Monday, September 23, 2013

Dinner with the Ayi


One of the special things I got to experience in China was going to a local Chinese home. This was not just anyone’s home but, the home to one of my favorite Ayi’s at New Hope. She was on the cleaning staff and took care of the side of the house my room was on and the preschool room. I saw her a lot and even though we did not speak the same language we were able to figure out what the other was saying. She would also come and check to make sure I went down to eat lunch if I was busy working on something in the preschool room.


When Stephanie and Callie arrived it made it a lot easier to communicate with her as they spoke Chinese. Right before Stephanie left she invited us girls to come over for dinner at her house. This was such a fun and wonderful experience and I don’t think I have ever had so much food!

We started off by eating ice cream….yes, you read that right we had dessert before dinner! She went to the store and bought like 40 different types of ice cream because she did not know what we liked. This was so sweet of her and she was so funny pulling all the ice cream out of the bag. I had a yummy chocolate and vanilla one.

After our ice cream she wanted to give us a tour of her house. This was the house that her husband grew up in. She lives with her mother-in-law, son and daughter-in- law and husband. She shared lots of old pictures with us of when they were younger and also all the upgrades they have made to the house. It was such a beautiful place. We were also able to look at the wedding and engagement pictures of her oldest son and daughter-in-law. They were cute and fun!



We walked out and saw all the veggies and fruits they grow in their garden and were even sent home with a bag full of fresh goodies. Her husband is the cook of the house and made us a super yummy meal. I have included pictures of all the yumminess.










My favorite was the bread stuffed with egg and chives. I think I ate 3 of them as she kept putting more on my bowl. We ate and ate and ate some more!!! We enjoyed listening to her tell stories about working at New Hope over the past 8 years. After we convinced her that we could not eat another bite we headed over to the living room.



Once we sat down they brought in plates of fruit! I was like oh-no more food. We learned that it is tradition to eat some fresh fruit after a big meal in China. So there we went finding more room for some fruit. We were able to get a group picture of everyone. This was so funny because I did not realize my timer was set to take 4 pictures in a row. By the third one everyone was laughing at the fact it was still taking pictures.




Overall, it was a wonderful evening and she was so glad that we came. One of the things she shared with us was that we were the first people to come over from New Hope. I would have not traded that evening for anything and I am so thankful that it all worked out and will treasure that memory forever. 

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