Wallace's Wonderful Adventure: Nursing Home Visit

Cameron's class went on a field trip to an area nursing home. They were asked to donate shampoo, soap, socks, etc. that the residents could use. Cameron took in a ton of tooth brushes and tooth paste along with some bottles of shampoo. The kids were also asked to bring fruit and snacks to share with the residents while they were there.

I dropped Cameron off at school and went to the fruit/veggie market. I bought bananas, grapes, pineapple, and apples. I took them home, cleaned them all, and cut them up to put on a tray. It looked delicious.

Yummy.

At 9:15 I headed over to school with Mr. Xue. We sat in the parking lot until the kids finally came out at 9:35. They loaded up the bus and headed out. We drove for over 30 minutes before arriving. We drove through the most horrible part of China I have seen. There were mounds of garbage everywhere and torn down buildings all around. I was getting very nervous about what the nursing home was going to be like if this is where it was. Sure enough, we pulled over in front of a gated building. Mr. Xue looked at me like "really? This is where you are going?"

Loading up the bus.

I jumped out of the van and met up with all the kids. Mr. Singer said "wow, what a difference a year makes. It looks like the whole village has been destroyed". We were greeted by very nice ladies all dressed in pink. They seemed very happy to see everyone. We walked inside. There was no smell so that was a good sign. We walked down a little walk way and I forgot to duck. I whacked the top of my head on the doorway. It hurt but I was ok. The camera man came over and was pointing to the top of his head. I told him I was ok. No problem (in Chinese). A very happy, nice Chinese man started saying "hello" very loud. He then kept telling me to sit. He finally sat a chair right behind me and said "sit". Ok. I sat. I had no intentions of sitting but he obviously wanted me to sit. He was happy that I did so it was ok.

This is the nursing home.

Mr. Singer gave a short talk.

The kids got up on stage and sang 4 or 5 songs. As the kids sang the elders clapped along. It was pretty cute. They seemed very happy to have the kids visit. There was a room with a lady in it right next to where Cameron was standing on stage. She opened the window and reached out to touch Cameron's face. Once the song was over she was trying to touch all the kids. After the singing one little girl, Kelly, played her instrument. I had no clue what it was but it was cool and she did great. In front of the stage was a table where all the kids put their donations for the home. One of the nurses brought my fruit tray up there and took the aluminum foil off. When her and the camera man saw it they both gasped and made the sound of "ahhhh". That made me feel good. They seemed happy with the tray. The camera man even took a picture of it. Funny.

The kids are on stage and ready to sing.

You can just see the top of the ladies head in the window.

Mr. Singer played the guitar.

The elders clapping along.

Kelly playing her instrument.

The donations the kids brought.

The camera man right after he took a picture of the fruit.

After the kids were done they were able to mingle with the elders. They passed out the fruit and snacks that they brought. Cameron grabbed the big tray and walked around to each person letting them take fruit. Next thing I knew one of the nurse ladies in pink took Cameron and Jin Liang upstairs. I immediately followed. She took them into each room. They left fruit for the people who lived in that room. Some rooms had people napping, others had people visiting with family members, and one room had 6 ladies "gambling" as Cameron called it. He thought that was really funny. When I tried to take a picture they wrapped the game in a blanket and put it all away. We don't know if the nurse said something to them or what.

Cameron starting to pass out his fruit.

The elders loved it.

This lady smiled when they walked in. The nurse was trying to get
her to say thank you. She never did speak.

The hallway.

One of the small rooms.

This was one of the big rooms.

Back down to the main floor. Everyone was getting ready to leave. One of the nurse ladies grabbed Me, Mr. Singer, and Cameron. She wanted her picture taken with us. After the picture the camera man told the nurse that I hit my head. She made me bend down and she looked through my hair. I kept telling them I was ok. The nurse then asked our aide if I needed ointment for my head. Umm, nope. I'm good. I was creeped out enough she was even touching me. They were just trying to be nice.

This is the lady trying to touch all the kids.

We loaded the bus up and headed back. I told Mr. Xue we were going back to TEDA and he didn't have to wait for the bus. He took off. Now, studly thinks he knows everything and he decided to go a different way home. It turned out to be not such a good idea. We were stopped in a long line of traffic. Mr. Xue decided to drive around it. After passing at least 30 trucks and cars we found out we were stopped because of a train. The train stopped, backed up a little, then went forward again. After about 5 minutes we were moving again. About 3 minutes later we were stopped again. Very slow moving traffic. Big trucks everywhere. We finally got to a point where we weren't moving at all. After about 2 minutes Mr. Xue slammed the van in park, unbuckled, and jumped out. He started walking but then I couldn't see him because of the truck in front of us. Next thing I know he is standing next to the truck in front of us directing two other trucks with some lady. He made a path big enough for all of us to get through. He jumped back in the van, huffed and puffed, and then drove on. We were free and clear after that.

First time ever being stopped by a train in Asia.

This area we drove home in was almost as bad as the road to the nursing home. All the shacks and stores were cluttered and full of trash. We passed 3 different bathrooms which I am assuming are community bathrooms. It didn't look like any of these places had private bathrooms in them. All I could think of was "I wonder how bad those smell?" 50 minutes later I was finally home.