June 30, 2006

Today was quite full, tiring, fun, and exciting.

We all jumped on a bus and headed to the Great Wall. It was about an hour drive northeast of Beijing. We got in our groups, paid the 30 RMB (quai, $3.60) to get to the Wall, and climbed to the top of a rather long section. Pretty steep and hard, but definately worth it. There are hundreds of people trying to sell you souvenirs from stalls at several stopping points. The views and picture spots were amazing. Some rode a "coaster-tram" back down to the starting point after making their ascent. SOME hot shots went further than most and skipped the tram down. I wasn't one of them!

We then drove back into the city and stopped at the McDonald's across from Tian'anmen Square. The Square is where there was the student uprising and subsequent killing of many people. Remember that amazing video of the student standing in front of the advancing tank, blocking it's path. Well this is where it happened. The Square is the largest such place in the world. It is flanked by the Hall of the People (like a congress building), a huge museum, and the Forbidden City. In the middle is Mao TseDong's mausoleum. It wasn't open, Shane, Josh, and I hope to go back next week to see Mao. (PS, he's dead).

Then we split into our groups depending on what we wanted to do. Several hit the stores and some went to the Forbidden City. This is where the Chinese emperors spent their time. It is huge, full of hundreds of halls, gates, buildings, temples, gardens, and plazas. Much of it is currently undergoing renovatoin for the upcoming Olympics. It was cool to see the unrestored buildings and compare them to the restored ones. The detail is so beautful. The gardens at the north end were my favorite part.

After that we all met up at a restaurant nearby for a traditional Beijing (Peking) Duck meal. The duck is so tender and the skin so light, it melts in your mouth. You eat it by putting some thin sliced duck, sliced onions, and a soy-plum sauce on a small crepe-like wrap and eating! Mm, mm, good! Then back to the hotel for sleep time.

Tomorrow, Shane, Josh, and I will be moving to another hotel closer to the center of the city while the rest of the team does last minute shopping and preparing to leave China on the 8:00 PM flight out of Beijing.

The Three Musketeers (Shane, Josh, and I) will continue to post our adventures. Check back soon. AND we are REALLY hoping to post some pictures while here in Beijing since the hotels allow direct connections from computers. I really hope it works.

See you tomorrow.

June 29, 2006

Up very early and off to the Kunming Airport.

We flew from Kunming to Beijing. We arrived in Beijing in the afternoon. Our hotel is near the airport on the northeast side of the city.

Beijing is a huge city. 16 million people. Tons of construction and refurbishing going on. They are making their city ready to shine for the 2008 Olympics. It is VERY warm, humid, and unfortunately, smoggy.

The team said goodbye to Fred today. He is going back to his job with LifeWater.

This afternoon, everyone did their own thing. Shane, Josh, Scott, and I went to a restaurant that Shane had frequented during his last stay in China, "Paul's North American Diner." It was great, eating al fresco on a pleasant side street. We enjoyed some chocolate, vanilla, and peanut butter milkshakes for dinner.

Only two days left for the whole team. Wow, it is odd to be done with the project(s), but also nice to have some wind-down time.

That evening, bargain hunting was the goal. Prices here are amazing for some great stuff. Lots of "knock-offs," but also great buys on China-made products.

As the evening came to a close, a HUGE thunderstorm hit and the city was in a minor deluge! It was tough to get a cab back to the hotel, but we all made it "home" safe and sound.

Tomorrow, the Great Wall, Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City...and McDonalds!

June 28, 2006

We had an r and r day in Kunming...phew! We all worked so hard on our projects. The rest was definately needed. That night was the last night to see Steven and Daly. It has been so great to work with them on these projects. We hope to continue the positive releationship developed over these last few weeks.

Shopping, resting, and journaling kept us all busy.

Tomorrow, back to Beijing.

June 27, 2006

My dates are off by one day. Oops!

Today, Tuesday, June 27, the entire team went to another village outside Wenshan to have the trainees of the Hygiene Team present their lessons to the village members. We traveled about 40 minutes outside of Wenshan to a small village in the mountains. The Trainees presented four lessons to the members of that village. It was so great to see the local Hmong people training other Hmong people. The villagers seemed to catch on pretty quickly. This was a time for the trainees to show their stuff; and show it they did. They had a fun time teaching their Hmong neighbors several strategies for blocking disease from entering their water supply.

While waiting for lunch (provided by the local village leaders), we walked around the village and into the forested area. This village's water is visibly clean, but they will still benefit from the Hygiene instruction provided by the team. This was our last official task in the Wenshan area. We decided to go ahead and head back to Kunming a half-day early.

We spent seven hours on the bus returning to Kunming. On the way several of us played some great trivia and cunundrum games on the bus. We arrived fairly late and headed to the local KFC. We were starving!!!

June 27, 2006

Today the Hygiene Team went to a local village where those they trained taught the locals a couple of the lessons they learned in training. The team was met by 100s of people lining the road into the village, dressed in traditional Hmong costumes, singing them into the village. Kim and Allison said things went very well. The trainees did a great job transfering their new knowledge to their village-mates.

The English Team went to another village to teach and play at a school visited last year. We were welcomed by chanting children and the school's red-uniformed marching drum and bugle corps. The children were chanting, "You are truly welcome." It was very cool.

We then sat in the school courtyard while the "band" performed a mini half-time show. Fun! After that we went into classrooms and did our "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" lesson. This was a bit more tricky as these students weren't as well versed in English as the school in Wenshan. None the less, they did a great job. We then had each class perform the song and whatever else they learned for the rest of the school. It was great. The kids were so excited to have us there. We then played with them, giving out stickers, balloons, candy. To cap the day off, we taught/played "Duck, Duck, Goose" with them. It was so funny. Imagine Josh being chased by a little 10 year old Chinese boy, getting tagged and winding up in the Mushpot! (Pics coming!) We also did "Steal the Bacon" and "Follow the Leader."

We sadly said goodbye and drove to a nearby village to have lunch with two teachers from the school. We toasted several times. The teachers expressed over and over again their appreciation for us visiting. We hope to return.

We came back to Wenshan, had a P.R. time before resting and having dinner on our own! We'll catch you up later.

PS - We have tried all sorts of ways to post picures, but still isn't working. Hopefully we will have success from Kunming on Wednesday or Thursday.

See ya.

June 26, 2006

Today several people climbed 1000s of steps up to the local pagoda for a club meeting at sunrise. There isn't a local club here in Wenshan. I was told the pagoda thing was pretty cool. (I didn't go!)

We met for lunch and then went to the Hmong market here in town. It happens on Sundays, the Hmong from the surrounding villages come into Wenshan to sell their wares and services. Our whole group walked the market doing a lot of P.R. There were merchants selling all sorts of things including traditional Hmong costumes (pics to follow!), herbs, spices, medicial stuff, shoe repair, vegetables, fruit, toys, birds, clothing, etc. After the market we had some free time. Scott, Todd, and I explored some streets we hadn't gone on before. We heard a sound that reminded us of an ice cream truck. We turned and saw the local garbage truck moving down the street while the shop owners met it at the curb with their refuse.

On our walk we saw a Buddhist temple. There was a group of men playing Mahjong outside. It is like a card game but it is played with large plastic tiles. The pictures and words are carved into the tiles. When drawing a tile, the men wouldn't look at the picture, they would just run their fingers over the tile and "read" it with their hands. Impressive, given the complexity of the Chinese characters.

We met with some students from the local college for dinner. They have been sponsored by Overseas Tribal Services with scholarships. It costs about 2000 quai ($240) a year to go to college. OTS gave each of the 10 students a 500 quai scholarship. There were four of the 10 students with us at dinner. Two were English majors and two were fine arts/music majors. They were supposed to go bowling with us, but they had a meeting later and couldn't go. Several of us, including Josh, Shane, Allison, Art, and me went bowling at an alley in an upstairs floor of a hotel. Rob, Todd, Kim, Jimmy, Kaitlin, Kathleen, and Lauren were also there. Art bowled a high score of 145!!

We got some cold drinks on the way home and slept well!!!

June 25, 2006

Yesterday, Friday, the Hygiene Team continued their training, making fly traps and water conserving handwaswhing stations. Both made from old soda bottles. The English Team went to a local village for some P.R. The Survey Team visited the "lake" village. That is the one that we saw after P. Don and Walter's trip last year.

Shane and I went with the Survey Team to take GPS and altitude readings of the village so that an adequate map of the area can be created to determine the best solutions to the water problem (where to locate a well, pump, water tank, supply lines, etc.). We arrived around noon. It is about an hour out of Wenshan. Off the main highway.

We used Steven's car for as far as we could. Then we met up with our village hosts at another village. We left Steven's car there and rode the famous Pop Pop Car (named because of the sound the two stroke engine makes) to the 'lake' village. It was pouring rain for most of the journey, making the adventure even more exciting. Disneyland's Indiana Jones ride has nothing on this!! Many times we jumped out of the cart to push through mud and water. But, we made it.

At the village we had lunch with the local leader and three other men in the leader's home. A fancy, expensive Hmong meal...rice, chicken, pork with bokchoi, mushrooms, and roasted local peanuts.

After lunch we began the survey. Scott, Ray, Fred, Steven, Shane and I. Scott taught me how to use the GPS, so we took and recorded the readings. We went all around the perimeter of the village and then out to the lake. Well...it's not a lake anymore, but a field of corn. The water is gone. We took readings around there to determine possible water levels, etc. We went to several high points in the village to take recordings too.

The whole process took about six hours. At one point, Shane took over the 'stick' of the Pop Pop Car. Strange, the four locals got off and we stayed on as Shane drove. I'm not sure who are the smarter ones!!!

The four men who took us around were so great. They seemed genuinely happy for us to be there. They were most impressed that we rich Americans would jump in the mud with our expensive shoes (Costco $15.99!). They seemed to appreciate the help and potential solution to what they said was a 100 year old problem for them.

We rode the Pop Pop back to Steven's car and said our goodbyes. Steven was able to do some P.R. with them before we left. Yahoo!

Lots of P.R. around the men and the village. Lots!

We drove back to Wenshan and stopped to get Steven's car washed. It cost 10 quai (about 80 cents) for a full hand wash inside and out. Do you think Fox Farm Car Wash would drop their prices to that? Dunno...

At the car wash we asked if we could scrub off our shoes. They were caked with the thick red mud from the village.

We then went back to town and ate at Dico's. Dico's is an American style fast food place with chicken sandwiches and soft serve ice cream and sodas with ICE!!! While there three students from the school came by. We had met them when the English team taught them on the last two days. It was so fun to talk with them again. One boy (English name Bruce) was there celebrating his sister's birthday. I got to meet his mother, aunt, and uncle. The mother was so proud that her son was speaking English with an American. I asked Bruce to help me order another iced tea. He was great. The two girls, (English names Fiona and Shelby) were so cute. But they were all so eager to practice their English. And they did very well.

Back to the hotel for a much needed shower! Lots of red dirt everywhere.

This morning I took a picture of my clothes with all the red dirt on them before sending them out with the hotel laundry. Then the whole team met for more P.R. time with 'fresh bread' from the word. We had to say good bye to John, one of our translators. Steven instructed us on some upcoming plans. We will fill you in when we return.

We met for lunch then a walk through the Sunday afternoon Hmong market. Lots of food and wares. And now I'm here at an Internet Cafe checking mail and posting this blog. More later.

To my friends at CATS: I hope Carousel is spinning around well. Miss you all. I'll be back for a few performances at the end of the run. Love you all!

Can hardly wait to bring this experience back home. See you after the 5th. Happy Fireworks Day in advance.

Brian

june 24, 2006

forgive the lack of upper case letters. the shift keys on this computer aren't working. welcome to the world of e.e.cummings.

i've got a quick chance to let you know about today. it's saturday. the sanitation team is continuing their great work. the survey team is going to the village with the 'lake' that we saw at the 'club by the lake' presentation after don's visit last year.

the 'english' team is going to a hmong market today to do some p.r. and sightseeing. there is no school today.

shane and i are going with the survey team; scott, ray, fred, and steven to the 'lake' - see above - village to do some fact finding about possible well sites. scott's gps will come in very handy for measuring the area. it is about an hour drive from wenshan. in steven's 'car.'

last night the english team went out to dinner with the teachers from the middle school. we had so much fun building relationships with them. one teacher's daughter, emily - her english name - came. she has been our student guide while at the school. they have asked us more than once to come back and help them with their teaching. hmmmm...

afterward several of us went on an ice cream adventure through wenshan. kathleen took us to a supermarket where they had ice cream bars...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. and frozen juice in bottles. i bought some slushy orange juice, it was heaven.

then we all paid 10 yuan - about 1 dollar and 20 cent for a 30 minute neck and back massage. oh yeah...

brian, see you later.

June 23, 2006

The teams went back to their work projects.

The survery teams were able to meet with a goverment geologist. This is a great plus, because he will be able to help in gaining the equipment needed if a well is necessary. Scott said that was a huge benefit. They spent the day scouting out materials and resources. A very good day.

The sanitation team continued their excellent teaching. The curriculum for this part is very well done. Interactive with lots of modes being used.

The English Team returned to the Middle School to teach our American Holidays lesson. This time we broke into about seven groups. Art and I were together. We taught about the holidays, emphasizing the BIG American holidays - Fourth of July, Easter and Christmas. It gave us a chance to talk about New Years, Valentine's, St. Patrick's, Easter (wow!), Mother's Day, Father's Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (wow, again!). Well, we had no problem telling them the historical events surrounding the holidays and why we celebrate them. The Chinese textbooks had a section about American Holidays that mentioned no Easter Bunny, but the real person behind the holiday! Cool.

Then, and we couldn't have ever planned this one, the local news station showed up with a camera man and reporter. They filmed us teaching and interviewed Kathleen about our work here. Could we have ever thought that kind of thing would happen. We will be on a two minute segment of the 8:00 news tonight on the Wenshan Channel 1. Hum, coincidence, I think not!

After the lunch break we will return to the school for "English Corner." It is a time when the students are free to interact with each other, and us, practicing their English. Hum, good timing after the Holiday lesson...yep!

Then we will meet for dinner with the teachers. That will be fun.

This is a short, but amazing post, don't you agree? Our bus is leaving in 30 minutes.

To my family, I'll try to check email again. And to those responding to the blog, the icons and text on them are all in Chinese so I haven't figured out how to responds yet! My Mandarin Chinese isn't that great yet!

Keep up the P.R. It's working!

June 22, 2006

Our first full day in Wenshan. We met for breakfast. I ATE DEEP FRIED GRUBS. Kind of like over done french fries. One was enough!

Today the team split into its parts. One part went to local villages to survey the water situation. Scott, Fred and Ray are in that group. They were about an hour out of Wenshan, so they stayed out all day. They surveyed soil conditions and began formulating a plan for getting water to the towns.

The second group began their training on water sanitation here at the hotel. Allison, Jimmy, Kim, and Rosemary are in that group. They are working with representatives from several surrounding villages, training them in water sanitation skills. Allison said the group was VERY engaged in the learning. For many this is their first time in a city for any extended time. It is quite a luxury for them.

The third group is the "English Team." Our work is to go into the local school classrooms and "teach" English to the students. This group included Shane, Josh, Kaitlin, Lauren, Sudy, Art, Rob, Todd, and me. We also had Kathleen from CMA to host and translate.

The school is a very nice school in Wenshan proper. The local official (Mr. Yang, our government connection) has a son who goes to that school. It is a middle school (7 - 9th grade). The night before we worked on a lesson with some basic vocabulary and teaching them the song "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes." We had a blast. Sudy, Art and I were in a group and taught five different classes. Each class has about 50 students. Between all of us we probably conneted with about 750 children and their teachers. The children are very well behaved and so excited to have Americans in their rooms helping them with their English. Each class period we saved time for questions and answers. They were most interested in how they could work on making their English better.

The students have a break from 11:00 AM until 2:30 PM for lunch and rest. We did the same, meeting back at the hotel for lunch, then observing some of the sanitation training. Back at the school, all of us were in a room observing a teacher teach an English lesson. Afterward, we met with that teacher, several other teachers, the head teacher, and the principal. They asked us for suggetions to improve the teaching. Wow! They are very interested in making their teaching better. The teacher did and excellent job. There was little to suggest.

We taught in another room. Then the best part of the day...

Earlier, we were asked to do some outdoor games with the children. Being middle school students made it easy to think of playing against them in baseball or basketball. Our boys (Josh, Shane, Rob, Todd, and Art) were ready for an easy game of basketball with the 12 - 14 year old middle school boys. We walked down past a beautiful soccer field/stadium that belonged to the high school. We got to the basketball courts only to find the HIGH SCHOOL boys TEAM of twelve practicing. Their coach running them through the drills. There was a score table and referees! Our guys started to pale. Though tough enough, our team was older, limited - with no substitute players, playing at about 4500 feet, no practice, no playbook, or coach. They played a full four quarter game (about an hour) and, yes...they held their own. At one point, Art scored a basket to tie the game at 44 to 44. But age took its toll and Team Big Bear/Temecula lost to Team Wenshan 56 to 50. The comraderee (sp?) was wonderful. Lots of applause and cheers (and laughs). Our boys done us good!! Most all of the students from the Middle and High Schools were there to watch. The court was lined with kids. A good time was had by all. Lots of red faces and sweat and smiles!!! Congrats Team Big Bear/Temecula!

At the school earlier that day, they asked us to develop another lesson to teach in the classrooms for the next day. They wanted it in English, but also about American culture. Our team met at the hotel that night and developed a lesson about American holidays.

After the meeting, most of us walked to Dicos Restaurant. It is an American style, fast-food place with chicken sandwiches, sodas, and soft serve ice cream. Yum!!!

Some went bowling afterward. I went back to the hotel to write up the lesson plan. I thought I wasn't going to have to do that until I start up school again in August!

Good night!

June 21, 2006

I apologize for the delays, but our hotel in Wenshan has no Internet connections in the rooms. I have to go to a local "Internet Cafe" to be able to get online. Some don't allow access to certain sites. The first one I tried on our first night here would let me check email, but not post to the blog. This one lets me get to the blog, but I'm having a hard time getting to my eamil. It costs only two yuan, or quai an hour. That is about 24 cents! Also, because I can't connect my computer at the "Cafe," I won't be able to post pictures yet. We will be back in Kunming and then Beijing next week. While there I hope to update the blog with pictures.

Anyway, today we traveled from Kunming to Wenshan. We had two vehicles. A bus and Steven's car. The trip took about eight hours. On the way we passed by part of the "Stone Forest," an area of unusual limestone outcroppings that look like weathered tree trunks. About half-way we stopped for lunch in a small restaurant. It wasn't much to look at from the outside, but inside there was a small courtyard surrounded by individual dining rooms. Again, we had a traditional Chinese meal. All of the food is placed "family style" on a large turntable in the middle of the table. Always there is rice. With that you can eat the other items. My favorite for that meal was the bamboo shoots in garlic! Yum!

From that point until reaching the Wenshan area the road was narrow, few guardrails, lots of hairpin turns, and "bold" drivers who use their horns as much as their brakes! Along the way we passed by farm area after farm area. Depending on the elevation you would see rice paddies, corn, tobacco, gensing (sp?), pomegranets (sp?), and sugar cane. Of course there were the people working in the fields using water buffalo (cows) to pull wagons. Many people would be out selling their vegetables or fruits along the road. We saw beautiful red and green grapes, mushrooms, peaches, plums, and watermelon. And of course there were various unknown "foods" along the way too! :)

We arrived in Wenshan around 4:30 PM in the midst of a torrential downpour. Our hosts said that they had never see this kind of rain before. By the time we got into the city proper, there was 12 - 18" of water in the streets, manhole covers being pushed up, and people huddled under awnings and inside buildings. We saw several cars become stranded or stalled. But it did help the humidity drop and the temperature cool.

It is very humid here in Wenshan, but that makes it so green in the surrounding hills. The mountains are so beautiful. There are limestone outcroppings and shear cliffs (pictures to follow). Our hotel is in the downtown area and within walking distance to the very nice shopping and nightlife, but make a quick turn down an alley and you expect Indiana Jones to come around the corner and fight off some bad guys with his whip!

The people are very curious about us. This area is not a foreign tourist destination, so it is very unusual for non-Chinese to be here. The people stare at us as we walk down the street. They are, however, very excited to have their pictures taken. Thank goodness for digital cameras. I probably take a hundred pictures each day!!!

Our group had dinner together in the hotel dining room. It seems like we are eating every moment. And when we eat you want to try a little of everything. But with twelve dishes on the table, that ends up being a LOT of food. I haven't felt hungry yet! Then you turn around and its more food!!!! Yes, Don, some things are a bit odd, but ya gotta try!

Bedtime was welcome and we all slept like babies. There is air conditioning in the rooms, so sleep comes easy. Nitey night!

June 18-20,2006

The picture here shows a man driving his cargo through the streets of Kunming during the afternoon rush hour.

The Big Bear Team met up with the Temecula Team Sunday evening around 10:00 PM at LAX. We left for Beijing at 1:40 AM and arrived in Beijing after the twelve-hour flight at around 5:00 AM China time. It was VERY warm and humid. But the air conditioning kicked in about 6:30 and things got much better. Our connecting flight to Kunming left at 7:30 AM. We arrived in Kunming Tuesday about 11:30 AM. While the trip was long, things went very smoothly.

Steven and Dali Herr, our partners here, met us at the airport in China. We took a bus and Steven's new Toyota 4X4 to the hotel. Remember how Steven got that new car?

We are partnering with Overseas Tribal Services, headed by Steven and his staff. We are working on Community Development projects in the Wenshan area of the Yunnan province. There are three projects. One is a water sanitation training workshop for local citizens of villages outside Wenshan. The second is a team surveying those villages for possible well drilling locations. The third project involves spending several days in local schools in the Wenshan area teaching English to the Kindergarten through 8th grade students.

The entire team, along with Steven and Dali, had an amazing and spicy Thai food lunch at our hotel in Kunming before heading off to Steven's office to review our projects and the upcoming itinerary. The taxi ride was pretty amazing. I’ll never complain about drivers in the US again!

After the meeting, we headed back to our hotel for some R and R. Later, we all went to a local restaurant/dinner theater for our evening meal. For the eighteen of us it only cost about $55 US. Wow! The entertainment was a mixture of traditional songs and dance to contemporary interpretations of folk stories.

We leave tomorrow for Wenshan – an eight-hour bus trip. Tomorrow night we will be planning out our next few days of work.

I hope to post several times from Wenshan; it all depends on the availability of Internet connections.

Continue the great P.R.

Check back for current postings.