Dajia hao!

Finally an update in English again. I left the countryside for Houma last Thursday. The weekend (Friday till Monday morning) we spent in Xi'an, where we stayed in a very luxurious hotel :)

Xi'an is a really nice city: we visited the famous Terracotta Warriors (the burial monument for the first emperor that united China, a copy of a real army of about 6000 soldiers, including horses and carriages), the Big Goose pagoda, a fountain show (a bit like the one at Plaza Espanya in Barcelona), the old city with its Muslim quarter and the mosque in Chinese style and we spent time shopping, shopping, shopping and visiting Starbucks :)

Since Tuesday I am working in the orphanage. The orphanage is about a half an hour drive from the eye clinic and just outside Houma. The building has 2 floors and the childeren live downstairs. There are 3 bedrooms for the childeren. In the first one there sleep 7 childeren: 2 girls Xiao Ai (about 2 years old and both legs in plaster) and Xiang Mei (with downsyndroom)  and 5 boys Shuai Shuai, Liang Liang, Mingda, Heng Heng and Dan Dan. I don't know all the English names of their handicaps/diseases,sorry.  In the second room live 2 boys: Xin Xin (who normally is tied to the bed the whole day, very sad) and a blind boy Tian Zhao and 2 girls (Tian yi & Yuan Yuan) who are in a wheelchair. The last room is for the babies. 

We work in 2 shifts, one group in the morning from 6 o'clock till 13 o'clock and the second group from 12 o'clock till 20 0'clock. I work 3 times with each group in one week, Sturday is our day off :) Both groups have lunch together at the orphanage.

We help to take care of the children, feed them, wash them, help them dress and especially give them the attention they need and play with them and take them outside (to the courtyard in front of the building), also the childeren who normally stay inside the whole day. They are really sweet! Sometgimes itis also dirty work with the drool and pee. Every child has or a diper made of old clothes or a whole in his pants so it can go to the toilet without taking of its clothes.

Yesterday and today I had a morning shift, so I had to wake up really early at 5.30!! At the orphanage we first have to wash the childeren and help them with their breakfast (which they don't like too much and is sometimes quite difficult since they throw the food on the floor or spit it out or start crying and shouting), before we eat our own breakfast. Good thing that they serve coffee (instant one ofcourse) with our breakfast overthere, which is already special here in China. Now I am longing for a good long sleep at my day off tomorrow.

Yesterdag I gave (together with Marike) my first English class to the sisters and 1 father of the eyeclinic. They speak much better English then the ones at the countryside, so it was a lot easier. Which was good since I was so tired.

Today after work I was planning to go together with Leonie to a big supermarket but we passed by the zoo which was open, so we had a look inside. Not a western zoo, but it was quite nice, with a rose garden, a playground (we even took a ride on a rollercoaster for kids, very funny!! only us inside) and of course a few animals: monkeys, a tiger, a lioness, ostrich, deers, some camels and some birds in small cages. And then we did more sightseeing and discovered this internetcafe :) Normally they people of the morning shift can have dinner at the old orphanage which is around the corner of the eyeclinic, but tonight I won't go there. Maybe eat somewhere in the centre. Many opportunities here. Yes it feels good to be back in the city again, although I also liked the countryside very much!

I don't know yet what I will do tomorrow, but at least sleep longer then 5:30 and take it easy. Sunday is my birthday, but then I have to work, so tomorrow night we will already celebrate it a little.

I will try to put on some new pics soon, but my photoalbum is full, so I have to delete a few first.

Zaijian!

Chantal