Everyone on the Shanghai team has arrived safely in China! The Delta flight from Atlanta departed at 10:30 AM Thursday morning and arrived at 1:33 PM China time Friday afternoon, but we felt like it was 1:33 AM since China time is exactly 12 hours ahead of Eastern United States time. We don’t have to adjust our watches but we do have to adjust our bodies to the different time!!! The Northwest flight arrived at 8:00 PM Friday evening without any problems. The Delta flight encountered mild turbulence above Canada, the North Pole and Russia and had a few moments of a roller coaster ride as we descended to land in Shanghai and that was fun:) The food on the flights was actually plentiful and good. Our favorite meal is when they wake us up at midnight to feed us a big lunch because it is noon China time!

All of our luggage and classroom teaching materials and Chinese curriculum and books arrived with us. Betty, we saw Allen today and he said to tell you that he misses you - we all do! Allen is a student who Betty gave a gift of a book to last year and he emailed Betty to tell her that he had lots of questions. Thank you for thinking of Allen and all of our other students who have just arrived. We have already met with many former students and Chinese assistant teachers who work as our translators in the classrooms and supervise the children in the dorms. The American teachers greeted them with a lot of excitement! Our teachers are now in their classrooms decorating. Earlier this morning (Saturday) all of the teachers met for training and that went smoothly. This evening Dale will lead the whole camp in some Trust Activities and games in the gym. The facilities are great on this campus and Dale and I have already had several meetings with the Chinese officials to work out our camp schedule. These went well. We are very thankful for our translator, Carol, a former student at camp who is now a teacher herself and also a sister. She has been incredibly helpful. Keep thinking of us as we begin to teach classes Sunday afternoon after the Opening Program at 8:30 AM and language testing from 10:00-12:00 noon. Everyone is feeling well and all of our team members finally together in Shanghai is a beautiful sight to see!!!