Monday

Little sleep made for a slow start. Breakfast was the standard China variety ... fried rice, chinese cabbage (yum!!!), eggs, strawberry guava juice, chocolate cake, dim sum, bacon. Normal breakfast foods! :-)  

We made it to the orphanage and were greeted with a sign that (we were told) said Jinjiang SWI welcomes American Teachers. We walked into the meeting room to be greeted by a room full of young beautiful Chinese teachers all ready to learn. We made introductions and went off to visit a classroom. The first room was for 3-4 year olds and they were adorable!!!  They fully understand cameras and that they can see themselves on the back side. After listening to some songs and being licked by one little girl (she was so precocious!!!) we went to the next class where we were greeted by choruses of "Ni Hao" and watched them learn about sight, smell and taste. Then up to the under 3 room where we were able to play blocks with the kids. 

Lunch was at the orphanage and served family style. In China, this means that you grab your bite out of the common bowls and eat it with your rice. They serve a lot of soup in this province as well. Two of the dishes had faces. One was fish that was good and the other was duck that had the head on top of the platter. Despite watching us eat it, it was tasty. One of the ladies graciously removed the head! I have a feeling I will be eating a LOT of rice this week. 

In the afternoon we did some training with the teachers and got to visit the infants for a little bit. Pictures to follow eventually. After supper we went to WalMart to get some supplies. Take 4 extremely tired Americans and send them to WalMart ... we had an audience everywhere we went. We also managed to purchase items not on our list. And almost fall asleep standing up!

When we finally made it back to the hotel, my luggage arrived shortly afterward and the angels sang!!!! It's the little things in life ... jammies, your own toothbrush, clean underware ... 

God is good and present in this little ones lives.