in front of the very cool Hua Mei welcome banner:
In class, we started the morning by teaching City & Directions (e.g., the bank is two blocks north on main street and across the street from the post office) and sharing a formal goodbye in the classroom ~ it was sweet & tough. We gave each of the students a small picture of our 10
with Lily and Wilburn on the outside.
Lily & Wilburn continued as teachers in our classroom
after the Colorado team and Carey had left:
This is Class #10 (my 9am class which Ryan taught at 10.45):
And these are just wonderful pictures with our students:
When we arrived back at the hotel for our mid-day rest and lunch – there were spent fireworks at the door and happy birthday signs ~ a party of 80 to 100 people were in the restaurant with huge amounts of food and festivities… I couldn’t help but wonder who I shared a birthday with, which was fun :~)
The teams from Colorado, Canada, and Singapore are mingling more and more as the day goes on and our spirits have been refreshed and our delight in the worldwide church grows as we interact.
A great part of today was having Megan back to 100%,
A highlight of the day occurred in the afternoon when we had free time with the students… they made us all feel like rock stars with request after request for us to sign their Hua Mei t-shirts and as they showered small gifts and tokens of their appreciation upon us. These kids are so sweet and special and they were so drawn to our patience and kindness with them as we taught and our love and joy of them as we played.
Some of the girls invited me to their dorm rooms and it was great finding a quiet respite from the heat of Luxian and the un-cooled classrooms! On the way, we saw Melissa were her good buddy, Eileen, and they were sharing some special one-on-one time by the ponds ...
Their rooms with darker, quieter, cooler, and relaxing. 6 girls joined me for discussions on various girl and teenager issues that they wanted to discuss … thin as beautiful and how fat they were (they definitely were not!), their pressure to study and perform well, the differences between men and women’s positions in society, and the use of height as a criteria to evaluate university admission (taller people are given an advantage – how about that?) We also shared with me that they weren’t allowed to date until college graduation ~ I asked if that was because of focusing on studies and when their, “Yes ..” didn’t seem complete, I ventured a guess that it was do to concerns about them having sex too soon. They confirmed that and I told them that although we had been discussing differences between Chinese and American culture, that this issue was one in which parents in both great countries shared the same opinions! It was such a special afternoon together.
One of the students invited Ryan and I to go to town for dinner and by the time all was arranged, we were loaded into two taxis on our way out. The seven students and two of us went out for the classic Chinese dish, “Hot Pot” … a boiling soup to which was added various ingredients.
The six girls and Heaby sang a couple of songs as we dined, and a great time was had by all.
Friday Night Concert
Then we walked back to the school for the evening concert … I’ve got to write about Heaby as a Strong Tree and the dropped watermelons and the great adventure we all had…
Then will come the story about our hike up the local mountain to the
And I can't wait to get to the United States to love on my great guys and to add pictures to these stories. Thank you Dave for all that you are doing and what a great, great, great father and husband you are :~)
But for now, my half-mast eyes must take my body horizontal!
Views from the Hotel, Our Wonderful Waitresses,
the Daily Breakfast Buffet, Joyce & Jackie from the Toronto Team,
Hallway to the Denver Rooms, Our Own Praying Mantis,
Our Closet (also known as a coat rack :~)
Our corrian bathroom counter and related plumbing!
Love, Sherrie 
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