A rainy week of site visits began on Monday in Nanbu. Teaching schedules for our students here are concentrated in the mornings, and by the time Jo-Ann and Joe arrived from Nanchong two of the five students had already completed their teaching days. Each of our students teaches alone, 12…
Five students are in Langzhong, returning to this beautiful city that all of us visited several weeks ago. Students here still remember the SSTers who taught at the same school in 2008.
Located between Xichong and Langzhong, Nanbu is welcoming SSTers for the second time. All five of our students here are living with teacher families, most near the foot of the stairs you see in one of the pictures here. (The school is located at the top of the stairs.)…
Three students are here in Xichong, less than an hour’s drive north of Nanchong. In 2008, SSTers also taught in Xichong but at a different school than where we are this year.
Six students moved here on Saturday. This is the first time we have had students at Yilong and school officials welcomed us warmly. A long and winding road took us into increasingly hilly country northeast of Nanchong. Enroute we passed through the new population center being created for Yilong County…
On the weekend of Oct. 15 & 16, students traveled to their new service locations. All are now safely at the places that will be “home” until Nov. 20. The group is divided among four “middle schools” (grades 7-12) across the northern part of Nanchong prefecture. Here are a few…
Friday, Oct. 14. Language exam is over. We spent all- day at Sea Turtle Center getting ready to enter Chinese middle school (grades 7-12) classrooms to teach English. Can we transform our careless “Whaddya wanna do” to more careful “What do you want to do”? What kind of activities can…
Our final week of classes in Nanchong ranged from Chinese demographics, to traditional medicine, music and calligraphy. During the afternoons we continued reviewing for our Thursday language exam. Although we took no pictures at the lecture on traditional medicine, it was one of the most interesting lectures we have had. …
On Oct. 6, we undertook a miscellany of cultural activities in Nanchong. Andrew S.’s host brother met us in Beihu park for some very public tai ji. Not only was the China West student film crew back with us, but a good-sized crowd of morning park visitors surrounded us as…
Another day, another trip: Oct. 5 found us headed to Jincheng Mountain. We wound along through many small villages and farm compounds. Every once in a while we would pass a concentration of new homes being built—evidence of China’s efforts to “build a new countryside”. The narrow roads and switchback…
