Getting to Know Our Students Better Through One on One

Day 8, Monday

My students are a delight to teach.

Project Shine English Program is a well organized and carefully planned program. Following the
program curriculum, we were able to do a lot of good English activities with our students.

Spending some one on one time with our students

This week, the teachers started the one on one talk with their students. We divided the class into two groups.  Honbria, my teaching partner and I each took half of the students and talked to each individually for at least 20 minutes.

We tried to get to know and understand the students' families, challenges and issues facing them. We want them to know we care and support them.

The one on one time was a very meaningful experience, it was an eye opening experience for us.

We learned about the tremendous pressure students face in their secondary school career due to the mandatory government examination which all Chinese students have to write in their final school year.

This examination is a do and die event that determines if a student can graduate from secondary school and grant them their admission to certain universities.

My heart went out to the students as I heard about their struggles, challenges and the pressure they have to endure.

Gifts for our students

Before we left for the Guangxi short term mission project, our leader told us that it would be nice if we could bring some gifts or souvenirs for our students. I knew that we needed to do a unit on Christmas so I decided to get our students their very first Christmas gifts.

I brought enough gifts for each individual students in our class but I was not sure who should be getting what.










Honbria offered to help and got some gift bags and other small things for the students.

We spent the evening in my room deciding who should get what and making the gift packages for each of our students. Other team members: Jeannie and Cassandra dropped by and we had so much fun looking at all the gifts.

It was a meaningful exercise looking at our students' needs and their own individual personality so that we could make the gifts appropriate for each of them.

R.T.
Guangxi, China

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