Fri Aug 8 – Opening of Beijing Games Celebration

Gift of fruit basket for ward -300 yuan ( $45.00 Cn)

[caption id="attachment_372" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Sophie and sweet little girl come to visit Art and practice her English"][/caption]

Sara, 13 yr old playing Chinese organ to celebrate Beijing Games on 20th Floor

[caption id="attachment_369" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Presentation of good-bye gift to doctors (Gift Calendar from Yukon)"][/caption]

Basket of roses for the ward -good-bye gift

[caption id="attachment_366" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Beijing Opening night party"][/caption]

Party time on the 20th Floor

Aug 8th and China is celebrating the opening of the Olympic Games . All of China is celebrating and one could hear the fireworks even from our room on the 20th floor. You could see the fireworks in the distance from our room.

Our interpreters Johnny and Rebecca have been preparing for a party to celebrate the event all week. Everyone on the ward has been invited to come and join them to watch the opening ceremonies on TV in the Recreation Room. Johnny said feel free to bring a dish from your country or fruit to share; Beike staff provided beer, juice, chips and Moon cookies, eaten on special occasions.
There was much excitement and considerable photo taking; every nurse and doctor was hanging around Art’s neck having their picture taken with him. He’s one popular man with all of them ,especially the female doctors and nurses. They call him a very handsome man. It must be his winning smile that gets them.
They were very proud of the opening acts; explaining some of the ancient chinese stories they were portraying. All of us clapped appreciatively after each act. It certainly was very impressive.
Viv and I made Hawai Pizza as everyone loves fresh pizza from the oven. We now pass around Lorenzo’s revised pizza dough recipe which is a never fail recipe, of course. Wonderful fruit and cheese dishes, so lots to eat and a great break from the routine .
Today was Art’s last stem cells which were his return of the bone marrow puncture from last week.
We now have four babies, one 3 yr old boy here, and one young Chinese boy. The rest of the patients are adults. The children are all CP .

Romania has four Muscular Dystrophy and one young women from China who suffered a head injury from an MVA, which resulted in her paralysis . All the patients and their families are very friendly ; we share stories, food and DVD’s to pass the time away.

We’ve been packing up our goodies and are very ready to head for home. Take note of the basket of fruit. That was the basket of fruit we bought for the ward from us, as a goodbye gift. You either give flowers or fruit as a gift when you leave. The basket cost 300 yuan, not bad for a basket that size (a work of art if you ever saw one ).