Saturday....Day Seven.........

My how time flies! Yesterday was rather low key.
It was another fairly nice day for the weather.
The girls helped out at preschool and then did their rounds to each of the rooms......Bunny, Pooh, Nemo.
Grace is making a point of trying to learn some of the children's names each day.

Lunch is a rather early 11 am and then it is nap time from 12ish to 2ish. During this time we make ourselves scarce and
head back to the apartment to do homework or reading. Beth is doing very well and fulfilling all the assignments given her.
She has made a schedule and is following it. Grace is working on her karate essay and hopes to finish that before we come home so she can concentrate on her missed homework, which she is a little worried about.

In the afternoon is more playing and I have somehow been landed with the scrap booking. My girls just aren't that into it!!!
Only takes a short time. Today I worked on Justin's. He is off having surgery in Singapore and will return sometime this month, I think. He is to be adopted very soon and his parents are hoping for June or so. A very sweet little guy and everyone here seems to have something nice to say about his personality and his ready smile. They tell me his parents will be blessed to have such a great little guy!

Later on I sent the girls out on the bikes provided to get some sun and some exercise. They biked to the local village just next door. We are right in the middle of a very large farming community and I expect that is how the folks make their living. Of course, the girls fit right in until someone talks to them........then the jig is up. I expect they know they aren't from around here by their demeanour and clothes. Several of the children from Hope have foster families they live with here and one or two of them even come to our preschool, or live with the nannies that work at the home.

Beth noticed that all the kids outside playing were boys and we had a bit of a dialogue about that and the poverty. It is possible or even probable that this kind of village is similar to one that many of the orphans originate from.

It is hard to remember that the vast majority of China's people are peasants who do live like this. Every time I have come to China it is changed. Many more cars and less bicycles. Brand new and very modern highways. The people are better dressed and the standard of cleanliness improved. Even the nannies working here have cell phones. The men dressed like warriors at the Great Wall were able to cash my 100 yuan note ($14) with a wad of bills several inches thick. Last year I couldn't get
blogger on the computer and wifi was rare. This year you can get youtube, facebook and pretty much nothing is blocked.
I expect some of this is because we are in a very Western area and in the capital of all China with 14 million residents.

It is intriguing to say the least. I would love to stay a while longer and really get to know it. My hope is that this visit and Isabel's last year will plant the seed for more exploration in the future. They at least have some contacts now and a place to start.

We will take some pictures and post them later today.