Xichong site visit

Monday Jo-Ann and Joe caught a bus for Xichong—half the hour-long ride was spent getting out of Nanchong, the rest brought us to the edge of this small, prosperous-looking town. Our trio of students here seems to be enjoying the experience in the smallest of our four service schools. Among other opportunities, one of the teachers/hosts arranged for the three to spend a day in a nearby rural township school—a good experience for all involved. Mondays lesson plans included “body parts” and telling time. Between morning and afternoon classes, our school contacts and the three sets of host parents (or host siblings as some of the younger hosts preferred to be known!) hosted us at a wonderful meal. (We were too busy enjoying the numerous tasty dishes to take pictures.) After checking in with each of the SSTers about progress on their final projects, Jo-Ann and Joe returned to Nanchong.

There are now less than two weeks of service left. On Nov. 20, students plan to return to Nanchong, for a few days of sharing with each other and the beginnings of “disorientation” (getting ready to move back from this culture to North America). Then, on Nov. 23, we’ll board the train to begin our final observations of China—visiting several important cultural sites at Xi’an and Beijing.

(We’ll try to post another blog entry while students are back in Nanchong.)