August 3, 2009
Today we took about 35 kids from PHF to the Blue Zoo Aquarium in Beijing. We were paired up individually with kids. My kid was Hayden. She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the bus. All of the kids were excited to go. At first I felt a little helpless because I couldn’t communicate very well with Hayden, but I started putting together what little Chinese I knew and was able to ask her things like her age (she is 6) and if she wanted to drink some water. I showed her my little picture album that I brought with my family members in it and tried explaining in Chinese who they were. She liked that. I tried to use my dictionary when I didn’t know words, but Hayden thought I was ignoring her, and so she took the dictionary away from me and did not want to give it back! She is a very sweet and loving little girl, who liked to hold my hand and was very obedient. Every now and then, she would come up and give me a great big hug. She also really liked my camera and took a bazillion pictures with it. We arrived at the Blue Zoo and after a lengthy potty break, we went in. It was pretty neat….there was an underwater tunnel with a people mover on it. It was funny watching Hayden get on that for the first time. She also apparently had never been on an escalator before either. She had a tough time getting on that! The underwater tunnel was so cool. It was basically made out of glass and so you could see fish and mermaids and scuba divers above and all around you. Hayden really liked it. After that we went back to the buses and to lunch KFC (yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken is in China). After that, we hung around outside for a while until everyone finished up. I started to notice how everyone would stare at Hayden’s face. She has a large tumor that will grow and grow until she is about 14. It has severely disfigured one side of her face. The good news, is that with a series of surgeries, by the time she is 14, you would hardly be able to tell she has a problem. The bad news is that by the time she gets the surgeries (if she gets them), her self-esteem may very well be shot. I really want to help this little girl. She is so sweet. We loaded up the buses and headed back to PHF. Another miracle….after drinking 20 oz pops, no one had to go to the bathroom on the hour plus drive back! We got back and I delivered Hayden to her house and said good-bye. I really enjoyed the one-on-one time with her. So far this has been my favorite thing on the trip.

August 1, 2009
Today we visited the Great Wall. The bus ride was about 2 ½ hours. When we arrived, I was a bit disappointed to see that there were a lot of low clouds, so visibility was poor, especially for taking pictures. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise later as we would have just roasted if it was sunny. We took a “ski lift” up the side of a mountain. The equipment looked questionable and we went over some deep ravines. My knuckles were definitely white! We arrived safely at the top. Wow…I had no idea that there were so many stairs on the wall. Steep stairs, short stairs, stairs on an angle. You really had to watch your step. Stairs would go down, down, down, down. Then stairs would go up, up, up, up, up, up. Then down again, descending a steep ladder, then ascending almost vertical steps. Then up about twice as many steps as the time before to get to “the top”. This is where the wall becomes inaccessible and you cannot go any farther. After a short rest at the top, it was back doooowwwwn, then uuuuuuuuup, then dooooowwwwwn, then uuuuuup. Whew! My legs were shaking by the time I got back. Also, did I mention that many of the steps were designed for Chinese feet…about a women’s size 5 or so. And some of the steps were as tall as two water bottles stacked on top of each other. It is amazing how they built this wall on top of the mountains. I don’t know how they got all of the materials up there! To get back down the mountain, you could either take the ski lift again or you could take a toboggan down a metal track. We took the toboggans. It was very fun…not scary at all. I would have gone faster if I could, but there were a lot of us on the track at the time. After exiting the toboggan ride, there were a lot of vendors. In the usual Chinese way, they come and grab your arm and pull you into their booth and shove things in your face that they hope you will buy. I am getting better at resisting. As we went up the hill, prices got cheaper and cheaper. I wish I had figured this out before I bought some stuff. I bought a t-shirt for 35 yuan, which at $5 USD, I thought that was a pretty good deal. Steve burst my bubble when he told me he paid 9 yuan. I did buy a couple of more shirts at that price. When I got to the top of the hill, those vendors only wanted $1 (7 yuan) for 3 t-shirts. By that time, I didn’t want any more t-shirts. Oh well….still got good prices by U.S. standards. I wanted to buy a banana crepe. The price was 20 kuai. I talked her down to 10. Then Andrea came by and said she got hers for 5. I said I would pay 5. The lady was angry and said some unsavory things in Chinese to Andrea! I bought a few more trinkets and then headed down to meet the bus.

The Great Wall

Remember the Team's blog

Remember to check out the team's blog. It is much more extensive, has lots of photos and even some music.

http://langfang09.blogspot.com/

Playing with the kids at PHF

Face painting.

Today I went to Harmony House, started by the family who wrote the book, Saving Levi. It is a home for special needs orphans. Most have heart problems or cleft palates. There were about 25 kids (four or so in hospital), nannies were very friendly, most are Christians, they really interact with the kids there, more so than at PHF. I went in and right away was introduced to a little girl named Ming Ming (American name is Blossom). She is two but very small for her age. She was laying on the couch and kids were playing like crazy all around her. She looked absolutely miserable and like she had a headache. Her arms and legs were very small and she had these greenish circles all around her eyes. I found out later she has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and just had meningitis. I don’t know her prognosis, but it seemed like she could easily die soon. Her eyes kept rolling back in her head. She was wet and hungry so I took her upstairs and changed her and soon after she got lunch. We got a smile or two out of her and she didn’t seem quite as miserable as when we first arrived. I could hardly keep from crying as I held her. I wished she could run and play like the other kids. It was time to go outside and pull weeds, so I reluctantly put her down. Later, when we came in we helped feed the children. I got to feed soup to one little girl. Next I sat at the table next to a little boy named Josiah. He was a little monkey! With no use of his arms, he uses his feet for everything, including eating. He kept looking at me all mischievous like, and then would use his foot to scoot his bowl of dumplings close to the edge of the table where it would teeter for a second until I pushed it back to safety. Then he would do it again and again, and each time I would rescue it. Finally, I decided he had too much of an audience, so I left the table. I looked back a minute later, just in time to see the bowl and dumplings go flying! After lunch, I sat in the living room and played with the kids. Josiah kept jumping on my lap. Another little girl around 4 or 5 (I can’t remember her name) was completely taken by my camera. Against my better judgment, I let her take some pictures. Only later, did I realize she took over 50 pictures! The cook had some leftover dumplings, so she shared them with us…mmmmm!
We came back to PHF in time for lunch and then set up for Kids Day – a carnival type of event, complete with carnival type games, water activities, face-painting (my job), jumping castle, and fireworks. We had a dinner catered for the nannies and kids – a real treat for them – to say thanks for letting us play with the children. It was really great to watch them pile up their plates. We served the food, helped with the children, and cleaned up the dining hall. No dinner tonight for the team, but I think we’re all too hot and sweaty to care!

Monday, July 27

This is the main office building at PHF.

This week the focus has been on VBS for the children at the orphanage. Yesterday we had about 40 kids over to our "inn". These kids sure love to sing! It is really cool to hear all the little voices belting out "Jesus loves me" and even cooler when they sing it in Chinese. They really like that song. It is amazing that they know many songs in English, since they really don't speak it very well. We have a Chinese lady from Seattle on our team named Judy. She does a great job telling the Bible story. It is great to watch the faces of the nannies as the story is being told as many of them have never heard that before. Next the kids go to crafts and snacks. Then they play games. They love the water games. I made the mistake of not hiding all of the squirt guns on the first day. The kids swarmed the bucket that was holding those as well as the water balloon bucket. The weather is probably 100 degrees and very humid. Just try getting them to put that stuff back. Even if I knew Chinese, there was no stopping them. So the first day we had a big huge water fight. Tons of fun! Second day, we hid things until we were ready to bring them out!

Greg's "Go-to move"

I got the experience of going to Wal-Mart yesterday...yes there is one of those here in Langfang. Wow! It is several stories high and it is quite something. It was very hard to recognize products. At one point, I thought I was picking out some great snack for my girls, but it was a box of noodles! There were some interesting things in the produce section. Thankfully, Jewel Floch was with us and she has mastered the place so I was able to find what I needed!

I am hoping to be in the group this morning that gets to go to Harmony House - another orphanage nearby that was started by a family from Vancouver, Washington.