overboard

thursday morning dawned overcast with some patches of blue skies, so it looked like perhaps this would be the day to try our hand at white water rafting. i say our, but rafting is not really my cup of tea (i like my water chlorinated and i like to see the pretty bottom of the pool, thank you), nor is drowning (not a great swimmer) so i elected to stay back with rebecca, who is in the same boat (ha ha pun not intended!) as me, and we made plans to meet with some students.
everyone piled luggage in our room, we had some team devo-time, and off they went.
rebecca was finishing some reading, and i had finished mine, so i headed off to the internet cafe to catch up with some blogging and grab some emails. morning seems a better time to be in there because it's less crowded, there's less smoking, and you can actually see since at night there are very few lights. AND i actually got a computer with a working keyboard!
linda, one of the students from last year, called and invited us to her home for lunch, something we were hoping would happen. . . not only because linda's mom makes some amazing dumplings, but because we hadn't had much time to hang out with the students one-on-one. hannah, one of linda's best friends, joined us too, and while lunch was being prepared, we talked about their future plans of college, area of study, leaving home, etc. . . chinese teens aren't that much different than american ones!
lunch was served in their living room, and we feasted on a flavorful seaweed soup (one of the best soups i've had since being in china) and dumplings that were served alongside a bowl of very hot spices. i'm still a baby when it comes to spices, but i've actually enjoyed some of the spicier food since we've been here.
after lunch, linda and hannah wanted to help me look for a CD of traditional chinese music, so we prepared to leave and were surprised to find out the rafting group was back. they changed clothes and met us and we all walked to town together, all the while hearing stories of the wild rafting trip.
stories were flying all about, but to sum it up: because of heavy rains of the past several days, the river levels were above normal, making the rafting pretty adventurous at times. added to this were the sticks (not paddles) that each rafter were given. . . not very useful for paddling and navigaing the waves, but helpful for pushing off at low places. at one point in the trip, several of the boats flipped, and three of the group found themselves trapped for a brief time under the boats. scary, but they managed to get to the surface quickly, and even though there were some harrowing times, they all came back chattering excitedly about the trip, laughing and glad they had gone.
we said our goodbyes in huang ping and then left for kaili, about two hours away, where we would spend the night and next day before heading back to guiyang.
rain greeted us as we walked to the bus, and it rained all the way to kaili, but in typical traveling fashion, the hardest rain waited until we got off the bus in kaili, about ten blocks from where we were staying. so there we were, a parade of foreigners (worthy of staring at on a good day), with all of our luggage in tow, slogging to our hotel, stepping through ankle deep puddles and getting uber-soaked. even with lots of luggage, some of the team entertained themselves and everyone else as they raced to be the first to jump in a puddle to splash their american neighbor. the people of kaili have probably never seen people enjoy a soaking rain so much.
we arrived, looking somewhat like drowned rats into the nice lobby, fumbling for our passports as we registered at the desk. the hotel takes care of us registering with the government, as any time you change locales, you must alert the local police.
we dried off, unpacked some of our wet belongings and met downstairs in the hotel dining room for a delicious meal. charlie, one of our HP students from last year, was playing in a basketball tournament in kaili, met us for dinner. his english is really not very good, so it was hard for him to understand the conversation (but then again, with 10 women and one guy besides him at the table, is it that hard to imagine him having a hard time with the flurry of words??). after dinner we headed off to do some shopping and looking around at an underground market. charlie enjoyed defending the girls' honors as he kept the merchants from trying to overcharge them. it was a neat way for him to engage with the girls without being embarrassed at his lack of english skills. it's interesting to see how something like shopping can be used to build relationship!
back to the hotel for some rest, or for many on the team a game of "beans," an addicting new cardgame our team has been introduced to.