After breakfast we went downstairs and begun our 10 minute walk to the orphanage. We're allowed to be there from 8:30-11 and then 3-5. During the mornings we usually just go spend time with the babies because the older kids are in school. They go to school practically all year, 6 days a week.
The nice thing about the babies & toddlers is there is enough for all of us to have our own. We've developed really good bonds with pretty much all of them, but even if some of us don't admit it; we all have our own baby that is our favorite. My baby is the one that I met last year, he's a blind little boy with no eyes that is almost 2 1/2 years old. He is still quite small and isn't very far along like most other 2 1/2 year olds. He can't stand on his own because it's very hard for blind babies to find balance. So he also can't walk on his own and he can't talk, only little noises. One thing that broke my heart yesterday is when he is just sitting on his own (usually banging his head against the wall if no one is with him because he gets bored) and making noises he started to say da-da-da. I know he doesn't know it's like saying daddy, but it just breaks my heart knowing he will probably never have someone to call dad (or however you say it in chinese:)). It's so sad because he is one of the sweetest, most playful, and calm little boys I have ever met. He never cries, and he laughs all of the time! I love just tickling him so I can see his sweet smile and hear him laugh... Can you tell I REALLLLY want to bring him home with me?! :) By the way, his name is Chen Liao Wan (Chen is like their last name, all of the babies in the orphanage have that in their name). So I decided Wan is like Juan, which is translated into John in English...therefore I call him John or Johnny... I know genius. So from now on I'll refer to him as that, and lets be honest, I'll probably talk about him a lot....
While we were there in the morning with the babies we decided we would have like a little circle time with them and sings songs and get them interactive. So we all sat in a circle on the ground (of course John still wanted to play, so he was the only squirmer...all of the other babies were perfectly still) and sang songs like Itsy Bitsy Spider, Patty Cake, If You're Happy and You Know it, etc. John did enjoy trying to sing along, regardless of him moving in my arms every other second.
Before we knew it it was time to leave again, so we headed back to the hotel. Megan, Tammy, and I all decided to go to the market, and Tammy also wanted to go to the mall that is underneath the grocery store, so we went by there for a little bit. Megan and I went upstairs to go get some food and Tammy stayed downstairs to look at shoes (she LOVES shoes) :).
Megan and my main mission was to find food...including gross food to bring back home to people! hehe. So we went upstairs and headed straight to the Pringles. I am now bringing home Hong Kong Fish Balls Pringles... yum...and I also got seaweed but the cashier lady couldn't ring them up because the price wasn't showing up and we had no clue what she was saying! So we're gunna go back tomorrow to get some seaweed flavored Pringles!
Yesterday was definitely one of our best lunches yet. Fung (our guide) has really gotten us some yummy food! Also, yesterday was Amy's 20th Birthday so Fung got a cake from the bakery for us. It was actually really good. It was vanilla with a light whipped vanilla frosting with white chocolate shavings and fruit filled icing in between the layers. There was also fresh peaches, cherries, and pineapple. We were all kind of surprised that it was so good because most Chinese don't like a lot of sweet foods, so we didn't know how sweet and like home it would be!
After lunch we came up to the room and layed down.. I of course postponed blogging, like usual.. hence why I'm typing this the next night! At 2:45 we headed back to the orphanage. First we had to go to the toddler/baby playroom for about 45 minutes and then we got to finally spend some more time with the older kids. We played with beach balls and showed them how to use silly string. At first we all sprayed them but they didn't enjoy it much when THEY got sprayed... however they did like when Megan sprayed covered Katie in silly string. Then they just enjoyed sitting in a circle spraying it onto the floor and watching it come out. Also we brought some silly putty and the goo that farts, hahah. They liked twisting the colors together and smooshing it on the floor!
Once again the clock struck 5 and we headed back for dinner at the hotel. After dinner we went into Shannon's room for a devotion and worship time which is always nice. Shannon's younger brother who lives here and his girlfriend Elisa came the other night to visit us and help at the orphanage so they joined too. We also inviting Fung (who isn't a believer) to come and she did, so that was pretty cool. Then we all went back to our rooms and went to sleep!
Okay, now for today... can you tell that I really don't enjoy blogging right now because I'm so tired?? It's 9:45PM here right now and all I want to do is fall asleep.. so sorry for all of the errors, I hope it kind of makes sense and you can get the gist, even if it is kinda boring and un-detailed! haha
This morning we woke up and headed down for breakfast.. it consisted of most of the same things: noodles, steamed bread, fried egg, dumplings, pumpkin bread, croissant type bread, spring rolls, sticky rice, and some other things.
It was drizzling this morning so we all got to sport our nice umbrellas on the way over to the orphanage and maneuver our way around the puddles and mud! The morning at the orphanage was pretty much the same as usual, we played with the babies for awhile and got to do our circle time. Then a little bit later we got to just go play and do whatever the older kids wanted to do. It was nice just to spend time and laugh with them. At about 10 though the older kids left and went on a field trip with some other Chinese volunteers that were visiting the orphanage, so we said our goodbyes and went back to the babies. We fed the babies then put them to sleep and headed back to the hotel.
For lunch quite a few of us just went to KFC because eating all of these huge meals 3 times a day gets quite filling, and I think most of us were getting kinda sick of all the Chinese food. When we went to KFC it was POURING. Like no joke, the roads were flooding. KFC is right across the street from our hotel but we had to walk about a block just to cross the street because most of the crosswalks were flooded. There was at least 5 inches of water that had who knows what in...so we obviously didn't risk walking through it, especially in our flipflops!
And in case you're wondering...no we didn't get anything stolen from us this time we went to KFC;)
After lunch we all came back and took naps..except me.. I said I was gunna blog but I read instead, whoops! haha, but at least I am now, right??
The second half of our day was kind of disappointing. We had hoped we would be able to see the older kids since we haven't seen them a lot, but when we got there they told us they were downstairs with the other volunteers still. They did tell us we would get to see them tomorrow morning though. (We're only going for the morning tomorrow because in the afternoon we are going shopping and taking the orphanage director shopping with the money donation we brought. I think she decided they wanted an air conditioner and a computer so they can do the adoption paper work.) However, we did get to see our sweet little babies. Of course it was nice to see John and his sweet smile. I must say today he was so giggly! I have a ton of pictures and video of him just lying on the floor laughing at himself. I'm going to smuggle him back to FL with me, no doubt about it...he'll fit in my suitcase without a problem. Plus he never cries so he'll be fine;)
For dinner we just ate at the hotel. It was quite yummy, but I still wasn't that hungry. All of this food makes you so full, and by that time at night I'm so tired I don't even wanna look at food! After dinner we went to Shannon's for devotion and worship and then we took all of our donations for the orphanage out into the hall and put it into suitcases so we can bring it to the orphanage tomorrow. I think we had a total of 5 big suitcases full of clothes, blankets, toys, crafts, bottles, formula, wipes, etc. !
Okay well I better go take a shower and get some sleep! I promise I'll try really hard to actually get a blog up tomorrow and not procrastinate! I love you all and hope you have a good day :)`
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