos. We enjoyed looking at them. Have fun!!
ReplyDeleteLove,
Cheryl