A baby (or two) - for Everyone!!

We did our first volunteering in Xian today - taking care of babies at the Starfish Foster Home. The founder of the foster home, a woman named Amanda De Lange, takes in children with special needs from local orphanages and provides them with the surgery they need, as well as a loving home. There are nearly 50 babies in her home right now, and our group of 20 did the best we could!

We split up into two groups - half of us working on the lower floor, and the other half on the upper floor. We played with the babies from about ten in the morning until lunchtime, and then returned to the foster home after lunch until six in the evening. Our arms are sore from holding babies so long! The children at the Starfish Foster Home are adorable, and very responsive when we play with them. Many of us are pining to take one home, but we know that no amount of begging will convince our parents!

Tomorrow is our final day in Xian, and we take the train back to Beijing tomorrow night (so no blogging). We are all feeling bittersweet about going home - we miss our families and friends, but we'll be so sad to leave China.

Come back in a few days for our next post!

FCC-NW Teens

Great Wall, Olympic Green, Terracotta Warriors, Oh My!

Hello from Xian! Our overnight train from Beijing arrived here this morning around 9:30 AM. We weren’t able to blog last night because there wasn’t any internet on the train, but don’t worry, we’ll get you up to speed with this post. A summary of yesterday’s and today’s events:

Yesterday we left Xuanhua early in the morning, and went to the Great Wall on our way back to Beijing. We climbed the Wall at Juyongguan Pass, a relatively challenging section that catches tourists off-guard with its twisting passages and steep inclines. The steps are uneven, and some are slanted downward, making the trip back down the Wall a rather terrifying experience. Most of our group made it all the way to the top, passing through all seven towers and sweating profusely. (Don’t worry, we all made sure to wear deodorant.) Interestingly, the Wall was probably one of the more diverse experiences we’ve had so far in China. The people climbing with us spoke several different languages: Spanish, Arabic, English, French, and Italian. We took pictures with a young couple from Israel, and talked to a woman from Australia.

After the Wall, we boarded back onto the bus and drove to Beijing for the day. We spent the afternoon walking around the Olympic Green. Unfortunately, the swimming at the Water Cube was closed, but half of our group toured the Bird’s Nest while the other half walked to the Olympic Park. Now we can say that we climbed the Great Wall and took a lap around the Bird’s Nest in the same day!

We ended our day trip to Beijing with an excursion to one of their supermarkets. We all stocked up on food for the train ride (Ken Kisch had the guts to buy the blueberry potato chips.) But perhaps the highlight of our evening was dinner at McDonald’s. Thankfully, the Chinese version of the fast food chain has improved dramatically, and the chicken nuggets and hamburgers were decent. Grease and fat have never tasted so good.

When we first boarded the overnight train to Xian we wondered how four of us could all fit in a room! The compartments were tidy and clean, but once we put all of our luggage inside, everything suddenly appeared to be much smaller. Regardless, we all had a fantastic time on the train. The parents spent some time together in their own room (bai jiu, anyone?) and the rest of us caught up on our journals or sat and talked.

Our first day in Xian was spent unpacking and resting in the morning. In the afternoon, we visited the Terracotta Warriors. There are three separate pits at the Terracotta Warriors museum, and we visited all of them, as well as the exhibit of the bronze chariots. It was also very cool to watch the 360° IMAX video about the origin and discovery of the Terracotta Warriors. Some of us were even able to meet one of the farmers who had discovered the Terracotta Warriors!

Thanks for reading! We’ll blog again tomorrow.

FCC-NW Teens

Snack Attack

After two hard days of work at the Xuanhua Orphanage, and ten days straight of only Chinese food, we’re all yearning for a double cheeseburger and some fries. This evening we went to the local supermarket and purchased all the American food we could find. (Well, maybe not all the American food…for some reason, nobody wanted the blueberry flavored potato chips.) Our hotel rooms are now littered with wrappers from Ritz crackers, Chips Ahoy, and Lays potato chips.

We can definitely afford the calories! All of us worked up a sweat in the 96° F weather, whether it was from weeding, painting more cribs, or playing with the kids. Today we cleared out the front area of the orphanage of bricks, wood, and other debris. We also weeded the orphanage’s garden and turned up the soil in the surrounding area. We finished sorting and folding the donated clothes, and even had time to pick some fruit from the orphanage’s orchard. Other members of our group continued to do physical therapy with some of the kids, making sure to write down instructions for caretakers to follow in the future.

Our day at the Xuanhua Orphanage ended in the late afternoon, and we were sad to leave our new friends behind. The director of the orphanage came out to the road to wave goodbye to us as we drove away in the bus.

Tonight is our last night in Xuanhua, and some of us spent the night on the town in downtown Xuanhua. We visited a bakery where a huge sign on the wall said, “Soft Tommy Loves Side You Fine Cake.” We’ve seen horrible Chinglish before, but this is probably as bad as it gets! We’ll spend the day in Beijing tomorrow (our rather ambitious plans are to climb the Great Wall and swim in the Water Cube) before catching the 9:30 PM train to Xian.

Wan an!

FCC-NW Teens

Headline: Zai Jian “Super” 8, Ni Hao 4-Star Xuanhua Hotel!

After almost a week at the Super 8 Hotel in Beijing, we arrived at the Xuanhua Hotel around 10:00 last night. All of us are really excited about this new hotel, especially the fact that the rooms have toilets that flush. There’s also a noticeable lack of ants. (Some of us even have a lovely view of the mountains.)

We spent the entire day today at the Xuanhua Orphanage, about a half-hour’s drive from our hotel. Reaching the orphanage was an adventure in itself—we had put our bus in reverse along the highway! Upon our arrival, we met several town officials who had come out to greet us. They all seemed really pleased that we were there, and one of them was videotaping the entire thing. We donated carbon monoxide detectors to the orphanage, as well as fans, lights, and a big teddy bear, among other things.

Half of our group spent the morning playing with the kids, and the other half sorted donated clothes and painted cribs. We switched activities after breaking for lunch.







Similar to the other foster homes that we’ve visited, the Xuanhua Orphanage is home to kids with special needs. Most of the children we saw today have cerebral palsy, but we saw a little boy with Down syndrome. One of the adults in our group is a physical therapist, and she helped a young girl through some exercises.

Xuanhua is very different from Beijing. Foreigners aren’t too much of a big deal in Beijing, and the local people gave us a few passing glances and looked away. In Xuanhua, however, people make no effort to hide their curiosity, often openly staring and pointing. It’s almost more surprising for the locals to see Chinese girls conversing fluently in English while walking alongside Caucasian adults. (We might as well have big neon signs over our heads that say “Look at us! We’re not from around here!”) Although it would be considered rude in the U.S., the staring and pointing doesn’t bother us—we just smile and nod our heads :)

Tomorrow is our last full day in Xuanhua, and we’re spending the whole day at the Xuanhua Orphanage. Thanks for reading! Wan an, goodnight!

FCC-NW Teens

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Unfortunately, it seems as if the stereotypical Seattle weather has caught up with us here in China. Today we got caught in a downpour, and it rained quite heavily yesterday afternoon as well. But like true Seattleites, we refused to let the inclement weather deter us!

Yesterday we spent the entire day at the Agape Family Home, definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. (On the way there, we saw a solar eclipse! Very cool.) Our activities ranged from playing with the kids to scrubbing the kitchen clean to setting up swing sets. After a delicious lunch of their homemade pizza, (plus carrot cake and brownies—both of which were gone almost instantly) we went back to work. Some of the children were supposed to be in school that afternoon, but their teachers allowed a brief interruption for us to teach the kids English. We spent a few hours spelling out words and phrases for them to write, and pretty soon the tables were turned and they were teaching us Chinese! We really liked this opportunity to get to know the kids and interact with them one-on-one, and they seemed pretty excited, too.

At the end of the day, the entire group met inside one of the houses to say goodbye. The children of the Agape Family Home sang us several songs and played the piano for us, and we played the piano for them (none of us had enough guts to sing!)

Today the girls had a traditional Chinese photo shoot in a studio, and in the evening the entire group watched the “Legend of Kung Fu” show. Tomorrow we leave for Xuanhua, a town a few hours outside of Beijing. Until then, zai jian!

FCC-NW Teens

Headline: We’re Hard at Work!

We’ve been in Beijing for four days, and visited three different foster homes so far. Yesterday we volunteered at New Day Creations, a foster home in Beijing for special needs kids, most of whom have some sort of heart disease. After touring the facilities, we played with the kids for a little while both in the foster home and outside on the playground.










Today we visited Agape Family Home on the outskirts of Beijing, a foster home specifically for children diagnosed with brittle bone disease. This foster home is unique in that the older children work in a bakery on the location, learning how to make baked goods to potentially sell in Beijing when they move out and live on their own. (We were lucky enough to try their chocolate chip cookies, which are delicious!) At the Agape Family Home, our group split into two, half of us playing with the kids, and the other half doing yard work and cleaning. In the afternoon, we went to the Langfang Children’s Village, also a foster home for kids with special needs. All of the children we’ve seen are adorable—they always seem to be smiling!












So what are we doing when we’re not volunteering? Yesterday we visited the Hutongs, traditional Chinese alleys where people still live. We rode on rickshaws and ate lunch at a local family’s home, one of the best meals on the trip so far. Today we had freetime in the evening, and most of us went shopping in the many stores surrounding our hotel. Some vendors sell their items on the street, and we all went crazy over the knock-offs. 30 yuan (about $4.50) for a Louis Vuitton clutch?! Who could say no to that?











Tomorrow, we return to the Agape Family Home, where we’ll spend a full day. We’re really excited to go back there and see all of the children again (and eat some cookies!)

FCC-NW Teens

Hooray! No one was quarantined!

After over fourteen exhausting hours of plane rides, (some of us had enough stamina to watch the same in-flight movie three times in a row,) we are finally in Beijing! Our flights were rather uneventful, but the unexpected happened at the Beijing airport—one of the girls tested positive for a high temperature, and she was taken aside by officials. With China’s strict quarantine policy on swine flu in mind, we all held our breath as they retested her. Luckily, she was allowed to proceed…(phew!)




The weather here is decent—very warm and humid, but bearable. Our guide, Li Bing, met us at the Beijing International Airport, and we arrived at our hotel around 3:00 in the afternoon. The hotel is in the center of a shopping district, and we were very eager to explore the nearby stores. After settling in and unpacking, the group went to dinner at a local restaurant and experienced eating authentic Chinese food.

Most of us haven’t slept at all in the last 24 hours, so we’re calling it a night at 6:00 AM PST. Tomorrow we meet with Dr. Jane Liedtke for a full day of orientation. We’ll be sure to keep you posted! :)

China is only a few weeks away!

We are so excited for our trip to China!
Only two more weeks until we leave!