It has been nearly two weeks since the last post. I guess that happens when we get a one week break from school and when there are many things distracting us...lots of work and being sick. The last couple weeks, I have been working my way through being sick; it is a new feeling to be sick and not looking forward to being active and outgoing. The second bout of sickness came along with many other foreigners from our fellowship. The weekly potluck came back to make many of the adults ill, must have been something the kids and Patty did not like (there were no tomatoes, so we are not quite sure). We know it was not the brownies either. This came as we were starting our week off for National Day. Each year, China gets a one week holiday of crazy traveling and many things closing down to celebrate the anniversary of Modern China. I am not sure if it is 5000 years or almost 60. We chose the week to go to Kaili and the surrounding area for a week, just Patty and I. That meant our Chinese had to help us survive through city, village and lots of traveling.

The first leg of the trip was getting out of Guiyang to get to Kaili. We found ourselves at the bus station with thousands of others waiting in long lines only to find out that we needed to go to another bus station. Our Chinese got us there and we pushed our way through the Chinese lines--everyone pushing and shoving to get onto a bus that had more than enough room. We arrived in Kaili safely and enjoyed time strolling through many of the sections of town and villages and Dage Park. We found a room on the 14th floor of the hotel, so we could see the whole city at night--it is much more modern than Anshun. The next morning we left for our first adventure to Xijiang! Xijiang is a big tourist village showcasing the Miao minority culture. Since it was a holiday there were tons of people there, but it was also rice harvesting time so it was fun to see the villagers in action working the fields and harvesting the rice. One person will cut it, others will beat the rice into a large wooden container, and then they will sort it and carry it to their house in two 50 kg bags on a yoke. Whole families will work together, from grandparents to the very young children, it is fun to see.

Xijiang is a village of 1000 houses made from wood and all in the local Miao minority style. There were lots of places to buy things of course and I tried to get a pair of grass shoes, exactly what they sound like, shoes made from weaving grass, but found my feet were too big. We did get a handweaved picture for our bedroom though. We left the village for the nightmare of a night in Leishan. We found that there was only one hotel in the city that would take foreigners so we were forced to pay too much for a poor room, no towels, no nightstand, and little other accomodations. It turned out that this was the time I was the sickest. I had a horrible fever and bad diarrhea so I was up many times...one of these, Patty found me panting in the corner and caught me before I passed out. It turned out to be a crazy night for the both of us...I have never experienced anything like it before. The next day was the holiday so instead of going home, I decided to continue onward and we went to a waterfall in the countryside, a 30 minute ride by taxi (good chance to practice Chinese) and 3 hours of walking later we made it to the waterfall...definitely worthwhile. My vacation attitude won out and we continued onward to another city...3 hours by bus through the awful mountains. It was the worst ride on a bus I have ever had...enough said. Beautiful country, but not ability to enjoy most of it. We arrived to find that this city was also smaller than on the map, but we found a place to stay after many many tries. The room was better but equally overpriced. The next day was one of the better though as we visited SanBao, a Dong minority village nearby...they are wonderfully blessed in musical ability and love to sing and play a number of interesting instruments. We loved it!!

The last part of our trip was to visit Lande Village on our way home. Another Maio village, but less touristy. We actually stayed with a Maio family in their house, got to watch lots of dances and musical performances...check out Patty's video on her Facebook. We got to meet many friendly people there and it was a good ending to our crazy travels. My body started to feel a little better then too!! We arrived home a few days later to get a chance to relax before another hectic week started for me.

School has been quite overwhelming with 8 classes now and lots of work to do for each...I have British literature class, which has turned out to be my favorite, because of the fun literature and topics I am able to share, but lots of work along with multiple reading and culture classes and oral English.

We found out today that at night we were to be judges for an Oral English communications competition. We did not know what we were getting into, but soon found out that we were two of the four judges to listen to 120 students introduce themselves and give their reaction to one of 14 crazy sayings. The introductions often turned into looks into their beliefs on any number of subjects from the environment to visiting their hometown or how to be a better person, etc. The questions the students were to respond to ended up being cliche quotes that were very difficult to formulate a good reaction to so students often answered them with their own favorite cliches. We learned a few new ones, too, but had a chance to see some amazing oral abilities as well. We are very proud of the students!! It was an opportunity that was very meaningful for many of them and showed us a little about their drive to achieve and learn English, even among non-English majors.

We hope that you can keep our students in your thoughts as they are pushed with extreme pressure to pass tests, achieve amazing things by so many people and their worth is tied up so much by tests and other people's views. We hope that they can see their eternal value and where true success and value comes from. Many blessings to you this week!!