Wednesday July 15th

Hi- As they would say in Chinese "ja!" which means hot. The weather here is really hot, nothing new for me but still...... I want to start off on taking about the University here, where we are staying. It really is amazing and beautiful, quite different than I had imagined. It was built 10 years ago and they have modeled different streets here after countries in the world. For example, there is a huge Italian square complete with Roman statues in one area, and another street is modeled after a German town. There is a Spanish quarter here also, which I have not seen yet but plan on borrowing a bike tomorrow during nap time to check it out. They have a huge, brand new Stadium and also a Swimming pool, which are beautiful and really clean. The pool is where we do our swimming. There is also an outdoor amphitheater, which I have not also seen, but will try to get there this week. The University, called Sias, has been so amazing for Bring Me Hope. The have committed to hosting camp here every year from now on, since they truly want to do anything they can to help the orphans. They have also generously just told us that they will be giving FREE tuition to any orphan who wants to come to University here. Can you imagine the opportunities for them??? It actually brings tears to my eyes. The dorms on the other hand, have seen better days. We are lucky enough to have air conditioning, since we are located in the "foreign students" dorm. We have an unusual open tile in our shower stall with exposed wires that I try not to look at as I take a 5 second shower. We are also lucky enough to have a real toilet, as some people may know are very uncommon in China. But my only complaint is that you are not supposed to flush any toilet paper, as the plumbing is so bad. So......you have to throw your paper into a trash can next to the toilet...... I will leave it at that. The other dorms have no air. They are not very clean, and I know most people would struggle staying here of the cleanliness factor. Its also very weird to stay in a dorm setting at 40 years old! I am sure its quite different when you are very young. Breakfast this morning was terrible again, the worst meal of the day. I have to say that I can eat lots of unusual things and will try new food, but oh gosh.......having a plate of vegetables (this morning...cucumbers) for breakfast does not float my boat. There is no fruit, either, on the buffet for breakfast, since the Chinese see fruit as a dessert. So, tomorrow morning is my last granola bar I brought from home, so I am nervous. Will have to go back to the grocery for something interesting to try. This morning for our family time, we all made beaded bracelets for some of the workers here at University. We are trying to teach the kids to give back, as they are getting so much this week. After we were done, our group went to the pool and the stadium to talk to the workers there and give them our bracelets. The workers then explained their jobs, what they do, do they like it, etc. so the kids can have an understanding of different jobs in the world, and maybe hope to have a good one in their future. I had a breakthrough with Mary, she kept grabbing my hand all morning to hold and insisted I was the only one to push her wheelchair. On that note, I have to say that China as a whole and also the University are NOT handicapped friendly, so its been quite challenging to drag the wheelchair up and down many stairs. A stroller is one thing, but a wheelchair??? We also worked on our scrapbooks, provided by camp. Every day we work on a new page, and today we could draw anything we wanted. So since I miss my Lucy with all my heart, I drew a beautiful cat complete with jewels, who is named appropriately enough, Lucy Cat. Mary was so impressed with my artistic abilities (the only person to ever say that!!) that she wanted me to draw one in her book as a memory. It really touched my heart. Sarah (the translator) keeps calling me "mother", since I have been taking good care of everyone. We took a group camp photo this morning, with matching camp shirts, which we will get a copy of. We had a very good lunch, and they kids are down for naps. Then swimming, water park, dinner, and performance time. Until later, I miss you very much! Laura English lenglish32@hotmail.com (Editors Note: I took a few minutes yesterday while Lucy took her nap to really look at Laura's blog. If you have not already done so, on the right side is a picture of a man carrying a little girl. It's a link to a short video that helped inspire Laura to take this journey. Its about 7 1/2 minutes long - but I promise it will be time well spent!! Jim & Lucy!)