• Month the First: Yunnan Province
• Hong Kong & Shanghai
• English Camp

There are still many photos not online, and some of those are only share-able privately (for security purposes, etc.). If you’d like to view those also, let me know.

I still am not quite back on American time (as evidenced by the fact that it is currently 3am), but getting closer. Aside from time-adjustments it’s been, not difficult, but different, for the past day or so.

This will not be my last update here, but it will be at least a week before I am able to get pictures posted… sorry for that!

Thanks to you all for everything you did this summer - it was an amazing experience, and would never have happened without my support group/fan club/extended family. Until later… love you guys.

While we have been busy (so busy!), the past few weeks of activity here were very, very good. The first few days were so sweet, in that (as I mentioned last time) there were a lot of our old students still around campus. It was incredibly good getting to see them and catch up together — who would have thought last year at this time that I would be blessed with that chance!

Although I was glad to see the old students, I knew they would all be leaving on the 15th, because after that only the Camp students would stay on campus. It was very bittersweet; on one hand, it was sad for obvious reasons - but on the other, I was glad to know they would not be around for the entire month. I had been really worried that with the presence of all my old friends I would not be able to give fully to the new students. I didn’t want to constantly be doing the “comparing” game in my head, and I didn’t want to have to choose between old and new students for that all-too-short weekend free time. All has turned out well, though, and while I miss the old guys (again) - it was good getting to see them, and it is now absolutely good getting to know the new kids. I have been very grateful for the fact that not only were my fears unrealized, but the result vastly surpasses my wildest hopes. I am in love with my class, and have just as many - if not more - close friends than last year.

Incidentally, the “I feel like, maybe…” line comes from what is (”maybe”) the most overused bit of English here. “Maybe” is used quite a bit by the students and teachers here alike; the polite indirectness one hears so often in Chinese conversation is translated by those limited in English vocabulary to simply… “Maybe”. We laowai have somehow appropriated “I feel like…” as our own version thereof. As I’ve said before: things tend to be much funnier in China than elsewhere.

I don’t have too long online today, as par for the course - but wanted to say that I made it, and all is well. Saturday afternoon was wonderful, in that all these students that I met last year completely mobbed us during their class break. It was amazing to see all these familiar faces again, we were all so excited, I don’t think any party was able to speak decent English during that first get together. I haven’t been able to see all of my old students, but at least a dozen or so familiar faces have turned up - not every student is on campus this month for summer classes, and the ones that are will be leaving next week.

So far we’ve had two and a half days of classes; Monday morning we spent testing and sorting the 180+ students into their classes by ability and levels. Tonight we still have one more session for today, but because we all need a “breather” I think we’ll be watching a movie (in English of course!).

Whenever I can get online next I will try to catch up on the emails in my box - thanks to all who have written this week! Miss you guys.

Edit: These photos are no longer available. To view them, please visit the photo albums (linked in a recent post.) Thanks!

• People

Village boys on their way home for lunch

Notice the look of fear on my face? That’s because there’s a drop-off Right. Behind. Me.

Village girls headed home for the day (the red neckties are their school uniform)

Town kids, hanging out in the city square after dark

Village girl - sucking on candy from my bag

Family, after lunch - before the kids go back to school

The #1 craziest kid in that province. Really.

Showing us a dance from their school show.

She just had her ears pierced recently - they’ll keep thread tied in them until healed

• Places

The view from my apartment balcony

The view, part two. This is what the sky looked like 90% of the time

The city, as seen from the top of a mountain hill

Dragon-head waterfall near a temple on a hill

A random village in the mountains

Rice and tobacco fields - the rice fields are pretty dry, but it rained later

Villager’s cow, out in the backyard

Rice, rice, everywhere!

City street near where I lived

View of the middle school across the street, as seen from our kitchen window

Rainy day at a temple; that thing is an incense/offering burner

The temple - still raining

Remember how I kept going on (and on and on) about the view?!

Yes, those are real lizards. Yes, they will be eaten eventually.

Hiking. This is what we did.

…and when we weren’t hiking, this is what we did. That’s my roommate in a village “WC”. Yes, she will probably kill me now.

That’s all for now, hopefully all those links work. Until later…

Also, my final requisite line: I will miss the food.

But now I’m over the water, a few hours’ flight away, and in HK. I am couch-crashing while I’m here, and the family I’m with are facilitators of blessing — I am so happy to be able to stay with them, and not only because it saves me significant amounts of cash (although that is a nice perk). Good people who walk with Dad… and who stock Vanilla Coke in their fridge. What’s not to be happy about?!

I am spending the next day or two reading & writing, giving my brain a mental vacation - not that it’s been seriously taxed this month, but I just need to refresh myself and blow out cobwebs (and the generous library useage and computer time available here at the Office is too tempting to pass up). It’s probably going to be my most reliable week as far as online access goes, so it’s a good time to email me (hint, etc, ha).

Sunday and Monday coming up are a holiday here, so I hope to have some good stories and pictures to share after that - well, stories, at least. Talk to you then.

This week was my last here, which feels really strange: Today was my last day hiking with these people, and I know I’m going to miss it. I doubt I’ll miss the mud and hills (both of which were seen in overabundance today!), but I will miss the people and experience as a whole.

I realized while I was out this week that I never wrote a real update on last week. I will do that, but for now here were the high points:

• Rain
• Mud
• More mud
• The Songwriter
• Blackouts
• Stars
• Miracle trucks

I’ll try and remember to expound upon such a cryptic list when I have time…

As for this week, there was more rain, more mud, and more hills - but I think we still had a good week. I was able to re-visit some places I’d been a few weeks ago, and take back photographs we’d had printed here in the city. There were a lot of closed doors in this place (both this week and the first time I went through), but it was nice to be able to re-visit the contacts I’d made. I haven’t been able to get pictures on a computer here yet (still working on it), but there are some adorable kids in this country; can’t wait to show you.

Today we started out around 9am with the plan to hike beyond where we’d stayed the early part of the week — and we definitely did. We ultimately got somewhere around 12:30, with an on-again, off-again drizzle for a lot of the way. The rain isn’t bad except when you’re climbing through mud; makes things a bit more difficult. Once we got into relative civilization we had a great afternoon — the highlight of my day was getting to crash a funeral at lunch time. We were surrounded by more-than-slightly-tipsy “mourners” (who actually didn’t seem terribly mournful), and the table had more than a few just-don’t-ask dishes, but it was actually a really cool party (as funerals go!). When we left I told my friends that it would make a great story, and it really does. Definitely not what I expected when we set out today, but most of our days end up in the unexpected.

Now for something completely different: our hostel’s city had a pig in a trashcan. A live pig. For three days. Was still there when we left today. All we can surmise is that the pig was/is ill, and consequently unfit for consumption — and so it got taken to the garbage. Unfortunately we don’t think whoever left it was able to convince the thing that it’s actually dying (we think the pig is saying “I’m getting better!… I think I’ll go for a walk.”). I have no doubt this won’t be funny in a few months, but one’s standards in comedy go way the heck down when slogging through a country in which you’re perpetually lost for a few weeks.

All for now - I really will try to fill you in on last week when I can. I leave for HK this coming Monday (which still is a fact which feels very surreal), so if you would keep that trip in mind I’d be grateful.

I won’t be online today very long, trying to catch up on emails while I can - so not a long post today. Just wanted to let everyone know that my week was a thousand times better than I expected, and I have no doubt it was due to you all (the emails sitting in my inbox right now are evidence thereof!). So thank you for that. I am doing well.

I have hopes that I will be able to get a few pictures on here next time I post (tomorrow, with any luck). If not pictures, then I at least have lots to tell about the week - so until then, thanks again for this past week’s encouragement!

I spent a lot of my time last night writing, a sort of two-weeks-down personal “state of the union.” A lot of what I’ve seen and experienced so far has been so good, and I can’t wait to share all that with you face to face. On a more personal, somewhat selfish level, though, I’ve been struggling. My first week here was buoyed on the novelty and adventure of the experience…my second week, less so. I’ve had very silly, very human problems with allies here - due in large part to my own over-sensitivity and less-than-perfect relational ability. I have a huge propensity towards depression, and of course now is a time in which my enemy tries to use my weaknesses against me. While all such things are a part of life, I wish such things were temporarily not a part of mine (in a frustrated, “so much to do, so little time” sort of way).

In my quiet times here, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to a particular song (”Without You”). I’ve listened to it plenty of times in the States, and I’ve never been one to necessarily use a song in my reading/writing hours, but over the past few weeks this one has become the daily cry of my heart. If you know the song, you will understand my desires. Each day I see how I have strayed; each day I must draw nearer, request restoration anew. I am utterly lost otherwise. I have seen better days, but I am desperate to be brought into ever-deeper understanding of His love.

“So here I am … crying out loud that I can’t go on.” I am already in touch with the one I need most, and I constantly am in awe of the accessability of that particular relationship. Beyond that, though, I think I am supposed to call on my family to add their voices in supplication. I would much rather continue blogging on traffic jams and noodle soup, but that won’t help anything today. With 2 weeks down, and 6 (7? Not a math major…) to go, I can’t afford to waste time to pride or an attempt to ‘go on’ without Him.

I am in the city for today and tonight, then leave out to hike again tomorrow. In a very real sense, it will be impossible to get through the following days alone, without intercession.

Thank you for your love, for your commitment, for continuing to lift me up.

I thought I should list a few things that are a part of life here that aren’t a part of life in the States:

• Hitchhiking - after a few days of hiking you take what you can get, without complaint!
• “Optional Hygene” - our way of saying one outfit & one shower a week is fine, really.
• Marihuana seeds make a tasty snack - True. I am left wondering whether bringing a bag back to the states will be a problem (purely for novelty’s sake!).
• Dogs - cute pets, vicious guards, good barbecue. Even the animals multitask.

That’s all for that list at the moment, but I am constantly reminded of the differences between what is taken for granted in the States, versus the status quo here. Hand washing in the country is something done once a day on a good day, yet everyone washes their feet before bed — Americans who (though their hands are clean) don’t wash their feet are “gross!”. Cheese is nasty, but pork fat is great. And so on.

In other news, I went to KFC (as in the American chicken place) last night, because some of the newer girls here were suffering grease withdrawal. I spent 25 yuan for a meal, which is about $3 US. I felt like I’d spent $25 compared to what I’ve been eating on for the past two weeks — I average around 15 yuan /day for food & water. Crazy when I think about what I spend during a school semester on food & drink!

This week out was beautiful, as always - I am perpetually in awe of the views of Creation. The land is absolutely stunning, and I could stare at the mountains - with their green rice fields and brown winding roads - forever. I go out again next Monday, for more of the same. For now, my biggest needs to keep in mind are health and discouragement: I am still pretty much touring this country one bathroom at a time, which is a little rough when on the trail - and it’s hard to stay focused when we hike for a week and see little return. As always, your thoughts (and emails!) have meant the world to me.