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Published: July 25th 2010
Friday morning was the 5th day of the training program and the 4th day of classes. In our class we first did a game of bingo and then we did an activity that I developed and used for many years with mid-range level classes with News for You. The class divided into 4 groups. Each group chose a different article in the newspaper (Easy English) and then each group wrote as many questions about the article as possible. Then each group asked the rest of the teachers their questions. The first one to raise his/her hand would get to answer the question. If she/he got the correct answer her group/team got a point and each group got a point for a good question. We had some very swift teachers and soon the first group scored the most points. They stayed ahead the entire game. This was a good game -- it really requires many skills --reading, listening, speaking and the competition aspect of it motivates most students. It's curious that sometimes the best speakers are not the best players of the game....oftentimes the best speakers are more reflective; not so quick on their feet.
That afternoon we were all supposed
Mr. Yin & Ms. Gao
Chairman Mao Memorialto meet together in the auditorium of the high school which is adjacent to the middle school where we are holding classes. We all walked over to the high school and were led into a large classroom. The visualizer was not hooked up yet so we turned it on...only to discover that there was no computer Mr. Yin our liaison located a computer with one side missing, and we managed to figure out how to connect it...after a while. Then we tried to open the DVD drive....no luck. No matter what we did we could not get the DVD drive to open. Mr. Yin tried to find another computer....finally he located one and we tried again but couldn't get the proper connection. It was well after 4 pm. I was feeling quite frustrated but came up with a song from Girl Scouts "This Old Man" which I scratched out on the board. We led the group in this song and then we led them in a round of "Row Row Row your Boat." Then we decided to let them go early. The week had been a long one...perhaps we should have foreseen something like that happening but next time.
Friday evening I packed....we were supposed to go to Ping Yao, an ancient city between Taiyuan and Shilou, that has been turned into a tourist city. There are mansions that have been converted into hotels and this is similar to the old city where Raise the Red Lantern was filmed. I packed and I was up at 6 am...knocked on everyone's door and got everyone up. I have been locked in my hotel room for the last 2 weeks and I really needed a change off pace.
The sky was cloudy but Mr. Yin said that we could leave early before the rain and make it over the muddy part of the way before it became impassable. We were in the car, stopped athe gas station, the girls got some bread for breakfast the cafe next to the gas station and got in the van. The driver was speedig along the highway and it began to pour rain...we traveled and then Mr. Yin began to question whether we really wanted to go...of course I did...but it seemed the cards were stacked against me. They all began to say how it would not be any fun in the rain and
maybe we wouldn't get back -- itwas supposed to rain on Sunday too. Finally the consensus was to turn around. WE came back tothe hotel. I was depressed ....
At around 11 am, Shirley announced that Ms. Gao, the Director of the China Federation of Women, who we had had dinner with the other night, was here and would take us to a women's cooperative. So we all went to the door and waited for a car...when a driver finally came we were taken to a nearby memorial to Chairman Mao...ther eis a huge marble statue of Mao in the front and inside are many mementos from his Eastern march through Shilou Province to Beijing. This march occurred after the Great March -- Shilou was apparently the heart of the Revolution...there are photos of Mao and his comrades marching through this province, photos of the place where they crossed the Yellow River, a reprint of a famous photo of Mao that was taken by an American photographer Edgar Snow who accompanied Mao and acopy of a book written by Snow documenting Mao's trip. There is a jacket worn by Mao and the uniforms of some of the others...there are
weapons confiscated from the Nationalist soldiers -- all European made-- mainly German or American, and there are photos of many of the others active in this march...there is a photo of the translator for Snow, a photo of him as a younger man, and he is reportedly still alive in Shilou, now about 92 years old.
We then went to have lunch at a local fancy restaurant that serves hot pot. WE were seated upstairs in a private dining room where we each had our own hot pot -- boiling broth -- and we boiled fish balls, meat, lettuce, parsley, and sweet potatoes then dipped them in a peanut and sesame sauce...very delicious..
Afterwards we went to a cooperative that has been funded by a loan from China Federation of Women...it's a mushroom farm, owned and operated by an older woman and her husband and employing about 55 local women. There is a very interesting process of growing the mushrooms. First they grind up corncobs and then they stuff the cobs into casings that look like gigantic hotdog casings....they then put the casings full of corncobs on a bamboo shelf of sorts -- and put hot coals underneath
to kill the bacteria in the corncobs. Once the casing has been heated long enough to kill the bacteria, and it is white on the outside, some seeds/cells from ripened mushrooms are stuffed into the casing full of corncobs and they are placed in a dark room and then transferred to warehouses -- and left to grow.
After we visited the first area we went to the warehouses to see the mushrooms growing out the end of the casings! Fascinating.😱
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