----- The Best Day of My Life ----------------------

Journal entry by Steve Bolt from 2005 camp exploration trip:

My family is in China for the summer. We are working with older orphans who have been left behind without adoption. Most of them have very minor problems like burns, limited bladder control and other minor handicaps. We have designed day camps for them with a full day of activities.

Let me outline one of our days:

We start off by taking them in a taxicab to the park. This has proved unique for many of them, as they have never been outside their orphanage. Can you imagine riding in a car for the first time when you were 10 years old? You should have seen the pure delight and laughter on one of the girl's faces when we hit a puddle going 30mph and the water sprayed. She just couldn't contain her joy with a smile that wouldn't stop. I'm always looking over my shoulder as we have had 4 of them throw up from the carsickness. (Don't chuckle too much... we dare you to take one of these rides.. Heading head on into on coming traffic, dodging pedestrians, bicyclers, motorcycles, trucks on three wheels and the list goes on from what is out on these streets) So this week they spent the morning in the park on rides and playing games with us.

Next we took them to McDonald's for ice cream. I mean this is white sweet stuff that oozes out of a silver cold machine and they think it is wonderful. They don't like American hamburgers too much and so we have eliminated that experience. They do like French fries and ice cream) Then we bring them back to our apartment for lunch. (Of course I have my gang bring me a Big Mac) As lunch is brought in... Now how does that work??? Chinese take out in China.... anyways as lunch is purchased at the Chinese version of Wal-Mart we do a character lesson.

Today's lesson is on Alertness. I make a few seemingly boring points and soon our attention really turns to lunch, which arrives at 1PM. We eat. And man can those kids eat. We had one little 7 year old and we literally told him it was time to stop, which he obliged.

Next we do some puzzles. We have a 16 year old and he looks bored. Ah, ha...I did learn something from the lesson I just taught on Alertness. I am alert that he is bored. So I experiment with Tic Tac Toe. He likes it. I mean he really likes it. He's beating me every time. Then we move on the Chinese style of Tic Tac Toe. I've never seen this before. You draw as many boxes as you want and you try to get 5 in a row before your opponent does. I can't beat this kid no matter how hard I try. He loves it. Then I bring David my oldest in. Sheesh, we gotta show this kid Americans rule right? David can't beat him.

Finally David figures his strategy out and wins a few. It's obvious our 16 year old is having a good time. Next we go outside for some "Olympic" sports. It's already over 90 degrees outside at it feels like an Olympic Sauna. We persist and go for the Shot Put event. We use a tennis ball. I'm not taking my chances getting bonged on the head with a brick. We bought a tape measure that pulls out to 30 meters. The little 7 year old is not quite uncontrollable yet so we are trying to teach them how to shot put and all he wants to do is come up and hug me.

I mean what do you do? Hug or put? With that event we move on to the discus throw. David has rigged up a plastic dinner plate and it's all taped up for strength to withstand the throws. Since I was in track and field I know how to do this. I show the proper way and do the spin and release this plastic wobbling dinner plate into the air. This is pretty pitiful. So our 16-year-old steps up and really wings the plate out there around 20 meters. It lands with a break. The next girl winds up and tosses the "discus" a whopping 4 meters and of course it lands with a crack.

Everyone gets a chance and it's time for the next event. We walk off the discus field and David hands me a broken flappy taped up discus. I mean what am I supposed to do with this thing??

Next event? The long jump. We ask the workers if we can use their sand pile. There is still a lot of construction going on at our apartment complex and the sand pile will be perfect. We show the kids how to long jump. I couldn't resist this one. Finally it's my turn... I can't contain my excitement. I am 55 years old and finally I get to REALLY express myself. With a Big Mac deep inside I pull up my shorts for the jump. I am now ready. I race down the runway and leap for all I'm work into the soft sand. With all that effort I made it about 5 feet total. The kids follow and then the local Chinese laborers with cigarettes smoking and dangling do their leaps. Our 16 year old is unable to participate because he has received recent surgery on his leg. He watches.

The weather was kind of like someone breathing on you, hot and humid. We head back up to the apartment. The afternoon is filled with singing, crafts, and more games. We end with dinner from the same place which is looking pretty well, "the same" to me. We finish with a final session on alertness and the kids head out.

When Jean our translator returns to tell us how it went after dropping the kids off she has a report. All the kids had a wonderful time. Ben, our 16 year old, told Jean, "This was the Best Day of my life!"