Author: Michael
Location: Taiyuan
It was our first full day in Taiyuan and it certainly was full!! After breakfast we loaded onto the buses and drove out to a little village just on the outskirts of Taiyuan. It's a Catholic village with a large, impressive church in its center called Dong-er-gou (supposedly it's quite important for Chinese Catholics). It is in this little village that the orphange was that many of the group home kids grew up in. It was very interesting to watch some of the older kids faces who recognized their surroundings more and started to get very excited as we neared the church and their old home. Many of the nuns/sisters who'd helped to care for them were there and thrilled at the sight of the kids. Many of them have changed a lot in the 3 years with China Care - more talking, walking, running, playing etc. Our first event was a hike up the hill adjacent to the town. It was a veryy hot day, but all of the kids - even the slowest ones on crutches made it up the steep incline to this beautiful Catholic Church perched on the top of the hill. Some of the children were even lucky enough to hitch a piggy back ride to the top! In the church the children all sang songs and this one little blind boy even did a tear-jerking solo. We were all pretty exhausted, but seeing how happy the kids were gave us that extra boost of energy we needed. Back down in town for lunch and then a tour of their orphanage. Some of the foster mothers got quite emotional looking at the old pictures of their children and hearing their stories. These kids really have come a long way. In the church the Father gave us a little history talk while one of the mothers taught us a cool trick of using mint leaves on our foreheads to cool us down. Needless to say soon everyone's face was green! After some goodbyes we loaded back onto the bus and headed back into Taiyuan for some time at the park. Unfortunately Chinese parks forbid you to go on the grass so we were reduced to walking a great distance before we found a place to sit. Ice cream was thoroughtly enjoyed and many eyes were closing after a looong and emotional day.
Michael...
Flickr Photos from Today
Flickr Photos from this Voyage
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Bus rides and energy galore!!
Author: Callie
Location: Beijing
We arrived home to Beijing yesterday exhausted from our trip to Xi'an, and we got right back up for our big 8 hour road trip to Shanxi province wth the kids from the group home. They're here to see the orphanage they had lived in up to about 3 years ago. We're going to be veryy busy here with all of the volunteering and touring and driving! The drive was a blast! All 43 of us piled into a greyhound style tour bus! Los of coloring, bracelet making, mazes, remote controlled cars and goofing around. Though is is sometimes hard to communicate with the younger kids, a lot of us had a good experience talking to the older ones whose English is super impressive! We at PJandJ on the bus for lunch while being gawked at by some local townies (these parts see very few people from North America). Caroline and many others loved the scenery and views of rural China, which we definitely hadn't gotten to see yet. Little villages carved into the hillsides, rows upon rows of corn and tomatoes and beans - we were so lucky to have a blue clear sky, especially since Shanxi is known as the most polluted province. Many of the children in the China Care home in Tiayuan (the city we're staying in) have deformities that are said to be caused by the severe polluted air. We settled into our apartment/hotel in Tiayuan which is in the same compound as the China Care homes. We visited the babies and then after dinner went to the nearby huuuge super store where we stocked up on more snakcs and lots of yummy fruit! Forum was great because we talked more specifically about the children we're spending time with and lots of us had really interesting thoughts about the kids and their situation. Unfortunately a few of us are still feeling sick so we are looking forward to a good nights sleep!
Words from China,
Callie
Location: Beijing
We arrived home to Beijing yesterday exhausted from our trip to Xi'an, and we got right back up for our big 8 hour road trip to Shanxi province wth the kids from the group home. They're here to see the orphanage they had lived in up to about 3 years ago. We're going to be veryy busy here with all of the volunteering and touring and driving! The drive was a blast! All 43 of us piled into a greyhound style tour bus! Los of coloring, bracelet making, mazes, remote controlled cars and goofing around. Though is is sometimes hard to communicate with the younger kids, a lot of us had a good experience talking to the older ones whose English is super impressive! We at PJandJ on the bus for lunch while being gawked at by some local townies (these parts see very few people from North America). Caroline and many others loved the scenery and views of rural China, which we definitely hadn't gotten to see yet. Little villages carved into the hillsides, rows upon rows of corn and tomatoes and beans - we were so lucky to have a blue clear sky, especially since Shanxi is known as the most polluted province. Many of the children in the China Care home in Tiayuan (the city we're staying in) have deformities that are said to be caused by the severe polluted air. We settled into our apartment/hotel in Tiayuan which is in the same compound as the China Care homes. We visited the babies and then after dinner went to the nearby huuuge super store where we stocked up on more snakcs and lots of yummy fruit! Forum was great because we talked more specifically about the children we're spending time with and lots of us had really interesting thoughts about the kids and their situation. Unfortunately a few of us are still feeling sick so we are looking forward to a good nights sleep!
Words from China,
Callie
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Day to rewind
Author: Virginia
Location: Xi'an
Soo today out train from Xi'an was supposed to arrive at 6:45 - this did not happen. But we were not ones to complain since we got to sleep for a few extra hours yaaay!!! A 15 hour train ride was not preferable though. Back at the apartment we hoovered in a much awaited breakfast and relaxed for awhile. Some people chose to go to Suzie's for lunch and a few went to the grocery store to stock up on goodies for travel the next day. Our afternoon activity was Wushu!! We had an awesome instructore from the Beijing Sports University who shocked us all with his incredible strength and agility and we all got to test out strenght with a few new moves from Tai Chi and Wushu. Later we watched this great documentary on Tibet while some people continued to rest up, which then led into a very heated debate at our forum. All in all it was a very relaxing day which we are grateful for since we know we need our energy for the loooong bus ride with the group home kids!
XOXO
Virginia
Location: Xi'an
Soo today out train from Xi'an was supposed to arrive at 6:45 - this did not happen. But we were not ones to complain since we got to sleep for a few extra hours yaaay!!! A 15 hour train ride was not preferable though. Back at the apartment we hoovered in a much awaited breakfast and relaxed for awhile. Some people chose to go to Suzie's for lunch and a few went to the grocery store to stock up on goodies for travel the next day. Our afternoon activity was Wushu!! We had an awesome instructore from the Beijing Sports University who shocked us all with his incredible strength and agility and we all got to test out strenght with a few new moves from Tai Chi and Wushu. Later we watched this great documentary on Tibet while some people continued to rest up, which then led into a very heated debate at our forum. All in all it was a very relaxing day which we are grateful for since we know we need our energy for the loooong bus ride with the group home kids!
XOXO
Virginia
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