This info is a bit dated, but all my current pictures are on the laptop which is not cooperating with blogger at the moment. Amanda was invited, along with the rest of her class, to a birthday party at the island home of her classmate. We were initially very confused by the invitation since it told us to "get on a boat and go to the party." We were to go to "something, something matou ferry" and not be late. Ummmm, okay. We are not likely to miss a good party, so we asked around and finally figured out where to go. We met the birthday boy's daddy (a British man, married to a lovely Chinese wife, parents of three boys) at the terminal and accepted his offer of ferry tickets. When it was time to depart, we joined to mass of people...orderly lines just don't exist here, but don't get me started on that nonsense. Above is a picture of the ferry and below is the path we followed to board the boat.
Yep, we had to navigate our way to the fourth boat along bobbing boards set up between the boats. We were grateful for full use of our limbs as this would not have worked very well with a wheelchair or crutches.
Once on the boat we were treated to nice views of Gulangyu, the small, picturesque island off our main island that has become quite a tourist attraction. It is said to be one of the top ten destinations for tourists within China. It was home to early embassies years ago and also has a now defunct missionary hospital that was staffed by nurses from our own Hope College way back in the early 1900s.
A famous statue of a famous guy that looks out over the sea. If I were not a lazy person (and not feeling fed up with living here at the moment...) I would look up the information about this site. Perhaps at a later date. Regardless of the story, it was pretty cool to see from the water.
Once off the rocking boat, we walked down the long dock and down a sidewalk to the home. We felt very privileged to be invited to a private home on the island as not many people get to see this side of Gulangyu.
It felt like being at a backyard party at home! We are still not really accustomed to apartment living so this was a treat for us. The yellow building in the background houses a family room and full bathroom.
This nicely appointed kitchen was in its own separate building, right behind the main house. It had full-sized appliances, not commonly seen here, and was expertly attended by the family's ayi (household helper) who cooked all day long.
The back stairs to the house (kitchen is to the left, unseen). The dad told us that this was originally a missionary home, still owned by the church (can't recall which denomination just now). His company made an agreement with the church that they would fix it up (it had been sitting vacant for quite some time) in exchange for the rights to use it for housing at a low rent for the next 20 years. Our friends are the lucky occupants for now.
Amanda and Gene loved the outdoor ping pong table in the back corner of the yard. The children also took turns on the trampoline in the front yard and had fun running around the large, private yard that is shielded from view by lots of lush trees and other tropical foliage.
We took the long way back, walking through the center of the island to the main tourist ferry, since we missed the other ferry (couldn't miss the cutting of the cake, you know!). I got us lost three times but we finally made it back, just to be shoved and pushed onto the ferry by a huge crowd of weekend tourists. We intend to avoid crossing at this hour in the future as this was not a good ending to a fun day. As we are finding more each day, we must learn to hold tightly to the good things so that the bad don't overcome us (of course this is true in every corner of the world, but has been magnified for us here!).
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