Clothes shopping in Bengbu - New

Apologies to the new look of the blog, as I am back now in the USA, and am now trying to pick up chronologically on the trip, and post photos, now that I have a fast and clear internet connection!

This post is a little out of synch in the timeline of my journey, but it includes other images and information about the two days of shopping we did for the children of Bengbu.   Above you can see our volunteers from Bengbu.  We all wish Sun Lele, on the left, a big congratulations on the birth of her son just 4 months ago!  Steven Tao, on the right, assisted me all through this trip, and took personal time out from his work and homelife to be our translator and help to purchase items for the orphanage.  All without accepting a penny in payment.  I can't thank these two enough for all they have done for Packages of Hope and for the orphanage.  They are AWESOME!

In the above photo, you can see from left to right - Steven Tao, Ms. Song (director of the orphanage for the older children, no relation to SWI director Mr. Song), Ms. Wan (director of the orphanage for children ages 0 to 3), and me. Here we are pictured with one of the 10 washing machines we purchased for the orphanage.

Over the course of 2 days, we purchased clothing and shoes for the 140 children at the orphanage.  Buying the clothes for the younger children was easier, but Ms. Song did her due diligence to make sure all the personal tastes of the older children were taken into consideration. I was also extremely impressed with the speed at which the director was able to buy shoes for all the children!  She had the sizes memorized and was careful to pick out the best possible styles the children would like, given the choices we had.

Ms. Wan and Ms. Song had the shops already scoped out before we arrived, and we went swiftly from shop to shop.

The bags of clothes lined up on the street where they were picked up by van to take to the orphanage.

Just a few of the shoes we purchased for the children

All of the washers had been delivered to the orphanage by the last day of my visit.