Saying goodbye to Nicole.

Nicole has been a friend almost since we first arrived and has always been willing to try and help us in anything we needed done.

She is moving to the provincial capital, Harbin, where her husband has been working. I know she will miss her family and friends here, but I also know she will enjoy being with her husband again. 

Several of her friends gathered to say goodbye. 

On the left is Sharon. She had just returned from a vacation back in the states. She has been a long time friend of Nicole's and hosted this going away party. 

Nicole was very moved by the love shown by her friends. 

Sitting on the right is Harold, Nicole's son. I know that he is looking forward to seeing his father more regular, even though he will miss his friends. 

We had a short Bible lesson. 

The man on the right is Leroy, Sharon's husband. He works at one of the local factories over-seeing an American companies interest. Leroy and Sharon have lived here for around five years. 

Some friends of Nicole's.

Latest update.

Howdy all. We haven't been doin' a whole lot around here. Momma has been busy helpin' sissy with her schoolin'. Daddy has been workin' at the school. Sometimes we go out for a walk together. We did have a few friends over a couple a times for dinner.

This is Nicole. She is a friend of momma and daddy. She came over one evenin' for dinner 'cause it was her birthday.

This is Nicole's son, Harold. He's kinda fun. We had a good time, even though there wasn't any cake.

We had some other friends over another evenin' for dinner. The little boy in front is Mike and the big boy in the back is Ted. The girl closest to me is Alice and the other is Cindy.

I really like it when they come over for a visit. We have so much fun.

Kite, kids and ...

Nichole, Harold and friends, Suzanne and DJ.

This is our friend Nicole's son, Harold.

Harold and a couple of his friends.

DJ and other kids in the park.

She was listening to the man playing.

She wasn't sure what to do.

It looks like an Albatross.

They attach foam to the outside of the buildings for insolation because they are all concrete.

This was an empty lot a month ago.

Dinner at Nichole's.

How lazy is this? He has such a hard life here in China.

This is out back of our apartment. All three kids sitting and resting.

We went to dinner at a friends apartment on the southeast edge of the city. This is looking back to the north. You can see some of the low farmers housing to the left if you look closely.

The apartment where our friends live is right next to the toll gate for a busy road. Every city charges you a toll to enter or leave.

DJ and Harold get along great.

Nichole did a wonderful job preparing dinner.

DJ watched everything Harold did.

Then it was her turn.

Dead eye DJ.

She took us down one by one.

Not even her big sister was safe.

Look out DJ!

The apartment was a little smaller than ours but still nice for its age. They bought it when they got married in 1997 and in a few months they will be moving to Harbin where Nichole's husband is working.

This was just out back of the apartment. It is a local group doing organized dance marching to music.

The food was good. She cut some tomatoes for us to eat and asked if we wanted salt or sugar. I am glad she asked, because they never eat tomato with salt, only sugar. They also do not cook their rice with salt. I suggested she try it sometime.

Deb had bought me several games and we brought them with us to play. Harold and his friend wanted to learn how to play chess. It was nice to have someone to play with again.

After getting a good lead, I let them start to win a little. That was almost a mistake, because they were are both very smart. In the end they saw that I was not going to let them win.

Fellowship

Debora hosted the Christian fellowship and Bible study yesterday. We had music with songs, and talked about how all things are possible through God. We told the story of Abraham and Sarah having a son at an old age. This meeting is not against the law but is against Ivy rules because it is their apartment. So this is simply a social get together where one of the topics of talk is of a religious nature. Sharon and Leroy will return the first week of March and they will have the meetings at their apartment again. DJ really enjoyed all the company and Susan even had some kids close to her age. Most of the people spoke some English. In true Baptist form, where there is a meeting, there is food.

Difficult but possible.

I went to Bible study with Deb yesterday morning. Some of the ladies brought their kids since they were out of school. It was a really good time. One of the ladies gave Deb a gift just like she had given Sharon. It looks very beautiful and is now hanging in our living room.

The school had provided furnishing for the apartment when we came but ours didn't have a table. We decided to buy a table since we are staying another year. Yesterday, after Bible class, Deb and I went to the local furniture outlet and found a table and chairs for our apartment. We looked at several kinds, glass and wood, small and big. We had an idea that we wanted something that could change from small to large so we could put it to the side when we weren't using it and pull it out and make it bigger when we have company. We found one that we liked and they wanted 2000 RMB but we wanted to finish looking around before we made a decision. We found one just like the one we liked at the end of our search, and they only wanted 1650 RMB. We negotiated down to 1400 RMB and got them to throw in delivery and assembly. We did all this by ourselves without a translator. The only help we had was the name of our housing area, building and apartment number that was wrote down on a piece of paper by one of the Ivy School staff when we first came here.

We also bought a new wireless router for the computer so we could move it from the office into the living room. Then we changed the office into DJ's new bedroom. Now we have our bedroom to ourselves again. When I buy something like this in the states, it comes in English, Spanish and half a dozen other languages, but here it is only in Chinese. It wasn't easy to install without knowing any Chinese but thank goodness I have a natural talent with computers.

Starting next week, for six weeks, Deb is going to have the Bible study group over here while Leroy and Sharon are on vacation. Suzanne and I moved things around this morning. Deb went shopping for some slippers and stools for our guest, and some Chinese new years decorations.