Hello blog readers – we love you and we thank you for thinking of us! We want you to know that in order to read our entire blog entry you must click on “Read More” located at the bottom left side after the first paragraph. We don’t want you to miss any of the news from your loved ones

Each morning Dale walks around the campus at 6:00 AM to think of our Chinese students and all of the people in Shanghai. On different days Brian, Mary and Andy have joined him. They have looked at the beautiful peacocks (that Laura Jean and MJ have photographed) on the campus and the Chinese people outside the wall of the campus who are performing their morning exercises. We actually are located in the suburbs of Shanghai in a well-off neighborhood where we hear jackhammers and the sounds of construction both on and off campus. We are eating well as the food here is good. We had shrimp (with the heads and little black eyes attached) and rice one day, a fried chicken leg and rice another day and a hot dog and rice another day! We also have eaten cucumber salad, watermelon, fruit/vegetable salad in a mayonnaise-like dressing and stewed tomatoes. My favorite so far was the spicy chicken and peanuts! And yes, some of us have already eaten brown bean ice cream again!

Yesterday on our third attempt we had our entire camp photograph taken in our orange camp t-shirts. We are thinking about having a contest to see which teacher can change into an orange t-shirt the fastest! We are honored to have two girls in our camp who were in the earthquakes earlier this year in China. One is still using a crutch and her mother is among the missing so think of her. Mr. Wong, the Chinese camp director, asked some students how they liked camp and they replied that they liked the afternoon activities, their teachers, their lessons and they were happy! Yeah!!!

Many of our teachers are hanging out with Chinese students right now during afternoon rest time. Dale just played basketball with Lane and some students. Playing badminton with students were Mary, Javan, Joe and Andy. Emilee and Rebecca just walked past our room with several students who are going to visit with them in their room. The afternoon activities will start soon. Laura Jean is doing a great job with English Corner, Maria and Rebecca had lots of fun playing charades with the students I travel with in the afternoon, Deborah and Bonnie are so well prepared and organized at arts and crafts and the students really concentrate hard on doing a good job at that activity, Mary and Liz are dancing away with their students at the very popular line dancing activity, Buddy is loving life playing games with the students, Javan and Doug are a hit with water balloons, and Michael and Peyton are doing a great job with the team sports. And it is just priceless to see Joe teaching students how to sway and dance to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” at the music activity!!!

Tonight we will have our own Olympic China vs. USA volleyball game with cheerleaders, too So, please think of us as our camp is in full swing and we are working and playing hard at developing friendships with our students…

We asked team members to submit greetings to friends and family. Here are the first two that we received so far:

“Hi” to our families and friends from the Jersey Girls – Mabel, MJ and Bonnie

Joe, I’m doing good. No health problems. Crafts are OK. We are thinking about Kelly and her baby. Miss you. Love, Deb