Park and Prizes

I'm not sure, but I think today is Thursday! We spent the morning at the People's Park riding carnival type rides with the children. It was fun seeing the smiles on their faces (unless they had been spinning too much), and we were excited to see that they had brought one child in a wheelchair that we requested, but disappointing to see that not all of children who should be there got to come. Next was lunch with the kids at KFC...boy, some of those little ones sure can put down the french fries, and I think some of them just learned the joys of ketchup!

The afternoon was spent having the ceremony to award the nursing contest prizes. It was decided to hold it at the nursing school instead of the orphanage so it could draw the attention of more nursing students. The ceremony was much more formal and organized than we anticipated. It was attended by many nursing students, officials, and media. It was funny because the front row was reserved with name tags in Chinese, except one English one marked "Toni" that I easily recognized:) None of it was interpreted for us, so we clapped when they did when each speaker spoke. Then it was my turn, and that was interpreted by Ying. I just told him that if I said anything offensive, please change what I said. It must have went okay, because at dinner the director asked what I did for a career, and responded that he could tell I was a teacher because I was simple and precise with what I stated. I think that was a compliment. Anyhow, we each left with a volunteer certificate (Mark and Angela, I have one for each of you), and it was fun to award the prizes to the top volunteers. However, between being very hot inside and a bit nervous, I was eager to get it over with. Following the ceremony we, our group and the nursing students, headed over to the orphanage to hand out with the kids some more. Despite all that has been accomplished, it felt good to get back to the focus of why we are here.

On a side note, please keep Josh in your thoughts. He has some teeth that are going to be pulled when we return to the states, and they are causing him quite a bit of pain right now, with some possible infection. Thanks!