LRS Summer Camp 2016: Day 5

8/11/2016

Climbing Xinglong Mountain

Today is day 5 of the summer camp, which the kids have been looking forward to. We will climb Xinglong Mountain, a protected natural forest reserve in the Lanzhou area. It’s a nice summer resort, and the climate is moist.

After breakfast, most of our group hit the road. It took 10-20 minutes to get from the campground to the bottom of Xinglong Mountain by bus. The campground owner volunteered to drive the younger kids in his car to Xinglong Mountain.

Getting in line to climb the mountain.

All our kids are from villages and are very good at climbing mountains. It didn’t take them very long to charge way up ahead of us.

The kids were yelling, “Come on, teachers! Come on, uncles! Come on, aunties!” We were so far back, and the only thing we could do was work hard to continue moving forward.

After reaching the first mountain peak, we stopped to take a photo. See that staircase on the upper right? We had to overcome that obstacle later.

A picture of volunteer Lina

Volunteer Xiao Wen was in charge of the hard labor. His backpack held important supplies for everybody. Xiao Wen was also our leader during the whole trip, walking in front to protect the group.

Look at how hard these two are working. Haoyang always poses when he sees a camera. Caiman prioritizes safety first and continues to hold on to the rail.

After reaching the second mountain peak, we stopped to take another photo.

Then we kept on walking.

Climbing the mountain showed our children that it is completely possible to recover from congenital heart disease with surgery and treatment.

Look at how strong our group looks while hiking up the stairs! Our children were very brave. They constantly challenged their patience and physical strength. This showed them that congenital heart disease is not that scary. It is completely possible to recover with surgery and treatment.

After an hour and a half of climbing, we reached the peak of Xinglong Mountain, Fuyun peak. This is when we witnessed a miracle—the kids formed a heart shape with their bodies.

This heart represents the pain, tears, and blood they’ve experienced from congenital heart disease. It represents even more for their appreciation and yearning for a good life.

The Descent

After a bit of rest, we started to hike down the mountain. As the saying goes, “It’s easy to climb up the mountain, but hard to climb down.” Because everyone used up all their energy climbing up, their muscles were aching on the way down. Their legs were shaking when standing still. It took absolute willpower to make it to our destination.

In our group, the older campers helped the younger ones. Each older kid was in charge of one younger kid.

Because of our unity, we reached our destination very quickly. Everybody took photos together, running and jumping at the foot of Xinglong Mountain, proving that we had recovered!

Red Carpet Fashion Show

The activities for day 5 of the summer camp weren't even over yet. We still had more fun activities planned for the afternoon.

We split into groups to make clothes out of newspaper. Then the designers walked down the runway one by one to display their clothes. Look how serious they look! They only had half an hour to design and make their clothes, and then the fashion show began.

African grass skirt

Ji Gong (a famous monk from a story)

Cute outfit

Cleopatra

Little high class lady

Future policeman

Red carpet participants

Water Passing Game

Next was our water-passing game. We split into 4 teams of 6. The rules were that you couldn't use your hands to pass the cups of water, you could only use your mouth. The team that passed and collected the most water in the allotted time was the winner.

Uncle Chung has a very interesting pose!

Auntie Cindy and Brother Xiang work well together and have very elegant movements.

Yi Hong and Hong Xia make a very good team!

They reached the destination! The water in the cups was very hard to get there, so couldn't spill it then!

Pass the Numbers Game

What happened to these little kids' eyes? This is actually a game! It’s called “Pass numbers with your eyes.” This game tests cooperation, and in each team, each person must communicate the right number with his/her eyes. One mistake will mess up everyone else afterwards.

Another Human Chair

Look at our human chair! Teamwork and persistence are key to having victory in this challenge. As long as everyone persists, our chair remains very sturdy.

Today was a fun and meaningful day of camp. All our activities today were hard and challenging. Everybody used a lot of energy today so hopefully they’ll sleep well and have good dreams tonight. We hope for even more exciting activities tomorrow for day 6!

Original article written by LRS staff, translated by Michael Chau, and edited by Carolyn D.