Yilong site visit

Our third site visit of the week was to Yilong.  Located northeast of Nanchong, the region’s terrain has higher hills and deeper valleys than elsewhere in Nanchong Prefecture.  As noted several weeks ago, the government has begun constructing a “new” Yilong at a lower elevation some distance south of the existing population center where the school is located.  Any population growth in “old” Yilong would create additional problems with water and other supply issues the town already faces.  Principal J. and Teacher Z. have been very gracious to all our students and have been pleased to be first-time hosts to SSTers.  Our students are usually paired with English-language teachers and are finding ways to participate more directly in classroom instruction.  The junior middle school students with whom they work seem quite enthused with their foreign friends.  Joe and Jo-Ann arrived in town in time to catch some glimpses of two of our students teaching.

Repeating the sad story of previous blogs this week, a malfunctioning camera and poor weather conspired against our visual representation of our Yilong visit.  Almost all the images posted here are from student-supplied photos of their activities in the preceding weeks.