Crazy few days in China. As we finished our shift on Thursday we ran back to the hotel for a quick bite and a little rest. After a few hours, the entire team headed back to the orphanage to meet the returning staff who we replaced during their holiday. We presented them with gifts of appreciation for all the tireless work that they do, which we now had a profound appreciation for. It was very neat to watch how both sides had such respect for one another. The full-time workers felt honored to receive such encouragement for what they do and greatly appreciated us coming so far to support their opportunity to get time off and see family. Our mission team was in awe of the tireless devotion of these men and woman of God, devotion that they put into their work day after day for these challenged children. We did their work for a week and it is exhausting! We also had shorter shifts and more people working each shift. After playing with the kids and then saying our final and tear-filled goodbyes to the children we had gotten to know so well, we traveled a short distance to the train station to catch a train to Longyan.
Longyan is a city about and hour and a half bullet train ride west of where we were staying. The train took us from the coast to a pretty mountainous area. When we arrived in Longyan we were greeted by two of the directors from the Longyan orphanage. They took us to check into our hotel. Longyan was quite the site. It was exciting to see how bustling the city was, filled with thousands of motor scooters zipping through the streets. Entire families (Father, Mother and children, even sometimes grandmother) were all on one scooter. Even at the train station when we arrived there are taxi scooters that were for hire. It was all a little crazy.
After we checked into the hotel, we were taken to the home of one of the woman teachers in the special care room in Longyan. Megan,
her English name, prepared a traditional Chinese meal for the entire team. It was a great experience. This family's house, really a condo, on the 6th floor of a less than fancy condo building. However, once the doors opened from the dark dirty staircase we were exposed to a shiny white beautiful modern two story apartment. Once our shoes were removed, we immediately sat down and were served a 15 course Chinese meal. Some traditional items we know of here in the US, dumplings and rice noodles, and some that we've never had. Scrambled eggs with clams, specially prepared tofu, deep fried pork, fried milk, winter melon soup and fresh fruit wraps. Enough food for the entire Chinese Army. Delicious and filling. When we finished we said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. The next morning was an 8am call, so we were up and at it again. Being as opportunistic as possible we woke up early and walked around the block to what was called the Lotus Temple. This was an old very large temple that was built into the hill. We climbed up to the top to see the old traditional architecture and tribute to Buddah. We don't know much more of the history or age of the temple but will do some research when we arrive back home.
After returning from the temple visit, we headed to the Longyan orphanage to visit with the Longyan team and do the morning meeting and devotional time with the team. This was probably one of the most moving events of the trip for the entire team. We sat in a room with about 10 of the workers and our team and went around and introduced ourselves. We learned of the roles each one of them plays to help make the orphanage a more special place. The US team shared how they admired their work and appreciated what they do in a culture where it's not looked upon favorably. The orphanage team shared how much it means to them for us to come all this way to support them. It is such an encouragement to them that the work they do is recognized and appreciated. They said it gives them more drive to keep doing what they do. This was all done through an interpreter both ways. Then each prayed for one another in English and in Chinese. It was a really great experience and emotional for all.
After the morning meeting we went for a tour of the facility to meet the children and their teachers. It was so awesome to go to the one class of older special needs children and see how they greeted us with such excitement. One blind boy immediately grabbed onto Susan and wouldn't let her go. He just kept leading her around the room trying to help her experience as much as she could. It was neat to see how he used the sense of smell to first establish who Susan was and then to continue to validate that this was who he was with through his use of smell. The class all presented us with gifts of hotplates that were made by them using small wooden tiles that were weaved together. It was unbelievable seeing their beaming pride in the work they had created in these hotplates and the immense satisfaction of presenting them to us. They wanted us to take sometimes 2 or 3 of them just because they wanted us to have their work. It was really special. The Chinese even use these "hotplates" as their mattresses! Then they took us to the window to look down upon their garden. This was another recent successful project that they took on. Using a small piece of the grounds to plant a small vegetable garden. The class worked together to plant and harvest the vegetables that were then sold. They were allowed to use some of the money to make a purchase in the grocery store. The teacher joked that that process took almost as long as growing the vegetables.
It was really a fulfilling site to see the tremendous sense of pride and accomplishment the children derived from the garden and the hotplates but the even more compelling achievement is the fact that there was a big social change taking place. These children culturally are forgotten because they are socially perceived as being unable to be productive in life. However, by the demonstration of these basic works they demonstrate how they can contribute to the culturally important family foundation.
After viewing several other rooms with younger children receiving their lessons we broke up into two groups and were taken to visit with 3 families who were fostering some of these special need orphan children. It was a sensory overload to visit varying economic conditions and seeing exactly how these people live. If nothing was apparent it was that we do live in a country of abundance. These people were rich in many ways that many American's take for granted. Most of these residences' kitchens were the size of our pantry. That's not an exaggeration. Yet most of the families we visited were fostering two children at a time. One woman told us she had been fostering for 17 years and over 35 children. This is was the apartment complex where we saw a dead chicken on the bathroom floor between the toilet and sink as we went upstairs and saw it again on the kitchen counter, plucked and ready for dinner as we came down the stairs 30 minutes later. How it got in the pot we still don't know. :) All these woman who were taking care of these precious gifts were all rich in spirit. Happy within the world they lived and clearly fulfilled by the children they cared for. Again, through the interpreter, when asked what was the hardest part of the fostering process, each woman answered the same, watching the children leave. One of the woman asked the director about a young girl she had fostered in the past who was adopted. She told him she wanted to give him pictures she had of the little girl so he could send them to the adoptive parents who were in America. The Director said, "great". Then in English told us that that family was coming this week back to adopt another girl and they were going to bring the family and the little girl back to this foster mother to visit, but she didn't know they were coming. What a moving surprise this was going to be for her because you saw in her eyes what that past little girl meant to her. Just very moving circumstances.
After finishing with our foster home visits, we were treated to a great Szechwan lunch including delicious green beans with numbing spices. These spices numbed your mouth slightly so you could handle the spiciness. Then a quick visit to the top of Lotus mountain to overlook Longyan and then it was back to the train station to return to Xiaman. We thanked our guides from the orphanage for their time and hospitality that day and felt like we were saying goodbye to old friends.
Once back in Xiaman, we met with the orphanage directors and they took us to a restaurant that was run by an Israeli man serving traditional American Cuisine. It was nice to get a little taste of home before we left. A much need night of sleep and our 6am airport call.
As we depart, I'm not sure Susan and I can accurately convey how this trip has impacted us completely. I think some rest and reflection will reveal many different impacts. The one thing we are confident in is that it not an experience we will ever forget and that this will certainly be a part of our growth personally and spiritually. Needless to say, there are no regrets for one minute that we took this step of faith. We realize one thing for sure, that we appreciate better all we have and how truly blessed we are in America.
Someone once said, "God Bless America? I think he already has." We know we would agree.
Posted from Seattle Airport...
