Packages of Hope - China 2005

Here's a picture of an elderly woman's apartment in an "assisted living" building, right next to the "0 to 3 infant" building. The Chinese loosely translate this type of living as "those who have family assistance". I thought "assisted living" was the best translation to our (American) way of thinking.
Thus, the people living here have financial help from their family members, and the family helps to pay for their living. Their lives here are supported then partially by their own family money, and from the SWI. You can see their living conditions here, and they also have meals and laundry service provided for them by staff members. they also have at least one common room, with an ancient TV set (that blinks on and off from color to B&W) that has a DVD attached to it. I know this, because we watched the "Packages of Hope" video there.

(out of order, sorry, but there's a glitch with picture uploads, and I'm not going to rock the boat to correct it. I've had enough problems with getting pictures uploaded to the Blog!)
Shown here is our wonderful friend Jin YongMing, me, and the foreign relations department leader for the Bengbu Medical College, Ms. Yao Bei

Here is a spry, energetic, and talkative 83 year old who really reminded me of my grandmother. She credits her long life to a positive and optimistic outlook on life. She was a hoot!

Interesting to note that this woman was a Christian, and had this poster on her wall. She was also proud to show me her Chinese copy of the New Testament. Director Song was standing there the whole time, and didn't flinch when I took these pictures, although he made sure he stood clear so he was not included in them.

This reaffirmed my notion of the "don't ask, don't tell" official "in front of the camera" policy that the SWI and other governmental officials must follow in regards to religion.