Girl's Retreat Part Er!! - That means 2!

About 2 weeks ago we had another "girl's retreat". We call it girl's because here you are not a lady or owman until you are much older. As much as I tell them I am a woman they laugh and say no. It apparently can also be offensive to some. Anyway, we were going to host it here at our small school, however, we thought it might draw too much attention to us seeing as how we are generally kept under close watch as it is. We moved it to a neighboring larger city (just a few million people!). We piled 8 of us into to cars and set out on the one and a half hour drive to ShiYan. When we arrived Friday evening we took the girls to their choice of either McDonalds or KFC. Out of the 6 of them only 2 had been to KFC and 1 of those 2 had been to McDonalds. Their first experience with "Western (fast) Food". It was quite entertaining to see their expressions!!
After dinner we headed back to John and Megan's where all of us stayed in their very LARGE 3 bedroom apartment. We played a little Mah Jong and ended the evening with singing.

Saturday morning while we were "rising" many of Megan's students came over and joined us for breakfast. We shared with them the art of French Toast and syrup (homemade - as most things are in China). Following breakfast we got "supplies" and headed to meet another 20 or so girls. On the way we of course forgot all the bread, PB, and J to make lunch so Megan and Jessi went to retrieve it! When we all arrived and were accounted for we boarded a bus for an hour ride to the Reservoir. Upon arrival we had our girls haggle the price, we foreigners should have hidden until they finished! When we finally got on the bus and got moving we all went downstairs and sang for a while. We had a short lesson but with the boat moving and it's noise we could not hear well. So we made PB and J for lunch and the boat stopped so we were able to hear better.
The girl's, our sisters, were incredible! I couldn't understand them but the impression they left on those we brought was wonderful. They spoke of their relationship with their Father and how that relationship became an important part of their life. Then in small groups they were able to speak more intimately about choices and life. It helped open some eyes to new things. It was uplifting even for me, to see the passion.

The boat took us to one more place where we "crazy" wai gou ren (foreigners) jumped off the top of the boat into the river (part of the Yangtze)! Chinese people, I have learned, cannot and typically do not swim, as they are scared of the water. Some decided to give it a try so we made it a rule that unless you could swim you HAD to wear a life jacket. We had a few jump in (off the bottom of the boat) and try swimming for the first time. A few also asked us to teach them. Most remained on the boat looking down with huge grins on their faces. It was HYSTERICAL!! We had girls jumping in them flailing their arms about with life jackets on until one of us was with them. Of course we stayed nearby at all times. We, Americans were pretty excited to go swimming so we brought our bathing suits. Our Chinese "dare devils" braved it in their skivvies!! After cooling off we went to dinner and ended at Andrew and Jamie's for singing, dessert, and a new "birthday"! We were WIPED out by the time we got back to Megan's. - BEDTIME!!

Sunday morning we had a meeting and singing. For lunch everyone was on their own before we headed back to good ol' DJK (DanJiangKou)!!

It was a very uplifting weekend!! As always there is more to the story but this is all I can write! One I am exhausted and it's late and two - it's China!

I hope to add pictures next week!!