www.QuoVadam.com

Sometimes its hard to find a title to put to something that covers so many different areas. Its also hard to find a title for something when what youre writing about covers a months worth of happenings. First, an apology. Im sorry for not updating sooner, but its been busy here and its soon going to get busier. Second, another apology. I apologize for not getting pictures up sooner. I am working on them right now, but unfortunately I have to stop for a few days because I’ve run into a snag in the code in the picture page. It seems as if nothing I do to the page makes it work, and after spending much time on it and getting frustrated, I began saying some very unpleasant things to the computer and it was at that point I realized that I needed to give it a rest for a few days and come back later. Im so pressed for time and It seems like the only time I ever have to get things done, nothing seems to want to work properly. So, rather than allow myself to get worked up and put in a mood that is going to affect the people around me, I’ve decided to postpone the picture page for now. But, I promise you, I will figure this out and get some pictures posted soon. I just dont want my website or my computer to interfere with my work.

Anyhow, speaking of work, things here are going great. Its hard for me to talk about things because of a lack of the picture page. There are names of people and such that are nothing but names until I pictures up. None the less, Ive become quite fond of this place. I can honestly say it feels like a second home here. Everyone here is so welcoming. Funny, for the first time in a long time, I really dont know how to put it into words. I find myself on a daily basis feeling like I just dont have enough time. I want to spend more time with the SOFL students (Jack, Jackson, CW, Karen, Mary, Lucy, Lilly, and Jill). Im slowly learning their Chinese names, but I’ve yet to memorize them.

Last week was Gift of Joy May Day holiday. China is currently having May Day holiday but we had ours last week for logistical reasons. Lilly, Karen, Uncle Joe, and I went to see some of the sights around the city. On Monday we went to riverside. It’s a very nice park that stretches for about five miles down the Yangtze River bank. Then on tuesday we went to a big park in the center of the city. It was like a small amusement park with a park built around it. Things are interesting here, thats for sure. I often laugh at some of the things I see just because you would NEVER see them in America. Theres always the obvious ones, but then theres the ones that just dont make any sense at all. But, hey, I’m not Chinese, so I guess I wouldn’t understand. Today was really nice, even though its been raining all day. Uncle Joe and I had originally planned to take the girls (4 of the orphans that live here, their picture will be up soon) to the park, but instead we went to a nearby mall that had a small amusment park and game area. We rode the train, knocked around in the bumper cars for a bit. It didnt seem like we did much, but the girls seemed to love it. Their English is only a little bit better than my Chinese, so we tend to communicate in sporadic fits, haha.

My Chinese is getting better every day. I am actually able to discern word breaks and pick up on small bits and pieces (given that they are speaking slowly). I can order food and ask for things at the store too. I even pick up on tiny bits of movies that I’ve watched with the students. The language is actually much easier than I imagined. Tell you the truth, I can see where it is actually much easier than English, but thats only because I know English well enough to know that we speak one messed up language. You never really realize just how messed up it is until you begin to teach it. Then its like, “Whoa, what were those idiots who developed our grammar thinking.”

The past month has been rather interesting. We’ve seen two different teams leave (they were both here for approx. 2 months) and some other teams come and go. We had people from Australia, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. Two weeks ago, about 15 of our students and staff were bathed because, well, they were dirty, and thats what you do when youre dirty and you wanna be clean, you get bathed, but the man who bathed them wasnt named John. Comprende? JR left 2 weeks ago and wont return until the end of next week. So, you know what that means? I was hosting English House every night for the past 2 weeks. It wasnt near as bad as I had expected. Uncle Joe was there to help facilitate, but he pretty much left me to my own devices, and things went pretty well, given the occasional incompatibility issues between my laptop and the newest version of PowerPoint. The English House members, bless their souls, are so forgiving, and seemed to enjoy themselves, even when there were annoying breaks in the program.

There are also some very interesting developments going on with the English House program. I dont want to say who, and I dont want to say its definite, because im not sure. But there is the possibility that by the end of this month, we will be partnering with the largest language training school in China. They will use their marketing power to market English House on a larger scale which means that we will instantly go from one small room in one huge city, to many rooms in at least 15 different cities in China. This is the exact vision that JR had for English House when it was started. That will open the door to possible relationship building all over China. Also, with “teams” that expect no pay at all committed to coming from different locations all over the globe, that will make the company even more glad to help promote English House. This company has even talked about using their marketing power to bring in support for children, and then funnelling the money through Gift of Joy, because they know that it is a legitimate organization that helps children and they know where the money will go. This is quite an amazing opportunity and I want to ask you all to please pray that His will is be done. We are also looking at purchasing a new housing center to move into, which I noted in a the previous update. This is a VERY BIG, VERY SOLID investment opportunity, and knowing what I now know about the real estate market here, I would almost plead anyone who is considering investing in anything right now to please research and consider this as an option.

I wish I were able to write more, but I just seem to be short on the right words for things. However, I have managed, once again, to crank out a rather elongated short story. Such is the case when I begin typing. Mom, thank you for passing on to me your amazing ability to go into way too much detail about anything and everything and sometimes even nothing. Once again, I apologize for the wait on the pictures, they’ll be comin’ round the mountain when they come. Please pray for me. I’ve been getting irritable lately, and I’m sure its a combination of a little bit of culture shock setting in along with the fact that I feel like I just dont have enough time to do all the things I need to get done. Its not bad, I just dont want it to get worse. Anyhow. Love you all. Take care. God Bless.