China Post 2

Monday 1st January
We met together as a team for devotions at 8am as normal. It's great to hear each other's stories of why and how they came to be on this mission trip. Many of us were moved by the poor state of the accommodation for the boarding students at the school. They sleep 28 to a room no larger than our loungeroom without heating and with glass missing from some windows. The children have to wash their own clothes in cold water and eat in their classrooms because they do not have a dining room large enough. Despite these poor living conditions the children are bright and many have hopes and dreams for the future. Many recognise the value of having good English so they are gratefulto have us here to help them with their pronounciation in particular. The children do not have much sporting equipment so some of the team bought basketballs, soccer balls and badminton sets for them to use. Today was our third full day of teaching at the school and we are starting to build good relationships with the children in our small groups. We have 6-8 teachers in team with 40-50 students in each class. So each teacher has 5-7 children in their small group. Some of the children are starting to ask questions about faith and we have had opportunities to talk about the real meaning of Christmas.
We have lunch back at the hotel most days and the children are doing very well with trying new and unfamiliar foods. Yesterday we had lunch at the school. We cooked spaghetti for the children in our classes - ingredients brought all the way from Australia. Today we made no-bake chocolate and oatmeal cookies with the children in their classrooms.
We have been shopping to a large supermarket not far from the hotel. It's like a super Kmart and we have been able to purchase some familiar tastes like chocolate, soft drink and chips for snacks. Thankfully the hotel has bread available for breakfast so the children are happy with toast. I'm not sure how they would cope with rice,noodles or dumplings for breakfast for 2 weeks.
We're doing a concert for the school children tomorrow morning so I hope to have a report for you on that tomorrow.