Xiaogan Update:
Day 12 of our trip. Weather cooler today. Patches of blue sky.
The student team members all went on Home Stay visits with a
host student (sometimes students) to various towns around Xiaogan. One student
will be returning today; the rest will get back tomorrow.
Lishan, our interpreter/guide/leader took this opportunity to go
home for a visit. He lives about 7 hours away by train. He will be back on
Monday to help guide us the rest of the way. The Teaching Abroad teachers here
are good enough at Chinese to help us get around as we need to. As the students
get back to town on Sunday, we will have a chance to worship and debrief before
classes start on Monday.
Daily, you will hear and see fireworks. They use them to
celebrate birthdays, engagements, weddings, etc. The first time I heard them, I thought we were
under attack: the whistle and then the boom. But, I figured out very quickly
that it was fireworks.
At night, the streets are filled with families eating and
talking. People sit outside of the restaurants, on the streets. Stores are open
late in the night… until about 10 or 10:30 PM. My 5th floor hotel
room overlooks the street, and the windows are not noise-reducing. That means I
hear everything… every honk, every man singing Karaoke at the top of his lungs,
every truck shifting to pick up speed. That also means that I am learning to
sleep through anything.
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