Last night, the kids were invited to perform in a concert celebrating Children’s Day at the Beijing Children’s Palace, 少年宫. It was a typical over the top, hectic, and wonderfully unorganized government-sponsored event. We arrived and it was clear that none of the nannies or kids even knew where we were going before they got on the bus. When we got there, no one really told us what we were doing either. Apparently the kids were going to sing two songs! Alright!
They sat the kids down in the front row, in front of a bunch of kids from a school for the deaf. Why they decided to put kids that can’t see in the front and kids that can’t hear in the back is still a mystery to me. It was wonderful because none of the performers knew what they were doing and the organizers ran around like crazy, yet somehow they were able to put on a picture-perfect show.
As always, the kids were great. The older kids in the choir sang and the little ones sat in the audience. The entire time the older kids in the choir were performing, little Yang An sat there saying “I wanna go on stage too!!” Later, I brought Yang An to the bathroom and he peed all over his pants. Poor Yang An.
Today, June 1, is 六一儿童节, or Children’s Day. At Bethel, it was an absolutely hectic day because tons of people, organizations and companies came to visit the kids, bring presents, and do activities with them.
We had a church’s worship team come play a concert for the kids. These women from a company in Beijing came with a huge cake and stayed to play with the kids. A gymnastics Olympics gold medalist came and signed autographs and helped plant trees. Basically, the entire day, people were coming in and out.
The kids, however, had a great time!
