Our time in China is quickly coming to an end. We will be moving back to the US at the end of June. I have had several impressions to conclude our time here with a service project. I have learned that the local children's hospital is building a library and is in need of books. My original plan was to involve many Chinese people in this project so they could feel the joy of service. However as I have experienced over and over again, service is a very difficult concept for the Chinese people. Their culture requires them to keep tabs of who they owe and who owes them. They will not give if they don't see a direct benefit for themselves. In addition to this, they lack trust because scams are rampant. Thus, my requests for them to help with my project haven't gone anywhere. I don't blame them and I feel deeply for them. So my goals for the project have changed. While Tom and I can provide many books to the library because books are ...
It's been a very quiet year on my blog—not intentionally, but things are busy, and I got out of habit. So here is a very quick highlight list of our comings and goings for 2024. January highlight: strawberry picking. The strawberries are SO amazing here! Tom won some kind of award (we still have no idea what it was for) from the city government. We were informed about it 2 days before, and Tom had a board meeting that he couldn't miss. So the government allowed me to go receive it for him. He received a trophy and a large sum of money. Tom's business trip to Japan, the girls and I tagged along. One of the many amazing foods in Japan is kakigori. Shaved ice. To die for. I'd go back just for that and I'm not usually one to prefer sweets over other foods. That says something.... Chinese New Year crowds. We stayed home to avoid them. We had the amazing opportunity to be invited into the home of some Chinese people. We felt so honor...