Last year, the whole family took a trip to Malaysia for my soccer tournament. It turned out to be a great experience, so we decided to do it again; this time in Singapore. Since our school did not have a spring break the same time the tournament was, only me, Mom, and Dad went. I ended up having to skip a few days of school, but it was okay because my teacher gave me plenty of work to do on the plane.
Singapore is known for its cleanliness, strict rules, and modern building structures. It sounded like a fun place to tour around, so we decided to go a day early. We got a flight on Thursday morning and arrived there Thursday night. We stayed the night at a 5 star hotel and got ready to spend the day touring.
The first attraction we visited on Friday was the Singapore flyer. It is the largest observation ferris wheel in the world! You stand in a glass encased room- that can fit about 40 people- and a full rotation around the wheel takes a full 30 minutes. From the top, you can see the whole city and hundreds of ships at Singapore’s port. It was great, but the best was yet to come with the night safari that night.
With the coming of night, we took a 45 minute taxi ride out of the city to the night safari. There we enjoyed an American dinner with a thrilling show of fire breathing and dancing. It was awesome! After our dinner, we entered the safari and took a large tram around to see all the nocturnal animals. We came across rhinos, lions, deer, giraffes, birds, zebras, hyenas, buffalo... Animals I had never seen up close before! It was really interesting to see them in their natural habitats in the night. We also took a walk through the tame animal habitat, where we saw flying squirrels (one ALMOST landed on my head), bats, otters, sloths… and many, many more.
The next day was the beginning of my soccer tournament. All my teammates arrived, and by 10 am we were out on the field playing for the win. We played many games, and made it into the Final Cup for the next day. Unfortunately, it was extremely hot and humid, making playing hard and somewhat tiring. It was around 100 degrees, and every moment that my team and I weren’t playing soccer, we were cooling down in the shade.
Singapore is known for its cleanliness, strict rules, and modern building structures. It sounded like a fun place to tour around, so we decided to go a day early. We got a flight on Thursday morning and arrived there Thursday night. We stayed the night at a 5 star hotel and got ready to spend the day touring.
The first attraction we visited on Friday was the Singapore flyer. It is the largest observation ferris wheel in the world! You stand in a glass encased room- that can fit about 40 people- and a full rotation around the wheel takes a full 30 minutes. From the top, you can see the whole city and hundreds of ships at Singapore’s port. It was great, but the best was yet to come with the night safari that night. During that day, we went birthday shopping for me. Since I turned 12 the day before, it was the perfect chance to get some awesome presents. I ended up getting a new backpack and laptop case for my mac computer next year. Mom and Dad also sneaked in some shopping; Mom bought kitchen utensils while Dad bought a huge pancake griddle that can hold up to ten pancakes (he’s really proud of it too).
With the coming of night, we took a 45 minute taxi ride out of the city to the night safari. There we enjoyed an American dinner with a thrilling show of fire breathing and dancing. It was awesome! After our dinner, we entered the safari and took a large tram around to see all the nocturnal animals. We came across rhinos, lions, deer, giraffes, birds, zebras, hyenas, buffalo... Animals I had never seen up close before! It was really interesting to see them in their natural habitats in the night. We also took a walk through the tame animal habitat, where we saw flying squirrels (one ALMOST landed on my head), bats, otters, sloths… and many, many more. 
The next day was the beginning of my soccer tournament. All my teammates arrived, and by 10 am we were out on the field playing for the win. We played many games, and made it into the Final Cup for the next day. Unfortunately, it was extremely hot and humid, making playing hard and somewhat tiring. It was around 100 degrees, and every moment that my team and I weren’t playing soccer, we were cooling down in the shade. The teams we played in the Final Cup were really talented. The games were really hard, but we finished with a strong 4th place out of 12 teams. My whole team received a medal for our hard work. Right when I got back to the hotel, I drank a large green apple slurppie and jumped in the pool with my whole team to cool off. We had a blast flipping and diving into the water. That was the last day of the tournament- Sunday.
The whole team flew back to Shanghai on Monday morning. The flight was 6 hours long and I had a blast doing my awesome homework- NOT. We arrived home at 6 pm, and took the maglev train back home. (The maglev is a train that runs of magnets and can go hundreds of miles per hour. It only took us 7 minutes to make it most of the way home- the trip by car would take 45 minutes). I got home to a happy family- my siblings had all stayed at friend’s houses, but they were happy that we had come back. They were super jealous that I had gotten 3 days of school off and a dark suntan and bleached hair to boot.
~Lance
If you don’t know Bangladesh, the photos will help. But statistics say it is the most densely populated country on earth, and one of the absolute poorest. There are so few flight choices that it takes 3 flights and an overnight stay along the way to get there, even coming from nearby China. 
The statistics were right, economic conditions are tough. 
We spent the week living at the orphanage.
We ate there.
We worked.
We cried for them.
But as we found out, statistics don’t tell the whole story.
What we didn’t know, is what life we would find inside this place!
What love!
In the midst of everything else, Home of Love is a place making a world of difference. People who believe in God’s call joined together to form a home of love for kids that the world has overlooked. And we were privileged to be there!
Funny how God works. Long after I am forgotten by these kids, I will still remember the effect they have on me. So who exactly is helping who??
Some things in life leave you never quite the same afterward…this was one of them.
A reminder that while we are just visiting...for the rest of the people here, this is where they live.
Hiking through the beautiful, incredible Karst-type mountains.
Rock-climbing...no wooden walls or rubber hand holds required. Just pick the face of a mountain and go! Here are four of us going up at once...
And yes, EVERYONE made it up!
Lance rappeling over the edge on the way down...do parents really let their kids do this??
A Chinese cooking school to help top it off...
An UNFORGETTABLE experience!
Love, RichSueStaciaLucasLanceElise