a new direction

first thing monday morning we met with a gentleman who heads up an NGO (non governmental organization, which means that they are funded through private donations, many of which come from out of the country) that helps poor villages surrounding guiyang. our hosts have been trying to set up some sort of a teaching situation since the plug was pulled on our plans before we left, so this meeting was an important step to allow us the opportunity to do what we came here to do, and that's teach!

the meeting went well, he met all of us (except dan who left with john on sunday to go to another city to pick up a jeep that john has purchased) and told us a few things to expect.

we'll be teaching in a very poor town (larger than a village, but way smaller than a city, and i know i don't have to educate you on a vocabulary word like "town," a chinese town is more like a small knoxville than a small 50,000 type town in the US. chinese city = millions. guiyang is 3.5 million) where the children speak little (if any) english. more than likely they have studied it for years, but they have had few opportunities to speak it or really learn any kind of conversation skills. we will be using a "full immersion" style of teaching, which basically means we will speak only english. this is a good thing because our chinese skills are limited to "i am an american," "i do not speak chinese," "hello," and "too expensive." . . not extremely helpful phrases in the classroom.

of course once we get there we will have a much better sense of where we're going and how we're going to accomplish our goals. we developed a lesson plan for day one, so we are at least ready to begin classes on tuesday (today). we'll teach from 9 - 12, will break for 1 1/2 hours and will teach until 4. because there is no place suitable for us to stay, we will commute an hour each way. be thinking of our teammates who have motion sickness issues and for the traffic, which could be a thorn in our side each morning.

five days seems like such a little time to do what we came to do, but our daddy has provided this time for us and he will not waste it and the children will blossom unbelieveably in that short time. we will be surprised by the depth of the relationships, but he won't. so please be thinking that we make the most of the time we have with the children, people and authorities of this town.

after the meeting, we ate lunch together, and then we parted company where we stopped at a few DVD stores to pick up some treasures. believe it or not, quality DVDs of just about every title are available for just over $1 each (now you all know what you are getting for gifts! ha ha). the new titles, those not yet released in the states on DVD, are of dubious quality and some feature audience sound effects like coughing or chatting. you may even see someone get up and walk in front of the picture. we stayed away from those. there is a television there that we could test any titles we were wary of. this was an activity similar to many we have dubbed: "only in china." we witnessd the aftermath of an accident, the first we have seen since coming. not exactly newsworthy, but when you know how erratic traffic is around here, it's a wonder there isn't an accident every ten minutes. which is a good thing, because it took them an hour to remove a fender bender. apparently this type of thing really is uncommon, becuase the whole affair raised quite the crowd of onlookers. pedestrian rubbernecking, if you will.

in order to prepare for the week of teaching, we went back to the guest house where we all discussed how and what we would be teaching for the first day. rebecca and i typed up the plans while the team hunkered down for a rare afternoon and evening of doing absolutely nothing but watching movies. a rare treat and one they enjoyed immensely!

we ordered takeout chinese from a little restaurant across the street from our apt, which rebecca facilitated by ordering, but we managed to maneuver from there. from the call from the front desk telling us the delivery man was on his way up (a conjecture on our part since we understand nothing other than ni hao, which means hello), where our meal was presented on platters with dishes on real china. what in the world!!? a confusion over where to set the dishes, how they were trying to communicate what would happen after we were finished (zero understanding on our part) and in frustration, they left and went to the elevator. since we had not paid, i waved money out the door, they produced a receipt, and i think they were pretty relieved to be rid of us until i called back after them wondering about mi fen, or our rice. (i do know enough to be dangerous). more confusion, they left only to arrive after we had finished our meal with a big bamboo bucket of rice with a bag of 7 china rice bowls. we figured they'd come back later for the dishes, but we felt so bad they had to make two trips that we washed everything, and returned our own dishes and three packages of m&ms since they refused a tip. so molly and kathryn hopped across a four lane street with platters and bowls to deposit the clean dishes to a fully confused staff at the restaurant across the street. i can imagine they scratched their head over that exchange, but we hope they enjoyed the m&ms.

life in china would be impossible without someone who can do some translating. we are paralyzed without someone who can intercede on our behalf. if only we realized that this is exactly our daily condition. . . how desperate we really are for our daddy's son. but when we are confident in our own abilities, how quicky we forget our helplessness. may we all remember his mercy and grace!