[joy&bunnies]

again. i'm a slacker. please forgive me :)
so last thursday we had a disaster medicine lecture. basically how to function in an emergency state. super fascinating, but i am still left wondering how they would handle such a dense population in an emergency. i already feel like there are SO many people, i can only imagine what would happen- chaos would surely ensue.

we didn't have chinese class on thursday because our teacher went to cambodia for vacation. it was tomb sweeping day on wednesday, which is a national holiday, so there was technically 'spring break' at school. on friday we decided to have a longer class. i was not so thrilled about the prospect of this, but class ended up being great!

friday was jordan and i's presentation day. it went well for the most part. i speak too fast when i get nervous, which certainly doesn't help to people whose second language is english. but they said i did better this time with my pac, and the content was also helpful. or so they say. 

thumbs up

feedback

my wonderful, cheerful mentor "sandy"

saturday we ventured out to a local lake to go fishing! fishing is old school here. it was super fun, and none of us caught anything. then we ate lunch with the nursing director of the whole hospital and her family. 

pro

oh george!

the crew!

director "jean" her real name is jin

double bubble contests!

then we walked around the lake, to this place roughly translated to 8 diagrams field. basically its a crop circle in a yin-yang style. there were tons of models. and such good picture ops. 

we had a wonderful day. how could the days keep getting better. thank you Jesus for Easter Sunday! With help from two wonderful packages; one from zach's mama and the other from my step mom, aunt, and gramma, i was able to morph into the easter bunny for my pals. i hid eggs and wrote notes and shared candy. so although my church back home had a massive egg drop from a helicopter. we had a mini version in china. here's some easter egg pictures:

all my cards- the packages were too heavy to hold. THANK YOU!!!!

the easter bunny

GO!

the hunt was fierce

and they used their bunny hopping skills also!

we had a blast with this. so thank you to all who contributed to making easter happen! we had to go to church early to help set up. richie and i didn't have to go as early, so we went and got coffee, sent some text messages, and read the gospel of John. in public (well sort of, it was just the two of us talking). also an incredible ministry opportunity happened in our church. the government allowed us to open our service to chinese citizens for the day. this was HUGE! and so we worshiped together in many languages celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. 

i have been helping with the children's ministry with one other member. it is so great, but so tiring. anyway the kids performed 3 songs during the service and then we went downstairs. and i watched 8 kids. way fun. way overwhelming at moments. but so wonderful. i have a picture on my phone- but i can't download it :(

eye center

one of the 4 ortho floors

and on monday we visited the ophthalmology department and orthopedic units. we are learning so much. blessed beyond measure to be lectured and then see such a large variety of cases. 

yesterday, we went to the hematology department and were presented with a leukemia case study. i also learned that the very first patient i took care of here (from the cardiac unit) passed away during this presentation. 

we met a nursing student that had rotated through this unit and had been to our presentations. she was so eager to meet us, that she came in on her day off! her name is "jessica" and she is my new pal. she came over to our apartment that afternoon and she even got to meet zach via skype. she is a gem and a half and i told her i would be glad to host her if she ever came to the USA. she was thrilled. 

in the afternoon we went to the local community hospital. i learned SO much here and i wish we had more time to spend at this type of hospital to really understand the chinese medical system. community health care is fairly new in China, but from what i can understand they have already accomplished a lot. they presented some great ideas to integrate community into health education and learning. i hope i can take some of these ideas home. 

today is a "free" day- we have a BBQ this evening. i've already gone for a run, cleaned up, found a place to live until graduation (YIPPEE), and done a little homework. i still have more to finish, so i better get that done!

anyway, i have so much to be grateful for and i love you and miss you all!

love, 

罗达茜