"Preparing for Class"

Today is Monday, July 12. We have our official schedule now and 3 of us start tomorrow. The 4 that are working with adults began class today. It will be a good class for them-a 1:1 ratio! But they worked out a schedule that keeps 2 of them there in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Then they all get together for an hour long free discussion time with the trainees.

Mom and I are helping with kids, it is perfect for us! We begin at 8:30am M-F, we will be helping with 6-11 year olds for their 3 week summer English camp. It will be fun. We will be done with that at noon and then we will meet the team for lunch. Then at 3:45 we get in a taxi and head to a private home to play with a set of 3 year old twin boys. Their parents are paying the school to have teachers come play with them and speak English. So we will be there every day for an hour, except Sundays. Twice during our time here, we will pop into the adult's class and give 2 presentations. One on Manners in America and the other on Salk, the guy who invented the Polio vaccine. The adult class learns about historical people in English and then answers questions to test comprehension. I picked that guy out of the choices because both my sister's company and my company have ties to him. I thought that was cool! I didn't know that until I started researching him, I even found pictures on the internet of polio vaccines with my company's label. For the manners presentation, Mom is going to be "Mrs. Manners" and while I deliver the presentation, she will demonstrate what not to do. I will be sure to capture that on video!

I can't wait to get home to give details about the amazing interactions we are having with individuals. It just blows my mind! I'm excited to get to teach tomorrow-but even if the whole teaching thing fell apart-just being with the people of Jiangmen has proven to be precious. Today, as mom and I were walking down the street, we were approached by a young woman. She spoke a little English and wanted to just say "hello" and ask where we came from and why we were here. We explained we would be here for the month and that we are teaching English at the center and that on Saturday and Sunday nights there is a free English class open to the public. She said she would try to come. I asked the center if they had business cards that we could give people because these types of encounters are happening a lot. We took a stack and already this evening had another chance to invite someone. People are very friendly here to us. It feels a bit like if the circus came to town. As we walk down the street, people stop and stare. Out of a city of 4 million, we seem to be the only westerners. But being a bit different looking is what gets people to want to come try to talk to us if they speak a little English. So that give us the chance to invite them to the center.

I am so grateful to be here!

Tonight our coordinators from the foundation left for Kunming. So we were on our own for dinner. I am the only one who speaks enough Chinese to get us in trouble so I was elected as the official orderer. We did alright! I was glad that I had my phrase book though, because without that-we probably would have ended up with chicken head soup.

I forgot to mention that last night's dinner was interesting......we went out for "western" food and ended up with fruit cocktail on our pizza.