WEEK FIVE PLUS
Trip Start
Aug 30, 2009
1
6
9
Trip End
Ongoing
Yangshuo, Guangxi Zhuang, China
Sunday, October 18, 2009
WEEK FIVE
SUNDAY, October 4TH: Lots of tourists around town. A friend of mine named Djarmila, she is from France took a couple of her Chinese friends for a little raft ride. She bought an inflatable raft that fits just about 3 people but really made for one or two. She came by the juice bar to wait for her friends to arrive and in true Chinese fashion they were a bit late. She was hoping to get off early so as to avoid all the big ships going north to Guilin to pick up tourists. The ships can only take tourist from Guilin to Yangshuo, when they go north they go empty. So they all leave Yangshuo between 10am and 11:30. It was about 10:30 by the time the inflated the raft and were ready to go. Besides now have to dodge the ships she had to get her raft with 3 people into deep enough water for it to float. This turned out to be a real challenge. They planned to go down river to Fuli, the place were they make many of the big wall fans. Then they would roll up the raft and take the bus home.
Talk to Djamila and she said they had a great time. It took about 3 hours to get there and they stopped along the way for lunch. The worse part was getting through Yangshuo.
This evening we had a good turn out at Open talk. Mike, from Australia was there so I did not have to address all the questions. Several students from Hianan and of course the regulars.
Monday, October 5th: One of the students from Hanian met a bunch of foreign tourists and talked them into coming to the Juice Bar. They were all teachers from Guangzhou. They taught at the primary and middle school there. Two were from North Carolina in the USA and the other 4 were from England. They had just been there a week when the "golden week" started so they got 9 days off and decided to come to Yangshuo. They told us that we had the best smoothies in China. I invited them to come to Open talk but they were leaving that evening.
Open talk was good but a little crowded. We held it outside and we had an overflow into the street. One of the regulars later told me that there were more then 30 people there. I was the only foreigner but we had people from 8 different Chinese Provinces. We even had one person from Guangxi, which is the province we are in. Rarely do we get local, locals, people who were born here. We talked from 7pm to almost 10pm. Everyone got a chance to ask a question. Wish there were more foreigners to answer them. Even the shy girls from Hainan came prepared with a question written down in their little book.
Tuesday, October 6th: We started a new tutoring class today. We had been doing two sessions a day with a couple of students whose parents wanted them to catch up but this was a new group. There was to be 5 students age 7 but somehow 3 did not make it. A mix up on the days and they will not start till Thursday. The two that did show up were students here during the summer. I was amazed how well they learn and responded. They sang songs they remembered from the summer. They played a couple of learning games and they did some reading and lessons. After tutoring a couple of tourists came by. One was from Inner Mongolia and the other from Hanian both working in Shenzhen. We had a great talk. Learned more about all three places. They stayed to just about Open talk but could not stay because they were catching a bus back to Shenzhen at 8pm.
Open talk was small tonight and short. Just the regulars. I am not sure why. But it was good sometimes with so many I can hardly hear them. It also felt like I had been talking all day. We wrapped it up before 9.
Wednesday, October 7th: Took a long walk around town this morning. I got up about 6am and decided to take a walk. The sun was not even up yet. Walked over to Green Lotus Hill park, which during normal hours you have to pay to get into. Lots of people walking up and down the hill, people were doing Tai Chi and other exercises also. There was even a bunch of people out swimming. From there I walked along the river then around to the back gate of Yangshuo park. Lots of people there, lots of organize activities. Croquet, badminton, dancing, sword Tai chi, people sitting around playing cards. It was about 8 by the time I got there. Then went over to West Street all the shops were still closed and then back to the river and the Juice Bar. I ran into the lady from Australia who is from England. Four of the girls from Hainan had caught her as she was reading in the river park. I joined them for a while but then decided to go home for a shower.
Open talk was good. We had about 20 people and Mike my friend from Australia was able to take some of the questions. My friend Shelly also came with her son. Most the students are girls and when Shelly introduced herself as a local who was born in a small village in the nearby mountains to become a school teacher, the principle and now owner of one of the nicest tourist retreats in the area, “Shelly's Riverside Retreat” they were all hanging on every word and had lots of questions for her.
Thursday, October 8th: Spent the day sorting through some of the stuff I bought. We decided to sort out the flowers and see if we can get a flower shop to come over and buy them all. Dawn said she knew of one place and would contact them after her Yoga class.
Walked along the river and saw a water taxi at work. A merchant going home with her cart yelled at this guy and they took apart her cart and loaded it on his bamboo raft and off they went.
Two of my friends stopped by the Juice Bar and we just sat around all day talking about other places in China and Asia I should visit. They have travel around a lot and had lots of ideas for me. Told me I had to go to Thailand. I do have a friend there who just bought a hotel on the beach. Maybe a place to schedule for next year.
Had another good size group for Open Talk, they keep wanting to call it English Corner.
Most the talk tonight revolved around business and how to start and how you know a good business. They really want to become involved in owning their own places. Everything from a mountain ski retreat to a small pet shop. Had a big group from the Hainan school stop by. They have to start school on Saturday to make up for the days lost during their vacation. Crazy. So they will go to school from 7am to 9:30 pm for Saturday and Sunday.
Friday, October, 9th: Shelly called she had arrange for me to meet the Headmaster, and 8 English teachers at her school. They are all interested in the Penpal exchange program. So I went over and talked about that and about the hopes to convert the old school into a cultural exchange center with the help of the government. They were all excited about it. They to are in an old school and much of what they have are more like hand me downs from other schools. All the students who go there live on campus. Most are from the many small villages around Yangshuo. As far as schools go in Yangshuo, public schools, this is a rather small one, about 400 students. Most other public High Schools have between 70 and 80 students in each English class and 2000 to 3000 students. Like I said this is a public school with a singular idea tourism. They only have Chinese English teachers, they cannot afford to hire foreign teachers.
At the meeting I discovered a few things that I was not aware of. They really want to do this exchange but they do not have very many computers and the ones they have are used for computer labs all days and are old and out of date. They really need to get at least one computer in each classroom but even then with 70 kids to an English class that will be hard. If anyone has any ideas on how they can get some computers so they can begin writing to the world please tell me.
This evening was nice so we had Open Talk outside. Had some people from one of the new English schools come. They were about ready to go home when they heard about us and had to come. My French friend came a little late and was once again the focus point. She is here just to learn Tai chi, yoga and Chinese. She talk English as a second language in France to primary school children and has a great sense of humor but is very “French”.
Saturday, October 10th: They had tutoring all morning I said in on the classes and had lots of fun with the kids. It is amazing how fast they learn with songs, books and games all combined to reinforce their language skills. This is going to be a very good program.
After classes it was time to do some cleaning. We are not to busy on weekends so all hands on deck. We did a real good cleaning this time. Had some people in from Isreal and they told us all about there adventures traveling all around China for the last 2 months. They said the best people and best scenary was right here in Yangshuo. I invited them to come to Open Talk but they had tickets to the Impressions Show.
Open talk was good tonight had a couple more foreigners who stoped by or should I say were kidnaped and brought by the Hainan girls. They really want to learn English and take every opportunity to meet foreigners. It is great.
Comments
Comments
Bob
Read your latest entries and looks like open talk i going well.
I noted your need for computers and have not seen a request recently. I can check with our college, but the problem always seems to be logistics and regulations. Let me know what you think.
Les Huth=CGP
Computers
Yes what they have are very poor. I think there must be a way if you have a few to ship them over. I will check on my end to see if there are restrictions. Yes Open Talk is great different people very night.
Bob
Just trying to catch up with you and find out if you are still active in Yongshou.
leshuth@gmail.com