Heyall。。。

So just over four weeks left teaching :( - But I am very excited at the propect of travelling on!! And time is absolutely flying by - Sarah and I are literally jammed packed for the next 2weeks with things going on at evenings and weekends... It's bizarre to actually think how many friends we have made here - which of course will make it all the more difficult to leave...

Over the past couple of weeks I have been on and off not feeling so good - but am on the mend I think now... But this has meant I've been feeling so tired all the time - while my body is trying to get better I guess, so some days have been a bit of a struggle to teach in the humidity and heat!

We headed out quite early on Saturday morning to get some shopping down before the heat of the day set in and then we spent a long time with out neighbourse - the two sisters from upstairs who have now become our friends - they are so sweet. Thing is, like on the nights when they come and ask for help with their English homework (you can actually see their improvements since the first time we spoke to them, when they shyly stood on the stairs when we moved in...) I have been feeling so shattered and tired! But we help them and really enjoy spending time with them :) We went out for street food on Saturday... which then led to a latenight trip to the bookstore...

Sunday. Up at 5 after 4 hours sleep and as i was doing the usual filling up of our water boiler (to let cool... then put into bottles we store in the fridge...) Sarah's head popped around her door; "do you have running water?" ... So i went to check my tap and nothing came out... Great start to the day; the previous week our water and electricity had been quite hit and miss; powercuts and brown tapwater... but this was new!

So at 6 we trudged off in our walking boots looking like we were about to venture up Mount Everest and headed up the dirt track to school. We went to meet one of Sarah's students, a friend, really as we'd been invited to go and visit her hometown. Two of her friends from the school across the road were also coming back with us as their family is from the same town... It's amazing how 40 minutes on a bus and the landscape was transformed - it was an absolutely beautiful day, and so refreshing to get out of the city. Longlou? (the student's hometown) was absolutely beauiful... From the bus we walked to her house and met her father and brothers (21 and 23 - she is one of 4 - her younger sister is at school in Longlou and is 17 - still working hard to pass her exams and then come to Wenchang and continue her studies at a better school here) and they were sooo lovely.

When i can i will be uploading facebook and get a few pics up on this site... But for that day? - I was really made to feel like i was back home again - which i know sounds bizarre but they were so welcoming and Sarah and i had a fantastic time. So after the greetings we headed off for breakfast with her two friends and brothers for rice porridge with fish and an unidentifiable vegetabe - which actually was quite nice... Topped up on tea and rice congee we headed off on our day of excitement and exploring...

We travelled to and from the little remote villages on her brothers' motorbikes - 3 on a bike, sometimes 4! - And having races in between watermelon fields, rice paddies and grazing water buffalo... We climbing a mountain, and then headed to the beach afterwards to dip our worn-out feet in the sea... -Longlou beach is absolutely stunning and there was nobody else there except fisherman and a few anchored fishing boats bobbing along on the calm sea! Back to her families home for a late lunch where more relatives and friends had appeared to meet us; the foreigners... at which point we met her younger sister - who is absolutely crazy! - But really sweet... We ate seafood and were treated to an absolute banquet of foods that we know was expensive for them. After posing for a couple of photos with the family we set off again on the backs of motorbikes.

We went to visit her old junior school a little way into the country ... and then went to see her brothers school where he is a teacher. Seeing his little room: the usual stone floor, white walls, a desk, a chair, a rice cooker, a bamboo-frame bed, and a small makeshift wardrobe with a few shirts in it.. and his very welcoming manner - it's amazing how peopl who have so little - or little by western standards can make you feel so welcoming. He sends money back to her family so that her and her sister can finish their education. I think it's amazing that her family - her parents; only farmers, have put 4 children through school - i can not emagine what sacrifices they have had to make to be able to do that. There was so much love there and when we were walking down the mountain earlier on in the day... we were all laughing and joking as if Sarah and I had been friends with her brothers for years - despite the fact there was little English spoken or understood on their part or Chinese with us... We were singing English songs and attempting to sing what Chinese songs we have learnt over the past few months.. and it always ends in a fit of laughter on both parts... Smiles all round :)

In the late afternoon, after visiting more families, a farm where we all stood and drank and ate coconuts (I managed to cut my finger on some cocnut husk and her brother saw the blood and rushed to my aid with some leaves he'd dashed to pick, tear up and press on my cut... ) we then said goodbye to her family and brothers. After a great day with so many lovely people and after many drinks, cakes and other treats we waved goodbye to her brothers and headed back to Wenchang. Another packed Chinese bus: the ususal three times more people than it's supposed to capacitate; Sarah, her student and another friend squashed up on the back seats, I was sitting with her other friend, heading back to Wenchang. We had a really good chat - it's great to see someone's confidence grow so much over just one day and their self-realisation that they can speak English more than they give themselves credit for.

Back in Wenchang, we tuk-tuked back to the school where we said goodbye to our friends and then walked home in the scorching heat of the late afternoon - absolutely dripping... bearing walking boots (that we'd changed out of into flip-flops after Mountain) a day pack, and the gifts from her family; 6 coconuts, 4 giant, u-shaped cucumbers, a bag of potentially 50 peppers - that i washed and tried raw only to realise that they were, in fact chillis... and numerous bottles of water that we'd accumalated over the course of the day along with drinks of ice tea and 'hot milk' (condensed milk with hot water, mmm!!) and coconut juice etc etc...

I felt honored and so welcomed to share that day with them.
And we arrived back to Wenchang, still no water. It didn't seem to matter so much any more - so it was hot and we probably smelt... but we'd just been to a family's home who have never had running water...
A mammoth day on Sunday which was absolutely great! And yesterday was an absolutely shattering day too as we took two junior classed from 8 in the evening... All of the teachers were in a meeting and so left the 15 yr olds to run riot in the classes... again i seemed to come off slightly better than Sarah as my class were moderately well-behaved - even though there were constant taking of photos (who needs the paparazzi when you can just come to China?) - which i'm used to now... but I walked into my class and there was a massive WELCOME quite detailed-ly chalked onto the board [*i felt touched! :)] and so the lesson began. The plan was to finish class about the same time then swap classes - to share the love.... But i walked into Sarah's class and was greeted with a yeeeaaAAAAAHHHHHHH! and an absolutely an absolutely horrified-looking Sarah (they'd taken the really running riot to a whole new level and werestanding on desks and everything - they are not stupid, this is the only time they get to have fun when the teachers aren't about!!) So after getting them off desks (well most of them) i took a piture with her with that class and it's kinda like playing 'where's Wolly?' looking at them as you can barely see the 6ft Sarah that gets swallowed up by a sea of school kids - it was great and we had fun! And then finally escaped out into the torrential rain....

Monsoon weather. Walking home in a torrent of rain, lightening and thunder getting brighter and louder... walking down a unlit dirt track that had flooded... and arriving home sodden and absolutely shattered. It had been heavily raining all day as it was weather from another typhoon that had hit somewhere nearby - i am not exaggerating when i say the roads have turned into rivers...What started off as scorchingly hot early in the morning turned into constant torrential rain - at least taking the temperature down a bit... But that also meant spending a day at school in dripping clothes and sodden through shoes! Reminds me of the jungle days when i was in wet boots all day everyday... but that was yesterday, and the rains have stopped (for now) - even though there have still been many a downpour today... And the next few weeks promise to be very busy! Hey ho, hope this site is easier for you to get to than before, much love and stars :) xxx