A Public Service Announcement!!

Yeah..Protecting CircumStance begins with YOU!!

Zaijian Xinyang

Here's looking toward a future of hope...


Heading to the choo choo train...more news to come!!

Street Scenes

I learned a very important Chinese phrase today: Ting Bu Dong - I don't understand.

I thought you might enjoy some photos of the streets of Henan province:

The Children of Xinyang

While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.

~Angela Schwindt

Surrealism At Its Finest!!

For a surreal experience, I recommend the following:
Go for a mid-morning jog through the streets of Xinyang, China while listening to your usual everyday work-out mix on your ipod. It's worth inhaling coal dust and dodging human waste on the streets. Trust me, you won't ever forget it.

The Aquarium

It was a cold and rainy day in Xinyang as I looked out the window toward the playground and courtyard below:


What a perfect day to visit the local aquarium, I thought:

Then I realized I was in a grocery store:

Yum Yum!!!

My Valentine...

Well, there were no train tickets available - so Linda and her husband Jin drove me 5 hours south to Xinyang today. They only speak Chinese, so it is very hard to communicate to them how thankful I am that they are driving me around China. I am perfecting my charades though - as we mostly communicate through hand gestures. We drove through some mountains and farm country. There were lots of baby goats hanging out in the fields... very cute!! Oh - and I experience a Chinese roadside rest stop, which was actually quite clean and nice.

When we got to Xinyang, I met Krishtel and Erma - the nurses at the unit here. Unfortunately, the water is not working (who knows why) here at the unit, so we had an excuse to eat out tonight for a nice Valentine's dinner. I hope the water is back on tomorrow - it's a little bit difficult to manage a unit with 18 sick and disabled kids without running water. But, it's a new challenge to overcome - haha.

Peter Pan greeted me in Xinyang

I don't think this little girl in the restaurant had ever seen a white person before. She would run up to me, I would smile, and she would run away screaming. She wanted to be my Valentine!!

Chinese Pizza

Linda, Jin, Me, Krishtel and Erma

This soup was tasty - despite all the chicken heads floating in it. It cleansed my palate after eating squid balls.

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!