Host families

Our time in China is enriched because of our stay with host families.

 Nancy with her host family, Grace, Sally and Afeng.  Nancy has stayed with Grace every year she has traveled to China.

 Donna talks with her Doumen host family at the final banquet.

On our last full day in Doumen we enjoy a banquet with our host families.  Jumbo (second from the right) led a toast at each table.  Jumbo organizes all our home stay arrangements.  We rely on our host families for so much and thanks is not enough for their efforts.

Post by Charlie

Doumen Camp Annual

The middle school students put together a camp newspaper. We did a mild edit but tried to keep the flavor of the students' writing. Copies of the paper were made for all the teachers and students and handed out on the last day of camp. Note: to view the paper, click on the page and zoom in.

Free talk essay

During our English Camp “free talk” provides Chinese teachers the opportunity to read essays from NPR's "This I Believe" series, then write and talk (in English) about the topic presented.  Teachers are offered an opportunity to write an essay of their own.  This is an essay written by teacher Susan Lee.

I believe attitude makes me a better woman (Susan Lee)

        

  When I got married I was very happy. Life didn’t change at all. I ate at my mother’s home like I did before I got married. I looked on my new home as a hotel in which I spent the night.

  But two years later, after I gave birth to my son, Victor, things changed a lot. My mother-in-law came to “help” me, which meant, I thought, she would try her best to do everything for me. I imagined that I would be treated like a “queen”. Because my husband is the only son in his family, and I had a son, that means a lot for a Chinese family. It might mean even more to my parents-in-law. So I thought I “deserved” the treatment. However, things ended up far from what I expected. She seemed to try to keep away from taking care of my son as much as she could.

  I talked it over with my husband, Adam. He understood what I felt, yet he didn’t completely agree with me. As a filial son, it was impossible for him to talk about it with his mother. Seeing me being more and more depressed, Adam kept having small talks with me. Finally, he suggested me changing my attitude, saying that might help.

  I doubted it, but I thought I’d better try. I tried to take care of my son all by myself after work instead of hoping for help. I did the food shopping instead of depending on my mother-in-law. Through all this for a period of time, I began to know her philosophy. She believes that she could raise her three children well by herself and her husband, and there was no reason that my husband and I couldn’t do it even better with our only child.

  Thanks to her ‘toughness’ and Adam’s advice, I find I’m living my life happier and my once tense relationship with my mother-in-law is getting closer and closer. And this is I believe: Attitude makes me a better wife and a better daughter-in-law.

  Also, in the first few years of teaching, I had a hard time getting on with my students. I got mad at them when they were not obedient. I was frustrated when they didn’t do what they were supposed to do, and I was crazy when anything was out of control in my class.

  When I realized I was getting on better with my family, I began to ask myself why I was mad, frustrated and crazy at my students. Did I do anything wrong? No, I didn’t! So I decided to face all the challenges in a positive attitude. I told myself I would try my best to teach each student by all means, even if I don’t succeed, and that is OK. Now, I focus more on whether I have tried to make things better rather than whether my hard work has paid off. Now I have a very good relationship with my students. And this is I believe: Attitude makes me a better teacher.

Free talk essay

Learn to obey (Dennis Locky)

 I believe sometimes I had to learn to obey

There is one thing I can’t forget, although it happened more than twenty years ago.

You can imagine that riding a bike in a dark road alone, needs strength and courage.

The year I was graduating from junior middle school. I thought it was boring and not necceary for me to go to a high school without any hope of going to college. Because every year at the poor schools ,nobody can pass National College Entrance Exam ,so I decided to give up applying for that kind schools. also I wanted to burn my bridges behind me.and I'm going to fight with my back to the river,The only choice left is going to the No.1 high school or dropping out of school. But after we knew the result of the entrance-exam to high schools .....And I knew I failed to get a chance to go to the No.1 high school in our county.Then what should I do?I have to find something interesting to do in the newspaper .The most attract my attention one is to study laws by myself to be a lawyer.So I order some legal and reference books by post.but I don't know why I hate to told my father about it.Maybe I think it's a silly thing for a boy from rural area to talk about being a lawyer as his career in 1989 ,and even worse he can't go to a high school.Can I achieve the goal in my slack farming season ?I have no idea about all these things.

When I was boggling，one day my father suddenly come back from the town where the poor school is.He said I rode my bike this morning before sunrise to the high school.there he talked to one relative who worked in that school ,and asked the school principal to give me a chance to study ,that chance I did not cherish it before.and my father had already paid an amount of money as an extra .Because of my youth, My father was riding a bike in a dark road alone .I thought I had no better choice for me than obeying my father inclination. So going to college became my only goal in my high school life. I had betted with one of my classmates that one day I will go to college.I don't know whetherhe can remember it or not.And also from then on,the sight of father's back who's riding on a dark road alone often come to visit my brain.Especially when I had difficulty to study my English-----it seemed to be the the biggest obstacle for my college goal to overcome. and eventuly I become a teacher of English.

Recently when I read of a piece of advice that“Dropping out is not cool, it does not make you a tough guy, nor does it mean you are grown up or more mature - in fact it makes you the exact opposite of all these things. ”,I felt scared .if my father didn't ride his bike at that early morning ,what am I doing now? Can I type an essay in English?

Sometimes I had to learn to obey this is I believe.

Final day activities

The English Camp's last day is full of photos, fun and the big finish!  Click on this link to see a montage of song and the student's final presentations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVoDHM3kQCc

Free talk essay

During our English Camp “free talk” provides Chinese teachers the opportunity to read essays from NPR's "This I Believe" series, then write and talk (in English) about the topic presented.  Teachers are offered an opportunity to write an essay of their own.  This is an essay written by teacher Betty Xiao.

Difficult decision, hard choice (Betty Xiao)

It seems that I always have the same problem. During the past twenty years, I had experienced that again and again.

I was born in a poor family. Both of my parents were peasants, we lived in a remote village. I liked singing when I was only a child. In fact, I think I am naturally good at singing. People in my village all knew me well. They said I was like a lark which has a sweet voice. I was singing when I was washing clothes in the river, I was singing when I was walking after my ox in the sheep track, I was singing when I was helping my parents in the field, I was singing even when I was dreaming. To be a famous singer was my dream. After finishing my middle school, I had to decide which high school I should go.

 One night I told my father that I was really interested in music school. My father said it couldn’t be possible for me . Then he explained in two reasons, one was that he couldn’t afford the high tuition fee, the other was that I was not tall enough to be a famous singer. He said that he had understood my feeling. But he asked me to think about that seriously. I couldn’t sleep after talking with my father, I cried under my quilt. After thinking a whole night, I decided to give up my dream , and did what my father told me to do.  I chose a normal high school to begin my study.  

During that three years I was a good student. Both my teachers and classmates liked me. I had a good dream to be a college student in South China Normal Teaching College. Before the big exams, I talked to my father again, this time he asked me to choose carefully. Maybe because of the big pressure, I felt too nervous during the big exams. I didn’t do very well in my exams. So I had to choose another university to study. After three- year study, it was the hard time for me to choose again, Staying in the same city or moving to another city to open my eyes was difficult for me to decide. Because my father has 3 daughters but no sons. My elder sister had married and she moved to another city with her family. And my younger sister worked in a different place. Who would take care of my parents?  I had a talk with my father again, he asked me to choose and he respected what I decided. After a hard choice , I decided to leave my parents and move to another city to begin my teaching career.

When a native guy pursed me after I finished my 3-year teaching, I wonder if I should choose a native people or a fellow-villager. So again I had made a decision. Now I am a mother of  5-year-old boy, my husband and I go back to my hometown once a year. He can’t speak Kejia language, when my parents talk to him, he smiles often. And I am the interpreter among them, sometimes I am puzzled if that was a wrong decision.

I have been living with my parents in –law in a big house for over 7 years. I thank them for taking care of us well. Every day we can eat delicious dinner after work. They also take my son to the kindergarten.  But still some trifles between us exist. So again I had to make a decision to buy a new house. But the price of the house is a lot higher than before, buy or not, so it becomes another difficult choice for me now.

Luckily, every time I made a choice or decision, it didn’t work out badly. But the moment for me to choose and decide is really hard. Because of that, sometimes I was sleepless.  Now I am still living with making different decisions and choices. I wonder if people around me have the same problem .