Since our last blog entry, Anshun has made the news in China as we have gotten torrential rains and strong thunderstorms two of the last days. It has been quite crazy as it keeps us up at night and often shakes the apartment. The rain usually disappears around our campus quite quickly as we are on a hill, but it has caused terrible flooding near the train station in Anshun city. One of Patty's students could not make it to school because the bus could not get to her area and when she did get to school she had some interesting pictures of water to her waist and of her baby brother floating in a bowl outside their house with much of their damaged goods. Here is the news article from online if you would like to check it out. It has been quite a crazy year as disasters have been all around us--to the north (Sichuan), south (Myanmar), west (Tibet) and now here. Keep the people in your thoughts as more rain is forecast for the next week or so. Here is the link:
http://news.chinaassistor.com/2008/0528/Floods_Hail_Leave_18_Dead,_12_Missing_in_Guizhou_8991.html

We hope you are all doing well, as we have also heard of the tornadoes there and other crazy weather. May your days be blessed and your nights filled with joy and relaxation.

Welcome to the rainy season!! We have gotten the rude welcome to the season of rain here. It will last for the next couple months and usually brings a ton of rain. We have been waiting for two weeks to have the sports day because of it (track and field competitions), and last night we had an amazing display of natures power-8 hours of thunderstorms culminating at 1:30 am with some of the noisiest thunder and stronger lightning I have ever experienced. It was shaking our apartment and causing rain to come in even though everything was closed. Let's just say, we did not sleep much.

This last week, the country of China experienced three days of mourning for those affected by the earthquake in SiChuan and WenChuan. All entertainment stopped and all things were focused on the earthquake. All TV channels showed 24 hours of earthquake coverage. All sporting events were cancelled including the torch relay, and there were many stops for moments of silence. From my understanding, this is unprecedented in China and it was something quite profound to be able to experience. On Thursday, we went to a prayer vigil with countless students at our school. Hundreds of students lit candles and placed them in the shape of a heart surrounding the date 5-12. It has been very much like experiencing the aftermath of 9-11. People have great pride in their country and are coming together to help others. Students are giving money to help with the rebuilding, even though many have little to spare. It has provided a time of openness in the press also as many newspapers were allowed to print anything. From what I hear and see, that is changing back again and many of the same images and articles are found in all newspapers again. People are looking for hope during this time and also cooperating together without thoughts of rank, minority groups, and privilege. There are many worries of worse things to come in the area as heavy rains continue there and many dams are under risk and further mudslides are expected. There have been many major aftershocks--some of which have caused widespread fear on our campus as well. At 1 am many students went outside because of messages from family and friends elsewhere warning of a large aftershock. It was mayhem!!

This last weekend, Patty and I actually ended up going different directions. She went to Guiyang for a much needed women's retreat at a hot springs and I stayed at the college. It proved to be a very busy weekend for the both of us. Patty had a wonderful time getting together with the women to talk and share and also to enjoy some pampering. It was a warm time, but they had lots of fun. During my weekend, there were many senior class parties, so I ended up spending a whole afternoon and night at one of my classes parties. They will play games, sing karaoke, and talk for hours and then have a large meal at night. It was a very sad time as they have known each other for 3 years and now worry about being able to see each other once they leave. We took lots of pictures and had a wonderful meal. The only part I do not like is the excessive amount of drinking that takes place. Maybe it was good I was there, because then others could feel more free to say no to most of the drinking. By the end of the night, there were many students and some teachers (it is the goal of the night to get them drunk) who were very drunk. Smoking and drinking are accepted practices here and almost expected practices especially among the men. They find it strange that I do neither, but are very respectful and will sometimes compliment it as being a better practice, but they still continue in their ways. I guess I will never truly understand.

The next day, I got up early to go out hiking with some students. They wanted to take me to a new place, XingWei. It is about 20 minutes walk from out campus and it is the home to the 2007 International Stone Exhibition. I was pumped to be able to finally go there. I did not know it was so close. The place has also turned into a "upper crust" shopping area. They sell Hummers and fancy, overpriced symbols of excess there. I could have spent all day looking at the rocks, fossils and remnants from caves. It is sad that they will cut off stalagtites and mites from the caves. They had some amazing things for sale there and also some museums that I did not go into because it was too expensive for the students. I will have to go there with Patty as this is a reminder of our first date--her helping me study for my rock test in the science lab. That afternoon, I volunteered to walk a student to a party and on the way home this rather large, muscular guy stopped me on the road. I did not know what to think, but he asked me to teach him English. He worked at the Kingstar Beer Factory near our college and I did not know what to think but gave him my number thinking that maybe he would not call. But later that day, he did call and invited me out to eat at McDonald's. I had nothing to do, so I decided to go, but did not know where there was a McDonald's in our town. He brought his brother along who spoke no English and we set off on a bus and later by foot towards the unknown McDonalds. We later ended up at Dicos (definitely not McDonalds and usually a place we do not eat), but he insisted on getting me something to eat. The thing is that he did not get anything for himself and his brother though, so I felt strange eating the chicken while they watched and we talked some. They did try the fries though, and he got me a chilled coffee drink--ugghh!!

The story only gets more bizarre from here. So we left the restaurant after his brother was told to put out his cigarrette--something most Chinese are not used to-not being able to smoke in a restaurant. We were going to go back to his house but instead he decided that I should meet his cousin who works as a hairdresser. Another 15 minute walk and we arrived at one of the fancier hairdressing places in town and he thought I should get my hair cut. The thing is I just cut my hair a couple weeks ago and it is still short, but he insisted (you can rarely say no). So they took me back and someone who spoke some English washed my hair and massaged my head (I hated it) for 15-20 minutes and then I was escorted to the chair. His cousin is the manager and all of his assistants gathered around to watch him cut my hair. He used a variety of scissors and worked like crazy cutting off any stray hair for about 30 minutes. It looked really good, but it took ages and then they had wash my hair again, dry it and then I was done. All of that for free. What had I gotten myself into!! So we took a taxi back to his cousins apartment and found that most of his family was there--they mainly work at the beer factory also but are from a nearby village. Fifteen of them and their children all gawking at me and talking about me. I was willing to do anything to get out of there, but they were friendly. Gavin, that is his name, thought that it would be interesting to go tour the beer factory, so that was a good alternative. We went to go see his sister who was working there filling boxes with bottles of beer. They have seriously millions of bottles of beer being made daily and packaged and shipped out. I hear the shifts are 13-14 hours long and when we arrived his sister decided to quit on the spot. This was her first day and she could not handle the standing and work. So we decided to make some Chinese food to have a real meal--it was about 8:30 pm. He left to get his motorbike leaving me with his sister to do the shopping. She knew no English, so I tried talking to her in whatever Chinese came to mind, which went very well until she started asking questions. I was trying so hard, but could not understand her as she talked so fast. I often just had to say--Wo ting bu dong, I do not understand. We did successfully get the food though and headed back to make it before being called and invited to eat at his families apartment. So we went there and now the whole family including uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, etc. were there, but most of them ate only rice leaving the better food for us. I felt so bad, but it was a feast. This is countryside hospitality in our area--they will bring out their best for guests. To make a long story a little shorter--my night ended around 11:30 when he dropped me off on his motorbike after many other stops. He is definitely a very nice person, but I am unsure of the situation. Is is something good to use my extra time with or something that I should not be undertaking??

This week we had American weddings in our classes with everything. They made wedding gowns from TP, I brought ties for the men to put on and a suit coat for the groom. Someone was a photographer, bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower girl, readers, parents of the couple, invitations, and they made flowers from newspaper. It was quite the production all put together in 1 hour and then they had the ceremony and the reception with such traditional songs as the hokey pokey and the chicken dance. We ended class with the throwing of the bouquet and candy (no garter). They really enjoyed it. We will have to post some pictures online for you to see. We have started putting some pictures of us on Patty's flickr account, so check them out. We hope your memorial day weekend was filled with blessings of family and friends and free time and that your week is abundantly blessed as well.

Sorry about the late posting following the earthquake and all of the events. It has been a little crazy here and we have been very busy. The earthquake took place 300 miles to our north, but I was still able to feel it in our 5th floor apartment. I did not know what it was exactly as we often feel shaking from dynamite blasts at the nearby mines, but this was different. It started shaking the couch I was sitting on and continued, making my head hurt. I went to the window to check if the building was shaking, but it wasn't so I returned and it was still shaking (maybe a minute or so it all), then stopped and I thought nothing of it until my mom called later that day wondering if we were okay from the earthquake. What earthquake I thought immediately and then it all made sense and we checked online. Patty was outside and saw the water in the pool swirling and making huge waves on a calm day, but there was no impact in Anshun besides the general sense of uneasiness, fear and unknown. Many students did not sleep the next couple nights as they were afraid of aftershocks, and last night (a week after the earthquake), we awoke to thousands of students outside our window at 2am, again afraid of a powerful aftershock. It has really shaken many of their views of life and death, but also caused many of the same changes as we saw in America following the September 11th attack. There is a great level of nationalism and strength found in the country today. The government is doing a great job of supporting the people with aid and help for rescuing and students have watched endless hours of the news coverage. In class on Monday, we allowed the students to watch the raising of the flag in Tianamen Square--it was an amazing thing to watch their eyes and see the emotion that went into the event. We were able to see it in person during our visit to Beijing and it is something that I can find few comparisons to--there is great pride in their nation exemplified now and possibly strengthened by the coming Olympics. Our hearts and minds are not far from the victims of that area--luckily we have not heard of any students who have lost family or friends in the earthquake though a couple were still waiting for word from the epicenter.

Most of our weekly events have paled in comparison to the overwhelmingness of the earthquake. The seniors have all but graduated from my classes so there have been some get togethers and we went out hiking to Luo Xian Cun for the third time in three weekends with some students (they have never been there). It is a long walk so it is fun to talk and the village is like a different world surrounded by mountains and cut off from the rest of the world for hundreds of years. This weekend, we also went to Guiyang to get together with our teammates and it was fun to hear firsthand how other foreigners are doing at the fellowship and to hear stories and to just get to spend time together. On Sunday, Patty threw a surprise party for my birthday with lots of students coming. A few of them got me gifts, even though I tried to tell them no in advance. It was not a surprise as some students kept asking me about it all week, and it is hard to keep a surprise when our lives are almost the same. We had a huge cake and I got silly gifts like a singing angel, and a dog on the moon that dances and plays a song. I love them though!! This week we will have our sports meeting on Thursday through Saturday because of the days of mourning, so that should be a fun way to spend time with students. Patty and Kris will be going to Guiyang for a women's retreat and spa getaway. It is much needed and will be a great blessing and relaxation.

We hope your lives have been blessed this last week and will continue to be blessed in the coming days!!

Happy Mother's Day to both of our mothers. It feels very different being far away, but still knowing and feeling your love and care an ocean away. We love you tons today and always!! It was a beautiful day for mother's day here, though it is not the official mother's day in China. We had a rare day of blue skies--it is often sunny but with cloudy skies so we saw blue today and it was so nice. All around people are out in the fields working hard here as I am sure is also true in MN and elsewhere. We had a good week, even though it is a little sad week. It is the last week of classes for the senior students, so after next week I will only have three classes again. I will have to find more things to do--I am looking for jobs to do (maybe some farming, studying Chinese, helping students with English, or Patty said I can take over cleaning the house--she later took that request back). She actually loves to clean and I love to cook, so it makes for a good match.

We have lots of cleaning tonight though, as we had our Open House and we watched the movie "Facing the Giants." We love this movie and definitely recommend that everyone watch it at least once. The students also loved it and got into it. Some even asked to learn more about the book and kept repeating many of their favorite lines. We also made Chocolate Cookies and also some M&M cookies also. We did not put all of them out so we could save more for later. They were so yummy!! Thanks for the packages from our family--we love to have little reminders of things from home.

This week we were invited to go on a picnic with one of our classes--the whole classes decided to come, so we had almost 30 people. We took a bus for 40 minutes and then hiked for 30 minutes to a cave dug by a village that was isolated behind the mountains for thousands of years. They did not know about modern technology and still used stone tools until they made it through the mountain in 1986. It is insane to think about that!! It turned out that the village we ended up at was the same village that Patty and I stumbled across last weekend when we were out wandering near NingGu. Its name is Luo Xian Cun. At the village we went out picking strawberries with the students--it was the first time for many of them including Patty. They had a great time and some came back with pounds of strawberries!! We walked around the area, enjoying the nature and the friendly people and the bamboo forest. We spent a whole day talking, playing cards and mah jong, and hiking around. It was great to learn about true friendship and team work from the students. They are a great class and really keep together. That is one huge thing about the students here in China--they will stay with their classmates for 4 years so they build great friendships and support each other like a family.

On Saturday, we both went hiking and then a student called to give us a present. He came over later with some friends to give us a whole bag full of presents--it was overwhelming. Patty and I got these silly, colorful matching hats, but we also got some fun things like a traditional Chinese shirt, a windchime, and the stacking Russian dolls. After that, he invited us to eat at his restaurant where he works. It turned out that the restaurant is super fancy and serves very high class food. It is called the Monte Carlo. It was super overwhelming, but this is sometimes how things go in China. We have heard all kinds of stories of students giving gifts to their teachers, sometimes they are quite odd gifts too. Some of their "favorites" have been strange shirts and statues of anatomy. But at the restaurant, Patty even got the chance to play music for the dinner guests on the piano. Everyone stopped eating to watch her and the piano player kept looking at her as though we was saying when will you be done, but it was a good experience and she did well--everyone applauded at the end.

We tend to get very different treatment in all places. Today, we were on the bus and it is normal to give up your seat to elderly people or parents with young children, so today I gave my seat to an older lady who was blind in one eye. It made my day!! She was so gracious and kept turning around to thank me and her whole family said thank you in their own ways (with Chinese or thumbs up etc). When she got off she stopped to wave and say good-bye. As our shopping trip went on we determined that it must be Recognize the Americans Day. In the grocery store, they always play English music when we come in, like they have a spy somewhere that informs them that we are there. Sometimes it is horrible rap music with terrible lyrics, but today someone followed us everywhere because they were excited to see Patty (a beautiful foreign woman). At the check-out a guy kept trying to practice his English phrases, all four of them, Good morning, thank you, hello, and good bye. While walking around we had an unusual amount of people stopping to say hello and asking questions and that only got worse as we stopped to each noodles. The shop workers were high school students with a basic English vocabulary. There was one very interesting spectacle in town though. We saw a line of nurses who were graduating from college parading through town from the college. They had a big banner and walked around the middle of town, must have been several hundred of them in their white uniforms with the old nursing hats and tennis shoes often listening to music. Mom would have loved the sight.

Well, we wish everyone a wonderful Mother's Day and many blessings on your upcoming week. We send many hellos.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday!! Thursday of this week was International Labor Day, so we had the day off of school. It is an interesting holiday as the people who work the most: the servers, street sweepers, bus drivers, garbage collectors, etc. do not have the day off but everyone else does. It is usually a week off, but this year we only get one day, Thursday. This means that any students have to make up their Friday classes on Sunday (it cannot be a holiday without makeup classes). So over the holiday, we had planned a trip to Guiyang (the big city nearest us), with some of the freshman students to eat American Food, KFC. We have been planning this trip for over a week, and it grew to 9 people, which we found out is not a good number. With more people seems to come more problems. We were taking the train on the holiday which is already strike one for bad things. The train on the holiday is always overly crowded so we did get tickets, but we did not get tickets that had seats. This meant we would probably be standing crammed in among others for 1.5 hours. This was the anticipation, and there were some good and some frustrating and struggling times. We learned some good lessons though and a lot more about the students we were with.

Here is how the trip went. We planned on meeting at the school gate about an hour before the train left to ensure enough time (even though we usually go 1.5 hours early to make sure). As was expected, one student was late, so we waited a little and then took off without her. The bus ride to the train station is about 30 minutes, so we arrived at the train station with about 20 minutes to spare. The student who we missed was still on her way and two others were off doing some shopping before we left. We waited and waited and called them, but they did not come. We finally decided to just get on the train, but went indoors to find out the train had already left. This led to a little frustration on my part, and lots of uncertainty. What should we do, when can we get on a train, can we exchange our tickets for money or should we just take the bus (it is 5X as expensive). We finally found out that there was a train that was leaving in 15 minutes, but could not exchange the tickets and they did not have tickets for the train, so we had to get boarding passes and get tickets on the train. By the time we got all of these things done we had to beg them to keep the gate open so we could get to the train--thankfully many people were helpful and we made it onto a train for Guiyang. It was definitely very crowded and we stood for quite some time in the aisles as people tried to wade through us trying to find seats also. As it turned out, there was a couple from a nearby college (Liupanshui) who were English majors and as the kids tried talking to me started a conversation. It ended up that they gave me part of their seat so we could talk. It was very interesting and the time went very quickly. The family that was near us kept giving me fruit though-so I ended up eating 2 bananas and an orange. Patty also ended up getting part of a seat, so it turned out well. We ended up seeing other students on the train also, so that was fun.

When we arrived in Guiyang, we had no idea where to go to find KFC and the directions were not good, so we wandered around a little before getting a bus to drop us off there. The KFC restaurant was super small inside but with tons of people. They even had a cop to help make sure no fights started between people trying to get tables. There were constantly people walking around trying to find tables or pushing their kids around in the high chairs begging people to leave and give them their table. It looked impossible to find enough room for 9 people. But anyway, I went up and ordered food (they had a meal special 12 pieces of chicken, some corn, bread sticks, oreos and one liter jugs of pop for 64 RMB so we got 3 of them. Now we needed to find a table. Luckily we found one and we squished into the one and had KFC. Ahh...it was amazing!! It has been ages since having KFC chicken, but I have to say Asian KFC is much better than in the US. You can get it with spice and it just tasted soo good. It was definitely a feast and we enjoyed it greatly and before long it was all gone with a huge pile of bones and wrappers. We even got real ice cream.

After the feast, we decided to go to QianLing Park, because none of us have been there and they are supposed to have wild monkeys. When we arrived a large crowd of people were leaving, but the place was packed like going to the State Fair. It was definitely a fun time with the students though. We had so much fun--like riding on the Peacock, taking pictures by the water and the 2 mile underground walkway. It ended up being a super long uphill walk to the zoo and wild monkeys, but we did finally make it. The zoo was awful to say the least--there were only a couple animals in super small concrete cages. But we did get to see camels and Patty almost went for a ride (it was only 3 RMB, 50 cents). On way back down, we saw our fill of monkeys. There were dozens of them out, some even brave enough to come and take food out of people's hands. Many of them were fighting as it is getting close to mating time. They are definitely amusing creatures to watch in the "wild."

The girls in the group really wanted to go shopping after this at the famed never ending shopping stalls, so we tagged along to trudge through endless lines of stores for anything you could imagine. It ended up that Patty was the only person that bought anything (sandals--size 43--she was happy that she could find some that fit). By the time we finished this, most of the people wanted to go home which was a huge ordeal. We did not know if we could find a way back to Anshun. We tried the bus station across the road but found out their last bus left 10 minutes ago. We had 40 minutes before the last train left, so we decided to give it a try. We were so tired by this time, that most of us passed out on the bus and we arrived at the train station 15 minutes before it left. We were running around trying to get tickets, running up the stairs to the platform, and we made it just in time. Boy did it feel good to be able to sit down again after almost 12 hours of racing around. We made it back to Anshun safely and had to bargain with the taxi drivers forever to get a reasonable rate back to the college (the buses had already stopped). We slept so soundly we did not even know last night had a rain storm.

We decided in the morning since it was still a day off that we would go to NingGu again to see new places because it is so beautiful. The youcai flowers have all disappeared but now many farmers are planting rice, so we headed out on a path towards a village and decided to try new places along the way. As Patty will attest, I am a frustrating person to go exploring with. We always end up on the path rarely taken or climbing through muddy fields and up steep, rocky hills. This time we ended up in a grove of cherry tomatoes with the only way out being climbing down many muddy fields. By the time we found a "real" path we were full of mud but still smiling. We ended up near a river and some tall mountains and decided we would keep walking and see what we could find. This time it turned out to be spectacular. We ended up on the other side of a mountain in an old village that they have turned into a camp for tourists. It was super beautiful with many little caves and rivers,and a huge grove of bamboo (no pandas though). We walked around the area and then settled down by a small waterfall to eat some food we brought. We tried to find a shortcut back but ended up going in a long circle of nearby villages. We did end up going to a cave on the way back. It looks like they just got it opened, as the railings were new. For 5 RMB a person we went into the unknown led by a man with a lighter and a few lights on the walls. It was something for your eyes to get used to, as a lighter does not give off much light. The cave seemed quite big, but they only had a few rooms accessible for people. A few stalagmites and tites, but it was not super exciting. They would say it was a "mamahuhu" (so-so) tour. We arrived back at the bus stop sore but doing okay. Our little walk turned out to be almost 8 hours out up mountains and through fields. Patty is now in bed early sleeping it off.

We hope you are blessed in all of your labors, whatever they may be. It is good to know that we do not labor alone and that we labor not for a prize that will wither or disappear but for something eternal. It is also great to see what 'Awe'some things he has created for us and how he works.