Celebrating with Family Together for a Milestone Birthday

My beloved celebrated his milestone birthday recently.

My husband celebrated his milestone birthday in the first week of August.


Our grown children made a special effort to come home and celebrated his birthday at the end of July.







However, my husband is a low key person; he didn't want any big party nor bring any attention to himself.

All he wanted was our immediate family together to have a nice dinner to mark this special birthday.

So we had a small, intimate family dinner in a Markham restaurant recommended by my brother.

The last time our family got together was the Christmas of 2013. So our time spent together was very precious to us.

The Rex is always a favorite place for us.

After dinner, we went to my husband's favourite place for a drink and some jazz music in downtown Toronto.

Some father and son time together!

J. arrived home a few days before we came back from our trip to China. Though we had planned to spend an extra two weeks to do some sightseeing overseas, we changed our plan at the last minute due to J.'s sudden change in his schedule. I was glad that by the time we got home, he got quite a bit done for what he wanted to do in Toronto.

J. and his childhood friend at home for dinner

E. attended Stephen' W.\s wedding and was busy for a couple of days. It was so good having him home for a few days and J. home for a couple of weeks so that I could make them some healthy homemade good food.


J. was anxious to see his friends and cousins and he asked me if we could arrange some dinner parties and invited them. I did.

J. invited his friends home for a poker game at home.

So, Doug, Don and Florence came for one dinner, followed by Fred, Deb and Ben. Our last dinner party was for J's young cousins.

J. even invited his old university pals for a poker game. The house was filled with young people and laughter.




It was like when the kids were in their teens again! We just love having our grown children around.
Distance makes the hearts grow fonder! Rosie commented that J. is more mature and happier. Praise God for His blessings on our children!

R.T.
A Happy & blessed Mom
Toronto

My First Experience Being on the Seat of Encouragement

View from our Nanning Hotel

We were back to Nanning and it was good to spend a couple of days after our intensive two week teaching assignment in Guangxi,


Esther introduced a meaningful activity on the second day of our stay in Nanning . It was called the Seat of Encouragement.
All the members met with their own team and focus on one team member at a time and share with his/ her what they thought about that person.

Our team members in Nanning, China.

Esther started by passing an object to the person was the next person to be spoken about. After this person received all the positive feedback, he/ she would pass the object to the next person and the whole process started again.

Some of my other team members

For example, when it was my turn on the Seat of Encouragement, every member on my team spoke about my strengths and what they appreciated of me most during our two weeks experience.















It was quite a change to hear such positive comments from everybody. Instead of being on the receiving end of getting complaints from others, we were getting praises and some very positive feedback from team members.

It was such a different and uplifting experience.
We loved being on the Seat of Encouragement!

R.T.
Nanning, China

A Twin Word Summary of Our Expreicne in a Debrief Meeting in Nanning, China

July, 2017

Today was our last day in the town where we taught English for the past two weeks. Our students came to our hotel to say good bye to us at 10a.m.! Our students were not the only ones; students in other classes did the same thing. There were a lot of students who came to see us off.

Our students came to say farewell to us on our last day.

I was glad that we could spend a few more moments together.

I invited them up to the dining room of the hotel.

Students from my class came to see us off at the hotel.

Eman and S.'s students came to say farewell to them.

My students were not the only ones who came. The other students also came to say good bye to their teachers. Almost the entire student body of the summer program came out for the farewell.

They were standing in the hotel lobby, on the sidewalks of the street. It created quite a scene in this small town.




I was surprised at how emotional some of the students were, even the boys.  I caught Ingram balling his eyes out quietly in a corner. This kid stole my heart.







We left the remote town in Guangxi with bittersweet feeling. We were glad that we completed our short term mission trip, and would be be going home soon. On the other hand the students and we have developed a relationship and we were sad to leave them.

A street in Nanning, China

It was a five hour bus ride and I could feel the different atmosphere on the bus. Mission completed, everyone on our team was relaxed, happy and feeling great. Passing the snacks around and sharing them among our team members, we joked and shared our memories of our two week teaching experience in Guangxi.
The sense of camaraderie was strong as we have share a unique experience.

We arrived in Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi and checked in our hotel at about 5:30pm, a different one from the previous one but much closer to the downtown district this time.

Debrief meeting of our Short Term Mission trip in Nanning

Right after our dinner, our entire team had our debrief meeting in the conference room of the hotel.
Esther, our leader for this project led us through a debrief meeting.

The volunteers' two words describing our feelings about our past 2 weeks

One of the activities I really enjoyed was when she asked each one of us to summarize our experience in two words and each of us was given a couple of minutes to share why we chose these two words, so that we could finish our meeting at a reasonable time.

What an excellent activity for a team of more than twenty people to summarize and share their experience for the past two weeks!

I took a picture of the twin words shared by our team members so that I could remember this activity.

Everyone had a different take and looked at from their angle of what the two week voluntary experience meant to them in China. Some were so touching that there was not a dry eye in the house!  This was the best short term mission debriefing meeting I have ever had!

R.T.
Nanning, Guangxi
China

Holding Back Tears on the Last Teaching Day in Guangxi, China

The school where we taught for 2 weeks in China

Everything has to come to an end. Today was the last day of our teaching assignment in this remote part of Guangxi.

I love these kids in China!

Though we only knew the students for barely two weeks, there was a bond between us and I have fallen hopelessly in love with these wonderful innocent teenagers.

 I was wondering how I could go through the day without feeling too emotional; I was afraid that I could break down and cry in front of these teens.

One of the goals of our teaching team was to teach these teens English in a fun way. Therefore, we tried to play at least one game each day with the students. We played "Honey, I love you and please smile for me." game and the students loved it.

This morning we played we divided the class into two teams and played the game - Taboo in the morning with them. Again, there was so much fun! The students were competitive and everyone took part enthusiastically in the game. How I wish all my students were like these ones in Canada. There was very few disciplinary issues, almost none and we could just focus on good teaching. I totally enjoyed teaching in China.

After the games, we gave students some time to finish their letter to us and boy, did they take this task seriously, especially a few of the boys who immersed themselves in the tasks and were fiercely busy writing their letters.

In the afternoon, our last afternoon together, we ordered a cake and some treats and had a little class party to celebrate our time together. Honbria ordered a cake and Ingram picked in up on his electrical bike. How about that!

Everyone loved the cake and students came forward and gave us their thank you letter and hugs.  They were also really good in helping us to clean up and put all the desks and chairs back to where they were. I was especially impressed by the boys such as Ingram who made sure all the things we put around the classroom and on the blackboard were removed completely and cleanly. I appreciated that a lot!














F. worked very hard on his letter. He went with Ingram to a computer shop and got some pictures printed out so that he could give them to me with his letter. He made a special trip to where we were staying and delivered them to me in person. I was deeply touched by that!  Each letter I received from my students told me how they appreciated my teaching and class. Thinking how much I would miss them, I was glad that I did not break down and sob in front of these kids.

Class Three Students in Guangxi, good bye and may God bless you!

R.T.
Guangix, China 

Closing Ceremony of Our Summer English Program in Guangxi, China

Wednesday – Closing ceremony

The Closing Ceremony of the Summer English Program was held after school at 6:30pm. The students spent sometime writing their thank you letter to us. Frutz was really working hard, pouring his energy and efforts into writing his letter to us., I have never seen him working so hard.

Christina gave a speech on behalf of our class at the Closing Ceremony

At the Closing Ceremony, a student representative from each class and the classroom teachers took turn to go up on the stage to speak.

There were nine classes altogether; consequently, there were nine groups of speakers. But each group was different and time did not drag on at all. It went really fast.

When it was Honbria and my turn to go up onto the stage, Frutz organized the whole class to scream out: We love u; it was touching.









At the end of the all the speeches, the Canadian teachers sang a song for the students and taught them how to sing this song in Mandarin too.

After the closing ceremony the students took us out to a little cafe in the neighbourhood. There were about 12 or 14 of us. We went up to the loft part of the cafe, and the students ordered a few ice desserts for us to share.  It was my first time trying these ice cold desserts. They were delicious. I have been to Asia a few times and I avoided having any food or drinks with ice for fear that I would get sick. The one time I did in Cambodia, I was very sick. But thankfully,  the first time I had shaving ice dessert in China, I was fine without any problem at all!!!!

It was so good to have some fun social time with my students. I enjoyed this time tremendously!

R.T.
Guangxi, China

A Mao Nan Cultural Night at a Secondary School in Guangxi, China

Day 9

For the past few days, the regular English teachers from the Guangxi secondary school has had some meetings with the summer program students at the school. They have been planning something special for us, a team of Canadian teachers doing some volunteer teaching there for the past week and half.

The students met with their day school teachers about the Cultural Night event

The school held an event especially prepared for us. 

We have been looking forward to the cultural night.

Canadian teachers sit back & enjoy the Cultural Night celebration.

Though many of the visiting Canadian teachers are ethnic Chinese themselves, we know very little about the customs and cultures of the various ethnic groups in China; we have much to learn about them.

The Cultural Night was like a big festival for the school community.

I was a little worried about the weather as it poured quite a bit in the afternoon. But the sky cleared after dinner.

Students opened the evening with songs to welcome us 

The event took place in the school's outdoor sport area under moonlight. Everyone was happy and excited. It was just like a great festival and a celebration.

Students performing traditional a Chinese dances

The teachers and students rehearsed and  prepared for this night at the school for the past few evenings for us!

Students performing a modern dance

Some even went to the school on the weekend to practice for this special event.

Studentss performed their traditional dances for us.

Their preparation and hard work were evident in their performances.

Canadian teachers performed the K pop songs.

The students performed a series of dances, songs and games that reflected their culture and tradition.

The Canadian teachers also performed a couple of K pop songs for the students.

Canadian teachers learning the bamboo dance right there!

The best part of the evening was when the staff and students invited us to take part in some of their cultural performances.

Our team members were happy to take part and learn the bamboo dance right at that instance.

We were invited for a Mao Nan sports games

The younger members of our team took part in the basket ball throwing game too.



























Jeannie and I volunteered to be on the wrestling team against the girsl and we won too!

The Mao Nan tribe has quite a few things that are interesting and unique to their culture.

A fashion show out on by the staff & students of the school

 The regular of the school and the students in the summer program prepared a fashion show fr us.

The school's English teachers in their elegant traditional dresses

We loved the beautiful colour and elegant styles of the Chinese dresses modelled by the English teachers of the school. They received the greatest applause from us.

Our team of teachers did a mix dance performance and the students loved it!

Eman, Stan and students form their class

It was a fantastic evening of cultural exchange between the Chinese and Canadian cultures.

A great celebration!

I was glad that I was a part of the cultural evening!



R,T,
Cultural Night
Guangxi, China

Christmas in July in China

Day 9 -Tuesday

Whenever I thought of Christmas,  sparkling colourful lights on decorated houses in neighborhoods, snow covered tree tops,  walking in crisp cold air on the street and families gathering to celebrate this wonderful season would come to my mind.

Celebrating Christmas in July? This is a little unusual. But my teaching partner and I were determined to share the wonderful Christmas spirit with our students in this poor remote mountainous region of China.

We did crafts activities related to Christmas.

Following our curriculum unit on Canadian customs and festivals, we taught our students some Christmas carols and tasted some snacks from Canada.












I brought a small artificial Christmas tree from Canada and set it up with some decorations for the class. I shared and explained to them about the traditions of the festival related to the birth of Christ and gifts giving to families and friends. My students were curious and  interested in learning about the west.

The night before, my teaching partner and I got all the gifts packages ready so that we would have a gift for each of our students in our class.

Today, we had a regular morning and did our English activities. Honbria and I wanted this experience to be a big surprise for our students. We were able to sneak in all the gifts into our classroom without anyone seeing them.

 At 11:30am, Honbria took the students out to the field for a few minutes while I set up the classroom. I  moved the Christmas tree to the centre of the classroom and placed all the gifts under the Christmas tree.

I brought a Christmas tree from Canada and decorated for my students with gifts around the tree.

As soon as I finished setting up, the class came back. As the students filed into the classroom, they squealed with delight when they saw the gifts waiting for them.

For all my students, this was their first Christmas gift!

 Most Chinese do not celebrate Christmas; it is not part of their culture. This was the first time for students to receive a Christmas gift in their lives.

As each one opened his/ her presents, each expressed excitement, anticipation and delight.  Some clutched their gifts;  happiness and gratefulness written all over their faces.







We had a lot  of joy watching our students receiving and opening their gifts.

Seeing my students excitement, I felt happy too!  

Looking at my students' excited and delightful expressions, I felt very satisfied and happy.

It was worth all the efforts preparing the gift for them. I considered it my privilege to be the one who could share with these students the experience of Christmas and their very first Christmas gifts! 

R.T.
Guangxi, China