Hainan Island Service & Play

In September, I (Lindsey) had the chance of going to Hainan, China with a group of people from my school for a week.  During our week there, we had the opportunity to serve at a school for three days doing service work on their campus. We painted a mural, cleaned up trash, sorted their library, made ping-pong tables, and played with the kids. Each day after doing some work at the school, we took a 5 minute walk down to the beach really close to the school. 


Each afternoon was spent swimming in the ocean, surfing, snorkeling, playing cards, and hanging out till supper. On our fourth day there, we had the opportunity of going out to a sea turtle hospital on a floating village. We took a 10 minute “taxi” (taxi boats) ride out to the hospital, which was a wooden shack floating in the ocean. We learned about the history and the science behind sea turtles and learned about how endangered they actually are. We also got a chance to hold some of the smaller ones!! 


On our last full day there, we volunteered at an orphanage. They specialize in helping kids with Cerebral Palsy and Autism. We spent the day helping the few workers with the 40 kids that they have. We played with them and helped feed them and get them off to their naps. We had a lot of down time each day, plenty of time to swim at the ocean and to play at the beach!!!