Becoming part of this world

I have been here at Maria's a little while now and am starting to find my place here. I am easing into life here, something I have come to realize is a luxury not frequently offered with this work. I start my mornings with rounds to check charts and see if there are any troubles with any of the children and end the day the same way. I started out just going with Dr. Steve and seeing them all, and then did pre rounding with some of the nurses. Next I pre rounded alone and started filling meds. Now I do my own rounds on one floor and do the meds or basic procedures needed for it. I have plenty of help since I still can only speak and understand select words and phrases of Chinese. There is a phone the nannies, or ayees, can call with problems. One of the other nurses is manning that for now. I still don't know how a lot of the medical issues are dealt with here, but I am slowly learning. My days start and end with that and are filled with any admissions or problems that occur through out. Otherwise my days are fairly free. I have been told that one of the struggles of living here is the fact that your work is your home, and you also have to find ways of filling the time. I am doing fairly well with it all, though some days are longer.

When I finish early in the mornings I get to Skype and then join my roommate with some of the older little ones in preschool. It is adorable to see the little ones and a great chance to get to know some of them better. When I get there it's usually in time to help with crafts and to help corral the kids when they get crazy at play time. The older ones speak a mixture of Chinese and English so it makes communication interesting. Each has their own personality and I love trying to get to know them. I spend pretty much the entire time laughing. 

After that I spend the rest of the day visiting with Harvey, playing with children, reading, occasionally exercising, and TONS of studying. I have Chinese lessons twice a week and a huge stack of flash cards I carry with me pretty much everywhere. One boy pulled them out of my pocket earlier today and tried to eat them. Dinner wasn't coming fast enough and he thought he could put them to much better use. I often finish off the night after rounds with coffee on the roof or a feel good movie with Kelsie and Mariah. 

 The other nurses and long term volunteers are so wonderful. Mariah is a sweetheart and is always available to help anyone with anything and is always welcoming to everyone. She is mom to more than just the children in this building. She has been a Godsend to everyone here. I could learn so much from her, and not just professionally. She is an extremely strong and spiritual woman with so much more wisdom than most people gain in a life time. Then there is Kelsi, my roommate. She is an intern here this summer and I'll have her to keep me company until October. It is wonderful having someone my own age around. She is absolutely a ton of fun, so bright spirited and thoughtful. I couldn't have been more blessed. I already know I am going to miss her like crazy when she has to go. Right now we get to go exploring some and she saves me when my lack of Chinese is especially difficult. She has currently gotten me motivated to try insanity with her. Yesterday was day 1. I have yet to decide if I will love her or hate her for this. (Love you Kelsi!). Maybe I'll end up super ripped and it will be amazing :P The other nurses are from the Philippines and extreme sweet and silly. I love hearing them giggling and speaking tigali in the kitchen. Lilly, Crystal, and Heidi have been so much help trying to learn how things are done here! They are all so patient and understanding. I don't know what I would do with out them. Here are a couple of treasures I discovered on my iPad when I left it alone with them :P 

Lily, Kelsi, Heidi, and Dr. Steve's youngest son Brucey

Heidi had to help Brucey with this one since he couldn't figure it out alone

I want to talk about where we are located for a bit. It is actually really interesting to me. We are on government property so we are directly behind the state run orphanage 

Beside the mental institution on one side

And on the other is the prison

Just because I thought it was cool, here is a picture where you can see some of the pigs and crops that surround the prison and provide for their kitchens

It is interesting because a lot of the children from the orphanage will end up in either of the two other places when they age out at 14 if they have no where else to go.

These were taken from the roof so here I'll just show a couple more pictures of my overhead view of my little corner of China

This one is a rare treasure in china, a sunset. Apparently you can only ever see them on the rare occasions that the rain has settled the smog enough to let the light shine through. Everyone tries to make it to the roof to see.

Finally, sometimes I go and play with the older ones on the downstairs floor. They are used to teams coming to visit and taking pictures of them, so they always ask for pictures when I come to visit. Taking pictures seems to be very big here in china. I see people taking pictures of everything with their phones, often of the westerners they see. Caucasians are very exciting here! Anyways, the children, very true to form, love it, so sometimes I bring my iPad down and let them play. I am going to share some of those pictures now because they just make me laugh. The ayees are just as funny and always gather round when ever I bring it out and like to be in the pictures. Sometimes they'll see the camera or iPad and make you wait so they can change the child into a cuter outfit or wash their face. It is adorable! Here you are, a happy note to end this blog.

The ayees working at the time with the interested children

She was so cute! All the other children wanted to play with the iPad, but she only cared about the empty case.

They tend to like to all pile on top of me to show their love <3

I had help taking this picture. The little one had a little trouble figuring out how to aim the camera, but I thought it made for an adorable shot even if she cut off our heads.

I hope you enjoyed!