Today we spent our day off in Blairstown, New Jersey. Jenny and I are staying with a couple that teach at a boarding school called Blair Academy. Susie is from Taiwan and Jerry spent 22 years there working as a missionary. Tonight Susie started teaching us Mandarin Chinese! She made little flashcards with the characters on them. We probably know about 25 characters now.
Susie and Jerry also helped us with the pronunciation of the words to two of the Mandarin songs that we sing. We even recorded them singing on my camera so that the boys could listen to learn the words. Susie gave us Chinese names tonight as I was sipping on Green Tea from Taiwan. It was so good and very fun that I now have a Chinese name! I also have a Hawaiian name that some of my campers from Hawaii gave me this summer. It is Keahu (pronounced Kay-how) and it means beautiful. My Chinese name is Tong Jia Li. The first character is my surname, which in China comes first because your family name is more important than your own name. It means child because Susie says that I have a baby face. :) The second character means excellent, exquisite, or fine and the third one means white jasmine (which is a flower).
Tonight made me very excited to learn more about the culture and language of Taiwan. It was so great to be able to stay with Susie and Jerry. They are wonderful people and we hope to keep in touch with them throughout our travels.
I am missing home now more than I have so far on the road. My team is amazing though and our host families have made us feel so at home.
1 comment:
Keep it up Carly I'm soo proud of you!! You are doing wonderful things! don't worry home will always be here for you when you finish your amazing work! Plus we get to hang out a lot next year!! I'm so excited but we can't do that until next year silly sooo keep your head in the game ;) :) Love you!! You and your team are always in my prayers!! :)!
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