Visit to Home of Hope Orphanage in PingYu China

    This past March 10 through March 12 I had the oppurtunity to visit the Home of Hope Orphanage in PingYu China.  Before I did that though, I had to run all over China for work. 

     On March 2 and 3 we had a leadership conference in Shanghai.  So myself, and the other managers had to travel from Beijing to Shanghai, about the same distance as NewYork to Atlanta.  The leadership conference was very exciting and was a good chance to meet my coworkers from around China.  The best part was Saturday evening when all of us broke into four teams to perform a dragon dance. 

I'm not bragging, but our team won.  The picture above is just an example, I don't have pictures of our dance, but I'm sure they are coming.  I think there might even be a movie. 
   On March 3, I flew back to Beijing, getting in around 11pm to say goodbye to good friends of ours who were moving back to the US.  These friends, (The Stones) lived in the building next to us.  We met at church, and have been great spiritual and life role models for us.  Them and their two kids (soon to be three) will be friends of ours for the rest of our lives.  I could not miss saying goodbye to them.  So, I flew back to Beijng, we had lunch together, and then I turned around on Sunday and flew back to Shanghai. 
     I had two internal audits to help conduct in the Shanghai area the next week.  So I left Beijing around 4pm.  Once in Shanghai I had to take the high speed train to SuZhou.  I spent three days in SuZhou auditing, and then turned around and went back to Shanghai.  I spent two more days in Shanghai before leaving for the orphanage.  It just so happened that the hotel in Shanghai was right next to a toy store, so I stopped in and bought all of the CHEGOs (Chinese Legos) I could.  On March 9 I got on an overnight sleeper train heading toward PingYu.
     The train toward PingYu was the first overnight train I had ever been on.  I was not quite sure what to expect.  I purchased a soft sleeper ticket, which is the highest class ticket you can buy (a whopping $45).  The sleeper, was interesting...  It's four people to one room.  You don't know who these people might be.  There was only one other peson in my room when I got there.  He was traveling home to see his family.  Me and this guy talked for about an hour before we got to another stop and someone else joined us.  The third person was a Government official.  He spent half the night in another room with his buddies, then stumbled in later that night.  Me and the other guy went and got dinner on the diner car.  I have had many interesting meals in China, this one was very special.  Nothing in particular made it bad as far as taste, just the general cleanliness of the whole situation left me lacking an apetite.  For example, there were many urine stains througout the train.  As well as multiple people smoking throughout the isle ways.  All this, in conjunction with the snoring of the government official made it very difficult to sleep that night as well.  Frankly, I didn't sleep that night.  I arrived in XinYang to do a train transfer around 5am.  XinYang is a much smaller city, and much smaller train station.  I waited by myself in the train station for about an hour, in the dark, before I saw anyone else.  Being in a train station, early in the morning, before light, sitting in the dark, in the middle of who knows where China leaves you on edge a little.  I started sizing up everyone as they came into the room one by one.  Finally, my next train arrived and I set off for ZhuMaDian.  This train was only one stop, but all they had left were sleepers.  This time, I had a hard sleeper.  A hard sleeper is a bunch of beds in an open arrangement in one car.  They fit about six beds in the same amount of space as four beds in the soft sleeper.  The difference is they stack the bunks three high instead of two high.  I thought I had the top bunk, so I climbed on up and waited.  An older Chinese gentlemen kindly informed me that that was his bunk.  I told him I would let him have the bottom if he wanted, but he insisted on the top.  I'm still not really sure why, but he climbed on up as we traded spaces.  At last, I arrived in ZhuMaDian.
   In ZhuMaDian, I was being met by Ben.  Ben and his wife Michelle run the Home of Hope orphanage in PingYu.  Besides the obvious, I cannot say enough how amazing these two are.  They and their three boys have given up their lives in the US to give lives to children here in China.  I met Ben through a classmate of mine at The Citadel.  Avila (my classmate) is cousins with Ben, and is currently in China volunteering with them.  He is also teaching English to help with VISA issues in ZhuMaDian.  So while in ZhuMaDian, we swung by and picked up Avila, and went on to the orphanage in PingYu, about an hour and a half drive.
    When we first arrived at the orphanage, I didn't really know what to expect.  All the kids had lined up at the gate, and were waiting for Ben and us to arrive.  As we drove through them they all waved and said "Hello!"  Then, they went back into their classroom and started studying.  It's about 10am on Saturday morning at this point.  I unloaded my things, and then went into the classroom to meet some of the kids.  Ben gave me a short introduction, and then him and I toured the facility.  The orphanage takes up the bottom floor of an apartment complex, and has the front yard fenced in for their use as well.  They have thirteen rooms (if my memory serves me right).  The rooms are all connected by a hallway in the front, and Ben and his family have the last three rooms on the end.  There are eight girls, and they all have one room, there are six kindergarden boys who all share a room, and there are ten other boys who share a room.  The children range from five years old to eleven years old.  Most of the kids come from families where they have no immediate parents, but do have grandparents.  The grandparents ask for help because they do not have the physical ability, or the financial resources to care for the kids.  I heard of one set of grandparents who ate bark off of the trees to stay alive, to give perspective on their financial situation.  Each of the kids rooms have a dedicated "house mother" that stays with them in the room.  The house moms rotate every 24 hours.  So three moms on, then three moms off kind of deal.  In addition to the kids rooms, there is a classroom, a room for the teachers to stay, a room for a translator (necessary for working with the local government) and a room for volunteers, like me.  There is also a kitchen, and a storage room.  They have a decent dining hall as well, which is about the size of two rooms.  The kids are required to sit while they eat, they cannot get up until they are done, they must eat all of their vegtables (something I struggle with on a personal level) and must wash their own dishes when they are finished.  It is extremely cute to watch the five year old boys wash their own dishes. 
   One of the boys that day had to go to the dentist.  In an open dentist room, literally the waiting room is the same room as the room where the patients get their work done, and teeth pulled.  Gene, who had his two adult teeth stuck behind his baby teeth, had to have two teeth pulled right away.  The dentist took one look, and knew they needed to come out.  She stuck a shot up in his gum, and then yanked them right out.  Gene didn't even cry, and he got 10 kuai for the whole ordeal (~$1.50) from Ben.
   After the dentist, we went to buy a blanket.  Each of the children are given an allowance, which usually comes from the recycling money.  They can save their money in the "bank" and then spend on things for themselves or for others.  Basically, they can go to the "bank" once per week and deposit or withdrawl their money.  It's very cool how they set up the whole thing, and it teaches the kids responsibility.  Marc, had saved enough money, and wanted to buy his grandfather a blanket.  He had gone home for Chinese New Year, and noticed that his grandfather was freezing at night with no blanket.  Mark used his own  money to purchase, what I would consider a very warm blanket for his grandpa.
   That night, we celebrated the second anniversery of the school opening.  Each kid had fried chicken (US style) a Sprite, and a cupcake.  At the end, I was able to give them there Legos.  They didn't have too much time to play with their toys that night, but I spent a good part of the next morning helping them put together their toys.  After a while, I got kind of tired of putting them together, and just started making things that were supposed to be race cars into jets.  They didn't mind. 
   That Sunday, was grandparent's Sunday.  The grandparents can come once per month to visit their grandchildren.  There are pros and cons to this.  The pros are obvious in that the children maintain a connection with their family history, and have an understanding of what family means.  The cons are that the grandparents, like any grandparent, want to spoil the children.  They bring treats, money, and toys to the kids.  The problem is that not all of the kids have grandparents, so some would go without.  Ben and Michelle set ground rules for the grandparents that they have to bring enough for all of the children.  This doesn't curb the behaviour, and some still sneak money to their kids.  The kids know that they are supposed to "deposit" all money in the "bank" that they get from the grandparents, but this doesn't always happen, creating problems for Ben and Michelle.  Later throughout the day, we played games with the kids until they went to bed.  This is also the first time I ever dunked a basketball, granted the goal was a couple inches short... and it took me like 50 tries.    That night we played Mexican Train Dominos with Ben, Michelle, Avila, and some of Avilas English students who had volunteered, as well as Mary one of the teachers.  The rules, were that one round was in Chinese, and one round in English, alternating.  If you spoke the wrong language, you drew an extra tile.  I enjoyed the irony of playing Mexican train dominos in China.
   On Monday I got the oppurtunity to join Ben and Michelle on a child search.  Often, the government supplies a list of children in need, and then goes with Ben and Michelle to check out the child's situation.  In this particular case, one of the teachers knew of the child, and had recommended they visit her.  It was about an hour drive into the countryside to a small farming village outside of PingYu.  The little girl, who has been given the English name Faith, is about 10 years old.  She is being raised by her grandmother's sister.  Her immediate family is either unlocatable or passed away.  She currently bounces between two of her uncles homes.  Neither of the uncles really want her around, so she stays at one place as long as she is tolerated until she is kicked to the others house.  She does this bouncing back in forth.  They got some time alone with Faith to ask her about her situation, and whether or not she was happy.  She started crying when discussing the way the other kids in the area treat her (as unwanted), and it almost brought me to tears.  Given the situation, and the unwantedness of Faith, Ben and Michelle decided to bring her in.  However, they hit a problem.  Legal guardianship in China is very different than in the US.  Unlike the US, which defaults to the mother, China defaults to the father, and the father's side of the family.  In the absence of a father, the grandfather has the guardianship, in the absence of the grandfather, the uncle has the guardianship.  In Faith's case, the legal guardian is her father's sister.  Her aunt.  Her aunt has decided that she does not want Faith to join the orphanage, and will not release her to them.  Though, she will not take on custody herself.  This is just one example of some of the issues that Ben and Michelle have to deal with.
   Later that day, I returned to Beijing via overnight train.  This one was much better in condition and cleanliness.  I was able to get some sleep that night, and finally got home around 11am the next day.  It was Tuesday, and Kamala did not have to work, so she was waiting at home for me. 
   Overall, the experience was incredible.  Kamala and I plan to go back in early April.  I will be sure to post again on our experience then.

This is the yard, with the orphanage to the right.

Lining up for lunch

Joey is the youngest, but that doesn't stop him from playing hockey.

Ben is from Illinois...he like hockey

Their classroom

This is Frank.  When Frank came to the Home of Hope he was living by himself.

This is Gene, he had gotten his two teeth pulled the previous day.

Da Cheng and the new moped

    Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to post lately.  Our VPN lost connection, and we were once again blocked by the great firewall.  We are back up and running now, and had a great weekend.  Kamala and I wanted to go exploring yesterday.  So we bundled up (because it’s like 5 degrees F outside) and took the moped out cruising.  I had seen a small shopping area in passing and wanted to check it out.  So we headed about 5 miles south of where we live and made our way there.  About half-way there the moped started kicking, meaning the battery was getting low, not usually a problem, so we kept on going.  We found the market, “Da Chang”, and it was incredible.  We walked through the entire market and found items from dog skin chaps to kitchen sinks… literally, industrial kitchen sinks.  The market was amazing, and the prices were even better.  We got a pair of chaps (not dog skin, but we almost got cat skin) for 30 kuai, that’s like $4.50. 

This is the best summary photo of life in Beijing I have taken. 

This was an army surplus type of store we found.  They had US Airforce uniforms for sale.  Who, in the middle of this Chinese market is buying these?

 The best part of the entire market was a new complex they are building across the street.  It is a shopping center that I am guessing is geared toward Westerners, because it was modeled after a Dutch village.  But, it is completely empty.  It looks like an abandoned European village in the middle of Beijing. 

After walking the whole market, we got on our moped, paid our 1 kuai for parking ($.15) and headed home.  On the way out though, a small moped shop caught our eye.  We stopped, and went in.  There was the perfect moped in there for Kamala, we had been looking for a second one, and this was perfect.  It was small, lightweight, and had a great look.  We negotiated a good price, and bought the moped.  Before we finalized the purchase, Kamala scooted up and down the market at about 35kph for a test drive while the shop owner and I waited.  As she scooted by, he said “very fast” in Chinese… I just laughed.  We then set out for home, Kamala on her moped, and me on our original.  We got a little turned around at first, and headed down the wrong road.  My battery was all ready low, and we couldn’t afford to go another mile or so out of the way.  Well, then it happened, and the battery died.  We got as much out of it as we could, but still were about 5 miles from the house.  So, we hooked up some bungies that I had brought over from the US and happened to have in my moped, and began towing.  I road the dead moped, and Kamala pulled with her new one.  She pulled me all the way home, moped and moped.  It was AWESOME.  Even though it was cold, and we almost got hit by a dozen people, and a half-dozen cars, we were laughing the entire way at out top speed of 20kph.  I feel like I have reached a new level of humility while living in China.  I remember looking at people in the US towing cars with chains and thinking they were crazy…


-JASON

It's Christmas All Over the World

I woke up early Christmas morning. While Jason was still sleeping, I slipped out of bed and skyped with my family. Slowly but surely Jason woke up, showered and got dressed. Then we skyped with his mom and brothers. It was the night of Christmas Eve, but they opened presents so we could be apart of it.

Then Jason and I rushed to church where we set up equipment, baked goods, and coffee. Our church is small to begin with, so on Christmas Day about 15 people attended. This small group made for an intimate time of prayer for our families, the church and our countries. I almost cried when I prayed aloud for my family.

Next on the itinerary was Christmas supper at a friend's house. Again I made Jason's Aunt Deb's famous bean dip. I'm not a great cook, so this is my go to party recipe. Everyone loves the dip, and this time I was making it by request. There were 9 people representing 3 countries. The food and stories were great.

Our last stop was Flowering House Hostel. Our very first week in Beijing we stayed at the Flowering House and we made very good friends. They invited us to exchange gifts with them. It turns out that Chinese gift exchange (White Elephant) is actually Chinese. 

These people really know how to party. We exchanged gifts as usual, but every 5 minutes they had someone perform an embarrassing act. I mimed using the restroom, Jason made out with the door, and there were other activities like tongue twisters and hula dancing.

Jason making out with the door.

At the end of the night we sang Jingle Bells, and we walked away with a wooden gun and small toy. Jason enjoys playing with the wooden gun. He has shot countless rubberbands at me. We loved visiting with them because our Chinese and their English is just good enough for our conversations to be half and half.

Christmas in Beijing could have been depressing, but great friends and skyping with family made for a wonderful Christmas.

-KAMALA



Summer in Winter

   Kamala and I spent Christmas Eve at the Summer Palace in Beijing.  She had been before, but it was my first time there.  It's called the Summer Palace, but it is really more a walled in park.  There is a lake in the center, that was almost completely frozen over and had locals skating on it.  Even though it was very cold, the sun was breaking through the clouds, and we got some great pictures.

Puck wanted to go out as well that morning.  He had been staring outside for about ten minutes when I took this picture.

  Just outside our apartment there is a small park where we walked the dogs.  The river (drainage) had frozen over and had locals ice fishing.

Us standing on the frozen river with the dogs.

 

At the Summer Palace.  This was also our Christmas card this year.

-JASON

Man who catches fly with chopstick, can accomplish anything

That's right.  Back in HangZhou I caught a fly with my chopsticks.  It's like Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio and me.  Here's how it happened... there was a fly flying around our dinner table.  It landed on my Coke can, and I grabbed it with my chopstick.  That simple.  When your a kungfu master though, everything is that easy.

At first it was alive... then it twitched to death under the might of my chopsticks

-JASON

Elevator

    This morning I went to walk the dogs.  We live on the 8th floor, so this includes going down and back up the elevator.  When the doors opened, there was only one guy in the elevator so the dogs and I went in.  If there is a crowd or small children we will usually wait since the dogs like to jump up and lick small kids.  When the elevator door shut, the elevator suddenly fell from the 8th floor to the 7th floor and then the door opened slightly.  Me and the guy in the elevator just looked at each other with wide eyes.  Then we both jumped off the elevator and decided to take the stairs.  When we got to the first floor, I tried to explain to the guard, (in Chinese) that the elevator on the left was broken and that he needed to have it fixed.  He looked at me kind of puzzled and said "ok ok ok".  Then, I proceeded to walk the dogs. When I got back up to the apartment (took the other elevator), there was a note on the door.  It was in Chinese so I needed the guard to translate it for me, which meant another trip down.  Well, the elevator that came was the one that had the problem the first time.  Since the guard did not turn it off, I figured maybe they had reset it and everything was okay.  It wasn't, as soon as the door shut, it fell again from 8 to 7.  I immediately jumped of fthe elevator and took the stairs down to the guard.  This time, I'm yelling at him and trying to explain in my broken Chinese that the elevator needs to be repaired.  He is what he would have heard:

"I told you that machine" (pointing to the elevator because I don't know the word for elevator) "is broken".  "It should be fixed".  "From the 8th floor to the 7th floor" (make the motion of a hand falling because I don't know the word for falling".  "Can you please call to get it fixed". 

Then he called someone and I heard him say "The elevator (I recognized the word when I heard it) in building 3 is broken".  Then he pulled out a "slippery when wet" yellow triangle and set it in front of the elevator.  I then asked him "Can you turn it off?"  He rolled his eyes at me like he didn't believe what I was telling him, then he got in the elevator himself, as to prove to me it's not broken.  I told him "From 8 to 7" as the doors were shutting.  I figured he could figure it out on his own.  That was it, I took the other elevator and decided it was blog worthy...

-JASON

Puck and The Great Wall of China

     Earlier this year I got to go on a men's retreat with our church.  The group decided to go and hike an unrestored part of the great wall, and then spend the night camping on the wall.  I've only been camping a few times, and nothing too spectacular.  This however, was the ultimate experience.  Because Puck spends 95% of his time in the apartment, I decided to bring him along with us.  He loves the outdoors and going to parks back in the US, so I figured this would be a good escape for him as well.  Ellie on the other hand is perfectly content sleeping on the couch, so she stayed home with Kamala. 
   We all met at the church, and took a couple of vans to the wall.  The wall is a little under two hours away, so the trip is not too bad.  When we first arrived, we stopped at the foot of the mountain and had lunch at a local resevoir.  You could just see the start of the wall.

The resivoir was kind of hard to get to.  I had to carry Puck down.  Once we got down though, it was a very cool place to enjoy lunch.  We ended up eating PB&J and Snickers bars, lunch of champions.
     Then we headed up the rest of the way to the start of our hike.  At the foot of the trail is a small farming family.  They make their living by hosting people like us interested in hiking the unrestored part of the wall.  We set out on about an hour and a half hike through the woods until we finally reached a guard tower of the wall.  On the Southern side of the wall there are doors and stairways to get to the top.  On the Northern side of the all there is only a steep ledge.  The wall was originally built to keep the Mongolians out.  The Mongolians are a horse people, and the wall was very effective at keeping horses out.  People, in theory, could still scale the wall, but it would be difficult.  And, the towers are placed two arrow shots lengths apart so that from any part of the wall, archers could shoot at intruders.  We climbed into one of the towers and took a break to enjoy the view.



About half way up the trail to the wall, you could see the wall wrapping on the ridge line.



Once we got into the tower, Puck was on his own to explore all he wanted.  I'm pretty sure he marked the tower, so now he owns it.



The view from on top of the tower.  This is also what we hiked next.  If you notice all the trees and shrubbery on top of the wall.  We had to hike and climb our way through.



Good shot of the tower and wall wrapping up behind it.  We climbed up that portion of the wall.  Puck made it without assistance... I was impressed.

     Next we started up the wall to our camping site.  It was about another hour and a half to two hours of hiking.  Once we got there, we started to set up camp.  We were basically inside of and on top of one of the towers.  The only way to get to the top of the tower was to climb up a hole in the middle.  I had to help Puck up, but once we were up, there was no where to go.  We had an amazing view from on top.  You could even see the City on the horizon in the background.  We spent the next few hours cleaning off the shrubbery from the top of the tower and making our sleeping arrangements.  I had brought a sleeping bag that I had just bought.  It was awesome.  It got cold that night so we started a fire and chilled (literaly and figuratively) for the majority of the night.  Puck slept inside the sleeping bag with me (it was like 30 degrees outside).  The next morning we got up, did some Bible reading, and headed back down the wall.  At the foot of the trail, we were met by the farming family who had prepared a Beijing fish lunch for us.  It was unbelievably good.  The whole experience was amazing, and I will be definitly be going again. 

To give you a good feel for how steep some parts of the wall were.

One of the views while hiking.

This was the view from the tower where we camped.  The immediate wall is the Northern (left) side piece of the wall as it leaves the tower.  This is also the best spot I have ever taken a leak from.  The wall here gives a good perspective of how high each wall was.  The walls are usually 30 to 50 feet tall on either side.  So when you are hiking the wall, sometimes there isa  50 foot drop on each side.

This is my plug photo for anyone out there that is contemplating coming to see us in Beijing, but can't get off the fence.  At this point, my dog has been to the great wall, and you haven't...

This is the fire pit on top of the tower.  You can see at the bottom that Puck wasn't alone.  The other dog is Noodles.  Noodles was a Beijing stray that was taken in by a few expatriates here in Beijing.  Noodles is now living the dream in Colorado. 

The guy on the left has set up his sleeping spot with this view on top of the tower.  This is what he woke up to.

This is the hole.  The only way on and off of the tower.  You had to climb down this to back onto the wall.

Not a bad sleeping arrangement inside the tower.

You can see the city skyline in the background.  This was one of the most clear days I have seen while living in Beijing.

The return hike the next morning Puck led most of the way.  The guy in the photo was our hike leader.  He does this for a living.