Guess I had better strike while the iron is hot, make hay while the sun shines, two messages in a row.  Can a third go through???

Yesterday found us waking to overcast skies and cool breezes.  It was refreshing and we needed refreshed because Monday was a very difficult day for us.  Both teachers and students were very tired from the weekend.  Not enough rest.  Many were nodding off during the afternoon instructional session.  So I decided students and teachers alike needed a curfew of lights out at 9:00 pm on Monday night.  Attention in classes on Tuesday was much better. 

Monday found us with two instructional sessions—three hours in the morning and three hours after lunch.  This was to make up for the instructional session we lose on Friday because of travel arrangements.  There is only one flight into and out of Qiqihar to Beijing each day and we could not make that flight if we taught on Friday morning. 

In the evening we returned to campus for a night of challenge games.  How exciting to see these 13 to 17 year olds enjoy such simple activities.  They are such an encouragement to us the way they respond to everything we ask them to do.  If we were to ask most US students this age to do some of these things they would not be so eager. Interesting cultural difference.  Dave, Arlene, Natalie, and Anna have the students try to figure out how to transport thorugh an obstacle course a ball suspended from a piece of PVC pipe about 2.5 in in diameter and 3/4 in thick with 10  6-foot strings attached to it; Karen, Jonathan, Elizabeth had students race to deposit in a goal tennis balls they had to pick up using a outstretched sheet with a 4 in hole cut in the middle; Helen, Chriss, and Julianna held a relay race where the students had to transport plastic cups from one point to another and build a pyramid while only using a stretched rubber band to touch the cups; Lane , Rache, Joy and Nancy challenged the students to figure out how Lane was reading their minds and in the end reminded students that no on one earth could read minds without some sort of trick; Gary, Graham, and Beth challenged the students to untie a human knot and cooperate with each other; Jessica, Logan, Wayne, and Rene sponsored a GOOD Guy/BAD Guy game where the students had to see how many points they could accumulate before they met up with the BAD Guy who took all their points. It was a great evening. 

While we had no evening activity on Tuesday, several came back to campus looking for students to share time with.  Gary found a teaching assistant with whom he dialogued for about an hour.  While the talk did not go exactly where he wanted it to go, the trust he built with the teaching assistant will go far to encourage deeper questions.  Dave and Graham ran into a group of boys who wanted to come back to the hotel lobby where it is more comfortable just to talk.  They talked and shared pictures for about half an hour and then Graham played some cards with the boys.  The boys said they just wanted to hear Dave talk.  They have never seen Americans before and are fascinated with our speech and our life in US. Many of these students have never travelled more than a few hours from Qiqihar to Harbin—largest city in the area.  Most have never been to Beijing and none have travelled out of the country.

The students are very curious about us.  They listen intently as the teachers tell the Christmas and Easter story.  You can see in their faces curiosity. No longer are we always the ones who initiate the hugs.  Several will now greet us in moring and afternoon with outstretched arms.  Others wait eagerly for us to make the first move.  Here we are, we get a hot shower each night, chest to chest with students who only have hot water for shower on Tuesday and Thursday nights.  If they want a shower (and one only) on any other day, it must be a cold shower.  They sleep 6 to a room about 10ft by 10ft.  Remember they are adolescents who do not practice hygiene.  Yet we hug and hug and hug. 

Keep lifting us up.  We want to finish strong.  Tonight we have an evening activity—Human clue—where they will have to perform challenges to receive clues to solve the mystery of who was murdered, with what weapon, and in what room.  Then tomorrow we have class in the morning and the closing ceremony in the afternoon.  Lift us up that we will be able to endure the goodbyes of the students.  There will be many tears and much pain to endure.  We are trusting you to be on your knees for us and the students during this time.

I do not know if I will be able to blog tomorrow.  So this might be my last blog. 

In case it is, we want to thank all of you for your support to get us here and keep us strong and focused while here.  We look forward to returning to US to tell the details of the Qiqihar Story which was written for us long ago.

doug for the team