You have not experienced heat and humidity until you have experienced China summers. After being here for all the “seasons” I have decided the 4 seasons are different than ours in the “good ol’ US of A”. First there is no spring or fall/autumn. Of course there are days (just a handful) that would fit into these catergories however not enough to warrant an entire season.
Of course having heard about the horrible winter storms, winter would be one season. Though winter is split into two seasons; freezing cold and bitterly, frost-bitten cold. The first, freezing cold, is normal winter. You need a winter coat, scarf and gloves – optional. During this time it’s nice to be bundled for a walk outside. This cold will last for about 3 months. Half before and half after the bitterly, frost-bitten cold season which lasts for about 3-4 months. A winter coat, scarf, and gloves will not be enough to keep you warm. Teaching in this weather I was wearing long johns, 2 shirts, a sweater/sweatshirt, pants, 2-3 pairs of socks, shoes, my winter coat, 2 pairs of gloves, a scarf, and sometimes a hat. This did not keep me warm. My fingers and toes still felt frozen after class and of course there was a “fear” of frostbite!! It was bitter cold!! In China, schools, stores, most restaurants, and almost all other buildings lack heaters for the winter and AC for the summer.
The summer I also have to break into two seasons; hot summer and flesh-melting, sweat-dripping summer. Hot summer is just that, extremely hot with some humidity, reminding me of some very hot days in the states and lasts about 2 months. It’s not too bad with shorts, flip flops (if you are daring enough to wear them in public!), a cold drink, or ice cream. Now the flesh-melting, sweat-dripping summer is MISERABLE!! I walk outside my air-conditioned apartment into a HEAT WAVE!! I am thankful for my AC, which seems to work overtime!! There is no way to escape the 100+ degree weather and the 85%+ humidity, except to retreat to my apartment. China brings a new meaning to heat. People carry umbrellas (for shade) and fans (Chinese style). Bicycles and motor bikes even have an umbrella holder. Eating in a restaurant they still serve hot water or hot tea. I miss my cold salads, sandwiches, and beverages!! I will get them soon enough!
So there you have it my 4 seasons of China; freezing cold > bitterly, frost-bitten cold > hot summer > flesh-melting, sweat-dripping summer!!
WHICH SEASON DO YOU PREFER?!?
Saturday, June 28, 2008
China is like Summer Camp!
Walking around outside between noon and 2 everyday reminds me of WaMaVa (the summer Church camp I grew up attending located in Linden, VA). The quiet stillness of China during their “naptime”. Part of Chinese culture is to take almost a 3 hour lunch/rest time. It generally starts with lunch at 11:30, follows with time “to take a rest”, and ends about 2:30 with people returning to work and school. This has come to be my favorite time of day to go to town or be outside on campus walking around. It tends to be a very peaceful, relaxing time.
The reason WaMaVa comes to mind is after lunch all campers retreat to their cabins for rest period. During this time I always liked sitting on the front porch of the mess hall or the front hill overlooking the lake. It was a great time to reflect and be one with our Creator, admiring the world He created. No crazy campers swarming you or things to be done, just “me” time. The heat also reminds me of WaMaVa, though I do think China has WaMaVa beat. Majority of the days here are hotter and have a higher humidity making it worse and similar to those few days of immense heat we had one my last years working at WaMaVa.
In China I have come to appreciate this time for the simple fact that I can walk around outside and not be stared at. I will not forget these lunch breaks and my many trips into town during this downtime. Now when I go back to WaMaVa (hopefully to teach next summer) maybe it will remind me of China!!
The reason WaMaVa comes to mind is after lunch all campers retreat to their cabins for rest period. During this time I always liked sitting on the front porch of the mess hall or the front hill overlooking the lake. It was a great time to reflect and be one with our Creator, admiring the world He created. No crazy campers swarming you or things to be done, just “me” time. The heat also reminds me of WaMaVa, though I do think China has WaMaVa beat. Majority of the days here are hotter and have a higher humidity making it worse and similar to those few days of immense heat we had one my last years working at WaMaVa.
In China I have come to appreciate this time for the simple fact that I can walk around outside and not be stared at. I will not forget these lunch breaks and my many trips into town during this downtime. Now when I go back to WaMaVa (hopefully to teach next summer) maybe it will remind me of China!!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Recent Pictures!
Classia learning to make banana bread and muffins in my kitchen!!
The 3-Self Church in WuHan.
The children at the Primary School we sang at. Surprisingly their English was better than some of our students!
The children performing!
Me, Rusty and Brittany like good little monkeys!!
Megan and her girls playing with their feet in the water to cool off on the hot day!
More girls on the other side of the boat!
J-Bo, Melody, and me - teaching Mel to swim!!
More amazing girls!! - Jane, Sara, Dacy, Susie, and Zoie (down front)
The foreigners! Megan, Brittany, Priscilla, me, J-Bo, Jessi, Jaime, and Darla
Melody and me before jumping off the boat!
Me!! Before we got on the boat!
All the girls!!
Mike, me, and Vito at the family dinner!
The family in ShiYan!!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Praises!
I have had two SURPRISES this week...
1 - We have a new sister!! Can't say much but we are thankful!! I wll share more when I come home!
2 - My lady (LiHeHua) at the market and her family are my family in many ways!! I took Mel with me to translate on Monday and we ended up staying and talking for 2 hours! Her husband was going to share HIS love with me since Mel was there. But we found out in the end we are RELATED!! We shared with eachother for two hours. We sang a few Chinese songs right in the middle of the market (granted it was during the Chinese "naptime"). Of course we do some things differently but it is such a blessing to know this and find out. I had been planning to give her The Good Book in Chinese before leaving, I still will, I know it will be put to good use! She and her husband invited me to go to meet their "home family". I believe we will head out there Friday night and see what it's like!
HE has surely opened doors and windows!!
1 - We have a new sister!! Can't say much but we are thankful!! I wll share more when I come home!
2 - My lady (LiHeHua) at the market and her family are my family in many ways!! I took Mel with me to translate on Monday and we ended up staying and talking for 2 hours! Her husband was going to share HIS love with me since Mel was there. But we found out in the end we are RELATED!! We shared with eachother for two hours. We sang a few Chinese songs right in the middle of the market (granted it was during the Chinese "naptime"). Of course we do some things differently but it is such a blessing to know this and find out. I had been planning to give her The Good Book in Chinese before leaving, I still will, I know it will be put to good use! She and her husband invited me to go to meet their "home family". I believe we will head out there Friday night and see what it's like!
HE has surely opened doors and windows!!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
"Dance Monkey Dance"
Have you ever seen (in movies or in person) one of those men at fairs or carnivals that walk around with a monkey on their shoulder. They play music and the monkey dances like a good trained little animal. I think I have felt like that monkey more in China than ever before in my life. Having a foreigner (especially American or British) work for you is somewhat of a status symbol in China. However, I do not think they realize it is actually rude to treat us like little show monkeys. It is rather funny though! The last one was the best so far...
We (Rusty, Brittany, and I) were asked to attend a performance at one of the nearby elementary schools. Little did we know until that day it was because we were meant to perform. They picked us up and took us to dinner which was awkward. We sat on one side of the gigantic round table with the lazy susan in the middle. The teacher that accompanied us from that school along with Fred (our "manager") said about two things to us during dinner. One of which was "what will you be singing?"... hang on a sec... we were supposed to sing?... During dinner no one else from the school spoke to us. Immediately after we finished eating we were escorted to the front of the auditorium of the school and seated in the front row. Everyone, parents, family, children, and other teachers stared at us. We were number 8 to perform. We sang "Everytime I Kneel..." and were then walked in front of the stage and out of the building to a taxi to return to school. What a night?!
They gave us dinner so we...
"DANCED"!!
We (Rusty, Brittany, and I) were asked to attend a performance at one of the nearby elementary schools. Little did we know until that day it was because we were meant to perform. They picked us up and took us to dinner which was awkward. We sat on one side of the gigantic round table with the lazy susan in the middle. The teacher that accompanied us from that school along with Fred (our "manager") said about two things to us during dinner. One of which was "what will you be singing?"... hang on a sec... we were supposed to sing?... During dinner no one else from the school spoke to us. Immediately after we finished eating we were escorted to the front of the auditorium of the school and seated in the front row. Everyone, parents, family, children, and other teachers stared at us. We were number 8 to perform. We sang "Everytime I Kneel..." and were then walked in front of the stage and out of the building to a taxi to return to school. What a night?!
They gave us dinner so we...
"DANCED"!!
Friday, June 13, 2008
Girl's Retreat Part Er!! - That means 2!
About 2 weeks ago we had another "girl's retreat". We call it girl's because here you are not a lady or owman until you are much older. As much as I tell them I am a woman they laugh and say no. It apparently can also be offensive to some. Anyway, we were going to host it here at our small school, however, we thought it might draw too much attention to us seeing as how we are generally kept under close watch as it is. We moved it to a neighboring larger city (just a few million people!). We piled 8 of us into to cars and set out on the one and a half hour drive to ShiYan. When we arrived Friday evening we took the girls to their choice of either McDonalds or KFC. Out of the 6 of them only 2 had been to KFC and 1 of those 2 had been to McDonalds. Their first experience with "Western (fast) Food". It was quite entertaining to see their expressions!!
After dinner we headed back to John and Megan's where all of us stayed in their very LARGE 3 bedroom apartment. We played a little Mah Jong and ended the evening with singing.
Saturday morning while we were "rising" many of Megan's students came over and joined us for breakfast. We shared with them the art of French Toast and syrup (homemade - as most things are in China). Following breakfast we got "supplies" and headed to meet another 20 or so girls. On the way we of course forgot all the bread, PB, and J to make lunch so Megan and Jessi went to retrieve it! When we all arrived and were accounted for we boarded a bus for an hour ride to the Reservoir. Upon arrival we had our girls haggle the price, we foreigners should have hidden until they finished! When we finally got on the bus and got moving we all went downstairs and sang for a while. We had a short lesson but with the boat moving and it's noise we could not hear well. So we made PB and J for lunch and the boat stopped so we were able to hear better.
The girl's, our sisters, were incredible! I couldn't understand them but the impression they left on those we brought was wonderful. They spoke of their relationship with their Father and how that relationship became an important part of their life. Then in small groups they were able to speak more intimately about choices and life. It helped open some eyes to new things. It was uplifting even for me, to see the passion.
The boat took us to one more place where we "crazy" wai gou ren (foreigners) jumped off the top of the boat into the river (part of the Yangtze)! Chinese people, I have learned, cannot and typically do not swim, as they are scared of the water. Some decided to give it a try so we made it a rule that unless you could swim you HAD to wear a life jacket. We had a few jump in (off the bottom of the boat) and try swimming for the first time. A few also asked us to teach them. Most remained on the boat looking down with huge grins on their faces. It was HYSTERICAL!! We had girls jumping in them flailing their arms about with life jackets on until one of us was with them. Of course we stayed nearby at all times. We, Americans were pretty excited to go swimming so we brought our bathing suits. Our Chinese "dare devils" braved it in their skivvies!! After cooling off we went to dinner and ended at Andrew and Jamie's for singing, dessert, and a new "birthday"! We were WIPED out by the time we got back to Megan's. - BEDTIME!!
Sunday morning we had a meeting and singing. For lunch everyone was on their own before we headed back to good ol' DJK (DanJiangKou)!!
It was a very uplifting weekend!! As always there is more to the story but this is all I can write! One I am exhausted and it's late and two - it's China!
I hope to add pictures next week!!
After dinner we headed back to John and Megan's where all of us stayed in their very LARGE 3 bedroom apartment. We played a little Mah Jong and ended the evening with singing.
Saturday morning while we were "rising" many of Megan's students came over and joined us for breakfast. We shared with them the art of French Toast and syrup (homemade - as most things are in China). Following breakfast we got "supplies" and headed to meet another 20 or so girls. On the way we of course forgot all the bread, PB, and J to make lunch so Megan and Jessi went to retrieve it! When we all arrived and were accounted for we boarded a bus for an hour ride to the Reservoir. Upon arrival we had our girls haggle the price, we foreigners should have hidden until they finished! When we finally got on the bus and got moving we all went downstairs and sang for a while. We had a short lesson but with the boat moving and it's noise we could not hear well. So we made PB and J for lunch and the boat stopped so we were able to hear better.
The girl's, our sisters, were incredible! I couldn't understand them but the impression they left on those we brought was wonderful. They spoke of their relationship with their Father and how that relationship became an important part of their life. Then in small groups they were able to speak more intimately about choices and life. It helped open some eyes to new things. It was uplifting even for me, to see the passion.
The boat took us to one more place where we "crazy" wai gou ren (foreigners) jumped off the top of the boat into the river (part of the Yangtze)! Chinese people, I have learned, cannot and typically do not swim, as they are scared of the water. Some decided to give it a try so we made it a rule that unless you could swim you HAD to wear a life jacket. We had a few jump in (off the bottom of the boat) and try swimming for the first time. A few also asked us to teach them. Most remained on the boat looking down with huge grins on their faces. It was HYSTERICAL!! We had girls jumping in them flailing their arms about with life jackets on until one of us was with them. Of course we stayed nearby at all times. We, Americans were pretty excited to go swimming so we brought our bathing suits. Our Chinese "dare devils" braved it in their skivvies!! After cooling off we went to dinner and ended at Andrew and Jamie's for singing, dessert, and a new "birthday"! We were WIPED out by the time we got back to Megan's. - BEDTIME!!
Sunday morning we had a meeting and singing. For lunch everyone was on their own before we headed back to good ol' DJK (DanJiangKou)!!
It was a very uplifting weekend!! As always there is more to the story but this is all I can write! One I am exhausted and it's late and two - it's China!
I hope to add pictures next week!!
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