Crazy Dragon China Spider!

Today the head teacher was gone, so at the last minute I was asked to
take over her class. I had prepared... nothing, and didn't know their
class routine. Well... the day turned out to be rad. It all started as I
walked to school and saw a HUMONGOUS spider wrapping up a bee that had
got caught in it's web. So, I went to class (it was supposed to be
math time), told them what I saw, found a good container, and we all
went out and caught it!During lunch I went online and printed out a
bunch of pictures of different spiders, and then for science time, we
compared and contrasted the different spiders, learned their body parts, etc. We even named our little guy- Xiaohua (I think it means "Little ____" something). They were so excited about it all day, and were so
well-behaved because of that, I think. I've been encouraging the teachers to give the kids real-life experiences as much as possible (so much lecturing, very little hands-on or experiential learning taking place), so this was a fun opportunity to model that.

My first love in China

When a new visitor first steps foot in the PHF Foster Home’s “Inn,” most likely the first thing to catch their eye is the smiling, vibrant boy sitting on a stool yelling out “Hallo! What is yo namuh?” Confident, quick-witted, and even a little bossy, Grady was the first to capture my heart here in China.

I was surprised when this fully self-assured boy stood up from his chair- he was much shorter than I had expected. Grady has severe scoliosis, causing his back to curve any which way, and braces on his legs. But don’t worry, with a crutch on each arm, he can keep up with any able-bodied kid. I was also surprised to find that he has been here at PHF only a few months. Before that he lived on the streets begging, until, perhaps too burdened by living such a difficult life with a child who struggles to keep up, he was abandoned by his family.Two memories of Grady that will stick in my mind.


1. The day we got a new badminton set. Out on the playground, Grady motioned for me to be his partner. Unable to both play the game, and support his weight with his arms, he plunked down in the sand and hit it to me. We continued back and forth, rarely hitting it more than once because he could never run for the badminton ball-thing when I hit it to him, nor gain enough body motion to hit it more than a few feet (okay, and the other two-thirds was my lack of skills). Despite the wind blowing sand in his eyes because he was so close to the ground, and minimal success, he kept right on playing. Will Grady let his disadvantage make him miss out on life? Never.




2. One day I was walking passed Grady’s perching point in the Inn, and he motioned me over to him and pulled out a mixture of sunflower and other edible seeds and gave them to me. Later I found out that the Primary School teacher had taken the oldest kids earlier that day to the little shop around the corner to learn about using money and such. Each of the kids were given 10 yuan (about $1.35 USD) to spend on whatever they wanted. [Now know this- these kids really have nothing that is their very own- toys, books, play equipment is shared with all ] Grady, along with most of the other kids, had spent his ten yuan- perhaps the first in his life- to purchase things that could be given away to nannies and friends.

Pretty understandable how I fell for him so fast, eh?