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