Summary:
We started off the day by going to the temple that’s 10 minutes walking distance from our hotel, led by a personal guide. After lunch and much needed rest time (Jason got hit by a combo of altitude sickness and too much inhaled incense), we met up with Gina in the afternoon and she took us to the Lhasa Hospital. HUGE. This is Touching Heart’s hospital headquarters. We saw the catheter machine (provided by the foundation and the government) that performs the complex surgeries. After visiting some recuperating kids of all kinds of illnesses, we went to the Foundation's office that acts as the operations for Beijing. Gina then took us to the Blind School and I was floored by how impressive this organization cares and loves blind children. We were given a heart touching tour by one of the alumni of the school who now is on staff and teaches english. It’s a boarding school of 43 students (all ages) and 13 staff. Easily, this is one of the most moving experiences of the trip. Another very memorable part of the trip was treating the 4 guys to dinner at Lhasa Snowland and thoroughly enjoying our conversations and delicious food. I wish we could hang out with them in the states, but God has bigger plans for them here.
Here’s Day 7’s Photo Album! (wish I took more pictures, but here’s a glimpse of what we saw)
Details:
This has been one of my favorite days thus far with visiting the blind school and having awesome company for dinner. God, thank you for blessing me with this experience.
Starting with the morning…
I didn’t understand much on the temple/monastery tour (even though the guide’s English was fine). The guide seemed pretty knowledgeable as he went on and on about the different statues, buddahs, shrines, idols, etc. It was a bit overwhelming. The temple was huge with incense burning everywhere.
We were planning to meet the 4 guys (Tyrone, Eddie, Sam, Burt) after lunch, but altitude sickness combined with all the incense took out Jason and he ended up taking a 2 hour nap. I relaxed in the hotel courtyard resting with my water. =)
After our rest, we went to the hospital to meet Gina and she gave us a tour of the facility and we met Labala who is the liason between the foundation and the hospital. She showed us the cath machine and took us around the pediatric ward as we handed out our stickers and lollipops. We also learned that the foundation also helped fund 2 ICU units, the cath machine and other projects for the hospital. I don't know if I have all the facts/figures, but you can always check out http://www.seapc.us/tibet/index.htm
After the hospital Gina took me to get some medicine for my hand, as I needed hydrocortisone cream. We also visited her husband’s office where he sells Tibetan crafts. He’s also starting up his own company that will sell activity equipment like trampolines and pogo balls. Afterwards David also took me to get my contact solution and case! Thanks so much for helping me replace my toiletries!
Yea!!! Off to the Blind School. WOW. Gina had already taken some friends earlier in the morning, but she took us also we had a wonderful time learning about the school from Eun-Jin (22yrs old) who is blind herself. She was a student there, came back, and is now on staff. She LOVES school and being a student as she plans to go to another school (college?). Please check out: http://www.braillewithoutborders.org This is a boarding school where kids stay for 3-4 years and then they must go into a regular school or they go on to other vocational schools, like massage school. The whole school is completely free where everything is paid for with donations. AMAZING. There’s 43 students with 4 different types of classes: toddlers, middle school, massage school, and one other vocational type of class. The school prepares the students on how to survive in the real world. Such a touching story. I could write so much more, but check out the founder’s book at http://www.arcadepub.com/ ISBN: 1-55970-658-9.
We wanted to support and just love the 4 guys, so we decided to treat them out for dinner. They took the bus to our hotel and they choose a delicious restaurant. We had such a fun time hanging out, enjoying each other’s company. You can feel the brotherly love…yet we’ve only just met them. We had many great conversations about Tibetan culture, girls, Christianity, food, technology, living life, and more. They are so dedicated to their calling here in Lhasa, Tibet. Very admirable. Sam was our comedian for the night…or we picked on him the most…either way you look at it, we were always laughing with him. Eddie, always so thoughtful and God centered…you can just tell his heart is just beaming for Him and flat out compassionate for people. Burt is like the big brother and conversation starter. They all respect each other so much. Tyrone is the fatherly figure and they all look up to him. If these guys were in the states, I think we’d all be good friends. Thank you all for leading and teaching by example. Much love.
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