Hannah Grace's 9th Birthday Party

Our little girl is just a year away from being in double digits. She turned 9 this month and had some friends over for a High School Musical party. It really went better than we expected having 8 8-9 year old girls in our house to spend the night. She had a great time. Here are some pics from the night..

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It rained!

We have had two showers and two light sprinklings of rain in the last week. Hooray! The drought is still very severe, but thank goodness we have gotten some relief. I wouldn't be surprised if some Chinese farmers weren't out dancing in it. (Okay, actually I would be a little surprised.)

Drought!

Here in our part of China we have a definite dry season and a definite rainy season. Rainy season is from late May to early September. Dry season is every day outside of those months. So, life here depends on getting enough rain in those three and a half months to last for the other eight and a half. Unfortunately, Rainy Season '09 did not perform up to its usual standards and so we were in a deficit for the province. Experts in our province felt that we had enough in the reserves to make it til next rainy season with not too much trouble. However, to go with a lack of rain last summer, this winter has been extremely warm with almost zero cloud coverage. Our province is in the Tropics in the South and sits on the Tibetan plateau in the North, so we get a lot of hot sunshine. More water has evaporated and more has been used this Winter than normal to keep crops and vegetation alive. Thus we are in a major drought.

With this drought, people are now having a hard go of finding drinking water in rural areas. Cisterns in villages are bone dry and water is having to be trucked in. It comes at a cost, however, and rural Chinese farmers aren't known for their large bank accounts. We keep hoping for some relief for the province and some rain to come, but rainy season is still two and a half months away. Please remember this area and the people facing this drought.

Welcome to the Jungle

For Hudson's and Micah's birthdays last year (10 and 8 months ago, respectively), we promised them a trip to the rain forest in the southern part of our province. But, rainy season came so it would be too wet and then it was Fall, and Fall in the rain forest is terribly hot and then Thanksgiving and Christmas were here. So, we are getting close to their next birthdays and figured we'd win worst parents of the year awards for failing to give them birthday presents from last year. However, during the second week of January a few days opened up and we made our push to get to the rain forest.

On a side note, its neat that this summer we were on a glacier in our province and in the winter we were sweating in the jungle, also in our province.

Jason, Hudson and Micah trekked down to the Southwest tip of our province on the Mekong River where we border Laos and Burma. The area is touted as a 'Little Thailand', except no Dunkin Donuts or beaches. I take it to mean that it is hot like Thailand, and it was. Anyway, we got down there and headed to the Wild Elephant Valley that sits in the middle of the rain forest and is home to the last wild elephants in China. It also houses snakes, lots of monkeys, frogs, lizards, mosquitos and probably some of the less desirable tropical diseases. We avoided most of those, though.

Our plan was to sleep in treehouses above a favorite watering hole of the herd of 20 or so elephants, but when we got there, we discovered that one of the treehouses had been damaged by an elephant and they were closed but all being remodeled. We were able to stay in a little room about 2.5 km from the watering hole, though. The first day there, we went deep into the rain forest. Our goal - to track down the elusive wild elephant without getting trampled or bitten by snakes.

As we slashed through the undergrowth, we came across a trail we could only guess was cut by these great beasts. Hudson spotted some broken bamboo and a place in the mud where some elephant toenails had dug in for traction. Micah found some footprints near a stream and Jason smelled and spotted the remains of the elephants' dinner a few nights ago.

While we were taking a break and resting under a tree, a giant boa dropped from a tree and tried to squeeze the life out of Jason! Hudson and Micah were quick to respond and subdue the behemoth! Tragedy avoided.

We were going to press on further into the woods, but night was falling and the screeches of wild monkeys reverberated through the canopy. We figured they might be man eaters so we packed up and headed back to the relative safety of our room. We fell onto our beds exhausted, but knew the next morning was our best chance to locate these Asian elephants.

We donned headlamps and struck out into the fog-filled dark as the sun had not risen yet the next morning. As we were headed down the trail, we encountered our first wildlife of the day, a rabid monkey! Okay, so he wasn't really rabid, but we still stayed clear. He might have had ebola like in Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo.

We continued our search in the still cool air. We didn't hear or see much. Then, as we came near the bend in the creek where the elephants come to drink, we saw some movement in the trees. And more, and more. Then we heard the whooping of monkeys from the canopy. Then with grace and speed we stood face to face with two black and white monkeys who looked hungry. They ran and swung back and forth past us, obviously trying to confuse us with their movement. But, they were no match for Hudson and Micah. They did that hand thing to the monkeys that Crocodile Dundee did to the water buffalo and soon the monkeys were wrestling with each other on the ground.

All of the commotion got the monkey community riled up and soon there was a lot of whooping and hollering going on. Jason had to hold Micah back from taking to the vines and climbing to the monkeys' nests high in the trees. Hudson was taking off his shoes so he could rush into the creek and tackle any crocodiles that might come our way. This is when Jason decided it was best to leave before his boys left destruction in their wake. As we were headed out, we came across a monster elephant. We quickly tamed him and soon Micah and Hudson were riding him around.

Our adventure nearly over and our legs tired from all the trekking, we climbed into a cable car and took a 20 minute ride back to our room. What a great adventure in the rain forest!

Merry Christmas!

We are enjoying our second consecutive Christmas in China, and so far this one is more relaxed and 'Christmas-y' than last year. Last year we had just arrived here and had no furniture, decorations, wrapping paper or much of an idea of how to do Christmas. This year we are settled and enjoying life. Not that Christmas is about wrapping paper and lights at all, but it helps the kids to continue to adjust. Not that we come from a winter wonderland in Georgia, but 70 degrees outside doesn't quite give you the holiday feel! Here are the kids in front of a giant Christmas tree made out of 7-up bottles!

Merry Christmas to each of yall! We hope this Christmas is a blessing for you and your family.

All I Want For Christmas

On Christmas Eve we saw two teeth fall out of two different kids! Hud started the morning off by losing his and that inspired his sister to lose hers. Here are HG and Hud with their missing teeth!

New Post! New Post! New Post!

You probably thought this would never happen, but it has. A new post updating you on life here in China. It has been a while seeing that Halloween was our last update and we are now only a few days from Christmas. But, we've been busy and blogspot has been incredibly slow recently. On to the update...

We had a great Thanksgiving. We invited some Chinese friends over and they experienced a somewhat traditional Thanksgiving meal. We had 13 dishes but said no to the turkey. The only way to get a turkey was to have one imported from the states and they ran around $45 per bird. Also we have a slightly-larger-than-a-toaster-oven and figured trying to cook a bird for so long might cause problems. So we had chicken breasts and stovetop, which did the trick flavor wise. No gravy though. Inexplicable we did not take any pictures.

We also celebrated one year in China during the first week of December. We went and had ice cream. Ice cream in winter?!?!?? Well, it has been in the mid-70's recently here and we've been wearing shorts and t-shirts in the house. We've rarely had to turn on the heaters. Anyway, this year has been exceptional. We all seem to be adjusting to the culture pretty well and enjoying life here. We've made many good friendships with local people and foreigners as well.

In the past month or so we have joined some Chinese people who are helping the homeless in the city. While it can be warm during the day, the temperature drops quickly once the sun sets behind the mountains and nights on the street can be cold. All five of us have gone out and helped bring food to street kids and homeless grandmas. The people have appreciated the food and just having someone talk to them. We are hoping to be of more help to the homeless in finding them shelter and employment in the future.

We are getting ready for Christmas and have been invited to sing a Christmas carol or two at a performance at a hotel nearby on Christmas Eve. The kids are definitely excited about Christmas and have enjoyed the influx of cookies in our house. Unfortunately, Jason has enjoyed the influx too much and will have to soon begin sugar detox.

Our business has only made a few small steps forward, but we are hoping that this next year will be one that brings clearer focus and more opportunities. We tried to help a restaurant get started here, but the owner wasn't ready to open this or next year. Currently we are looking at turning tobacco farmland into something that generates more income for the farmers.

We are excited about the possibilities this next year will bring. This first year was a learning experience and a time for adjusting to our new lives. We hope this next year we will thrive even more and continue to become more and more comfortable in our new culture.

We promise to use our camera again so you can see more pictures soon. But here's a fun one of our kids...