Sunday August 21 at 6:50 am Changsha time

Just in case I can't post things for a while, I thought I would give an update . Here's what's been happening.

As I've mentioned earlier, the temperatures have changed dramatically. We expected mid to high 90s with humidity but the temps here have been a lot better than in Beijing. In fact the last two or three days they have probably been in the 70s with a lot of wind, and so at times it has felt somewhat chilly! Yesterday we were supposed to go to the park but due to some rain that was postponed until today. That's what is scheduled for this morning.

Because that was cancelled, we had a "day off" yesterday except for some paperwork that Sue had to prepare with the rest of the group (which took over an hour, by the way). The extra time we had gave us a chance to meet with a young Chinese woman, and so we talked with her for an hour or so about what it's like to live in China, the Chinese perspectives on the U.S., freedom of speech and religion, etc. It was a wonderful talk and it was especially significant to us because she is a Christian. I can fill in more details about our talk when we return.

The rest of the day was filled up with just taking care of Stacie as well as going to dinner and going swimming. On most of the days a group of us get together at 6 pm and go to a local restaurant for Chinese food. I think that the places that our guide takes us are somewhat Americanized, however, because the food is not all that spicy and we are told that the Hunan province is known for very spicy food. Either that, or our tour guide just orders the less spicy food (which is fine with us!).

If I haven't already mentioned it, the prices for the food are cheap. Yesterday's dinner for all of us cost 126 yuan, which is less than $16 total. That includes everything. Fast food prices are also generally cheap - for example, a Big Mac meal costs about $2.25 and KFC is also cheap. On the other hand, Pizza Hut isn't all that much cheaper than in the U.S., and apparently for that reason Pizza Hut is thought of as being more upscale than McDonalds or KFC.

In terms of the pool, the kids went swimming with Stacie yesterday. The pool is very large and also (fortunately) very warm. Stacie did just great and seemed to enjoy the water. I tried to attach a picture of her in the pool, but the blog site won't let me - another problem going on right now with the site or with the Internet.

Speaking of the kids, they have been wonderful with Stacie. Oftentimes two of them want to hold her at once and they are disappointed when they can't. Just yesterday night Stephanie told me she didn't want to go back to school when we return because she wants to be with Stacie. I know that Sarah and Ryan also are enthralled with her as well.

We haven't had a lot of extra time here - there's a lot to do, and it also takes some time just to do the blog and the other stuff - but I'm also reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I'd highly recommend it.

Okay, gotta go. Take care, and again I hope to update this as much as I can but if I don't that's because I'm having Internet problems.

Gord