Saying Goodbye is hard

The day before yesterday, I left Christian Mountain Children's home. It was sad to say goodbye. I love the kids there. The night before I left they had a goodbye party for me. Each house sang a song or read me a letter they had written. It was so sweet. A new group of volunteers from a university in Taipei had just arrived the night before, so fortunatley one of them translated some of what the kids said to me, and also translated what I said to the kids.

Here are some pics. Can you tell why I'll miss them?


The orphanage had hundreds of mangos which some adults were packing. Two of the little girls pulled me over to watch. I finally asked to help, and the girls joined in. If assembly lines hadn't already been invented, Sunny would invent them. She started handing me wrappers and mangos, then I would put the wrapper on the mango and place it with the finished ones as she handed me the new ones. This is Lisa and Suzy helping out.


I was walking back to "my" girl's house (I spent 2 nights sleeping there) when I peeked in the window at the other girls dorm. All the choir members got giant new suitcases for their upcoming tour and the girls realized they were big enough to fit a person in. I went in to join the fun. We had a fun photo shoot and a lot of giggles.


When I got to "my" dorm, the girls there had found another use for the suitcases. They had come wrapped in large plastic bags, which they had sack races in, then they started sitting in the bags. I was worried they were going to suffocate themselves, until I noticed they had already managed to put holes in all the bags. Good thing since I had no idea how to say "putting bags over your heads is not safe" in Mandarin. :)


There's a rope bridge that leads from the orphanage, across the river to the preschool. Years ago it was the only bridge they had. Now they also have a beautiful red bridge that cars can cross on. I went down with some children and house mothers to the park area near the bridge and the kids had a lot of fun climbing on the suspension wires.


A group of us went to the hotsprings, where we alternated between playing in the cold water, relaxing in the warm water, singing karoke, and eating sausages on sticks and chicken feet. I wasn't brave enough for chicken feet or karaoke.


I brought play-doh to play with with the kids, and I was surprised when the big boys noticed me walking by with it and wanted to play. Josh really enjoyed it.