We were standing in front of the hotel this morning and a guy pulls up on a BMW R1200GS Adventure bike. These bikes are very expensive and very rare in China. With my interpreter Cyrus, we become friends and Davie finds out they are in the same motorcycle group. The guys say I can ride his bike and I take it for a ride around and even jump it off the hotel lobby entrance ramp. Not safe but fun. )). Don't worry parents, the team was on the bus and did not see me. Davie was so happy to meet him and introduce us Americans to his new friend. This will give Davie an opportunity to build a relationship with him after we leave.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Update from Katie and Cyrus
Dear friends and family,
We started off our morning with our regular team meeting, and we were lucky enough to have our Chinese friends, Davie and Gemi here with us.
Linda took Jasmine, Sarah, David, Hunter and I to the new campus today, (a very long, bumpy bus ride) where we met with a group of freshman students. They took us for a walk around campus, which was quite the hike in 90 degree humidity! We ate lunch with them at the university's dining hall, where we were able to learn a few new Chinese words and get to know the students better. With freshman, it is especially hard to communicate with them because they haven't had the English speaking experience that many juniors and seniors have.
The students took us to a small restaurant where we played bonding games such as whisper down the lane, in both Chinese and English. I'm sure you all can imagine how the Chinese version went! :P They treated us to mango frozen yogurt which was so yummy, and such a treat in today's hot weather. Our last activity was paper cutting, where they taught us to make snowflake-like designs, butterflies, and dragonflies. These students are so hospitable, and everyday I know I personally strive to be as giving and loving as they are.
Much Love,
Katie
As for Dave, Davie and I (Cyrus)' group, we visited factories to do business with their Maintenance Manager's. Davie is a salesman for Wurth, a German tools, fasteners, chemicals, safety products corporation. We accompanied him on his trip to two factories, one a paper factory (for cigarette packages), and one a very large beer manufacturing and packaging plant. After almost having our car ran over by an industrial truck at the paper plant where we delivered 94 bottles of spray lubricant, we safety arrived at the beer factory, which was astonishingly large. The entire plant was almost the size of Exton, Pennsylvania! Dave, Davie and I had a great time at the plant where we witnessed fermenting, bottling, and packaging of the beer. When Davie had lost his I.D. card (similar importance to a passport in China!), we walked around the entire plant many times, and in the end, our Father helped us find it in the midst of thousands of workers. As the fruits of our laboring at these two factories, Davie was able to successfully sell a large volume of lubrication oil, drill bits, and other various industrial tools and supplies. Though the day was hot and the walking was laborious, we had a great time traveling with Davie and taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit a Chinese factory of such size.
Thanks for thinking of us daily,
Cyrus
We have already witnessed so many wonderful things happening here in Guilin, but your thoughts for our safety and purpose here are always so greatly appreciated. We miss you back and home, and I'm more than sure we will have so many stories for you all in a few weeks!
Much love,
Katie and Cyrus
We started off our morning with our regular team meeting, and we were lucky enough to have our Chinese friends, Davie and Gemi here with us.
Linda took Jasmine, Sarah, David, Hunter and I to the new campus today, (a very long, bumpy bus ride) where we met with a group of freshman students. They took us for a walk around campus, which was quite the hike in 90 degree humidity! We ate lunch with them at the university's dining hall, where we were able to learn a few new Chinese words and get to know the students better. With freshman, it is especially hard to communicate with them because they haven't had the English speaking experience that many juniors and seniors have.
The students took us to a small restaurant where we played bonding games such as whisper down the lane, in both Chinese and English. I'm sure you all can imagine how the Chinese version went! :P They treated us to mango frozen yogurt which was so yummy, and such a treat in today's hot weather. Our last activity was paper cutting, where they taught us to make snowflake-like designs, butterflies, and dragonflies. These students are so hospitable, and everyday I know I personally strive to be as giving and loving as they are.
Much Love,
Katie
As for Dave, Davie and I (Cyrus)' group, we visited factories to do business with their Maintenance Manager's. Davie is a salesman for Wurth, a German tools, fasteners, chemicals, safety products corporation. We accompanied him on his trip to two factories, one a paper factory (for cigarette packages), and one a very large beer manufacturing and packaging plant. After almost having our car ran over by an industrial truck at the paper plant where we delivered 94 bottles of spray lubricant, we safety arrived at the beer factory, which was astonishingly large. The entire plant was almost the size of Exton, Pennsylvania! Dave, Davie and I had a great time at the plant where we witnessed fermenting, bottling, and packaging of the beer. When Davie had lost his I.D. card (similar importance to a passport in China!), we walked around the entire plant many times, and in the end, our Father helped us find it in the midst of thousands of workers. As the fruits of our laboring at these two factories, Davie was able to successfully sell a large volume of lubrication oil, drill bits, and other various industrial tools and supplies. Though the day was hot and the walking was laborious, we had a great time traveling with Davie and taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit a Chinese factory of such size.
Thanks for thinking of us daily,
Cyrus
We have already witnessed so many wonderful things happening here in Guilin, but your thoughts for our safety and purpose here are always so greatly appreciated. We miss you back and home, and I'm more than sure we will have so many stories for you all in a few weeks!
Much love,
Katie and Cyrus
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Sunday 6/19 Our Third Day in China
Happy Father's Day to all the dads back home, from the CARE team in China!!
The weather here in Guilin is heating up - it's very hot and humid with crazy, random downpours that sometimes last just five minutes or so. We bought everyone an umbrella today, which comes in handy for rain or for a shield in the hot sun. There was much flooding here the week before we arrived.
This morning, 21 college students arrived in our hotel lobby, to take our team members around Guilin. They had a great time getting to know each other, spending the whole day together. There were a few girls in the class that we had met two years ago when we were here, so it was good to reconnect with them.
Our Chinese friend, Lion, left this afternoon to go back home to his family, and our friend Davie, arrived this evening. Davie is one of our oldest brothers, who we met back in 2001. His story is interesting - ask one of the team members to tell you about him when we get home. Davie will be with us for three days. The only difficult thing is that his English is very limited, so fortunately we have Cyrus Guo on our team. Cyrus is an amazing high school student who is fluent in Chinese and English. In fact, every Chinese person who hears him speak, comments on how perfect his Chinese is!! Dave and Cyrus will accompany Davie tomorrow as Davie makes deliveries for his job. Cyrus will be the interpreter so that Dave and Davie can communicate. It will be a great day to catch up, and encourage each other.
Linda will accompany the rest of the team as they go to the University. It will be a long day - over an hour bus trip each way, talking to Chinese students in their English classes from 9-5, and dealing with the heat. Evenings are typically spent with our Chinese friends who are not students. One of them is Gary, who works as a tour guide in Guilin. He has been an amazing friend to us over the years, and always expresses his appreciation for the influence of the CARE team in his life. The other is Bruce, who sacrifices two weeks of his time every year while we're here. He helps us in many ways, from ordering food, to getting our phone to work, to taking us places, or finding the best places to eat that are cheap but clean and safe.
We love and miss you all back home!!
The weather here in Guilin is heating up - it's very hot and humid with crazy, random downpours that sometimes last just five minutes or so. We bought everyone an umbrella today, which comes in handy for rain or for a shield in the hot sun. There was much flooding here the week before we arrived.
This morning, 21 college students arrived in our hotel lobby, to take our team members around Guilin. They had a great time getting to know each other, spending the whole day together. There were a few girls in the class that we had met two years ago when we were here, so it was good to reconnect with them.
Our Chinese friend, Lion, left this afternoon to go back home to his family, and our friend Davie, arrived this evening. Davie is one of our oldest brothers, who we met back in 2001. His story is interesting - ask one of the team members to tell you about him when we get home. Davie will be with us for three days. The only difficult thing is that his English is very limited, so fortunately we have Cyrus Guo on our team. Cyrus is an amazing high school student who is fluent in Chinese and English. In fact, every Chinese person who hears him speak, comments on how perfect his Chinese is!! Dave and Cyrus will accompany Davie tomorrow as Davie makes deliveries for his job. Cyrus will be the interpreter so that Dave and Davie can communicate. It will be a great day to catch up, and encourage each other.
Linda will accompany the rest of the team as they go to the University. It will be a long day - over an hour bus trip each way, talking to Chinese students in their English classes from 9-5, and dealing with the heat. Evenings are typically spent with our Chinese friends who are not students. One of them is Gary, who works as a tour guide in Guilin. He has been an amazing friend to us over the years, and always expresses his appreciation for the influence of the CARE team in his life. The other is Bruce, who sacrifices two weeks of his time every year while we're here. He helps us in many ways, from ordering food, to getting our phone to work, to taking us places, or finding the best places to eat that are cheap but clean and safe.
We love and miss you all back home!!
Love Dave and Linda
Bruce is a faithful Brother
Bruce is from 2008 trip and has been faithful to be with us every trip since then to help and translate. He is a faithful friend.
Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE smartphone
Gary from 2008 continues to grow
Gary is a brother that continues to grow each year and spends quality time with us.
Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE smartphone
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