Year of the Rabbit Celebrations

Chinese New Year is being celebrated in full force! We arrived back in Shanghai this morning, just in time for the loudest fireworks night of the entire holiday. It's the night of the money god... so according to legend, if your fireworks are the longest and the loudest, the coming year will be one of prosperity. The explosions have been going on now for several hours, and will likely continue through the night tonight.Below is the picture of the ship I promised in another post about Chinese New Year decorations. This was constructed completely of white styrofoam outside a small mall near us, then painted red. It stands about twenty feet high. It's fairly impressive, for styrofoam!
The day before we left for the holiday break, Gwen's class had a CNY party, complete with dumplings, oranges, lantern making, story telling, and red envelopes with gold chocolate coins inside. One of the well loved traditions of CNY is to distribute red envelopes of money to children, unmarried young adults, and employees.
Gwen and her friends display their lanterns... some a bit creatively!
I am mulling over lots of things about our CNY trip to Boracay and what we experienced there. The beautiful faces of the many children we interacted with at the feeding sites are going through my head. Hoping to post about some of that soon. In the mean time, I'll be listening to fireworks!

It's beginning to look a lot like Chinese New Year...

The Chinese Lunar New Year is only a couple of weeks away, and the decorations, mainly red, are showing up everywhere! I snapped these pictures on my phone in Carrefour last week.
I'm sure you can guess from the picture below that this coming year is the Year of the Rabbit. Rabbits of every style and shape are appearing on coffee cups, as stuffed toys, on sets of dishes, signs, and as huge figures standing guard outside of establishments all over Shanghai.
There is even a rabbit on this new reusable shopping bag for sale at Carrefour.
Loved this group of workers gathered in a little shopping mall close to us... they were smoking and chatting, surrounded by the CNY red lanterns they had been hired to hang. I guess I should get my lanterns out at home. Seems we've just put Christmas decorations away. And I still have a few Christmas photos I want to post!
A huge styrofoam ship has been constructed as a CNY decoration outside this same shopping area. Workers spent last week painting the entire thing red and mounting figures of children and rabbits on it. I'll try to get a photo of it this week. It's quite impressive!

Chinese New Year Decoration

I found this bunch of curly bamboo with the tiny Chinese lanterns tied to the stalks at a street flower vendor yesterday. I have the bunch of bamboo in a vase on our dining room table. Aren't the tiny lanterns cute? :-)

Pictures Taken From A Moving Vehicle In Bali

How's that for a title?!

These little alters with umbrellas covering them were everywhere... always with little square baskets of food stacked in them. We saw these small baskets of food (a sacrifice?) outside shops, on the floor at the entrace to the airport lounge... really everywhere we went. Bali is mostly Hindu.

We saw these little shelves of oil all along the road. We weren't sure what it was... cooking oil? Maybe a drink of some kind? We found out that it is fuel for motorbikes. You pay for the fuel, pour it into your tank (one of these bottles fills a motorbike tank) and put the empty bottle back on the shelf. This picture was actually not taken from a moving vehicle, however it was taken from a vehicle. Caleb snapped this shot of us at a roadside fruit stand. Cows were roaming in the weeds on the side of the road opposite the fruit stand. Cows by the side of the road were a frequent sight.

Balinese women are very talented at carrying things on their heads.

Just a few guys piled in the back of a truck.

There are many, many motorcycles and motor scooters in Bali. Unlike Shanghai, there is not a separate lane to accomodate them, and they are constantly weaving in and around the already crazy traffic. Fortunately they seem much better about wearing helmets, which are almost never seen on a local in Shanghai. Too bad this little girl didn't have one... she looks like she might fall asleep on her feet! Big yawn!

Mr. Wu is forever telling us how Shanghainese "very like" KFC... I guess it's popular in Indonesia, too. This was a pretty large establishment.

We thought maybe this was a temple, but we were told it was a monument. A monument to what wasn't clear. Many of the temples we did pass had this same type of intricate design.

Hangin' Out At Seeds Of Hope

Here are a few more photos from our time at Seeds of Hope Children's Home. Seeing these pictures makes me hope for a return visit to be with the children again. They sure made their way into our hearts quickly!

Caleb and a new friend shoot in tandem.These four girls worked for more than an hour creating this little scene from play-doh, even adding bits of cotton as snow on the roof and tiny tree. They were pretty pleased with the results! It was so interesting to see even older kids be so interested in the craft supplies we brought... Thumb wrestling match with Scott... so fun!

More play-doh creations...

Preparing the afternoon snack
See Gwenny in the middle of the group? She almost blends right in! Her skin was actually a few shades lighter than the local kids.

Showing some little ones how to make a paper lantern. Sandra, the mother of the home, is in the background.

Madelyn and friends creating things out of colored paper.

At first just one girl and I were doodling a bit with the colored chalk, but soon our doodle grew into a big, rainbow heart that this whole group wanted to be a part of adding to. This was right before we left on our last day at Seeds of Hope. I was not looking forward to saying good-bye to the kids... part of the reason this heart got so big! Maybe if we add one more color around the outside, I can stay a little longer...

At Yuyuan for Spring Festival

Although Spring Festival (aka Chinese New Year) ended Monday night with the Lantern Festival, the beautiful decorations at Yuyuan will stay up for another week or so. Madelyn and I went to see them Tuesday afternoon, and they did not disappoint! Lanterns, lanterns everywhere... I've been told it is quite beautiful at night when they are all lit up! Have to see that one of these years.

Enjoying my soup dumpling (you drink the broth out of the inside with a straw before cutting or biting it open to eat the meat) with a friendly ox looking on!

You know it is the Year of the Ox... but did you know that dumplings are boiled with an entire ox skull, complete with horns, right in the broth? Check this picture out! I saw this at several dumpling stands, and I think it is a real ox head... but I can't be sure. Makes me wonder... surely there weren't rats in the broth last year!

Seeds of Hope

We're in Indonesia right now, on the island of Bali, for the Chinese New year holiday. It's a gorgeous place... warm, lush greenery, very tropical. We've been enjoying the beach and the the pool and the sun.

Yesterday our vaction took on a little different flavor. Part of the reason we came here this week was to go to Seeds of Hope children's home, an orphanage that houses about sixty children, ranging in age from three years old to twenty. The children all ran to greet us as we pulled up, calling hello and smiling hugely. They all wanted to shake our hands, and asked our names. It was a joyful welcome! They led us into a room with tables and chairs, where they all sat down while we met the couple who started the home nine years ago, a pastor and his wife. A group of the children played some local instruments for us... they were amazingly talented. Something about hearing "Amazing Grace" being played in a sweaty room by Balinese orphans... well, I know I cry easily, but it sure tugged at my heart. We learned that the children play in hotels several times a week to raise money for the orphange. After the music, we brought out some pipe cleaners and beads we had brought along... we had fun with those with all the girls and the younger boys for several hours! 1000 pipe cleaners became butterflies, spiders and spider webs, crowns, baskets, and when combined with the beads, lots of beautiful bracelets. Scott and our boys and the older boys played soccer, basketball, and catch with the football, all in a small cement courtyard.

The children were so happy. Maybe because of their wide range of ages, they seemed to be like a family. At one point Gwen fell and scraped her foot and knee, and one of the older girls took her and washed her and put bandaids on for her. Towards the end of our time there, we were all outside. Caleb was in a one-on-one basketball game with another boy. A big group of the kids watched and cheered for every basket made, on both sides. I stood with the girls and cheered. As I stood in that group of beautiful Balinese girls, with their black hair and skin several shades darker than Gwen's, I wondered if any of these kids would want to leave this home if they were given the choice. As far as I know, Indonesia is not open for international adoption right now. But maybe that's okay. These children are living in what we would consider a very bare bones environment- no AC, living right below the equator, is a big one for us soft westerners, and that's just the beginning of all the things they seem to be lacking. But Thomas and Sandra have created a family here, where the children are loved and are hearing the truth of the love of Christ. It's good.

We asked Sandra and Thomas if they need anything for the children. They're saving money for a railing on the third floor to be repaired. They need toothpaste and shampoo. Is that all? It seems like they need so much, to me. No, Sandra said, toothpaste and shampoo is all. So we'll stop at the Carrefour here on the island on our way back to Seeds of Hope this afternoon and get toothpaste and shampoo and maybe a new basketball or two. I'm all out of beads and pipe cleaners... maybe we'll draw together today. I wish there was a big project we could do for them and with them... we asked in several emails before we came, we asked again yesterday while we were there. But maybe this is okay. It's so good to be a tiny part of what Sandra and Thomas have given their lives to.

Do you ever wonder what you're doing with your life? Seeing Seeds of Hope has made me ponder... what else might God have for us?

Boys and Booms

On the night of the Lantern Festival, the last night of Chinese New Year, we invited several families for dinner and to share in the fun of the fireworks that Scott, Caleb and Seth had gotten the night before. Here Caleb and Seth and their friends pose with "the goods" right before we head outside to set them off.

All these night pictures are blurry because the shutter on the camera was open so long and I wasn't using a tripod, but I think the effect is cool. Here is the huge cloud of smoke created when the big wheel of 5000 firecrackers Caleb is holding over his head in the previous picture all went off at once! It was quite a noise!
One of our fireworks! These were the ones in the big cube... one wick on the edge of the cube was lit, and then all of the fireworks would shoot off, one after another. One of our friends stayed up in our apartment with a couple of the girls, and she said they came about halfway up the building. To those of us down on the ground, they were directly overhead and seemed huge!
A mass of firecrackers going off in quick succession in the street behind our van. Lots of noise and smoke! There was quite a pile of rubble in the street when we finished with all the fireworks and firecrackers. Right after we finished the last set, while we were still standing around, a street sweeper was already there cleaning it all up. This is typical of Shanghai... always people sweeping the street by hand, with brooms made of branches. I assume they are city employees.

Festival of Lanterns at Yuyuan

Today was the last official day of Chinese New Year, the Festival of Lanterns, which is the fifteenth day of the First Moon. The girls and I celebrated by going to Yuyuan Garden, an area of old style Chinese architecture which I've posted pictures of here before. Today it was beautifully decorated for the New Year. Lots of lanterns, animals of the Chinese zodiac, dragons, and of course, money. It was a very busy place today... according to Mr. Wu, the Shanghainese "very like go to Yuyuan" at the Lantern Festival.

I thought this little one it her festive hat was so cute!


It may be hard to see in this picture, but the Bridge of Nine Turns was an absolute mob of people. The girls and I were going to attempt to cross it, but it truly seemed undoable. We went around the back way to take this picture. Everyone was trying to see the displays on the water.
Madelyn found this little sealed plastic pouch attached to a key chain on the ground. Inside were two tiny live fish! We later saw them for sale. Turns out fish are good luck (it's all about luck and money here, it seems) and will bring money to your house! We brought the fish home and released them from their tiny prison into a vase of water which our kitties promptly knocked off the table and shattered a few hours later. I scooped the fish up off the floor into a glass... we'll see if they are still alive tomorrow! The money god himself...

The Year of the Rat... this guy is surrounded by a pile of gold!
Lanterns!

The building to the right is many hundreds of years old, and is now a tea house. Apparently many celebrities have had tea here, including Bill Clinton.