It's crazy how I can wake up before my alarm clock, yet I cannot roll out of bed to that sound to save my life at home. It makes it helpful though so I know I'm wide awake for the busy days we have at the orphanage. I was super excited because I was working with the class I got to work with on the first day - the class that my friend Shen Jun Peng and his foster sister Shen Jun Xue are in.
It is so special to be able to connect with a kid and know that he is just as excited to see you as you are to see him. It's going to be really hard to leave him since I've already connected so much and it's only been our second day together, but that just makes every second even more special.
Today we made hand dragons, and he let me help him trace and cut out his hands and color the dragon's wings. I was watching this other little girl, Shen Junbing, trace her hands and I thought it was the most beautiful thing ever. One of her fingers was completely bent horizontally at the first knuckle, but she didn't let it affect her at all. It's sad because it doesn't affect her at all except her imperfection, yet she's still in the orphanage because of it. It also blows my mind that all those kids in the class haven't been adopted yet since they're only five and you can already tell how smart they are. Everything they touch, they make sure it is perfect. Like coloring in between the lines and doing their part to make sure the room stays clean and being talkative and able to share everything they have with others.
On top of that, they also pick up English very well; by the end of our two hours, Shen Jun Peng learned my name and was able to tell me what it was after I pointed to him and told him is. When we left, I got so many kisses and hugs from him and we blew kisses at each other until we weren't able to see each other anymore. It's truly amazing to love someone so much after only four hours together.
After we said goodbye to the kids, all of the people on the trip had a sponge race and the losing team got three buckets of water poured on them. Amy, our director, ended up getting them all poured on her though since there wasn't a definite winner. Then we headed off to lunch; we ate some beans, cucumber and chives, rolls, and rice. Once again the rice was the only "great" tasting thing, but we were all prepared with a lot of snacks to fill us up.
After lunch was over, we went to hang out with the older kids. We made tissue paper flowers with them and while mine were not the best, there were some really pretty flowers made by the kids. After we used all of the tissue paper, we went outside to have a sponge race with the kids. It's amazing to see how fast and energetic the kids are and how much they loved hanging out with us. After the race was over we played towel volleyball and then had free time.
When it was time to go, I naturally began watching for Shen Jun Peng to come out of his building and when I saw him, he was looking around on the sidewalk. I called his name and he ran into my arms again and gave me a kiss. It never gets old to see his ear to ear smile. I asked him what my name was and after a couple seconds of thought, he said Jennifer! It didn't surprise me that he remembered it, but it did surprise me that he was able to say it without hearing it first. I thought it was the coolest thing that he knows me by name and looks for me whenever he can. After we said goodbye, he and his sister waved and blew kisses until they were in the building.
Once we got back to the hotel Jannelle, one of the directors for the trip, came to my room to give me a piece of paper with one of the orphanage employees name and QQ number, which is like the Chinese Facebook. I had talked to her yesterday while I was working with the babies and Jannelle told me she kept asking for me so she could keep in touch with me and tell me how the babies are. I think that's super neat that I not only made an impact on the kids and she saw a connection, but I also had an effect on her. I'm so happy that there is a way we can communicate and I will be able to keep up with the kids. I hope she gives good news soon of them being adopted though.
After I finished talking to Jannelle about that, Alexis, Grace, and I went street shopping for some candy and to look for Pocki. We ended up finding Pocki in one of the stores and so we each bought two different flavors of it and then we bought our candy snacks from the same nice guy we did last time. He was really excited to see us again. After we looked at all of the vendors, we turned around to head back to the hotel. On our way back we found a dumpling stand with the amazing dumplings everyone has been talking about. We were a little hesitant about buying them at first but when we tried one, we ended up turning around to buy another box of them. Once we got back to the hotel, we went to the abandoned mall behind it. I bought two skirts and they bought a couple of rings. Then we were drawn into the music store since we wanted to listen to the guy play the drums. When we walked in we saw some ukuleles and since the guy majored in English, he was able to teach me how to play some. He attempted to teach me but gave up and told me I lacked rhythm. Grace ended up buying one for her more talented than me sister though.
After that we decided to go back to the hotel and relax. A couple of us ended up hanging out in Art and Steven's room; it was pretty interesting watching Grace try to teach Art the choreography she made up for my cheerleader of the year routine. I'm really excited to see how it turns out but I'm sure Art does it ten times better than me. All together, it was a great day I wish it didn't go so fast because I don't think I'm ready to say goodbye to the kids. I'm incredibly blessed to have had this opportunity to be here though!
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