Learning about the Culture of the Mao Nan People at the Museum

Sunday

We went to the museum by public bus.

We were down at the hotel lobby at 10 a.m and Sophia, the English teacher from the school was already there waiting to escort us to our tour of a couple of the famous landmarks in town.

We hopped on the city bus at the bus stop located only a stone throw away from our hotel.

The bus ride was cheap and comfortable

The city bus was only 1 Yuen per person; it was clean, comfortable and came with air conditioning! It was a treat;  I was impressed.

A museum dedicated to the Mao Nan people, Guangix, China

We visited the museum, a beautiful spacious building dedicated to the culture and customs of the people of the Mao Nan tribe.

The Mao Nan tribe is one of the fifty plus minority groups in China.

The various masks of the Mao Nan tribe people

When I was a kid, I used to watch some shows where people changed themselves into various roles in the theatre through changing their masks in no time at all on stage.

I never knew where this culture came from. At the museum, we saw the display of the masks of the Mao Nan tribe each representing a pious character.  I realized these masks came from the Mao Nan tribe.

The Mao Nan people have very elaborate ceremonial clothes for various occasions in their lives.

A scene of welcoming guests to a Mao Nan house

A Mao Nan sports game

They also have a lot of fun games and sports activities; one of which is when team players play soccer while walking on stilts.

We saw the various types of chess games played by the Mao Nan people displayed in the museum.

We saw a picture of the Mao Nan people enjoying their festival banquet with over a thousand people attending in their town square. It seemed that the Mao Nan people know how to have fun and enjoy themselves.

I liked the hands on part of the display in the museum too.

 After visiting the museum, we climbed over 150 stairs to get to the top of the pagoda right next door.

After climbing the stairs to the bottom of the pagoda, we had many more stairs to climb once inside the pagoda tower.

Illustrations and legends lined the walls inside the pagoda tower

It was quite a climb. But what made it easier was all the art work and illustrations of some famous legends on the wall and paintings on the ceiling. We were able to take our time to pause, rest and read about these stories.

We had an excellent view of the town from the top of the pagoda tower.

Once we got to the top of the tower, we had an excellent 360 degree view of the entire city.
We could locate the school where we taught last week.

We went for lunch at the restaurant near the hotel. Then Hombria made arrangement to go for KTV. We rented a room for 168 yuens, 11 students came from our class. Lots of fun!

After shopping for some baby clothes at the shops nearby our hotel, we went to school for the movie night and watched the Lion King with our students. It was a nice show.

We talked to J. via what’s hap. Happy to know that he sold most of this stuff and would see him back home on 21. Pray that he would be able to get all his documents smoothly. Amen.

R.T.
Guangxi, China

Visiting a Student's Family Who Raises Silk Worms for A Living

It took about 45 minutes before we reached the student's home.

Day 6

After the Cultural Day program in the morning, we had lunch together in a nearby restaurant.

In the afternoon, we did a home visit. A few days ago, I asked Esther if we could visit a student whose family raised silk worms for a living. She listened to our request and was able to arrange just  that.

I was glad that we could kill two birds with one stone: visiting a student's family and learning about how a farmer raise silk worms.

After lunch, we got into two separate vehicles and left our town at around 1:00p.m.

A traditional house for the Mao Lan Tribe - picture from Mao Lan Museum

It was about a 45 minutes ride from the school to the village.


Raising silk worms requires a large space.

A traditional Mao Nan tribe house had three floors: the ground floor was for keeping domestic animals such as cattle, pigs and chickens while the family lived on the second floor with the grain and farm produce kept on the third floor of the house.

We visited a student from the Mao Lan tribe

These days, many of the Mao Nan tribe people no longer live in their traditional wooden houses.

Rather they live in more modern houses built with brick and cement.

The entire main floor of the house was used to raise silk worms.

Following the Mao Nan  traditional way of living, this Mao Nan silk worm farmer keeps his silk worms on the ground floor while the family lives on the second floor.

Mulberry plants are grown to feed the silk worms on many villagers' farms.

Silk worms are fed on mulberry leaves therefore the silk worm farmers also grow a large quantity of mulberry trees on their farms.

We also saw a separate place where the not so healthy silkworms were separated and kept.

We spent some time visiting and chatting with the family.

We spent some time visiting with the student and her family sending our greetings to them.



















It was interesting to chat with the family and learned about the family, their aspirations for their children and their way of life.

Parents are the same all over the world. Whether they are farmers or merchants. or professional people, they want the same thing for their children: a good education for them so that they will have a bright future.


We also learnt that there are a little over two hundred people living in this village and that most of the villagers raise silk worms for a living.

The villagers talked proudly and fondly of the road recently constructed by the government. 

The villagers we talked to spoke proudly of the government who constructed a new road not long ago allowing them an easy access to other places enabling residents to transport their products easily to and from their village.

Esther presented a small gift to the family.

We presented a small gift to the family to express our love and appreciation for receiving us.

 A small village in Guangxi, China

It was a new experience for us to learn a bit about the life of a silk worm farmer in Guangxi, China and an enjoyable visit with a student and her family on behalf of our charitable organization.



R.T.
Student Home Visit
Guangxi, China

Cultural Day- A Fun Extracurricular Activity for Students on Saturday in China

Teachers from the school were the judges for the Cultural Day

Day 6 - Saturday

It was Saturday but students in China still go to school on Saturdays and this was no exception for the summer English program.

Esther, Director of Project Shine was the MC for the program

Today was the Canadian Cultural Day at the school and the teachers from Canada were responsible for the program.

We chose to share with our students the songs and stories of Christmas. Each class was responsible for introducing a Christmas song at the Cultural Day program.

Though we have been practising for the past few days, we came to school a little early at 9am so that students could practice our song and dance a little more. Our song was Deck the Halls.

This was a new song for the students who had to learn the song, memorize the lyrics, learn the dance and perform it in front of the entire student body.

Some class did more than singing; their song was a mini skit.

There are a total of  nine classes in this two week summer English program.

A class performed Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer

Every class was assigned a Christmas song and it was up to each individual teacher and class how to interpret and perform the song on Cultural Day.

Every class had been working hard to prepare for this performance.

Some classes were creative with the use of their props

With almost no financial and material resources, some classes were creative with costumes and props in their performances.

Pauline got into the action of the song with her class.

We practised hard for our song and danced too but we didn’t have any props.

Rose and her class  performed  the song Silent Night

Though we were not in the top three, we had fun watching and taking part in the performance on Cultural Day in the school.







R.T.
Guangxi, China
Week of July 9, 2017

Nightly Dancing in the Town Square, Free Admission, Guangxi, China

Day 5

The town square was quiet during the day.

Friday evening, after dinner with the students, we were free for the evening as there would be no team meeting later on with our team leaders.





Rose, another volunteer teacher invited me to go the town square with her and some of her students. I was very interested to see the square and the activities going on there after dark. I  went with them while S. stayed behind in the hotel to relax.

Reflections  of  some of the buildings along the river in the city.

Rose, a senior, was well taken care of by her students

We went to the square via a short cut which we did not know about. It was through a path behind some government buildings by the river. We went to the square before during the day and it was quiet with few people.

However, this time, it was different as the weather was clear with no rain in sight.









Before we even got close to the square, we heard music coming from there. We learned that the square  comes alive after 8pm daily when the weather is good.

 Wow! I could not believe how busy the place was!














There were at least four or five groups of people occupying the various corners. Each group had one of two leaders leading a dance according to the beats of music coming out a speaker system with groups of people following and joining in the dance.

The town square comes alive nightly after dark, full of people dancing and enjoying themselves.

There were kids riding around on their scooters in their sparkly shoes while some older kids were skateboarding. There was a children’s game play area as well as a bumper car corner. I was delighted to see that ordinary Chinese  people could have so much fun in the evening to enjoy themselves as well as spending time with their families and loved ones.

Any visitors to the town square can choose to join in and dance. No admission charge or restriction of dress code

This is a free activity for anyone; there are no admission charges, no dress code or restrictions of any kind. Come as you are in your work clothes or put on your dancing shoes and fancy dresses. It is all up to you. This happens every night in the square, weather permitting.

Rose, other teachers and I chose our own group and joined in the dance trying to pick up the steps and follow along. We could not all follow the specific steps but we had tons of fun.

After dancing in the square, we went into a café dessert place and enjoy some cold drinks and desserts with the students.

R.T.
A Town Square
Guangxi, China

Chinese Students Debated on Love Versus Money in Guangxi, China

Day 5

Students engaged well in our debate on Love Vs Money

During our two week teaching in a secondary school in Guangxi, China, we taught many things and did numerous activities with the students daily.

One activity really stood out for me:  our class' debate on which is more important - Love or Money.

Before the debate started, I went over the rules for our class debate with students. We divided all the students into two teams.

The students liked the activity and got into it with enthusiasm

The government side took the Topic - Love is More Important  while the opposition side debated against it.  Each side was allowed three speakers who took turns to speak for one minute defending their point of view.

 After all three speakers from both sides finished expressing their views,  the floor was open when anyone from either side was free to jump in and argue.

The students obviously had some strong opinions on this topic and both sides presented a few well thought out ideas. The debate got pretty heated. Winnie, our CRRS sponsored student expressed some insightful comments. However, I was shocked and totally unexpected when students started referring me in their debate.

Christina from the pro love declared,

" Look at Mrs.T,  our volunteer teacher, in this summer English program. If she doesn’t have any love, she would not be here teaching us. She is doing this because of love!"

The pro money side felt that we need money to do good work.

Immediately,  Ingram from the pro money side, shot back without needing any time to think,


" Wait! If Mrs. T. doesn’t have any money, she would not be able to be here! This shows money is more important as we need money to do good work or any work!"

Christina shot right back:" Not, your are wrong. Love is more important.  If Mrs. T. does not have love, even thought she has money, she would not be here. She could use her money to go on cruise or do something for herself. Love is more important. She has love and this is why she is here!"

It was flattering to hear what the students said about us, the volunteers teachers, who have to pay our airfare, and all the cost including room and board to be in China for this voluntary work.

 Informed by one of the speakers at the opening ceremony, students in the summer English program are aware of this fact. Our students are aware that volunteer teachers paid for the trip to be in China 

After a 45 minutes enthusiastic debate, I finally had to end this part of the activity. At the end, I asked if anyone had any final comments. Flurtz turned around to me and said: I love you, Mrs. T."

What the boys said in my class surprised and touched me deeply

I was taken aback, not expecting anything like that from the students, especially from a male student. I was really touched and tears started to swell my eyes.

I thank God for this great experience in China; it was more than I have expected.

R.T.
Guangxi, China

The Little Emperor Syndrome - a Myth in Guangxi, China

Day 4-

A view of the city from our hotel room in Guangxi

The curriculum for the English summer program in Guangxi has been  planned and tested many times before.

As volunteer teachers, we had some training on the curriculum prior to our arrival in China.  During these two weeks, the instructors need to follow the units and discuss with our teaching partners which activities would we use to teach the students.

Today's unit was on different foods and festivals. We chose to discuss with students the customs, traditions and stories associated with Christmas.


I brought some food from Canada for the students to try today. They all seemed to like what they tried. As for the Christmas songs, each class has been assigned to learn and perform a Christmas carol. Our class was given Deck the Hall as our song.

Students' name and academic scores are posted on school ground

We taught our students the song and explained to them all the words in the lyrics.   We sang and danced to the music and did Christmas crafts.

 The students really loved it and we had so much fun! Our laughter attracted a few Chinese teachers from the school; they came and watched us for a little while.









When we went to the school today, we saw some results posted on the school ground.

Winnie, one of the students, was very proud of her name being posted

Winnie, one of the students, explained to us what it was all about.

Each high school in China publishes the names of the honour roll of their students. Their names, along with their academic results are posted for all to see as to honour and encourage the student body.

Winnie proudly pointed out to us that her name also appeared on the board. When we congratulated her, she was brimming from ear to ear showing her pride for all to see.

Students enjoying outdoor activities on school field

For the past few days, we were thankful for rainy weather as it helped to ease the scorching sun and 30 degree temperature a bit.



This morning we took advantage of the dry weather.

Emily giving instructions for the game.

Emily, another volunteer teacher, planned a great game for her class.

I was glad that we could combine with her class for this outdoor activity.

We all know that Chinese students study very hard throughout the year and are under tremendous pressure.

We love seeing them having so much fun running around and chasing each other on the field.

Our high school volunteers enjoyed this experience very much

Kirito seemed to have recovered from yesterday's devastating news about his final school grades for this school year and he seemed to be better today. Ingram has an electrical bike and the high school student volunteers from our team were very impressed. They even asked him for a ride to get back to the hotel.

This afternoon in our English Corner we had a question on whether the students knew how to cook. Ingram told us he learned how to cook since he was very young. I was so surprised that a boy learned how to cook from a young age in China.  He shared with me that both of his parents worked long hours and he had to learn to be independent and look after himself at an early age such as cooking and doing other chores etc.

Evidently, he was not the only student who has to learn to grow up fast due to both working parents being away from home a lot. George and others also share the same experienced. I was surprised at what the students told me. This was not what we had heard in the west: China's one child policy has contributed to many Chinese children growing up as little emperors since each child is being pampered by six adults constantly ( the parents and 2 sets of grandparents).

I have learned during this trip that many things which the media feeds us in North America about China and its people are not always true such as Chinese children growing up with the Little Emperor Syndrome. We have not met one little emperor in this part of China on this trip. It is a myth at least in Guangxi.

That's why we love travelling as we can always learn something new while visiting different countries and learning about their cultures and ways of life.

R.T.
Guangxi, China 

A Visit to a Town Square with a Mao Nan Sculpture in Guangxi, China

The town square seemed to be very quiet on the early evening we visited.

Day 3

After dinner at the school with the students, some senior students from Rose's class volunteered to take her to visit the town's square where people hang out and dance in the evening, weather permitting. Rose invited me so I went along as well.

The square was only a 15 minute walk from our hotel, and there were a lot to see on the way there.

 A big square and a gathering place for its townspeople, the place was quiet as it was still early.

Standing in the square, we had a good view of the pagoda sitting on top of one of the hills.

A huge stone. cement sculpture greet visitors to the square.

The most eye catching feature in the square was the huge stone sculpture done in the shape of a mask, part of the Mao Nan tribe culture, one of China's fifty plus minority tribes.

We were told that people would normally come to the square around 8:00p.m. after the sun has gone down. We walked around the waterfront for a little while to kill time.









All of a sudden the sky turned grey with huge dark clouds hanging over the square. In minutes, there was a heavy downpour with thundering and lightening.  Everyone in the square scattered and took shelter in the nearby shops. We waited for a little while but it did not seem that it would stop. We had to walk in the torrential rain to hurry back to the hotel. Even though we all carried an umbrella with us, we were all drenched by the time we walked back to the hotel. One of students planned to walk back to her home. But we gave her the taxi fare and insisted that she took a taxi back to her house which was about a 20 minute walk from where we were.

It was quite an experience walking in a heavy tropical rainstorm. I did not expect how fast and hard the rain was pouring down and how high the water level could rise on the streets in a short time.

Watching the news on TV back in our comfortable hotel room, we learned that many parts of southern China have been experiencing heavy rains and flooding. We are thankful that this part of southern China has been spared the flood.

R.T.
Guangxi, China