We set off for EA on the first day of June, stopping in NY, Canada, and finally in EA (Vern nearly crossed the Canadian border which might've been trouble for him... -.-) While in EA we would be working alongside of an English school in the area. When I say English school, keep in mind that this isn't a main school for the kids. It's sort of like an after school school that parents need to apply for and it's pretty prestigious. The main idea was that we'd go to the school to help, based on a previous team being there. However, the headmaster (we'll just call him Liu) had plans for us to do an English Festival. Liu basically watched over us the entire trip... from paying for our expenses there to driving us everywhere. The catch for Liu was that he was going to generate money from this, since the festivals would be in a central part of each town we would be at and it would compel the parents to sign their kids up for a pretty good fee. Our role was basically be ourselves, many of these people have never seen an American before, and we had a diverse team. Pseth (unlike PZone from pizza hut) was over 6ft tall and towered over everyone there. NaNa was an American kid, but was taller than most of them and was mostly the center of attention for teenage girls. Vern had white hair like Santa and Jan....et.. had blond hair... so everyone sorta stood out... which people would stare whenever we walked the street. (funny thing i liked to do was sorta step aside and stare at the group as well... whenever someone from the team asked what i was doing... i told them to be quiet since i was trying to blend it with everyone else). Anyways, we would generate a lot of attention wherever we went... especially the festival that Liu had for us to go to which was fine since this was our way to spread the good word. For the parents, it looks like the school is a very good school since they were willing to get Americans to come over and help. For us, we used this as a gateway to spread the good word to whomever was open to it.
As for the English Festivals it was basically a bunch of kids showing off what they
learned in class, which included singing English songs and doing little
games which we joined in on in front of the parents. Afterwards the team (excluding me) would be surrounded by people asking them to pose for them and try to talk to us in English.
One
of the events that were a bit odd were kids doing a fashion show, which basically was kids
doing a fashion show. (I made the comment that if this was the US...
someone would be calling the cops). The catch was that a local clothing
store probably struck a deal with Liu and they agreed to advertise their
clothing at the event... which was probably already to going to be huge
due to the advertisements around town and it being in a central area of
the town. We eventually calculated it up and decided that Liu was
making really good money off of these festivals... despite having to
rent the stage, sound system and other small things, since we saw many
people signing up for the schools right where we were.
An important thing to note is that in the Chinese culture there in terms of this is that the host will pay for everything. While you may be able to state your case that "you shouldn't have" there isn't much to say since the host will do it anyways. One final note from me is: translating is HARD! It's one thing when I talk to someone since it's just a normal conversation (like when someone says dog. The brain won't go 狗->(english)dog->DOG, it goes 狗=DOG... when translating it goes 狗->DOG->(translate english) dog) ... so it takes a few steps before properly translating a word (now think how hard it is to do a sentence ;).... and it's even harder to do it the other way around). Even though it was challenging, it was a good learning experience for sure.
Flight took a total of around 30 hours... the flight from Canada to EA was around 16 if i remember correctly... My streak of crying babies continued as there was one a few rows behind me and one in front of me... What made it worse was there was something lodged in the headset jack so there was no way i could've watched a movie (well... i could watched it, but no sound would come out)... So 18 hours of either reading or listening to music. Sleeping for me wasn't an option due to it would already be night when we arrived. So as you may guess... pure... boredom.... and babies shrieking... sigh.. (but i did talk to the other members of the team)
Anyways, when we arrived we stopped in a major city close to our city of focus which was where our M also lived. We rested at a hotel (believe me we needed it after the flight) and went got up early to catch a bus to our city of focus. There, we met Liu who recognized me from last year and went on to our hotel from there (since the bus ride was around 4 hours). We ate a good dinner and decided to rest up for the coming week.
The second day we went to the Bamboo Sea with some of the teachers that we were going to work with and explored. The Bamboo Sea was a big tourist attraction for the area due to it's beautiful scenery and souvenirs. Most people bought souvenir from the place, since... most everything there was made of bamboo and everything was very unique. There was no doubt that we walked literally miles that day. Afterwards, we got dropped off at a park/plaza where we would be doing the festival that night. What's significant about the park is that you could see where two rivers would converge into the Yangtze River which is the longest river in Asia and 3rd longest in the world.
The third day we went to an old city a little bit from where we were staying where we would be having our second festival. The second festival came and went like the first one. However, since it was in a smaller part of the city, the crowd wasn't as big... However, it probably was a good turnout considering the amount of people in the city. In the evening we threw Pseth a big surprise birthday, since Pseth foolishly made me translate that he was turning a year older today to a child the previous day. The M, Na and I coordinated everything along with Liu on where it was at and when to buy the cake. To be honest, watching Pseth walk into that room was extremely entertaining.... sorta like watching a mouse walk into a trap.
The fourth day we went to another major English school that wasn't associated with Liu's schools. I'm betting money was probably exchanged under the table for us to be there, but nonetheless, we did most of our usual thing there and hung out with the kids and parents there. Since this was a smaller setting, we gave most of our giveaways there. One of the most interesting things about it was that they had a huge electronic scrolling billboard outside that faced the highway so anyone traveling could see it and our names were on it. Later, we traveled a little more what seemed like the outskirts of the city. There was a "ski lift" up to where we would see a lot of Buddhist temples and also the highest point of the city where we could see everything. We PR over the city while Liu watched from afar. Later he said he was very touched to hear us do that. We later went to another park setting (keep in mind that these cities are big and that they have different sections to them) and did a festival there. We also noticed that they did sorta of a Chinese Zumba there and there were A LOT of them. We saw some doing it on the second day... but not as many people doing it here. Jan also joined it which was a bit entertaining. She later told me that it was good exercise (and she was tired from it)
The fifth day we rested a bit and went out to see a fellowship, there we kind of looked around and prayed over the place. It was very interesting to be inside a fellowship in EA where we were... We then went back to the hotel to rest for a bit and also to write cards to each teacher that was with us for the week and went onto our final site which was a walk away from where we stayed. With this being the biggest crowd, we pretty much pulled out all the stops in making it successful. Afterwards, we hung around with the people in the area. We also said our goodbyes to the teachers and gave them a card which had some very inspiring words inside. Afterwards, we ate dinner and went back to the hotel since we were leaving the next day.
The trip back was a bit of a pain... traffic was at a standstill for 4 hours and we needed to be back to see some work study students from last year. We later met up with them and ate and hung out with them. The following day we left on the plane to go to the capital city to do some touring... but to be honest... it would probably be better if you saw the pictures on Facebook instead of letting me describe it...
In the end, the trip was a great trip. We were very blessed not having rain every night considering almost every morning it rained... We are also PRing for Liu as he gradually understand our father's saving grace. He showed signs that he was interested, such as asking how i became an xtian and believing in one father. We also PR for the teachers as well, as they also wonder about if there is anything beyond this life.
I think that's it for this segment... part II coming tomorrow!
PS. Baby sat behind me and was viciously crying.... streak continues...
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