It’s Oh Happy Day Day!
And, yeah. It’s China. Surprise!…as in expect the unexpected…pretty much every time. And, Oh Happy Day Day here today was no different.
A tour in the morning. Yup, we expected that. Got to see the foster apartments. Got to see the music room. Got to see the computer lab with maybe 20 computers that all had been donated. Got to see the infirmary. Got to see rehab rooms. And, got to see the baby rooms…and the surprises began.
They used to be organized by age into four neat and tidy rooms. But, nope. They seem to have home bases by age but the kids are moving around from room to room constantly. And, the kindergarten class which used to be where all the kids aged 4-8 spent their day no longer exists. So, kids are mixed into the baby rooms and in other places…not totally sure where. Because, yeah, it’s China and things change fast and for unexplained reasons. I’m sure there are reasons, but none that I was told despite my asking in about 5 different ways.
We rolled with the punches, going into different rooms of children, trying to be flexible and move around as groups of children moved. And, then we came back from our lunch break.
It was time for the art class. I was told we’d have about 25 kids for an hour. Perfect. We had supplies for 25 children with a few extra just in case some ayis wanted to join us (or our translator). When we walked into the room, those 25 kids were actually 45 kids and after a hot mess of an hour, we were told that they wanted us to teach them for three hours.
It was wild and chaotic. Most of them had a ball. We somehow managed to stretch out those paper rolls that I had calculated for 25 kids to fit all 45 like loaves and fishes. And, we earned a good night’s sleep.
Last night, I prepped the team with a smile: I’ve done so much to help you know what to expect but now I’m just going to let you experience it and be open to whatever tomorrow brings. What I didn’t know was that I needed those words myself.
So, yeah, the class needs to be 25 kids, Miss Director. Yeah, it does, she noticed that herself. Tomorrow. Maybe. We’ll see. Because, I’m just going to roll with it. We all are.
