Lao Zi Hill

We stayed at the orphanage for six days, and one day after the rain (it rains almost everyday) we took the kids out for a hike to Lao Zi Hill. This is the second time I’ve been to the orphanage, but I did not even know that there is such a beautiful hill in town in 2008! We took the three-wheeler to the hill and the kids were so excited that we did not know whom we should talk to. We climbed two hills, one of which is scrambling technically.

Rongshui County is such a beautiful place that I wanted to retire here and work for the orphanage one day. There is no shortage of water at all here, as it probably rains (or drizzling) every day. The rice patches and rivers are among the hills all over the places. It surely looks like the Garden of Eden. Guangxi probably is the poorest province in China, it must be its extra-ordinary beautiful landscape and weather that attracts its hard working people, I guess.

NTCCC and Painting

We took a 5-hour train from Guilin to Neil Taylor Christian Care Center (NTCCC) at Rongshui County on March 30th, 2010, which has thirteen ethnic groups. Miao is the major one. We spent three days painting the orphanage building (light purple). Thanks to the Lord that it was not raining too hard, even thought it was the rain season in the area. Well we only painted 20% of the building in the end, but our muscles hurt a lot. We also did some dirt digging for the future veggie garden as well, and cleaned up the old classrooms. The director might have his own idea on how to utilize the space. Each day we can not wait to play with the kids during the lunch time and night. At night, we played with the kids (crafts, mimes, singing, rope jumping, and etc.) at the center and had two fantastic fire works events. Our two sponsored girls are getting much taller than two years ago. I bought a 2010 Vancouver Olympic T-shirt for each one of them, but I did not make it a big deal. When we got back to the hotel, the five teenagers on the team swept almost all the food on the table we ordered, as they’ve worked so hard. The air was filled with fresh mountain dew, the food is from the farmer’s gardens, and the street was filled with light noises from the shops. Everything is quiet and peaceful with light rain. Life goes on here.

Roof View from the orphanage

Old Classroom