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.