This year is soon coming to an end. There are countless things that we have learned during this time, numerous close friendships we have made, and a number of trials and strange happenings. It will feel very different not being around Anshun for the summer, but we are looking forward to having a summer of travel, though dreading it also. There is always a great amount of unknown and uncertainty behind it, but we are strengthened knowing who we put our trust in. For our families, here is a run-down of what we know about our summer plans. We are finishing up with classes and leaving Anshun on the 4th of July for Guiyang and then later to Xian (30 hours or so by train). We will stay there for about two days to see the terracotta soldiers and some of the historical sites there as Xian was the ancient capital of China. The temperature for those days are forecast to be 100 degrees or more (ahh!!). From Xian, we will take a train to arrive in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia on about July 8th. We will travel to numerous different places in that area like the grasslands, ride horses, enjoy the Nadaam (Man Games), etc. and then travel to a variety of places in Inner Mongolia before heading to Ulan Bator the capital of Mongolia. We will travel to Beijing on August 1st to fly to Kunming in the Yunnan province. On the third of August, we will arrive in Dali and visit Dali, Lijiang, Shangrila, the Tiger Leaping Gorge, etc. with a student Bobby. Then we are planning on going to Zunyi in the Guizhou province to visit some students. We are not quite sure when we will arrive back in Anshun or when we will be able to get online to contact everyone, but we are hoping to be able to visit some internet cafes along the way. We are very excited, but also a little nervous. We will be traveling almost entirely with other people so that is good and we know who will also be with us.

Here is a little run-down of things learned, observed, and strange happenings from the year. Our Top Ten, only in Anshun classics:

10) Animals everywhere. Since arriving we have had many interesting encounters with animals from the roaches (only the first days) to the 3 inch millipede, and finally the huge spider in the shower today. They sell snakes at the market, but we saw our first one in the wild yesterday as some boys were taking home a 5 foot snake by the jaw. Needless to say, we have had countless interesting experiences with waterbuffalo. They are everywhere from right outside our door to falling in streams, plowing fields and taking for kids or rides through the countryside. Patty has had a harder time seeing dogs, she misses her Tip Tip, especially as we see them being sold to be eaten or the little babies in small cages sold as pets. Animals are a fun part of our life and always worthy of a strange occurrence.

9) Food. We have had many chances to eat all kinds of strange foods since coming, especially when we visit student's hometowns or go to special occasions. Here is a partial list: chicken and duck feet, snake skin, bamboo, frog soup (yes real, dried frogs), liver, kidneys in la jiao (hot sauce), hot pot (yummy), lots of very spicy food that we love, and some wonderful times when we can have favorites from home like pizza and chocolate.

8) Chinglish-It says it all. One of the team favorites is this quote from writing class. I love the Chinese New Year because we will go and buy lots of crack. (meaning Chinese firecrackers). The signs are often great and fun to see their translations. Beijing put on a huge campaign to fix the Chinglish before the Olympics (it would be interesting to read their new signs as the old ones were very funny or funning).

7). Chinese special events. Nobody overdoes a special event like the Chinese. I cannot imagine what the Olympics will be like after seeing the events put on for much smaller events. They are into all of the fads of entertainment events, the clapper sticks, the clapping hands, whistles, the glow sticks, confetti, fireworks, and huge light shows. The only problem is that they try to overdue each of them at every event. The music is always too loud that you have to cover your ears, because loud singers are good singers (I guess!!) and if that is not enough the other things will surely deafen you. The idea of a special event is to impress everyone, so lots of money is spent even if it is a meal between teachers or for graduation. The more the better.

6) Weddings. I was able to go to my first wedding last week. It was quite the affair. There is no real ceremony besides bowing three times to their elders and ancestors, drinking some tea, and a few other small things. The food, drinking and smoking are the major parts of the occasion. I was offered hundreds of cigarettes by almost every male there, and had to constantly say, "bu hui" I cannot smoke instead of I do not want to. We ate twice in two hours, each meal had 30 different dishes, tons of rice and lots of strange toasts trying to get each of the guys to drink. It always takes a while to get them to understand that I do not drink, as that is counterculture, but after a while they stopped drinking alcohol and started drinking the juice I was having. A normal gift for a wedding is 100 RMB or more depending upon your relationship to the couple and they will often gamble and just sit and eat sunflower seeds all day waiting for the meal and play jokes on the couple at night when they are exhausted and want to go to bed.

5) Visiting Chinese families. After meeting a new friend, I have had endless occasions of meeting new Chinese families. I have now gotten very used to it, but it can be particularly strange. He will always take me around supper time, after we have already gone out and eaten way too much (that is a normal sign of friendship to provide more food that the people can possibly eat). I always grew up trying to finish all of the food and even though there are impossible amounts at these meals I will always try to help finish everything. Because we come at meal time, I will again have to eat again. It is rude to decline, so I will grab my bowl and get it filled with rice and they will continue to fill it with dishes. They will most often just talk about me, even if I can understand, because they are too shy to talk to me. The favorite phrase is "Don't be shy, help yourself" as they fill your bowl with more food.

4) The Chinese spirit of perseverance. Chinese people are maybe the most resilient people I have ever met. Even through the hardest of struggles, they will keep a positive attitude and will stay focused on their dreams. We have heard numerous horrific stories of disasters and hardships from our students and it is amazing to see how they face those problems. Chinese people truly do not give up. When we watch sports, we often see that also. They will be behind by many points and often come back to win. I think they will surprise many people at the Olympics. The bad part of this is that this spirit is an expectation, not something that is celebrated. If you do not live up to high expectations you may looked down upon.

3) Shopping. We have had few opportunities to go shopping for clothes as we are too big for most of the clothes in Anshun. We did go and buy winter coats though and that was quite the adventure. I found a coat I liked and it was only 40 RMB ($6) so I tried it on. It almost fit but the sleeves were too short. When I asked them if they had any bigger sizes they thought I was joking--there are no bigger sizes. Knowing this I got it anyway, it was a 7 XL!! Patty had similar problems and finally found one that fit her, a 3 XL. That does some things to your ego. Things are changing as it comes to size as foreign fast food restaurants are taking large cities by storm. Obesity is starting to be seen in the usually small Chinese people, but mainly among the wealthy who find it a measure of status to eat at these places.

2) Traveling. One huge difference has been not having a car while in China. This means that most of our traveling is done by foot or bus and sometimes train and airplane. Each of these methods of travel are drastically different. Walking for fun is not something people do in China, so I am an odd person out exploring the villages and climbing hills for enjoyment. In the villages, people will walk 1-3 hours to go shopping instead of paying 3 RMB to take the bus (they do not have the money). Buses have become fun as we have gotten over being gawked at and laughed about. Quite often the bus is completely packed so there are people sitting, standing cramped together and the occasional person carrying an animal for supper, their farm equipment or huge bags of rice. It is always something new and then there is always someone smoking too. My favorite bus ride was visiting my friends in LuChun. I took an 12 hour bus ride that traveled 144 miles. If you do the math, we went 12 miles per hour. It was a bus with sleeper beds and luckily it had rails to hold onto as the road was super bumpy and I was often bouncing off the ceiling and hoping not to fall out of my bed through the mountains. I didn't get sick though. The train can be fun I have heard. Patty despises it though as it tends to be cramped and sometimes you do not have a seat so you have to stand the whole time. People smoke, take their shirts off, throw food all over the place, etc. This is the cheapest form of transportation so often the poorest and most people take this. You can get sleeper cars as we will take to Xian and I guess those are better.

1) The poverty. Everywhere around us there is severe poverty. Most of our students come from very poor farming families, though you would not know it and almost everyone we meet has faced hardships and difficult times because of lack of money, but it rarely shows in their attitude and behavior towards others. The villagers and farmers who are often the poorest are often the friendliest people. Streetsweepers and trash collectors are always smiling and wishing you a good day. Their comfort is found in being able to work hard and know that they are helping others and hoping that their hardwork will benefit their children and later benefit them. It is a child's obligation to provide for their family members after they get a job. Some of the houses of friends I have visited are super small with 3-5 people living in them, but they will offer to take me out to a nice restaurant because we are friends.

We ask that you keep the people of China in your thoughts and prayers. The more you have learned and experienced, the more they have been deeply impressed upon our hearts. We hope each of you have a wonderful summer and are blessed abundantly.

This weekend was a busy and tiring trip to a student's hometown with our teammate, Kris and another friend Paul. We went to Ziyun, about two hours south of Anshun to deliver some books, clothes and other things to a school there. The heavy rain in the area has affected this area quite substantially, as we found out. We stayed with Leo and his family in their rather large house. They have a pool table and mah jong table that people come and play at any hour. The first part of our trip was to go shopping for the books. We went to a bookstore and gathered one of every copy of the required reading materials for middle school students. The middle school reading list is full of English favorites like Tom Sawyer, Pride and Prejudice, David Copperfield, The Scarlet Letter, etc. (all in Chinese of course). In all I think we purchased somewhere around 240 or more books. The store packaged them up for us nicely and even helped drive them to the bus station for us. This is the way we have been using our tithing money here-to help areas that are in need. Elderly care places, earthquake relief, individual needs, and poor areas. The bus ride was a rather crazy one as the bus stopped constantly picking up more people throughout the countryside, most of them carrying farm equipment and large packages that they had to cram on-board as well. Patty got a little overwhelmed as they all seemed to pile near her.

When we arrived, we got to meet Leo's family. His mother and father, sister and his brothers' children who stay with them as the parents work elsewhere. They made us a huge supper, as is the custom, and we got to know the children some. The next day, we went to the primary school in the town to visit where Leo is currently teaching. There are 1700 students in the school and I think by the end of the 2-3 hours there I had met all of them. It was like we were celebrities in the kind of way you do not want to be. Students were cramming together to be able to shake your hand or later to be able to get your autograph. I definitely would not want to be famous after this experience. I was so tired after the ordeal. I tried to play basketball with some kids, but the children wanting to shake my hands did not move so they kept getting pelted in the head with the ball. We taught one class and took lots of pictures with the students and staff. I even got to play ping pong with quite a few of the staff members and some of the students, that was the only time I could relax. Patty even got a little overwhelmed by the number of students, but this totally tired me out.

After that, we got into a van and traveled the one hour to the middle school in Ho Chuang Cun (Village) to deliver the books. It was a pretty bumpy and curvy ride, so we were even more tired when we arrived. The school administration and some teachers took us out to eat to show their thanks when we arrived. The meal was way over the top--they even ordered some special mushrooms that are 80 RMB per pound. This set the tone for the rest of the day. On the way back, they asked us if we would like to teach classes, meaning you are going to be teaching classes when you get back. Each of us got a class to teach for 45 minutes to help encourage the students in English. The students ended up having great English ability but being shy of course. We had a little time to relax, I played basketball with the students and Patty took pictures with her adoring students who followed her everywhere. Then we got into another van and went out to see some of the devastation and effects of the flooding in the area. We stopped at a tent village in a field for farmers who lost their houses in the floods. The farmers were working together to build apartment type houses to live in. On the way back into town, they stopped to help carry rice up to a elderly care center in town. I decided to go help since there were hundreds of bags to carry. It turned out that they were 50 kg (110 lb.) bags and we had to go up a big hill. There were old men and women and all kinds of people from town who came to help. It was interesting being part of the group. By the fourth bag, I had figured out the best way to carry a heavy bag for a long distance, but the first three trips almost killed me. I was so tired!! This is what it is like to be with a humanitarian group I guess. We ate another large meal, ate watermelon by the river, and visited with many different people before piling back into the van to ride home. Everyone was exhausted!!

The next day, we went out hiking with some family friends and took family pictures. Some of my observations about people from the countryside in China is that they love to talk and they talk super loud (it is almost like yelling in America). They are always welcoming of guests, even if they have little or nothing to share (they will give you their best). Though they may be poor, they will spend lots of money on drinking and smoking (men) and gambling and also on religious festivals (mainly towards appeasing their ancestors). These are some of the reasons for poverty in Southern China. The education does not seem to be quite as good and less emphasis is put on it, but that is changing as the government is pushing rural education and parents want their children to have better lives. Rural villages are like big families where everyone will help each other. The food in a village is probably the best of any place in the country. I would eat at a farmers house any day over a restaurant. Grandparents often take care of children and women often do the farm work while men go off to other areas to find work or work in construction.

I wish a happy fathers day to all of the fathers out there. Many blessings on this week--we have two more and then finals and we will leave for Mongolia on July 4th after a group get together.

Binding the rice.

Binding the rice. ,
originally uploaded by dan_mueller20.

Now, it is rice transplanting time in Anshun. People have used huge fire hoses to fill their fields with water and planted rice very closely together and now it is about this tall and time to transplant it into smaller fields and farther apart. They will first pull it out, bind it, and then carry it in baskets to the new fields and plant it in small clumps. Often the women are pulling the rice up while the men are plowing and dragging the other fields to get them prepared. It is a busy time with all of the farmers in the fields or helping each other.

The old gate.

The old gate.
Originally uploaded by Dan and Patty Mueller

This old gate to a Catholic seminary and church at the Botanical Gardens is a good symbol of Christianity in China. As you can see the wooden gate is locked but the doorway is open. The church gate looked old and weathered by years of being abandoned and hidden away, but yet it is strong and stands as an example of the long history of China's Christian history. The plant in the foreground shows the future as it is growing strongly and starting to bloom ready for the coming harvest. This place is hidden from most, but if people knew about it, they would be drawn to it. It is the same with the message.

Patty and I

Patty and I
Originally uploaded by Dan and Patty Mueller

Later, we went to walk by the river. We stopped for the best ice cream bars in China (Magnum Bars) 4 RMB or 70 cents at wal-mart. A boy tried to beg money from me by grabbing onto my feet and wrapping himself around me until I pried him off. This picture is of one of the many expensive tea houses along the river. It is a very nice and peaceful walk.

The Sheraton Hotel Italian Restaurant

The Sheraton Hotel Italian Restaurant
Originally uploaded by Dan and Patty Mueller

This weekend we went to Guiyang to spend some last time with our teammates. It was a wonderful time, but very tiring. We ended up getting to eat at this expensive Italian Restaurant with them. They served us appetizers in little cups with tiny spoons, water in wine glasses, and the food was wonderful. The view was the most amazing thing, as our building was the tallest in Guiyang, we could see for miles. All of the high buildings and all surrounded by mountains.

There has been lots of excitement as this last week had less rain and lots of sun. We finally had our sports day, three days of running and track and field excitement. It was indeed a great opportunity to cheer for students and talk to them. I was able to run in the teachers' 8X100 relay. We got second by inches--I tried to run down my volleyball friend Tom, but it ended up he was too far ahead when he received the baton. It was fun to run though!! There are some amazing athletes here. Some of the English department students want to start a running club to increase their skill before next year's event--that would be fun.

This week we had weddings in our oral classes. It was a great joy for the students. We went all out--the students bridesmaids, groomsmen, parents, a flower girl, photographers, a minister, and readers. They made the wedding gown out of Toilet Paper, like at the bridal parties. They made flowers from newspaper. The men wore ties that I brought from home, so they learned how to tie a tie. It was an all-out affair. They really got into it and we printed off scripts to follow along with the wedding. We will have to post some pictures.

During the weekend, we got invited to teach at an English school with some of Patty's students. When we arrived, we found out what we had gotten ourselves into. It was a huge publicity stunt. Sunday was children's day in China, a day to celebrate the children and for them to receive gifts and have fun. They wonder why we do not have children's day in America and we often say because everyday is Children's Day. It is good for some of these children to get a break from the pressures of performing in school and other areas by their parents and to get to play. So when we arrived, we saw that they had made this huge sign welcoming the American teachers (very expensive). They had also invited another teacher who just got back from America (this was a great blessing). She is from Anshun and is attending college in Wisconsin (River Cross). It was great to hear about events from home and that she is family. The school has about 100 primary age children, and most of our time was surrounded by teaching short lessons that they could video tape and going on little tours of the town so that people could see us with the leaders of the school. The leader of the little village even came to thank us for increasing the student's interest in English and to take lots of pictures. It was a big set-up event, but we enjoyed getting a chance to spend some time with the kids. They are quite clever!!

This weekend, we have another official holiday so there is no school on Monday. We are going to Guiyang and possibly Kaili with our teammates. This may be our last get together before some of them leave back to America. We will have a picnic and BBQ on Monday too. That should be really fun, but I guess they are still trying to get the BBQing skills down without some of the equipment we have in America. The sun has been shining all week, so I should be outside. I hope your week is filled with incredible blessings. Now is the time for transplanting the rice to individual fields so many farmers are out plowing with the water buffalo or doing it by hand if they do not own one. The women are out replanting the rice--it is something very interesting to watch.