We are enjoying a great weekend in Shanghai! Our well decorated birthday party (with balloons, Happy Birthday banners and streamers everywhere) was super successful. We danced the Macarena, YMCA, the Electric slide, the Chicken dance and the Hokey- Pokey with our students (most of whom were wearing birthday party hats) and then we sang “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” (a song the students learned in music class) at the top of our voices and then we recognized everyone’s birthdays and sang to the July birthday people before eating the food provided by our Chinese host, Mr. Wong, to celebrate the occasion. Our feast included French fries (with lots of pepper), corn on the cob, green beans, fruit salad (in a salad dressing like mayonnaise) and watermelon! Our three big beautiful cakes were decorated with kiwi, tomatoes, cherries and sweet potatoes that were carved to look like pineapples in the center. They were gorgeous! They tasted a lot like angel food cake!

Saturday the Americans took the day off to tour in Shanghai with Mr. Wong and Carol, our interpreter. We traveled about one hour on the bus in order to get to the center of the city. We shopped at one marketplace and then ate lunch at a very popular Chinese restaurant that is one of Mr. Wong’s favorites. In our five years of trips to China this may have been the most delicious food that we have ever eaten at a restaurant (apart from Peking duck!). We learned that the food in Shanghai tends to be sweeter than in the rest of China and the Americans really appreciated this! We ate one dish that tasted just like fried Captain Crunch cereal. There were many, many different dishes and at the end when we thought we were finished, delicious watery mushroom soup was served for “dessert”!

We also toured and shopped at another marketplace, visited a Buddhist temple and took a great trip up to the observation decks (There were two of them – one was enclosed by glass and one was open to the air.) at the top of the Pearl Tower. We all enjoyed reading the sign that said in English “No ragamuffins, drunkards or psychotic persons…” were allowed in to visit the Pearl Tower! When we returned to camp we ate dumplings prepared by the students and the cooks that were delicious!

This morning all of our teachers, who are on campus, (Nathan and Doug are visiting with former students) taught their students in class. We then had a very important meeting for the American teachers at 11:00 AM in our room. Each day we have met at 7:00 AM and one of us shares a motivational thought and then we have our all-important daily announcements! So far Dale, MJ, Bonnie, Debbie, Woody, and Mary have all shared very helpful ideas. This coming week Nathan, Rebecca, Joe, Buddy and Louise will share their thoughts. One day earlier this week Carol, our Chinese interpreter, shared her story while Dale videotaped her. Be sure to ask your team member about this! Today Joe shared some great teachings from the book of Rev in order to give us the big picture and encourage us in our second week. We all need extra power to keep doing what we are here to do, so this teaching was just what we all needed. We need you to keep us filled with power beyond our own strength for the demands of each new day – there are many situations and conversations that we are experiencing where we need strength and wisdom. We want to make the most of every opportunity to share. Please especially think of us as we teach the lessons about American holidays. Thank you for supporting us through this second week of camp until we reach the finish line – our Closing Program on Friday!!!