A day in the life...

Here's a glance at my day...

6:00 am - Wake up, do a little reading and journaling in bed. I open a website for a Nashville radio station where I can listen online to music and news from home while I get dressed to greet the day. Stop to see if I have any new e-mails or if there's any breaking world news.

7:30 - Walk across the street to the Wyse's for breakfast. Pancakes with maple syrup and fried eggs! It's a Saturday, so the older girls are sleeping in. An unusually small number of people around the table. More pancakes for me.

8:00 - Load the van with three other adult volunteers. This morning we are going to visit the homes of three ayi's (Chinese women who work in our homes doing laundry, cooking, childcare, etc). We are taking each of them a gigantic sack of rice and a huge jug of oil. Their homes are nestled back in hutongs (old alleys) with little passage for our van. Some have only one room, some two. The building is a thin layer of brick, the inside stained black from their open fires. A pot of rice is boiling over the flame, and a thick blanket is all that blocks the wind from their doorway. Next we visit the home of a blind family - a set of parents and four children all without sight. When the Wyse's first met them four years ago, they were near starvation and had no heat. In the years since, they've helped the father find a job and have continued checking in with them.

Noon - We head back to the foster home and load everyone up. Today we've been invited to have lunch at a new restaurant in town. The place is called 'Hollywood's' and they advertise an American menu. That means they serve Chinese food with a side of french fries, and they decorate their walls with movie posters from 'The Notebook.' After carrying twenty wheelchairs up the stairway into the restaurant, I was ready for those french fries! We all had a wonderful time and were very thankful for the kind invitation and meal.

2:00 - We return to the foster home with happy tummies. A team from the States is in town and has planned to stop by and visit the orphanage for the afternoon. They've brought an XBox for the foster home, and everyone is thrilled to see the 'High School Musical' Karaoke game has been included. We spend the rest of the afternoon listening to the boys fighting over the microphone.

6:00 - Dinner back at the Wyse's house. Rice, eggs and tomato, bamboo shoots, and bing (a flat bread, like a thick tortilla). Play with Sophie, who at eleven months is the youngest foster child, and Lydia, who's two. As I leave their house to head back to my apartment, I can still hear Lydia yelling 'Goodbye, Nikowl' as I cross the street.

7:00 - Back at my place, I double check the following school day's work and make notes of which pages each student is working on.

8:30 - Time for a hot shower! After getting comfy in my Pjs, it's time to browse the day's internet happenings, write a few e-mails, and pull out a book.

10:00 - Lights out. Heading to Beijing early in the AM.