Xuchang and Zhengzhou

Today we packed our bags and said good bye to Kaifeng. Mr. Wang provided a car and driver to take us 80 km north of Zhengzhou to Xuchang.  The orphanage in Xuchang is a new complex with addition buildings to be completed in the next two years.  We were greeted by their friendly staff and director also name Mr. Wang.  This orphanage has about 100 children with 90% having special needs.  They already have some physical therapy equipment and teachers with some great successes. They would like more equipment and the teachers would also benefit from more training.  They have some equipment they are using that they know how to use only through reading the manuals, but have never been trained on the equipment.  After Xuchang, we returned to Zhengzhou to quickly check into our hotel and then took a taxi for a hour drive to the Zhengzhou orphanage.

Mr. Wang and his staff in Xuchan

Zhengzhou is a much bigger city with 4.2mm people, so their orphanage is also much larger. This orphanage is already sponsored by a couple other American groups and has a lot of equipment already in use.  They do a great job of tracking each child’s progress in a binder showing the child’s picture and their achievements. We also met two American college students volunteering for the summer.  This orphanage also told us they needed more training for their staff. We grabbed our cab and returned to Zhengzhou to take Eva to one last dinner.  The next day we are off to Xi’an by bullet train at 350km/hour.

zhengzhou orphanage

One of the therapy rooms at Zhengzhou

Day 3 in Kaifeng

We returned to the orphanage to deliver the supplies we had purchase the last two days.  The staff quickly changed the children into the new shirts.  We were also able to further talk with the staff about the children’s progress over the last year as well as the orphanages needs over the next year. It is very clear the staff care very much for the children and their best interest.  Their need’s range from computer’s to more physical therapy equipment to additional training in physical therapy for the children.  We will have to look at shipping costs of some used desktop computers vs buying computers in China.

Day 2 in Kaifeng

Today we met up with Kenny Lu, a close friend of Robert’s, who works with orphans in China. Kenny has been teaching children to silk screen and created some nice shirts with Echo’s logo on it for the orphanage.  

That evening we honored t the Kaifeng orphanage’s director, Mr. Wang and his staff to dinner.  At the dinner we must have had twenty different types of Chinese foods.  Some of the dishes were great, others were very different (like pig’s ear – a little crunchy).  We also presented the staff with certificates of appreciation and gifts of appreciation.

After dinner Eva and Kenny gave us a tour of Kaifeng showing us the night market and the beautiful lights along the lake.

Our first visit to the school

We traveled from Beijing to Zhengzhou by train.  We arrived early in the morning and met Eva, our local consultant.  Eva then took us to Kiafeng by taxi and checked into our hotel.

Next we took our first trip to the school. When we first arrived we were greeted by the orphanage director, Mr. Wang. The director and a few of the teachers took us on a tour of the school and orphanage.  The facilities were extremely clean, and bright. The children at the school were very excited to meet us. We were greeted with clapping hands and a song meaning “I Love China.”

It was great to see all the children.  Some of the children had made great improvements since Echo’s last trip.  One young girl after a year of therapy is now able to walk!  Other children have significantly increased their vocabulary.  Mr. Wang mentioned they only have one table in the classroom for the children to study on and they needed more toys that increase their hand motor skills.

We decided the children would benefit from having some small desks to work at and returned to town to look for small tables or desks.  We found five new desks and had them delivered to the school that evening.  We also purchased some water color pens, play dough and some baby formula.  We also found some nice uniform shirts and had the Echo logo put on them for the children to wear at school.

Tonight we will be honoring the director and the staff at a dinner banquet.  Tomorrow we will return to the school to deliver more supplies to the school and Friday we will be looking at other schools we hope to be able to fund in the future, with your help.

In China!

After a 11 hour flight we arrived in Beijing.  We arrived

just before midnight and arrived at our Hotel about 1am.

We will spend the day exploring Beijing before taking a

night train to Kiafeng tomorrow.

We are really excited to see all the children tomorrow!

School is doing fantastic

From vision to inception to reality.  Our school in Kaifeng, China is doing what we had desired.  Kids with special needs are learning and progressing.  They are feeling like they are cared for and ultimately we are giving them hope.
On June 21st our board member Kellie Riper and her step-dad, Kent will be visiting the school.  They will be collecting personal interviews of the teachers and students.  They will be purchasing school uniforms for all 31 students and will be hosting the staff and orphanage director Mr. Wang to an evening of celebration as they distribute plaques to our four educators who are changing the lives of special needs orphans.

Keep watching our posts as Kellie will keep everyone informed of her travels, adventures and stories as EChO continues to help the hopeless in China.

Back in the USA

Just landed in SF and cleared customs without any stress.  Going through SF when you fly international is always the way to go.  Entering through LA is terrible!

Casey didn’t sleep on the flight at all and his eyes are totally glazy….good luck looking at your computer screen tomorrow Casey.

We are ready for home:

Casey: vanilla latte, juicy hamburger, beer and ice cream!

Robert: my bed, my wife and my kids…can’t wait to wrestle with the fantastic four.

Thank you to those who helped support my wife Stephanie by watching the kids and giving her some support – she has been doing really well and I am so grateful to all of you guys.

When we get the additional photos uploaded we will send them out – probably later in the week.  We will also have an open invitation to view a slide show and video at our upcoming board meeting (FYI – our board meetings are always open).  We will announce this upcoming date too.

We ask that you consider how much you can give financially to help provide special needs teachers and specialists for the Kaifeng Orphanage.  The salary for a certified teacher for one month is $150.  With four teachers we can assist these kids at this orphanage.  Their pay equals $5 a day or  62.5 cents an hour!  (And we all know that teachers work beyond their 8 hours a day People from our board will be contacting you in the next couple of weeks to see if you are able to partner with us.  Thank you for considering this.

Thank you too for your prayers and support – it was an incredible journey.  This trip was the first domino to begin tipping over pain and poverty for the poor and we pray that it will pull these forgotten kids into a perfect place of peace.

Great Wall

What a historical experience!  My friend Rod Hanson did a marathon and the Great Wall was part of the course which I so admire because it is the symbol of China and I have Chinese daughters and I have never been there.  Each time I have come here I have been on the Southern part of the country.  Did you know that you can see the Great Wall when you are walking on the moon!  Yes, it is true.  There are five main areas to visit when you go to the Great Wall and we did the second one closest to Beijing.  90% of tourists go to the closest one…but we just felt like we are more locals than tourists.  Well actually Casey is ready for a hamburger and some good beer.

Stories about the Wall….

We met a family who will be residing in China for a whole year and the mom is interested in taking her two kids 8 & 11 to Kaifeng and volunteer there.  Her husband speaks Chinese and will be employed here.  They are from California – how incredible would that be…one day after we set up our school some one volunteers to go there!

We saw people from all of these countries…USA, India, Venezuela, France, Germany, England, Scotland, Scandinavians, Asian countries (Japan, Korea), and I am sure there were more.

We also met a group from…Iran!  The guy was talking in Farsi at the very apex of this climb and I look at him and said hello to  him in Farsi and he couldn’t believe another Persian was on top of the Great Wall with him.  His name was Darius – like my brother – keeper of goodness.  He lives near the Caspian Sea where I vacationed when I was a boy.  His English was fantastic too.  I really felt so emotional as I was coming near the top of this Chinese monument and knowing that I had climbed a great wall in helping to achieve our goal of education for Chinese orphans.  I felt this total clarity about the next portion of my life.  I have cried a few times on this trip.

Back in Beijing

We officially returned back to Beijing.  We are entering our 8th day here and we saw our first Americans and did our first tourist activities.  The Henan province has very few foreigners visit it and especially Americans.

We were relieved to not be constantly stared at.  Casey is a total attraction to almost every single person here…I mean who has seen a man with red hair!  And the women here are so enamored with him.  I have decided to give him a nickname – George (after George Clooney).  I am Brad Pitt – he has adopted some kids.  We are like two movie stars everywhere we go in the capital of Henan or in Kaifeng.  Think I am kidding – if you ever come here to this beautiful land you will see exactly what I am talking about.  The culture of Chinese is to be SO hospitable.  And they love Americans so much so we get even more respect, admiration and yes, movie star stares.  But Casey…yes, Casey….he is such a heart throb to SO many women here.

We toured the Great Wall – which was simply amazing!  We also went and visited Tianeman Square.  We saw their Parliment building and are crashed back at the hotel right now.  Casey is taking a nap before we depart for our final dinner here.

Our battery camera died so we can’t upload any more current photos from our trip.   I also can’t figure out how to add a ton of photos on this blog via the gallery option.  When we return back to the states we will put together a slide show and some video that we will send out via our website and email.

Casey will also be adding his stories and perspective after we return.  He has said that he is still processing all that we have absorbed.  In general we are both exhausted and drained.

But to my students who might not be ready to come back to school well I will be ready – I will be on a 15 hour flight and will be absolutely rested and ready….I just might be in the wrong time zone and be sleeping while it is school hours!

We are ready to come home now that our objectives were met.  We leave tomorrow at noon (9:00 p.m. PST)

Kaifeng Kids

this room will be used for teaching

they have a puppy at their foster home

Special need little ones

Kiafeng boy

playing with puppy