Qu Mei Gua le

(That pinyin may be entirely wrong. I tried.)

I am home, after 20 hours of travelling. I arrived at my house around 8:00 last night, and here I am, tired but awake at 6:30am. I’ve actually been awake since around 4:00am. 3 hours of sleep last night. 4.5 cumulative hours of sleep during that 20 hour travel period. Yes, I am tired. And I am craving Chinese food. But I’m home, and I’m safe, and it was easy getting back to the states. So, no complaining!

This blog isn’t finished yet, I’ll update it again within the next 2 weeks or so, so please keep checking back! I want to get my bearings together and tie some strings in one last post, and upload more pictures. Until then, please check out the scrapbook page of New Day’s site. You will find updated pages that have lots pictures of what I did with the kids during my last week. Hopefully that can satisfy any of your curiosity until I post again and upload my last batch of pictures. Some have already been updated, the link for the third picture album has all new pictures, as of a few days ago. Enjoy!

Xing qi er, qi yue shi wu hao: Zhu wo sheng ri kuai le

Well if you can understand mandarin pinyin, the topic of this blog entry is laid out clear. If you cannot understand mandarin pinyin, the title is as follows: Tuesday, July 15: Happy birthday to me.

And what a birthday it was.

I was asked by a few people throughout the course of the day if I had any significantly memorable birthdays. When I turned 17, I was in Wyoming, working at a camp and living in a one-room cabin with two other girls. I went to bed the night before my birthday, and was woken up at midnight by probably 20 people in that one room singing happy birthday to me. They had decorated my bunk bed and all crowded into the room, and I slept through the entirety of it, and they pulled off keeping it a complete surprise.

When I turned 20, I was in Virginia, and it was the day before leaving for China (this was last summer). I was with the group of people I traveled to China with, and we went on a hike that day. One of the guys carried a violin up the mountain we were hiking. We went up to the top of Spy Rock, and here we were on this gigantic rock formation, above all the trees and far from any sign of man made structures. I stood on that mountain barefoot and played the violin. That was a very memorable day that just so happened to be my birthday.

And here I am, in China, and I just turned 21. And it was definitely a birthday worth remembering. I’ll give you a run-down of the events that coincided with my birthday.

The day in and of itself was very normal. I went to work. I had my lunch break. I went back to work. At lunch, however, I was surprised with a birthday cake. And then I was sung to twice: once in English, and once in Chinese. Now, if you’ve never seen a Chinese birthday cake, then allow me to enlighten you. First of all, they are decorated incredibly intricately and are so beautiful. Mine was a two layer cake, and the white icing was mounded on. The top of the cake had pandas and trees and a waterfall flowing down onto the second layer. Here’s a picture to do some more of the talking for me:

(picture to come soon)

So the cake is beautiful. But that’s not the end of the amazingness that was this birthday cake. There is this candle. It is a flower with eight petals. On the tip of each petal are the actual candles (they don’t match the number of candles to your age). When you first put the candle in the cake, the flower is all closed up, and the wicks of all the candles are twisted together. Then you light the wicks. And so they untwist from each other and the petals all fall down to open the flower, and the center of the flower blows out fire for a few seconds. And then the flower plays the tune of Happy Birthday. And then the flower doesn’t stop singing the tune of Happy Birthday. I’ve been told that said flower will keep singing for over 48 hours. I didn’t keep mine long enough to find out, but I did hear it in the trashcan quite a few hours later. I need to get some of those candles to bring home with me.

After I cut that cake up and everyone who was in the dining hall got some, I brought the rest of it over to the Foster Home and shared it with the kids and the nannies. Seeing the kids eat my birthday cake just may have been my favorite part of the day.

After work, a crowd of us piled into an 11 passenger van and drove 5 minutes down the street to a restaurant that I have never eaten at. (Note to reader: after reading that sentence, please do not mistake the word “crowd” for being “11 people.” Yes, the van comfortably seats 11 people. But we, however, fit 19 people into that van. And two more people followed behind on a bike.) I love eating at Chinese restaurants. Not American Chinese restaurants, but the ones here. It’s not a “one-dish-per-person-that’s-all-you-eat” deal. You order many, many dishes for the whole group. And you have a tiny little plate and a tiny little bowl in front of you, and your chopsticks. And then the dishes get put on the lazy-susan that is in the center of the table. And you spin the lazy-susan around and eat to your heart’s content. We had some fun dishes, including one that tasted like potato sticks, and a hot bread that you dip in sweet sauce that is one of my personal favorites. I will miss real Chinese food when I leave this place again. I was sung to again while we were at the restaurant. I think they sang in Chinese that time.

That was only the beginning of the celebrations, as I came to realize soon after. My lovely friend Anna planned some fun times in the courtyard behind our apartment complexes. And she invited all the students from New Day’s English school to join us. Initially, we were tossing a Frisbee around. However, we got yelled at by a Chinese man because there were lots of little kids running around and he said it was dangerous and we would hurt someone. So that was the end of Frisbee. But that was ok, because then we just had fun making fools of ourselves, playing ridiculous games that I don’t think I would do in any other circumstance. Like, remember that game when you get with a group of people and you all put your hands in the center and grab random people’s hands and then you need to untwist yourselves to make a normal circle? Yeah … we did that. There were 27 of us, so we made three groups. And all the people in the courtyard (which was a pretty hopping place) probably were making fun of us. Lots of staring was going on, at least, but it was so much fun.

And there was more cake in the courtyard! My dear roommate Caroline made a chocolate cake. And it was absolutely wonderful. And there was more singing! I forget if it was Chinese or English at this point. And then something that I will always remember (though I was completely embarrassed at the time, due to the fact that I am not a huge fan of individual, specific attention from a large crowd), I somehow ended up in the center of a large circle of the English students. They decided that they would each come up to me and say “Happy Birthday Bekah” in their province’s dialect. There was lots of laughing and smiling and a bit of awkwardness, as I didn’t know how to react to multiple people approaching me and talking to me while everyone else was watching and listening, but it was a beautiful moment for sure.

There was more fun times in the courtyard, including dancing the Electric Slide to some Chinese ballroom dancing music, and then I was tired, so back to the apartment I went. However, I ended up going out again after I got back in. It was a beautiful night, so Caroline and I had some good conversation outside, while being started at and probably talked about by most of the people walking by us. The little kids were especially curious as to why these two foreigners were sitting on a couch on the side of the street. We had one lady approach us and give us her Mary Kay card. A little girl did everything she could to make watch her and her crazy antics, while her grandmother tried to keep her away from us, because she was very much getting right into our faces. And then one of the nannies from New Day came by and sat on the couch with us. Through her little English and our little Chinese, we had a small conversation that led to her inviting us up to her apartment. So, we followed her up, and met her 15-year-old son, and sat in her living room and talked about our ages (I told her that it was my birthday), and favorite foods, and what times we go to bed and wake up, and the personalities of some of the kids at New Day, and the weather, and she taught us a few dance steps. We ended up being there until 11:00. We had kind of run out of things to say in Chinese, and she had run out of things to say in English. I think that simple moments like that make my heart the most happy.

The next day at lunch, around 11:57, I determined that it was still my birthday in the states (for a whole 3 more minutes), so I ate an ice cream bar. And then it was the end of the 36 hours I could call my birthday.

So, as far as memorable birthdays goes, I believe this one tops the list. And when I get home next week, I know that if I hint enough at it (hint, hint, hint), I will have some of my mom’s amazing homemade chocolate cake. Birthdays are not complete without it.

My Heart Will Go On

It’s been 6 ½ weeks since I got here now, and alongside all the wonderful and growing experiences I’ve had, I’ve had my fair share of slightly hilarious experiences as well. Allow me to share two of my favorite.

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A few weekends ago, five of us girls piled into a car and went to The Longxi Hot Springs Resort. Yes, hot springs. Read: natural hot tubs. (Oh, I am so roughing it in China.) Twenty-six of them, to be exact. Some inside, some outside. All at different temperatures and scented with different aromas or filled with something to help this or that when you sat in them. There were mineral added hot springs to help with blood circulation or muscle relaxation, beer and wine scented hot springs, hot springs with flower petals floating in them, some that were supposed to help you sleep better, one that was for bladder dysfunction (stayed far away from that … don’t think I want to sit in the same water as people with a bladder dysfunction). Really, if you can think it up, it was probably there. Including two hot springs called the “Turkey Fish Treatment.” Here’s what you do for that one: First, we sat in one hot spring that left a slight residue on our skin when we got out. Then we got into the hot spring next to it. This one was filled with little fish. Lots and lots and lots of little fish. Why was it filled with little fish? Because when we sat still, said little fish came and nibbled at our skin. Read: there were probably 100 little fish swarming around my legs and nibbling at them and making me want to squeal because it tickled so much. Why? They were eating my dead skin. Yes. I sat in a hot spring and got my dead skin eaten off by hundreds of little fish.

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Karaoke is a big deal here. Really, it’s all the rage. Everyone loves karaoke, right? Well, everyone here does. And I wanted to see why it was such a big deal. So, last night 11 of us piled into a van and went to KTV. Our group of six Americans and five Chinese sauntered into KTV and we bought a VIP pass, which meant that after two hours of singing, we got one hour for free. How do they keep track of how long we sing? Well, you see, it’s not like karaoke as I’ve ever known it. No karaoke bars and singing with people that you don’t know. You go with a big group and rent out a room. This room has a huge wrap-around leather couch and mood lighting and a plasma screen TV and two microphones and the karaoke machine. And then you sing to your heart’s content. And we did. It was actually a tad bit ridiculous how much some of my Chinese friends got into their singing, despite how terrible a few of them were. So, naturally, I got into it as well, despite how absolutely terrible my singing voice is. I belted “My Heart Will Go On” like a pro, and my friend Lauren and I serenaded everyone with “American Pie.” We also conjured up some Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys and Michael Jackson. The night was ended with “Do Re Mi” (yes, from the Sound of Music). Maybe we should have started with that one, since it was used in the movie to help the VonTrapp children learn how to sing … hmm.

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My Chinese is getting better! I can recognize words when I hear people talk. So, sometimes I can understand the context of a conversation that I have no business understanding. It’s quite fun. It doesn’t really help me get around or communicate, but I am excited about beginning to understand more. A big help in this endeavor called “Learning Chinese” has been my friend Ricky. He is a Chinese native, and he is very, very fluent in English; I feel like he speaks better English than some people in America who I know. A few nights ago, I was explaining to him my problem of translating things into Spanish since I didn’t know their Chinese equivalents. So, he asked me to teach him some Spanish. Teaching him some Spanish turned into Ricky proposing a contest. We were to each learn the same five sentences. Ricky would teach them to me in Chinese, and I would teach them to him in Spanish. Then in two days we would have a face off and see who knew their sentences better. The loser had to buy the winner something to eat. I’m always up for a little challenge, and this one would benefit me regardless, so I said ok. Ricky wrote down my sentences and I kept that paper with me for the next day, and didn’t look at it. Oops. You see, a problem here is that Lost season 1 has become a slightly important addition to my evenings. But I am not studying Chinese when I watch Lost. So, the night before this little competition, I watched Lost until 10:30. Then I was tired. But I sat in bed for maybe 10 minutes before I fell asleep and I reviewed my sentences during that time. I knew I wasn’t as well prepared as I should have been, seeing as how I saw Ricky practicing his Spanish on anyone who would listen all day. Oh well, right? Well, I got to lunch the next day, and Ricky had apparently been telling everyone all morning about how he was going to beat me. So the competition began. Ricky was asked to say a sentence. He stalled for maybe 30 seconds and then spit it out. My turn with a different sentence. I got it immediately. Ricky’s second sentence: pronunciation wasn’t entirely amazing. My second sentence: easy. Ricky’s third sentence: he couldn’t remember it. My third sentence: spit it out. Ricky’s fourth sentence: he couldn’t remember it. My fourth sentence: no problem. Ricky’s fifth sentence: stalled, stalled, stalled, stalled, stalled, kind of got it. My fifth sentence: no big deal. I then informed Ricky in Spanish that I wanted two apples. He just stared at me blankly. So, I switched to Chinese. Hooray for slight Chinese communication. I am excited about this!

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My first week of tag team preschool teaching with Lauren went very well. Remember, neither of us are teachers. Lauren just graduated High School. I am a Music Management major. And here we both are, teaching preschool together. I think I am enjoying myself with this preschool teaching. But I still say I don’t think I’ll ever do it again. Perhaps solid statements like that have a way of coming back at you sometimes. Perhaps I am challenging myself by saying that so boldly.

I do have an entirely strong feeling that I will be back to China again. This country isn’t something I can just drop. A more long-term trip / work situation / living arrangement may be in the future sometime. Who knows? I guess I can’t know anything for sure right now. But I am trying to find ends that meet right now. I want to know if I’m supposed to be here again. And if I’m supposed to be here, I want to know what am I supposed to be doing.

There are four things that matter most to me in life right now: family, China, and music. The fourth is the One who gets all the credit for giving me all of these things to enjoy. If He has given me these things that are so important to my heart, there must be a way for them to fit together, right? That’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot. A lot.

It’s the orphans of this country who have brought me here for these past three summers. It’s the orphans of this country who will continue to put that all-too-familiar burden on my heart. When I am here, they change me for the better – maybe even more than I am able to help them. I come to love them tangibly, and I get so much more in return. There really is something special about China. So here is a warning to any of you who may be thinking about making a trip to this country: Be careful, because you might just Fall In Love with China.

Tengo er shi yi sui le años

Remember that entry a while ago about Bekah ayi, and Bekah lao shi? Here’s a new development: Sarah (the preschool teacher who I am helping) is visiting her family in Sichuan for the next two weeks. As in, Sarah is very far away for the next two weeks. So what happens now? Here is what happens: I have a preschool to call “mine” for these two weeks. I am the teacher. There are people who work “under” me to help the 3 ½ hour preschool time each morning run smoothly. I’m the one calling the shots. What?! … Really?! Yes. Sarah informed me of this on Sunday night. Funny enough, last Tuesday (one of my normal teaching days), Sarah was very busy. So busy that I didn’t really see her at all during preschool time. So, instead of teaching my lesson and then letting her take over, as has been normal for these past few weeks, I taught my lesson, and then kept with the flow of the preschool and showed the kids what we’d be doing next, and tried to keep every one happy, and decided what activity they’d be doing for their fine motor skills development, and told them when it was time to clean up and line up and gave them their candy and said bye bye and watched them all file out for lunch. 3 ½ hours of running the preschool, without any warning. And I did it. And it went well I think. And then Sarah came in and said she was very confident that I would continue to do well these next two weeks. Olivia called me lao shi the other day. I suppose that’s what I’ve become. And I think I’m becoming more and more okay with this.

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We celebrated the Fourth of July in China. In the morning, Lauren and I planned a lesson for the kids about it, and they learned about flags and red white and blue and parades. We helped them make parade hats out of newspaper and they decorated their own flags with red and blue paper strips and gold star stickers. We then all went outside (in the ridiculous humidity that existed yesterday) and the kids put on their hats and held their flags and we handed out noisemakers and gold streamers and then everyone paraded around the back yard and into one of the offices to show off their very tangible excitement. Much laughter and good times ensued. I’m not entirely sure if the kids really knew what was going on, but they definitely had a lot of fun. There are already pictures up on New Day’s site, click on “Scrapbook” on the left hand side bar. (I did not have my camera with me at the time, as I was the one trying to make sure it all happened the way I planned. So New Day’s site is the only place you’ll see pictures of this.)

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We also celebrated the Fourth of July in the evening, with a group from LA who is here for two weeks. They planned a cookout, and we all celebrated and invited all the Chinese staff and students who were around. We had an amazing fun time celebrating in a true American way in China. There were grilled hamburgers and hot dogs (yeah, I ate a tomato sandwich), and potato chips and corn on the cob, and peach cobbler and rice krispy treats and watermelon. We played lots of games (and made all the Chinese join it), like musical chairs and water balloon volleyball. We also had a dance party, including such songs as the YMCA, Macarena, Electric Slide, Cha Cha Slide, Chicken Dance, and Hokey Pokey. I don’t have pictures of this, but there were plenty of camera shutters being snapped, so I’ll have my hands on some pictures eventually. Just try to visualize about 50 people (1/4 Americans, ¾ Chinese) doing these dances together. It was absolutely ridiculous. And absolutely so much fun. The night, naturally, was ended with sparklers and fireworks. Chinese fireworks on the Fourth of July!

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I have started taking Chinese lessons, three times a week for an hour; my roommates and I are taking them together. I still can’t understand hardly anything people say to me, but I am starting to be able to form simple sentences about my age and birthday and anything including numbers or dates or seasons or today and tomorrow and yesterday. And when I do hear Chinese, it sounds more normal to me now; my ears recognize that it is a language with separate words and phrases and sentences. This is a big advancement for me, as previously anything in Chinese just sounded like jumbled mishmash and there was nothing coherent to it. The structure of the language is starting to make sense to me now! I’m hoping to keep up with learning the language even after I leave. Maybe I’ll finally start using that Rosetta Stone CD I have.

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Sometimes when someone says something to me in Chinese, my brain realizes that I have to answer in a different language, but the obvious problem comes to drift. I am, however, competent with buying groceries in the village and I can ask for my favorite type of chicken and bread at the barbecue restaurant in the village. But if anyone tries to respond to my simple Chinese language requests with a long string of Chinese words, I can do one of two things: grin and nod, or respond with “Ting bu dong, dui bu qi.” (“I don’t understand, sorry.”). However, the first things my mind has been conjuring up every time I want to speak to people are sentences in Spanish! It’s actually quite surprising how much Spanish I remember from four years worth of studying it. I think if I were in a Spanish speaking country right now I could definitely get around easily. Too bad I’m in China; I suppose Spanish would be more counter-productive than English. It is, however, so tempting to say something like “I am tengo er shi yi sui le años, he you?” (“I am 21 years old, and you?” … in a horrible and repetitive mix of Spanish, Chinese, and English.)

Music makes the people come together

Yes, that title is a Madonna quote. Silly me, quoting Madonna. But you know what, it’s true. Music is an entirely universal language, it can cross boundaries that speech, poetry, sports, or touch are able to cross. Last night, Sarah (the preschool teacher) invited Jovy and I over to her house for dinner. We got to meet her 2 year old son, and we ate some wonderful homecooked hot pot. Afterwards, her neighbor was out with his guitar and we sat around in a circle outside and Sarah played some, and then she brought out her Ukelele and we played some songs together, there was singing involved, and I even took the guitar and played and sang them some Pink Floyd (Wish You Were Here), hooray for that!

But none of that was the best part. The best part was towards the very end of our time there, she started playing Amazing Grace. And we all sang it together, in both languages at the same time. I can’t really think of very many other moments in my life that have amounted to the beauty of that one.

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Before I left the states to come here this summer, my friends at work surprised me with money to bring here and spend on the kids. I can’t begin to describe how ecstatic I was about this.

About two weeks into my trip, I had a random dream that we took the kids to the Beijing Wildlife Park. On Friday, my friends from work in Pennsylvania made that a reality.

So, Friday morning, 10 kids and 11 adults piled into two cars and drove to the Beijing Wildlife Park. It started out a bit overwhelming, as in two of the kids cried when they saw the horses, and half of the kids cried when we saw the monkeys. Yeah … horses and monkeys and uncontrollable crying and some freaking out.

But, the kids did all eventually calm down. And they had a great time seeing the monkeys and giraffes and wolves and deer and bears and peacocks and lions and chipmunks and racoons and tigers. They got to see lions jump through rings of fire and bears walk on balls. We even all piled into one of these:

And once in that safari truck, we took a trip through many different animal habitats, and watched bears stand on their hind legs right infront of us to eat raw chicken above our heads, and hand fed cabbage to many different kinds of deer and pigs, and all in all had a wonderful time.

We also went out to eat at a restaurant in Beijing. Just chew on that for a bit … 10 kids at a restaurant. Haha. It really was great times. And the people at Lookaway are amazing for helping it all to happen!

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And, as some side notes, my pictures are updated. The pictures on Facebook are the ones I have edited and picked my favorites. I also put the names of the kids and some comments on those pictures so you know the context. The pictures on Photobucket (album one, album two) are unedited, and every single picture I’ve taken is uploaded onto those photo albums, and it’s up to you to fish through them as I’ve left no context, no names, and there are at this point over 350 of them. Enjoy!

watermelon and the wheat harvest

It’s picture time again! I added more pictures to my first album. And then ran out of room! So, click here for the first album. And then click here for the start to my second album. (There are also links to the right of this post.) Enjoy!

Young and With No Clue

***I’d like to make a shout out to my sister Emili who is graduating from High School in a few short hours. I am so proud of her, and wish I could be there to watch her accept her diploma. Love you Em!***

Laoshi. Pronounced: laow-shur. Meaning: teacher.

Well, the kids still call me Ayi. But I don’t think that the words “nannie,” or “helper,” or “aunt” suit my line of volunteering-ism anymore. I have slightly (or maybe entirely) become a laoshi. Bekah the teacher.

No, really. I am a teacher.

I teach the preschoolers every Tuesday and Thursday. For the entirety of preschool. You may well call it the Bekah show. I have found myself in the line of writing lesson plans, cutting paper for crafts, planning activities, and thinking along the lines of preschoolers who speak Chinese but should be learning English.

It’s really alot of stretching for me. I am learning as I do this. Remember, my major is Music Management. There is no place in that major for teaching anything, no less teaching younger kids a second language. The Internet has been a big help. So has a book in the preschool teacher’s office that is filled with ideas for lesson plans pertaining to specific topics.

Last Tuesday was apples. Last Thursday was ants. (Last week was capital “A.”) Yesterday was (kind of) airplanes. (For lower case “a.”) The paper airplanes I helped them make were a big hit. Tomorrow is purple. Let me tell you that I drew lots of purple circles for a craft about grapes tomorrow. 263 tiny circles, to be exact. And I cut out 63 of those circles. It was SO MUCH FUN! Haha. So, I am a preschool teacher who is learning solely by experience. It’s very challenging, because seriously, I have no idea what I am doing. But I am definitely having so much fun with it. And then again at the same time, I can’t see myself EVER doing it again after this summer.

So, Bekah the preschool teacher. That’s not all. I am also a private tutor for Savannah now. For an hour and a half a day, I am teaching this beautiful 6-year-old girl English. She knows so much English. She understands much more than she ever lets on. So, I am attempting to teach her how to read. In doing so, I am trying to think back to when I was in Kindergarten and learning how to read. How did I learn? I have no idea. I am making things up. But, there is progress being made! Savannah recognizes alot of her letters now. The only problems at this moment are as follows: Her attention span is not quite as good as it was when we first started. I think she’s gotten too comfortable with me already. Also, we do not have enough books on the correct level for Savannah. Most of the books here are too easy for her. But everything has been working out well so far, and I have no doubt that things will continue to work out as needed.

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We took 6 of the kids to pick watermelons last Friday morning. It was a sticky but incredibly wonderful morning. You should check out some of the pictures of that morning and other adventures on New Day’s website!

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I have eaten two home-cooked Chinese meals in the past week. One at Amy’s house last week. I teach Amy English every afternoon, and she invited me and my roommate Jovy over to eat dinner with her family. It was a wonderful time and very good food.

Jovy and I had Amy and her daughter over last night for some American food. Actually, it was Italian, but I wasn’t about to cook hot dogs or hamburgers or something. Because that is gross. But, we had fruit salad with mango, grapes, cherries, apples, and bananas, and then noodles cooked in olive oil and garlic and peppers and onion and tomatoes, served with pesto tomato sauce and parmesan cheese, and for dessert we made a no bake chocolate pudding pie. I’d consider that all fairly American. They enjoyed it, I think. They told us they did.

My other home-cooked Chinese meal happened on Monday night. One of the English students here, Jill, told me that she wanted to cook for my roommates and me. So, we went to the village and bought all the ingredients (literally, all of them, as we have next to no food in the apartment), and came back to the apartment. I got to watch her cook Chinese style and I tried to remember everything she did. She made four dishes, and every one was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten, seriously. The Chinese have a way with spices. Too bad all the spices were labeled in Chinese characters. I don’t know how I’m going to figure out what to buy when I want to cook that flavorfully.

Maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to cook a Chinese meal when I get back to the states. We’ll see.

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Three weeks in China. I feel like I’ve been here forever, and forever is somehow not enough. Sometimes, I already feel sad that I’m leaving at the end of July. Maybe I should stop thinking about that.

I feel at home here. It’s such an odd concept for me to wrap my mind around. I am generally one who does not fare well with change. I like the familiar. I like my environment. I can get pretty shaken up when I am taken out of it. I don’t get strung out over things, I’d say I’m even a bit too laid back for my own good at times, but big changes generally take an intangible toll on my emotions.

So why is it, though I am literally half a world away, 12 hours ahead of normal life as I know it, buying food in an open market place with money that makes little sense to me in a language I barely understand, sleeping in a bunk bed on the 6th floor of an apartment in a village of a country with a culture that is massively different than mine, why is it that I am so completely comfortable here?

One word: Purpose.

I was given a heart for this country. I only feel complete when I am doing work for the orphans here. That is one of the pieces of my puzzle (oh, cliches).

Tangibly fulfilling a sense of purpose is one of the most rewarding acts I have ever experienced.

1000 words

You can click here for more pictures I’ve taken during these first two weeks in China.

The Perks of Being A Wallflower

There is a little girl named Olivia who is in the heart wing of the hospital right now. On my first day back, her heart started leaking (she has already had heart surgery and has a pacemaker). She is doing much, much better physically. However, her story is a very sad one. She was abandoned at the age of 3. And it was in a hospital that her parents left her. And now she’s back in a hospital, and visiting hours are Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays from 2:30-4:00. No exceptions. Physically, this girl is doing well. Emotionally, I can’t even imagine what she’s going through. Her nanny visits her everytime she is allowed, but that can only do so much. Please keep this little girl in your thoughts, etc.

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On Saturday, my roommates and I hired a driver, went to the Summer Palace, ate at Grandma’s Kitchen, met up with Caroline in Soho, and shopped at the Pearl Market. In and of themselves, those things are mildly exciting for me (please forgive me for the “mildly” description. I’ve just been here, done that, etc, and love it, so sometimes touristy things aren’t exactly what I’m looking for anymore). Here’s what excited me the most, however: We did all of these things without a guide, without a translator, knowing very little Chinese.

We were dropped off in the parking lot of the Summer Palace and left to find our way to the ticket booth and buy tickets and explore the place, after haphazardly communicating to our driver how many hours we’d be and where we should meet her. And then we explored the Summer Palace and found our way back to our driver in time. She drove us to a parking garage near Grandma’s Kitchen and then we somehow found our way out of it (that was an adventure we got on video), into Soho, and found Grandma’s Kitchen. We ate there and then explored Soho a bit, and met up with Caroline on time. We bartered in the Pearl Market (I’m terrible at bartering. I got a North Face jacket for 170 yuan ($24.71). Not bad but could have done better). We found our way back to our driver again. We got home safely.

I am very proud of us for Saturday. We explored China “on our own.”

Yesterday morning (Sunday morning), I had the opportunity to play my violin in the w. band. I’ll get to do this every Sunday morning while I am here. I am so excited that the opportunity to play my violin in this manner has come up even in China.

Today, we are going to the Beijing Wildlife Park. Everytime I tell that to a native, their first reaction is “You get to feed the tigers!” Apparently, this place is like a safari; you get into a caged truck and are driven around to see the animals, and they come very close to the truck. This should be a fun adventure.

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Weekends are fun (and today is a holiday, the Dragonboat Festival, so it’s a 3 day weekend), but weekdays are my favorite. Because those are the days I get to do what I came for: tangibly love the kids in the foster home. Here are some stories I’ve compiled over this past week. (To put faces with names, visit newdaycreations.com/foster, and click on “babies” on the lefthand sidebar.)

Wendel
This kid is a crazy ball of fire. He loves to run around with a goofy smile on his face and destroy anything in his path. I was spending time with him a few days ago, and he took apart a big climbing toy and started throwing all the pieces across the floor. As I was scrambling to pick them up and put them back together, I got whacked square in the forehead by a big plastic tube that he was spinning around. It took me a second to get my bearings together, and when I could see straight again, Wendell was laughing hysterically at me. (I can still feel the bruise.)

Savannah
This little girl is amazingly smart. She also loves to be in control. And she’s very good at manipulating situations so that she is in control. I have slightly beat her at her own game. I’ve been trying to learn any bit of Chinese that I can. So, during my 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon while the kids are napping (Savannah is not napping), I sit up in this little loft area in the pre-school and read little kid’s books in Pinyin. My roommate and I did this together one day, and we learned our colors. There are also books about animals and fruits and vegetables, etc. So, we brought Savannah up with us. We needed to give her something to do, but she does not like to listen, she likes to do her own thing. We told her we wanted help with our Chinese. She got a big smile on her face and started pointing at the pictures in the books and telling us the names of the objects. We repeat after her, and she corrects our pronounciation. So, I am learning simple Chinese from a 5 year old.

Seth
Well, aside from the attachment I already feel to this little boy, he has started to attach himself to me again, on occasion. I was in the big playroom one afternoon, playing with Seth, and 5:00 came around so it was time for me to leave. I told him this, and he immediately lifted his arms up for me to pick him up off the floor. Of course I picked him up, I’m a sucker for that. We walked around the room for a few minutes, and then I said “zaijian (bye)” and tried to put him down. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled himself closer. He wouldn’t let me put him down! He was laughing at this, because he knew what he was doing. I did finally get him on the ground, and he opened the door to let me leave. While I was putting my shoes on, he walked out of the playroom and stood down the hallway watching me. I said bye to him and waved, and he did the same. As I was walking outside and closing the door, I kept my eyes on him, and he kept his eyes locked on mine, with a smile on his face, until the door was closed and we couldn’t see each other again. Dear heart, please be still!!!

Ben
I am supposed to be teaching Ben english every afternoon at 4:30. It hasn’t happened yet, because he never listens to me when the time comes. However, I think maybe we’ll both be on the same line soon, because he is really starting to open up to me, much more than last summer (we called him Samson last summer). Most of you know that I am a very quiet and introverted person. I like to sit on the outside of things and watch what is going on. And I am perfectly content with doing that. Sometimes, I do that in the playroom. There is always alot of activity going on, and it is fun to watch the kids interact with each other and the nannies and the other volunteers. So, I sit on the floor and watch things play out. Ben does this too. I’ve caught him standing in a corner on more than occasion, observing everything that is going on in the playroom. It has happened on multiple occasions now, however, that I’ll be sitting on the floor, watching the kids play, and Ben will come out of nowhere and plop down on my lap and start reading a book to himself, or examine his surroundings. He doesn’t need one-on-one interaction, or something large and shiny to keep him happy. He just wants to sit with someone and watch the outside world. A boy after my own heart!

One of my most favorite books is “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky. There’s a line in the book that goes like this: “He’s a wallflower … you see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.”

Ben has a family. He talks with them on skype once a week. In a few months, they will come and get him, and he will move to Oklahoma and be an American boy. I hope his family will allow him to continue to be a wallflower every once in a while. Us introverts don’t always need to be specifically included to feel included.

After All It Was A Great Big World

So this is me, one full week back in China. I feel so at home here, it almost scares me. I’m not one to do well outside of my comfort zone, but here I am in a culture that is drastically different from mine, and I am almost more comfortable walking down the streets of Qingyundian than I am walking down the streets of New Hope (though I guess New Hope can be a bit scary in it’s own right anyway).

My schedule is wonderful and fairly lax. I have been waking up at 6:30am every morning! It is a beautiful thing, I really love the mornings. I get to the foster home at 8:00, after a 15 minute walk from my apartment. Might I mention here that I live on the sixth floor of my apartment building, I walk 15 minutes to New Day, and it takes a good 15-20 minutes to walk into the village from New Day (even longer from my apartment). Lots of indirect exercise … I love it!!

Once I get to the foster home, I spend time with the kids in a big playroom as their nannies get them ready for the day and send them there. The older preschoolers (Ben, Seth, Savannah, Julia, and Emily) head out at 8:30 and I go with them and help with the preschool every day until 12:00 (the younger preschoolers join us at 9:30). The kids learn in Chinese and in English. They know alot of English children’s songs, and some of them know their colors and numbers in English. There is a fair bit of play time in preschool, but it is for the most part structured play time, with specific tasks to work on, such as building blocks or putting together puzzles, etc. The kids talk to me in Chinese alot, and then I stare at them blankly and respond to them in English. At that point, they either walk away or grab my hand and drag me somewhere and point until I get the idea of what they are trying to tell me.

My first day in the preschool, Sarah (the teacher) introduced me to the older ones as “Bekah ayi.” “Ayi” means aunt, or nannie, or helper. The kids repeated my name after Sarah. It was something so small, but to hear these kids who mean so much to me say my name out loud was one of the most precious things I have ever experienced.

12:00-1:00 is my lunch break. I eat in the cafeteria with most everyone else at New Day, including the students from the school. I spent $14.58 (100 yuan) on a meal card that is going to last me the majority of the two months I am living here. And I never leave hungry.

From 1:00-3:30 the kids are either sleeping or being fed by the nannies, so I don’t spend more time with them until 3:30. I spend those 2 1/2 hours helping a lady named Amy with her English, and brainstorming lesson plans for the preschoolers. Helping with English is fine. Lesson plans is not (not yet, at least). I am a Media Communications / Music Management major. I know nothing about education, especially not early education that is trying to cross cultural lines. Any help that anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated!

3:30-5:00 is spent simply playing with the kids. We are either in the big playroom, or outside where there is a big playset and a sandbox and lots of grass and swings and other equipment to play on. It is my favorite time to take pictures when the kids are outside. They get a new energy and the happiness exudes from them (I will be posting pictures sometime soon, I promise).

5:00 until I sleep I am free to do as I want. More often than not, I walk into the village with my roommate or other people from New Day. I am getting very spoiled with the fresh fruit they have there, particularly the mangos. There is also the most amazing chicken on a stick that I have ever tasted in my life (yes, I am eating food from street vendors in the middle of a small village in China. I haven’t gotten sick yet). One of my most favorite things to do while walking down the streets of the village is to say “ni hao (hello)” to the inquisitive little Chinese kids who love to stare at me. One of two things happens at that point: their faces break into huge smiles and they say hi back to me in English and wave frantically, or they turn their eyes down and run to hide behind their mother. Either response brings a smile to my face.

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Last Friday, we took 19 of the kids (and 19 adults) to the Kimberly Clark company building. Kimberly Clark supplies New Day with many many many free supplies, it is really so wonderful. The company hosted a party for the kids, so they got all dressed up in frilly dresses and white stockings and bows, or slacks and collared shirts and ties and baseball caps, and we piled onto a bus and drove to the Central Beijing District. “My” kid for the morning was Adah. When we got onto the bus, she sat in my lap and as we were driving, her eyes were glued to the outside world. She would repeat words after me, like “truck,” “car,” “green,” “tree,” and she would point at things excitedly and chatter endlessly in Chinese.

The wonder that was in Adah’s eyes at the site of scenery outside of the foster home or her foster parent’s house got me thinking. My mind came to the song “American Girl” by Tom Petty. One of the lines goes “After all it was a great big world, with lots of places to run to.” Adah was able to find wonder in such a small part of her “great big world.” She was 20 minutes outside of everything familiar. Just 20 minutes, and EVERYTHING was new to her. This little girl has no idea how much more of a great big world it really is. How big will her eyes get when she meets her forever family? How much wider will they open when she sees and airplane and then flies to her new home?

As adults, we talk about how small the world is. (And really, it is. One of the girls who works here has a sister who worked at the same camp in Wyoming that I worked at for two summers. She is also friends with the new RDs of the school I am going to next semster that is in Martha’s Vineyard. Talk about a small world!) But as children, the world is huge. And for the kids here at New Day, they never know just how big the world is until their forever family finds them.

And it is my hope that each one of these kids is able to experience their great big world.

(Allow me to remind you that you can go to New Day’s Site and click on “Babies” on the left hand sidebar, and see pictures of the kids that I am working with this summer.)