Ping Pong-itis!

Hello, it's been a busy week. Tuesday, Jeff aka Fu de Ming invited me to dinner with his family. He lives about 3 miles off campus in a great apartment: 3 bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, 2 bathrooms and 2 decks, front and back. There is also a great clubhouse with it and there it happened...a marathon of ping pong, first with Jeff, then with Roland and his fiancee who both teach at the university. Then Jeff's two sons arrived: Danny and Liu (leo). We played till the cows came home as they say in VT. I have the underarm chafing to prove it too. Dinner was served and there was a nice mixture of English and Chinese. Foods included chicken with dry tofu, green veggies with garlic sauce, a sort of corn chowder, lots of vinegar soda, yes vinegar. It is popular here and tastes delicious. I brought two bottles, Ellen and Roland brought two and Jeff had bought six himself. So, the vinegar just flowed all evening. Jeff's father in law, another "ye ye", grandfather has a strong background in Buddhism. They are all riveted on the elections in the States so I got lots of questions about it. I presented the sons with a couple of gifts: pens and those feather things the kids like to hit off their feet. It's the rage in China.

On Wednesday, my birthday, Shane and I headed for Ding Hu (Ding Who) mountain to visit the top of this sacred mountain and visit the butterfly museum. I did not know a mountain hike was included in the tour so we took just a fantastic hike through verdant forest and bubbling streams and waterfalls. I can honestly say it was just as pristine as any place in VT and actually Ding Hu water is very popular around here, lots of people drink it right from the rocks and I guess it is bottled too. I don't dare as there may be "something" foreign in it my delicate system cannot tolerate.

Thursday was relaxing, did laundry and went out to dinner with Fr. John, Peter and David. John and David are from Australia and Peter is from England. I stated there hasn't been such a gathering of the allied nations since Eisenhower visited 10 Downing Street during the War.

Friday morning a couple of students came by for round two of a mini course I've offered on Wisconsin Fast Plants. We covered lots of ideas and did some hands on stuff. Bottle Biology also addressed the infamous fruit fly trap, aquaterras where you can have plants and fish growing in the same column, and of course the better known compost column. We all went out to lunch at Canteen no. 3 and then back to the apartment for some international camaraderie. Two of the students and I had tea and just the best ever fruit, a huge yellow pear that was so delicious. It was large but not dry, it was kind of like a watermelon inside. They are all amazed at how I can use a knife and showed me some of their scars from their own previous attempts. I suggested they point the knives AWAY from them as they cut and it all seemed to make a lot of sense.

This weekend will be busy: breakfast with Dawn and her husband tomorrow a.m. (he's a surgeon, she works in the foreign affairs office at the school; I rent their apt. during this stay); Dinner at the Dynasty Hotel with Yang Jing Guo, the principal of the school for the deaf on Sat. night; church and breakfast out with James Sunday morning. I'd like to visit the school for the deaf after that and mix with the students a bit. We have fun comparing USA and Chinese sign language. Gesture and body language will come in handy at this point.

I've already begun to pack as leaving on Tuesday for Guangzhou overnight, then fly out on Wednesday a.m., 9:15 for the dreaded 26 hours to get back to Rhode Island. Looking forward to getting home, but this has been just a great great journey.

Bye for now, will proceed to upload some pictures now. Frank

Church and the Zhaoqing School for the Deaf 10/22/08

It's been a busy week. Shane, aka Guo Yong Xing (eternal star) is busily preparing for the speaking contest in Guangzhou on Sat. It is about a 2 hour bus ride there and I will go with him. I've been coaching him and he learns quickly. He is quite driven to master the English language which he has already done quite well. The Cantonese he speaks does not have an R sound so we work on that. The V sound is quite weak in his language too so we work on that too. My speech background has helped as I was somewhat able to analyze his speech and give him some feedback.

Sunday James and I went to the Catholic Church in Zhaoqing run by Fr. Li (Lee). He was quite nice. Of course it was all in Chinese. I told James I really enjoyed that sermon! He had a most quizzical look on his face. Peter from England and Sister Rosa from Hong Kong were also there. Peter is about 6'5" tall. He is married to a Hong Kong Chinese woman and assists Fr. John Wotherspoon at the school. Sr. Rosa took my geolog back to the Marco Polo school for the students and staff to make some entries in either Pinyun, characters or pictures. I will retrieve it in about a week. Can't wait to see the results and bring it back to the States to show the students there.

Yesterday I did my presentation at the Zhaoqing School for the Deaf where Yang Jing Guo is the principal. About 20 teachers and staff attended the workshop on teaching expository writing skills to deaf students. It was well received I believe; got the major points across. The students were so cute, peeking through the curtains at this Mei Guo / American to sate their curiosity. The sign for America here is the same as ours. Shane took lots of pictures and was quite enamored with the students but realizes how tough it must be to actually teach deaf students. I said, "like yeah!" Jeff was my interpreter and Shane told me he did a great job as Shane was a good listening post for Jeff's Cantonese interpretations.

At the moment I have three dinner invitations, er, two dinner and one morning tea at a restaurant next week. They should all be great. Jeff wants me to come over for a family meal and then for ping pong with his two sons. That should be challenging as they all tell me "You know, ping pong is our national sport!" Of course I knew that and have visions of getting a ping pong table for our new home when I return. We always had one when I was growing up otherwise I might feel slightly threatened. :-)

Well, enough verbiage, off to post some pictures. Hope some folks will drop a note when they have chance. Bye for now. Frank

Ping Pong, Fish Dinner & Marco Polo School!

Just returned from playing ping pong with a great bunch of young folks. I tell them I am a "Ye Ye", grandfather and they all laugh. It was wo nderful fun. I totally admire how the Chinese are so active physically, I feel like trogolodyte or neanderthal next to them, they are so slim and trim, all of them! Anyway, perhaps I'll shed a few pounds while here and ;the doctor will be happy when I go for my physical in November. Timing is everything now, isn't it?

Shane / aka Yong Xing Guo, aka Eternal Star, came with his girlfriend Emma to the apt. yesterday to cook a fantastic meal including fish tail soup which I swore I would never eat but guess what, I had seconds. He is an excellent cook and now I know how to cook fish authentically Chinese. It was accompanied with great greens, al dente, and lots of rice and tea. It was quite memorable and visually interesting as in the US we only see the middle part of the fish; in China ALL of the species is served whether it be chicken fish or duck,have not had the frog experience yet.

Shane, Emma and I went on to Fr. John Wotherspoon's new school servicing peasant children who would never have an education otherwise if it weren't for Fr. John. He put me to the task of teaching 3 forty minute classes in less than two hours. Shane also stepped up to the plate to teach one 40 min. class. He categorically said he is not too interested in teaching that age, maybe older students. To get to the school we took a taxi at a cost of about 3 US dollars. It was a wild ride over a bumpy curvy road next to a steep river bank. Had we gone off, it would have been a disaster but this driver for some reason was fairly cautious. Most of them are cowboys riding the range and happen to have a couple of passengers along.

After the classes finished at 5 p.m. (US students take note, school goes until 5 p.m. here) were invited to visit the tutoring center. We walked down a very precipitous pathway following the students to the center. It was like something you see in magazines or advertisements for extremely poor people like in the slums of So. America. I've never been that close to so much poverty. But the great thing was, everyone had beautiful smiles and greetings. We went in and observed the students getting right down to their work with assigned tutors, Rosa from Hong Kong and David (I think) from Australia working with them. In a far corner there was a group of teen girls playing guitars with their female teacher: Silent Night and Eidelweiss. It was quite smoky as a cooking fire had been lit and wild looking dogs and cats roamed all around.

After, we went to a nearby street lead by Christopher, a fellow from Hong Kong who is assisting Fr. John. We bought some fruit at a fruit stand and headed for the nearest restaurant. The folks were very pleasant despite the swarm of mosquitos in the bathroom and no running water to wash hands, but other than that...the food was excellent. Had the best tofu dish ever, lots of tea (a staple) and of course the usual fried celery with essence of beef and chicken. Meat is very expensive here so they don't cook much of it.

Will now go to post some pictures. Send me a note when you have chance. Tomorrow, James and I will go to Fr. John's church and play tennis in the afternoon. Zie Jien, Frank

Meanwhile back at the University in Zhaoqing, PRC

Hello all! Thanks for your recent emails. Just got to the university yesterday afternoon. It's hot here like Florida, humid and a bit smoggy just like last year. Finished visiting Guangzhou after two nights in the hotel there. My friend here, Pan Wei Cong, aka WECO and his girlfriend, Ping, were extremely helpful. As I said before, the Chinese are SO supportive of this poor mei guo ren, it is refreshing. We all climbed the Baiyun Mountain, in the heat of course. It actually felt great to be outside exercising after a 26 hour plane trip! That trip was great except with the inactivity and so much food served, I was a bit pudgy upon arrival and the exercise felt great.

Briefly, a couple of highlights: After refusing the same taxi driver four times at the Guangzhou airport for a ride to the hotel, I finally caved and took what was I guess not an official cab. I dickered for 170 yuan, they wanted 200. OK, off we sped, and I mean sped, as in 60 mph through downtown Providence, no seatbelts in sight, weaving in and out with a measure of cutting others off. Had to take a toll road. When I asked the driver to change my 100 Y bill into 20 times 5 Y so I could pay him, he indicated , sure, and at the toll booth took the 100 Y bill so the attendant could change it. Slyly, ever so slyly, he gave me back 85 Y instead of th 100. Did he ask if I wanted to pay the toll? No, of course not. He did it so fast I was more amused than angry. Then we had a bried pidgin convsation about family and I realized hey this is just a guy trying to make a living so I paid him the full 170 Y and we parted friends.

Tour of Guangzhou: Weco took me all around. We didn't want to wait the 2 hours until 7 p.m. for the riverboat tour of the Pearl River. It was too hot and we were tired after the hike in the heat. So we toured another area "Beijing Lu" Street, a major shopping area. It was so hot and muggy I suggested we go back to the hotel and chat. He and I chatted the night away with such a great cultural exchange: family, life, school, job, etc. etc. He is a delight. I finally conked out at about 9:30 when he left and fell into a deep Aleve induced sleep to take care of the sore muscles.

Pictures attached I hope...my favorite funny sight of the day was the "chicken man", Frank Perdue does have Chinese relatives. There was the funniest fellow blowing on a squawky trumpet fully garbed in a paper mache life size chicken. He was selling egg shaped candy for 2 Y. Weco treated.

OK, off for a walk around campus now. I hope the pictures upload well. China is still a sight to see, very visually stimulating.

p.s. the rose picture is of the real roses my host left in the apartment; sending it so Maryal can see!

Off to China Once Again!

Well, here it is, October 7th. Tomorrow at 7:15 a.m. I am scheduled to take off from the RI airport for China once again. I hope to post to this blog occasionally, considering the technological challenges I faced last year, not sure how often that will be. Anyway, I wanted to start a new blog but time does not allow. Just this week we experienced the death of a friend's grand daughter so lots of things just didn't get done on time. Please pray for the Binder / Roberts family!
The trip will begin in the city of Guangzhou, aka Canton on Thursday the 9th. I will arrive at the Zhaoqing University on Saturday where I stayed last year. Return is scheduled for Nov. 5th. Again I will provide a couple of workshops at the school for the deaf there. This year we will focus on teaching science and expository writing skills to deaf students. Additionally, I plan to visit John Wotherspoon at his NEW school called "Marco Polo School". It is worth visiting his website if you want to get the real feel of China at the street level. His website is China8.org. Look for "John's diary". He keeps it quite current.
I want to thank Jeff / Fu de Ming again for his willingness to assist in everything. He is one incredible person and a gift in my life. Also, thanks especially to Helen Litterst at the RI School for the Deaf. Helen has been just great. Additionally, this year, Me Me Meadows lent an assist in the development of the writing workshop. Thanks, Me Me!
I hope to hear from some or all of you! Bye for now.
Frank Redmond