Hello family and friends!

Between Camps 3 and 4, we celebrated two birthdays!  Shawn, one of the local CSV workers, had a birthday on July 22 and Lydia, one of our U.S. counselors had her 20th birthday on July 28th.  We got a cake and it even had a big lotus flower candle that is common here.  It is a closed plastic flower and when you light it, there is a fountain of flames upward.  Those flames light a candle on each petal and the petals of the flower open and it plays “Happy Birthday”…. and keeps playing it, and playing it, and playing it, until you pull it apart and disconnect the wires!  We enjoyed celebrating with Lydia and Shawn!

I don’t know how it happened, but once again we are already ending Day 4 of camp.  The time is flying by!  Our Camp 4 campers will leave tomorrow. 

This camp we have Bo Ai high school graduates with the exception of two high school students and two high school students.  This is the smallest group of campers we have had so far.  We were planning to have 41 campers this week but again some of them were unable to come.  Some of them had to get jobs or prepare for college.  We even had four students who had to leave within the first few days of camp because of situations back at home or school.  We had 29 students at the start of camp but will finish the camp with 25 students.  It’s a small group but they are another great group of kids!

Yesterday we went on the nature hike again.  Each week we have taken some time to pick up garbage along the trail and at the pond.  After four hikes through there, the area is looking pretty good and free of garbage!  It is such a beautiful place and it has been a meaningful time for the students to learn to care for the environment.

                                   
                                                                                                     A Cleaner Planet!

The counselors and campers have had some good discussions in their groups this week about hopes and dreams for the future.  It can be a tough time for some of the students not knowing what is next.  Some of them wonder if they scored high enough to be able to go to college, or if they will find a job, or if they will need to study another year to take the exam again.  Being able to discuss all of this with their small groups has been good for them.  The Chinese counselors have been able to relate to the students about their time after high school.  Some of them had to study another year after high school before taking the exam again.  It is very different here and we as Americans don’t really understand what some of them go through.  We are so glad that the Chinese counselors can relate to them and help us try to understand.

Tonight we had a graduation celebration with the students.  We even got a big “Happy Graduation” cake!  We were excited to recognize their accomplishment and celebrate with them.

After the campers leave, we will have some time to clean, pack-up and debrief.  It will be a good time  to wrap up our time here at camp.  It is going to be difficult to say goodbye to the Chinese counselors and staff.  We have become so close and experienced so much together.  We are so thankful for all of the relationships formed and for the friends we now have in China.

We leave Xinyang on the evening of August 2nd on an overnight train to Shanghai.  We will have the day of the 3rd in Shanghai to hopefully do a little shopping for last minute gifts and have our last adventures in China.  We will spend that night in a hotel near the airport, and will fly out on the morning of August 4th.  We fly from Shanghai to Tokyo, and then from Tokyo to Minneapolis.  We get into Minneapolis in the afternoon of August 4th and some of us will head out to Camp Wapo in Amery, WI for a closing time together.  We will join the summer staff for their weekly closing on Friday and be able to share with them a little bit about our time in China.  It will be good to be back together with that community.

Please be thinking of us as we begin our goodbyes: First, goodbyes to campers, then to the Chinese counselors and staff, and then to this wonderful country of China that we have called home for the last 7 weeks. 

We hope that all is well with you.  Know that we continue to keep you in our thoughts.

Love,

The China Team