March 2009 Trip Report
The trip to China
in March was a three part trip.
Part 1 – Luzhou: The Luzhou team
consisted of 11 members (from Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, Tennessee and California).
We flew into
the city of Chongquing, Sechuan province, and were met by
three of the English teachers from the school. It was a three hour bus ride to
the school in Luzhou. We checked into the hotel and after settling in went out
to eat with the school teachers. The school is located on a hillside overlooking
the Yangtze River. It is an older school, but
in very good repair. The school is a vocational school; our first of this kind,
so the students will not be going on to schools of higher learning but will go directly into the work force. Some trades taught are; machine shop, hotel management, sewing and dress design, music, cooking and others. The students who were in the cooking classes provided our lunch and evening meal in
the teachers cafeteria. The food was quite good.
The English level
at this school varied (as it does in most schools) from good to very poor. Of
course reading and writing skills are much better than spoken English. That is
why we are there.
We were assigned
to specific trade areas and remained in these groups the entire week. At the
end of the week each group put on a production for us. Then the entire school
invited us to a presentation by various groups and individual students (singing, dancing, samples of what they had learned,
etc). The biggest activity was picture taking.
It seemed that each student had a cell phone and just wanted their picture taken with one of the foreigners. If you have a low esteem problem the Chinese student will fix that.
As usual our
afternoons were spent with the teachers and we had several opportunities to share our faith.
Some of these teachers were sincerely interested and we left tracts and bibles with them. We even put one in touch with the local home church pastor.
On Friday we
returned to Beijing.
On Sunday the team attended one of the “approved” churches and Carol and I departed for part 2 of our trip.
Part 2 – Chifeng: Carol and I
flew to Chifeng, Inner Mongolia on Sunday. This
was to be a trip to visit old friends as we have worked there in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Well it was not a complete visitation trip. We met with friends from two
different schools, where we had previously taught, and were asked to teach…..so we did what we do. This was only a four day trip and on Wednesday we returned to Beijing.
Note: Carol got sick on this trip and I ended up having to take her to a local hospital that provides care to
foreigners. The doctors and staff speak English.
She was diagnosed with a bronchial infection, was given an IV, kept for observation for several hours and then released. She never did fully recover and was confined to her hotel room, in Beijing, for the remainder of the trip.
Part 3 – Xichang: On Sunday, the
22nd, the team, consisting of eight members (from Oklahoma, California,
Tennessee, Oregon and Texas)
flew to the city of Xichang where we had previously taught
in 2007 and 2008. It is the home of the Yi People, the largest minority group
in China.
These students are the most impoverished that we work with anywhere in China. Their parents, for the most part, are farmers living way back in the hills and mountains
of this area. Therefore, the students are housed at the school and only get to
go home one weekend each month. At the school there are up to 20 students to
a room and many times there are two students to one bed.
We always find
these students extremely friendly and looking for love. They crave attention
but also many of them are very shy and the younger ones will run away from you when you try to approach them and shake their
hand. Teaching here is a real challenge and a large number of the students will
be returning back to their farms and see no value to English or even an education. Motivating
them is hard to do but we do the best and focus on those students who do show an interest.
An example of this is a student, Shirley, who contacted me on our first trip and asked for financial assistance (most
of these families are very poor) to continue her education. We set up a scholarship
fund, which continues to this day, to assist those student who need assistance.
Anyway, Shirley has been sent on to a more advance school where she can pursue her education. I got to meet with her for a few minutes and this was one of the highlights of this part of the trip. Also one of the students, Lee, sought me out each break wanting to talk to me. He said he would try to keep in touch with me and said he considered me a very special
friend.
They are building
a new girls dormitory and dining facility. The dorm will free up a lot of space
in the old dorm and relieve the crowded conditions. These facilities came at
a price – their activity area (basketball court, ping pong tables, etc). Maybe
after construction is completed some of these may be rebuilt.
All
in all it was a long but fulfilling trip. We made many new friends, both Chinese
and American. It is amazing to see how God uses the different talents of the
American “teachers” to reach out to the students. Very few of us
are actually teachers, but we all have a heart to reach the lost and share what we have with others. God always takes what little we bring and turns it to much.
Hope to see one
of you on one of our future trips.
