Thank You Celebration

October 19, 2007

Last night we had dinner at “The People’s Restaurant.” This was a simple local restaurant, walking distance from the hotel. Bao Li ordered the food so we just ate. The food was very tasty. After dinner on our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a small convenience store to buy ice-cream bars. It was so fun to have something familiar.

We are happy to say that Hu Di, our coordinator was in Shanghai today to accept from Best Buy a $50,000 gift of computers for the Anshang School, which Global Volunteers assists.

Today was the last teaching day for the 2 week volunteers. It was our last day with high school students at Rainbow School. We began the day with receiving gifts from Ashley which were paper cuts and our names painted with animal symbols. Everyone was expressing their appreciation. The closing celebration for the team was scheduled for today at 3PM. Instead of having our driver make 2 two trips to Xian, the school arranged for us to visit a student’s home and have lunch at a local restaurant before returning with Murphy, and performing students.

We visited a 2 bedroom apartment on the 4^th floor of the housing built by the Rainbow Company. It had modern lighting, an enclosed balcony, a western bathroom, a small kitchen and dining area. There were all the conveniences of a modern home—TV, appliances, etc. The “lady of the house” happened not to be working today, so we were welcomed. She offered us tea, moon cakes, and other goodies. After lunch at the local hotel restaurant, we made the hour long drive back to Xi’an with Murphy and 3 students joining us—total of 9 in the car. We arrived just 20 minutes before the event so had to hurry to get ready.

The celebration was held in the western restaurant of the hotel with the tables moved and chairs set up for 100 people. Each school we served had a thank-you speech and some kind of performance to offer. The performances ranged from a troupe of folk dancers, calligraphy & blow painting, saxophone solo, 3 piece rock group, 8 year-old Chinese zither player, piano solo, and karaoke singing. At the end, we Volunteers did a short folk dance that Dixie taught us which involved the Chinese guests. That ended the 2 hour celebration. All this was fun but tiring.

Many of our comrades will be leaving tomorrow and the group will be much smaller next week. We have been assigned to teach elementary grades next week. This will be another challenge as we will have to simplify our strategy. We have been told that some of the younger children speak better English than the older ones. We will see.

Just I was finishing my blog entry for today, we heard a screech and bang on the street 6 stories below. There was an accident involving a taxi and another car. We watched in amazement that the traffic did not stop, though the accident blocked the 2 lanes going north. Everyone just made their own path around the cars driving in the bike path or on the wrong side of the street. No police came. It looked like someone was hurt and put into another taxi that sped off. A police car came by but did not stop. Bicycles, busses, and cars continued to weave in and out around this accident scene. It is like an ant hill that just re-routes the paths.