Weekend downtime

Last week was a blur of activities as 128+ primary and middle school children came to camp and we kicked off the activities.  We heard lots of shouting and laughter – and more and more English as the week went by.  We also had the chance for more and more good interaction with teachers and students.

 

The weekend was a chance to be together as a team with some of our hosts.  Saturday we went to the nearby city of Kaiping where we ate lunch and saw some architecture built largely by overseas Chinese; many went overseas for work, found their fortunes, and returned to China to build elaborate homes.  This building was built sometime before 1589.  To put that in historical perspective, that was less than 70 years after the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, 30 years before George Washington was born, and 200 years before the United States became a nation through the ratification of the Constitution!  China is a country with a long, long history!

 

We also had a great time river rafting.  Being together having fun with our hosts helps increase our friendships.  No pictures, sorry.  None of us had waterproof cameras.  I’m not sure we’ve have been allowed to put pictures on our website anyway.  We were all pretty bedraggled – like drowned rats – at the end of the trip.  “Homeless lady” was the term used to describe one of our female team members at the end of the trip.  (No slight intended to homeless ladies, incidentally.)

 

Sunday was, overall, a time to spend relaxing with our host families.  My family went out to a restaurant together.  Of course “family” included a couple of cousins and the family of a friend, so we had a good sized group.  Afterwards, we came home and I played ping pong with some of the college-aged family members.  No, I didn’t demonstrate American prowess at ping pong, though when my host, Tom, said “let’s play five more points,” I actually got three of them.  So I’m going to put that in my ‘win’ column.

 

As we begin our final week here, we appreciate your ongoing thoughts for our team.

 

Posted by Jeff