Only one week to go before the Qiqihar Team heads off to China.  Five of our team members are already in China working at the Shengyang Camp.  It will be great for all of us to meet and gel as a team.  Members of our team are from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, New Jersey, Kansas, and New York.  You can Remember us in Travel!!  Doug on Wednesday, 21 July as he travels to Qiqihar a day before the rest of the team to work on camp logistics and strive for an easy welcoming for the rest of the team who leave on Thursday, 22 July.  Due to limited flights into Qiqihar, we all will have to overnight in Beijing near the airport and take a very early flight to Qiqihar the next day.  So Doug will arrive on Friday 23 July and the team will come to Qiqihar on Saturday, 24 July.  Most of the team will fly out of US on Continental Airlines and a smaller portion of the team will fly out of Toronto via Air Canada.

When we get to Qiqihar on Saturday we will have to be ready to go into camp mode.  After we get the team settled in, we will have an orientation session where we will build even deeper relationships as a team, deal with camp logistics, figure out how many students we have and how we will divide them among our 8 teaching teams, work with our teaching leader, Nancy, on TPR activities, dialogue activities, and jazz chant activities, discover the resources He has collected in our suitcases, meet with our teaching teams, and get our classrooms ready.  Just think, we each have just 40 pounds to travel with in China.  Yet somehow, He provides all we need for 120 to 200 students for 10 days and nights of engaging activity—classroom activities, class workbooks, maps, charts, pictures, music, drama, crafts, games, sports equipment, carnival activities, birthday party supplies for a huge birthday party with 150 to 200 people, gifts, snacks, and a few clothes.  What an amazing feat.  Yes, we do get to know each other by our clothes—and sometimes by the smell of our clothes.  Hahahahaha.

Perhaps the greatest adjustment will be to the food—REAL CHINESE FOOD!!!!  Lots of rice, noodles, and vegetables—some with which we have little familiarity—Have your ever tried bitter melon, or fish head soup, or squid?  And then there are the Chinese burgers if you can find them—yum, yum the hunt is worth the payoff.  Oh and we can’t forget the Magnum Bar—best ice cream bar ever BAR none—sorry about the pun.

We hope you visit our blog often.  I will try to post something every day.  Who knows, I might even be able to get a few pictures out to you.  But I do want to remind you that internet access in China is not nearly so available nor as reliable as it is here in US.  So be patient.  We are eager to communicate with you.  You are our ally in this endeavor.  We can only be as effective as your REQUESTS made daily allow us to be.  We covet your THOUGHTS daily. 

Qiqihar here we come.  What a great opportunity for cultural exchange.  We are prepared, we are eager, we know our purpose.  We know that our stories have already been written—how exciting to get to live them and then share them with you.  Trusting our PROVIDER!!

doug for the team