Saturday, August 22, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
July 31 Lijiang to Kunming
Greetings
Wednesday July 15th, 2009
This day is particularly easy to summarize. Chris and I reviewed, edited, added, and cited new content for the Lashi Lake Tour. Chris brought a few suggest books from Wheretherebedragons on environmental problems in China, which he decided to add. He also brought a fresh pair of eyes to the drafts (a work in progress) in terms of organization and flow.
That evening, Chen Laoshi returned back from Kunming, an 8-hour drive. He spent the weekend back at the YEN office (Yunnan EcoNetwork) to do some other work and pick up some supplies to bring back to the Green Education Center. One of the supplies was the desperately needed picture frame to replace the poster boards (had looked like a science fair) in the renewable energy section. He brought 26 of picture frames from the Kunming office that was identical to the others already at GEC. I had personally tried to get these frames for several weeks, and I was thrilled to have them. In addition, he brought extra sheets, beddings, and quilts for the incoming 18 or so university students from July 26th to July 31st.
Thursday July 16th, 2009
That morning, I was eager to start taking down the posters and substituting it with picture frames. The first picture that I took down, I realized it would not fit directly into the frame. The margins were a little too large and would require the use of the cutting board. As I was about to take out the cutting board, Chen Laoshi immediately requested me to have everyone including Chris, Xuanyang, and him to come together to discuss the best approach to do the photos. Eventually, we concluded cutting the rims would be just fine.
Chris and Chen Laoshi went out of rest of the morning traveling to various villages and different government bureaus in terms of planning for the field trip.
When they got back, Chris cleverly found a way to hand the picture frames. The frames could not simply be nailed into the walls, so he took some wire to hang them from a nail.
I will mention that for the past 5 days I had been constipated. Chen Laoshi had given me some medications yesterday, but it was not having a quick effect. That night, my long intestines were beginning to ache. I informed him that I should go to the drug store to purchase some laxatives. It turned out that he didn’t know it was my 5th day, and he rushed me off to the local Lijiang hospital.
The experience at the hospital was story within itself. The emergency room appeared to be like a ghost town. The person at the front desk had her back turned to us knelled over crying. She was not in a uniform, so I assume it was a patient’s family member. Down the dark hall, a door was open with a young girl on a medical platform undergoing a surgical operation. This didn’t give me much confidence in this hospital. More than anything, it felt like I was in a horror movie. We left that building in a hurry. Across the road was another building of the same hospital. This entrance had someone at the registration desk, which I paid 10 RMB to be checked out. We walked to another room in a poorly lit hall with two nurses. After filling out some paper brief paperwork, they wanted to do an X-ray of my long intestines. We first went to the payment desk to pay 65 RMB, and walked over to separate building. The whole process of taking the X-ray and printing (I really don’t know the technical terms of the radiology) took just over 15 minutes, which I thought was remarkable fast and efficient. The nurse examined the X-ray photo. She said that there were no issues and prescribed me some medications. Guess how much the cost of the medication was, just 1.5 RMB. So let’s add up the cost 91.5 RMB or $13. 39. That’s medical care for you in rural China.
Friday July 17th, 2009
Friday was primarily the continuation of taking down poster boards from the exhibition hall, using the cutting board to appropriately size that per frame, and hand them up.
Saturday July 18th, 2009
Saturday morning was a very special morning. I had arranged with Nainai the night before that I wanted to wake up early to help and learn how to cook a Chinese breakfast. I should mention here that all the food at GEC is homemade, and Nainai is the master chief. We started at 7:30 A.M. sharp. She taught me how to make baozi, which is a somewhat similar to preparing jiaozi. What was most interesting about assisting Nainai was partaking in preparing meals from scratch. When we finished, there was a special satisfaction of preparing this myself rather than having a boxed up, prepared meal. I also thought I could use some of this cooking lessons to show off to the Yunnan University students that I would meet in August and Joyce’s family who I will stay will with in Shanghai.
Chris, Chen Laoshi, and I did a practice run of the tour to Lashihai; however, I wouldn’t call it a practice run. I did some talking, but most of it was spent listening to Chen Laoshi educating us about the area we were walking around. For example, he pointed out some the sapling sites that his volunteers had planted around Lashi Lake. In addition, we walked around the shore of the lake to choose some littered sites in which the children could come clean up and sort the trash. We also located sites over grown with invasive species, another activity for the field trip, as well as sites for sapling in which the university students can learn about the local ecology of the area and make a positive contribution to conserving the wetlands.
One thing to note here is that we crossed an open, public field roaming with cattle on the edge of the lake. It led to a drainage system in which the water flows to Lijiang’s old city, which is the primary water source. As we overlooked, it was actually quiet disgusting. The water was filled with garbage and had a mucky appearance. Water quality in China is graded on a scale from 1 to 5. At this part of the lake, Chen laoshi said that the quality was probably a 3 or 4. It was hard to believe this could possibly be the drinking water for tens of thousands of people.
That afternoon, I sat down with Xuanyang and redid the headings in both English and Chinese and printed out the headings.
Chris and I made a commitment to get all the research done for the bird captions totaling about 15 different species. Some species were easier than others to gather information or should say had more information available via Internet.
That evening, Jill called Chris and invited us for dinner at N’s Kitchen, the best Western restaurant in Lijiang. Chris could not refuse. He was absolutely dying for a burger. Since he had arrived, he had felt meat deprived and needed some refueling. As you can image, Chris ordered the master burger. Besides food, we had a great conversation with Jill about the TNC, biogas, more about her work, and what has been going on at GEC. A point worth mentioning is that according to Jill, of the 300 reported TNC installed biogas digesters in various villages around Lashi Lake, the truth is it is only around 10 or so. The article by CNN titled ‘Green Revolution Under Way in Rural China’ is completely bogus. The person interviewed was set up by the TNC, and supposedly he is the primarily person that TNC refers news agencies to when discussing their renewable energy projects, specifically biogas. In other words, his house is the showcase, but doesn’t represent an accurate picture of the situation in terms of usage of biogas digester around Lashi Lake or Yunnan Province.
July 19th, 2009
I wanted to wake up at 8:00 AM to help Nainai cook breakfast, but I ignored my computer alarm clock and slept for another 1.5 hours until 9:30 A.M. I started the morning by doing some touch ups for the birds captions such as their scientific names and editing and researching information on identification, migration, and diet. Later, there were 6 wooden planks, three that would be hung in the kitchen labeled ‘energy appliances, energy efficient stove, and biogas rice cooker and stove.’ Three were unused. Chris and I decided to use them in the exhibition center for the headings. Once we nailed them in, they looked excellent. It appeared to make a large difference in terms of presentation and aesthetics. Only one problem, we were short by a number of 8. Chris also had a suggestion for having a wooden plank for the biogas digester in the garden labeled ‘Biogas Complex.’ During lunch, we discussed about the number of planks we had in mind. Chen Laoshi felt it was a good idea and added another 2 planks for labeling the biogas digester inlet and outlet. He said he was more than willing to saw all of them. I almost forgot to mention that the weather was excellent, clear blue skies. This is very unusual for this time of year. The summer is actually considered their rainy season. Lashi Lake annually receives 900 to 1000 ml of precipitation between late June and early October. I hear from the locals that it usually rains at least once everyday during this time of the year. Chris and I decided to take full advantage of this by taking a long hike. We hiked up the same trailheads that Sam and I had done about two weeks ago. As we hiked and climbed, every piece of it was from memory. There were no trail signs to lead the way. Thank goodness that I have a visual memory. Once we climbed over the treacherous traverse to the peak, we arrived at the peak of the mountain range that separated Lijiang and Lashihai. A small problem was there was still a lot of forest cover that made viewing a little difficult. We came across another trailhead along the peak and located an absolutely stunning, open view of both Lijiang city and Lashihai. In addition, compared to the 4.5 hours hike last time, Chris and I managed to do in a little over 3 hours.
July 20th, 2009
Chen Laoshi had informed us that he had wanted to test out a different meal plan. Instead of eating at the LGEC (Lijiang Green Education Center), we would have all our meals at the Ailuwan restaurant across the street. This morning was the first day of this transition. The thinking was that currently we hand Xuangyang and Nainai who mainly prepared our meals; however, Nainai would not be returning next year. She wants to return to her hometown in Sichuan Province. Xuanyang would also probably not be coming back. Hence, Chen Laoshi thought it would be more convenient for future interns to eat at the restaurant. We were to do a trail for the rest of our stay here at LGEC and report back about our thoughts.
That evening, we had an in-depth conversation with Chen Laoshi on several topics. One of the subjects included Chen Laoshi’s (YEN’s) relationship with the Nature Conservancy (TNC). He explained that the TNC had a strong, good relationship with the Chinese government, and also reminded that their first priority and main focus is biodiversity protection, not in renewable energy sources. That is not to disregard the efforts of the TNC. He said that their alternative energy projects go through the government and trickled down to the citizens, which is why biogas has been a difficult sale and such a significant amount (over 50%) of 2 million units in Yunnan Province are not used. In a way, the TNC gets in return from investing donors money in the government projects is figures of how many biogas digesters have been installed and other data to return to their stakeholders, but in truth that is all that they are getting back are figures and numbers, not an increased amount of people using the units. In other words, this a top-down approach with TNC supports in this particular type of project. On the other hand, the Lijiang Green Education Center is a bottom-up approach in which it reaches out to the people directly through rural education and leads an example for others in terms of sustainable development. This raised a question for me. I knew that the TNC also conducted educational projects on sustainable development, and I asked him if he had tried to do any work with the TNC in this capacity. He responded that he made efforts on several occasions to take this initiative, but they never followed up.
One special tidbit of information I took away from that conversation was the mission of this center - rural education. Chen Laoshi’s vision is to education the youth to learn about renewable energies, specifically biogas technology. He hopes that the children will take the gained knowledge back home to share with their families and friends. The theory goes that the parents might or might not heed the children’s advice and inquire for info. If not, the children would recall biogas as adults and invest in it themselves. This is a long-term investment that doesn’t have the immediate, upfront results that the TNC sometimes looks for. It is an investment that can take as little as 5 to almost 20 years before witnessing the impacts.
July 21st, 2009
The following morning Alexa, a graduate from Yale University in Anthropology, arrived from Guangdong, near Hong Kong. At the age of 23, she was our fourth addition to the group of interns. She had been in China for over a year as a professor teaching American History at a university through a 2-year program through Yale-China. She had studied Chinese for 2 years – a year at Yale University and a year in Guangdong.
Alexa joined Chris and I to the Old City of Lijiang, where we planned to print out the brochures and distribute them to several hostels (basically anywhere where foreigners might visit). We found a small print shop, and we uploaded the file. We realized that we wanted to make some changes to the format. After consideration of the possible layouts, we finally we came to an agreement. We printed out 150 copies, which we were told to take about an hour. I don’t understand why it would take that much time, but we went along and decided to go to N’s Kitchen for a late lunch. Chris has grown to love this Western restaurant.
We returned backed to the print show confronted with the next task of folding the brochures. We asked politely if we could use their back room to do this, where we spent the next hour covering our hands in ink. The cost per print was .60 RMB or .088 USD cents, which in total added to 90 RMB.
I had a list of 6 hostels that Sam had sent me to distribute to, but some were in other parts of the Lijiang. We first went to a hotel that Chen Laoshi had some good relations with. I knew the manager from a prior visit, and I let him know in Mandarin what we were doing. I suggested that he could put these brochures on the front desk, which foreign visitors can take a look and be informed about some activities that LGEC offers. Through the Old City, we managed to visit 6 locations – hostels, hotels, bars, and restaurants all that had a large amount of foreign visitors.
The following day, we were expecting the arrival of a United Nations Environmental Program Representative. I was honestly nervous. Chen Laoshi was to leave that night to Beijing to do an interview for a Full Bright Scholarship. The representative was to do a survey of LGEC, which she would relay to the UN and other organizations in terms of financial funding. However, Chen Laoshi informed me that evening that the representative would be coming on Thursday morning at 10:00 A.M. That was a big relief because it gave Chris, Alexa, and me one more day of preparation. That didn’t let us off the hook. The next day, The UNEP representative was hosting a meeting at the Yulong County government building with all the stakeholders and partners of the Yangtze River Project.
July 22nd, 2009
The morning was spent getting Alexa caught up on the LGEC. One way we did this was do a practice run of the tour down to Lashihai, the exhibition center, and the biogas digester in the garden. I went through the tour as if she was the representative, and Chris made an obvious observation. My lecture of Lashihai was a completely different (wasn’t consistent) version from when I spoke to Wheretherebedragons group a week ago. There is such a large amount of information on the tour; it is very easy if not looking at the piece of paper to drift off from the main points. Chris gave a great suggestion that I pick five points that I want the visitor to take away when they leave the tour as reference points. This helped me refocus the tour.
I received a phone call from Sam about handbook that we wanted to put together. The goal of the handbook was to give an introduction about the location and biodiversity, LGEC, bio on the different groups attending, and a tentative schedule for the upcoming activities with contacts. He wanted us to take one of the above categories and write it out by tomorrow night.
Xuanyang, Alexa, and I left at 1:00 P.M to the Yulong Government County Building to partake in the meeting on environmental protection for the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. It actually wasn’t one government building, but ten in total. I felt as if I was in Beijing. The building structure was beautiful architecture, but it appeared to be a ghost town. Most or all of the building had the appearance of being vacant. We had no idea which building we were to go to, and after a while of wondering around, we found someone who could give us directions. The meeting room had a very official feel to it. It was set up with dark color wood tables lined up in a U-shape and a few rows of tables in the back. The tables were all field with fruits such as bananas and others that I didn’t recognize. At one of the U-table was labeled for the Yunnan EcoNetwork with two seats and a microphone. We decided that Xuanyang and me would serve as the representatives, since Alexa had only arrived the day before. The microphone came a little bit as a shock because neither of us had planned or prepared anything to say, nor did we know what were we suppose to speak on. The meeting began at 2:30, and some staff came around handing out cigarettes to the 15 plus stakeholders in the room. I have to admit that I was relatively anxious considering I was the only Caucasian male in the room. Some of the other organizations present were TNC, the Agricultural Bureau and a variety of other government bureaus. I got to see the UNEP representative, Ampai. She is from Thailand and had a translator for the entire session. It was nice to put a picture to this vague representative we had heard about over the last couple of days. The meeting was simply the discussion about the types of projects the stakeholders have been actively engaged in. We were one of the last stakeholders to speak, which gave Xuanyang and I plenty of time to whisper and gather our thoughts on what we wanted to say. After Xuanyang discussed the mission of the LGEC and biogas, I went into the topic of education and explain our two types of visitors – rural youth as well as domestic and foreign visitors – and their significance to this project.
The night was dedicated to printing, laminating, and posting of all the bird captions for upstairs in the exhibition center.
Chris prepared a solid introduction for the representative on the mission of LGEC and the activities we are actively participating in.
July 23, 2009
Long story short, the UNEP representative never arrived that morning. Her interpreter came rushing into LGEC about 11:00 A.M, an hour after she was scheduled to arrive. He spoke to me in Mandarin expressing that they are terribly apologetic and asked for Chen Laoshi. I told him that he was currently in Beijing. He said Ampai is across the street at Ailuwan having lunch and will be catching a flight at 1:00 P.M; hence they won’t have time to visit. I gave him our newly printed brochure and one of the Green Youth School as well as suggested to conduct Chen Laoshi for any inquiries.
We did have another visitor group scheduled for the afternoon. It was another group from Wheretherebedragons. It was large group of about 11 students including two teachers. When they arrived, there is a funny yet disgusting story that goes along with this worth including here. The trash basket in the outhouse had overflowed with used toilet paper and was beginning to reek. I asked Nainai to give me plastic bag and a tool to scope it out with. Chris assisted me in the process. Afterwards, I asked Nainai were the trash bin is and she told me they burn it. I guess there is no trash system around Lashihai. I had just gone out the entrance doors when those students arrived. The last thing I wanted them to see was I carrying a filthy plastic bag of used toilet paper. Nainai was kind enough to take the trash bag for me and took care of it herself (I owe her big time2) so I could go meet the students. Anyway, Chris got to use his rehearsed introduction to the center, and I gave them a tour into the conservation section of the exhibition center. This was my first time giving this section solo, but at the same time it was empowering. Chris gave the tour in the renewable energy section. The 1 hour and half tour overall went great. The groups was relatively silent compared to other visitors, perhaps it had been a long day for them. They students gave us 300 RMB as a suggested donation to the center, which averages about a little less than 30 RMB per person.
Beside all the planning and activities here at LGEC, I am suppose to go to Yunnan University in Kunming next Friday to start my month-long language program as part of my HSK scholarship. However, I never received confirmation that I had been accepted to the university or the program; something I was supposed to hear back in mid June. I had sent emails, but I had not received any responses. So I asked Xuanyang for help. We began by calling Yunnan University. They said they had not received any application form from me. Next we called the HanBan headquarters in Beijing who my application form was originally sent to and Xuanyang took care of the situation and got my CSI number, supposedly something that is absolutely necessary to have. That information was passed on the Yunnan University; however, they said the will need my application. Hence, I had to redo my application and sent it out to the following day. They responded that I had been accepted, and they would send me an email to certify my acceptance and answer my logistical questions I sent them via email. The moral of this story is that in China nothing is ever craved out in stone. I personally thought it was completely disorganized.
July 24, 2009
Early Friday morning, Sam arrived back at the Green Education Center from Kunming. I was excited to see him walk through the gates. He had taken the 8-hour night bus ride with little sleep; however, we went to Ailuwan for breakfast and immediately got to work. Chris, Alexa, and I had already created a tentative schedule of the field trip, which had been shorten to a day and half rather than two days. The scheduled I listed below is our final draft. Friday was bringing Sam up to date with our ideas and suggestions as well as incorporating his.
Field Trip Schedule
Thursday, July 30th - Day 1
8:30-9:00 Arrival, registration
9.00-9:30 Opening ceremony; divide into groups
9.30-10:30 Ice-breakers, create group name, banner
10.30-12:00 Round 1 of activites
12:00-1.30 Lunch at Ailuwan
1:30-3:00 Round 2 of activities
3.00-4.00 Preparation for performance: brainstorming, rehearsal.
4:00 Dismissal
Station 1 – Activities at Lijiang Green Education Center
0. Computer class (20 min)
0. Biogas cooking demonstration (20 min)
0. Tour of biodiversity and renewable energy exhibition hall (20 min)
Station 2 - Outdoor activities
0. Invasive species identification and removal (30 min)
0. Lashihai trash pick-up (30 min)
0.
Friday, July 31st - Day 2
8:30-9:00 Arrival, registration
9:00-9:45 Arts and crafts, discussion
9:45-10:15 Free time
10:15-11:00 Final rehearsal for performance
11:00-12:00 US-China multicultural performance
12:00-1:30 Lunch at Ailuwan, closing and award ceremony
1:30 Dismissal
Arts and crafts: small groups draw 2 pictures, one of their "worst nightmare" environment and the other of their ideal environment. Share the pictures with their groups and talk about some of the differences. We may also hang them up for the remainder of the field trip for everyone to see as they pass.
US-China multicultural performance: small groups will each perform Chinese, American, or Naxi songs or dances, and/or short skits about environmental problems and solutions.
We also discussed the layout of the activities for the university students who will be arriving on late Sunday evening. We came together and came up with this schedule. I don’t expect anyone to understand what it listed below, so if you read the blog through out the week, it should be self-explanatory.
We split up duties for the children’s field trip. I took charge of the trash pick up and invasive species workshops. It seemed most fitting since I had some experience in this area from a prior service learning at Seattle University. We had currently only had Chinese Invasive Species Report Cards and Evaluation Sheets. Hence, I had to translate it to English and redo all the formatting. At the same time, we were also creating a handbook for all the university students that had the schedule, different parties, description of biogas and the benefits, and a background on Lashihai. I wrote about Lashia and the biodiversity section. With the division of responsibilities we created a shopping list of need materials to purchase in Lijiang. We also received a call from Ester for invitation to come her house for dinner and make dumplings.
That afternoon, we purchased a gift of chocolates for the He Family. That night, we learned over half a different methods to make dumplings. There is one style that looks like a fish that takes much practice to conquer rightly, while others are just a few pinches. We made dumplings by the hundreds, and we ate them also by the hundreds. It was one plate after another of dumplings. When I refused to eat anyone, there was still one more plate. We went through about a total of 11 plates. Besides a dumpling fest, we also got a lesson on Naxi ethnic group pictographic written language. The drawings of each symbol are very similar in appearance to the object that it meant to identify.
July 25th, 2009
The translation for invasive species was more than a one-day assignment. I continued working on it into Saturday. I also worked out the logistics with Chen Laoshi about the coming of the Forest Bureau Official from the government who would talk on Invasive Species and conforming selected sites. That day was also spent discussing about the likely chance of rain and other optional activities we could do to improvise if was to wet to go outside. Simply put, it is basically reevaluating our entire schedule that was dependent on good weather. That was a long-discussion.
The evening was counting and collecting all the garments. Once we had the numbers jotted down, we began putting bedding sheets over the 18 large semi-filthy quilts for the incoming 18 university students. We also made up all the bed and tents.
This experience was giving me an inside perspective on the time and effort that goes into preparing for these types of activities. There are numerous details to consider that easily and commonly overlooked.
July 26th, 2009
We went shopping for supplies. Alexa, Sam, and I first went to a department store to buy more lamination material, crayons, colored markers, and computer paper. We ended up purchasing 30 sheets of lamination, 6 packs of crayons, 6 packs of markers, and 3 stacks of computer paper. Next on the list was to go to the Chinese Bank to withdrawal some cash to pay Chen Laoshi for the housing and food at the Lijiang Green Education Center. We also went to a print shop. I wanted to print 90 copies of the invasive species reports sheets and another 90 copies of the evaluation sheets. Sam carefully worked with employee to decided on proper size for the handbook and formatting and printed out 40 copies.
The rest of the day was relatively leisurely spent. That doesn’t take away the fact that we had to plan different scenarios. For instance, what if the students didn’t arrive at 5 or 6? That would mean that we would have to hold the official introduction until the next morning and arrangements with the local farmers who volunteered to host them for dinner. Hence, we were pondering different possibilities so we would have a plan b. I helped sweep the rooms one last time before the student’s arrival. The students were expected to come at 5:00 P.M. They actually didn’t come until 8:30 P.M. Not a problem, Frank, the village leaders son, and I had a long conversation in both English and Chinese. It was mutually beneficial. I even got to study some more Naxi traditional spoken language. We talked about the exciting field trip at the end of the week. Frank was going to be a zone leader at LGEC.
The university students arrived at Ailuwan in car, which look as if it was in a transition between a van and large bus. It was the first indicator the week we had been planning for almost a month was now underway. I was thrilled to meet them. During dinner, I was suddenly beginning to have some chills and decided to go to bed early.
July 27th 2009
I woke up with a massive headache and bad case of the chills. I have a high pain tolerance and tried to the best of my extent to cope with the pain and discomfort in the morning. I spoke at the introduction about the unique biodiversity of the region, and I attended the specialist talk on bird species of Lashihai and his guided tour of the birds in the exhibition hall. During the tour of the bird species, I lost it. I could not manage the discomfort and tiredness that made it a burden to keep my eyelids from closing. I immediately told Chris that I was going back to my tent to take a rest.
I slept on for the rest of the day and the university students continued their activities to see the old city of Lijiang and have dinner with local farmers.
My symptoms continued to escalate. I told Chen Laoshi that night, and he rightly again advised that I should go to the Lijiang hospital, which he said might mean an IV-like injection. I told him as long as the needle is clean I am okay with it. At the hospital, he explained to the doctor my symptoms such as headache, chills, tiredness, feeling weak, etc. The doctor checked my temperature. It was 39.5 C or 103 F. The doctor recommended an IV injection and some other unknown pills to take. The best he advised was the same, as any parent would advise: rest and drink lots of water. He said I should rest for a day and should be fine there afterwards. I stayed in a small room with another silent patient also injected with IV for about an hour. He beds had stains on them, but at the time I couldn’t really care with how I was feeling. A bed was a bed in my mind. I was wearing about 5 layers of clothing, and I still felt cold. I think that demonstrates how sick I was.
July 28th
There is not much to say here except I slept and guzzled water by the gallon.
Sam led the discussion with students about the summer field camp on Thursday and Friday. He informed them about our schedule, roles of group leaders, the different locations we would be moving from, and allowed them to come up with innovative games for icebreaker and the performance.
I knew this happened because I could hear some of their voices from inside my tent. The afternoon was a blur because was completely asleep. According to the schedule, they should have gone for a tour of the upper branches of the Yangtze River.
July 29th 2009
After two full days of rest, I started the day feeling great. Most of my symptoms had dissipated. In addition, the morning was to be spent for the long hike that Sam and I had craved out earlier in the month at 8:30 A.M. Hence; I felt good enough to lead a group. Do I think that was a smart idea, right now I certainly don’t think so, but at the time I was extra excited for it. I didn’t think twice about it. We decided to split up into two groups – the leisure group (Kevin and Alexa) and the crazy group (Sam and Chris). The crazy group was supposed to be the group to only hike to the mountain peak. As it turned out, my slowly trailing behind the Crazy group also wanted to do the same but at their pace. The hike became an unexpected 5 hours.
We made it back just in the time for the invasive species specialist lecture and identification of plants. I won’t go into detail about the lecture but note this one tidbit of information. The Lijiang Forest Bureau’s department on invasive species began in 2007, 2007!! It gives a perspective how far behind China is in some on the most basic environmental services that we take for granted in the United States. It also gives an impression into the magnitude of the work to be done in terms of education and awareness.
That afternoon, we set up the flags and banners in the An Shang village community center.
After dinner and laundry, all the interns and Chen Laoshi had a meeting about the logistics of the opening ceremony to the field trip and any last things need to be worked out. At this point in time, my body was aching. I felt as if some of my symptoms were returning. I had deserved it. I completely exhausted myself after having recovering from a 103 F temperature. At the same time, tomorrow was the grand opening to the field trip. I had not set myself in a good position.
July 30th
Field Trip Day 1
The kids arrived bright and early at 8:30 A.M. The university students had breakfast before hand with remarks from Sam and I about changes in the schedule. I was one of four group leaders for group #2. We had 11 students in our group who were all about 9-11 years old. We brought over all the supplies, which included the new T-shirts, straw hats, markers, gloves, and pencils.
We did some fun icebreakers. One was the games was ZOOM. Another was going around the circle sharing nicknames and our reasons for choosing it. My nickname was two-fold. It was K1 and Azi (Ozzy). K1 sounded similar to my Chinese name of Kaiwen and Ozzy was a knockoff of my English last name and the name of a famous American singer. We shortly afterwards headed to the community center and had Chen Laoshi give a cheerful and engaging introduction to the 2009 Green Lashihai Summer Camp. He introduced several people that included Katy (Yale-China director) Tiger (Hunnan University teacher), and several more local officials and village leaders.
We broke off into the first station at LGEC that had a computer class, tour of exhibition hall, and biogas and cooking.
I was exhausted by the end of the three rotations and took a rest as they had lunch. I actually slept until 3:00 P.M. I woke in time to participate in the rehearsal for the performance. We planned to sing the song ‘Childhood,’ a popular Chinese song. I practiced for about an hour. I sat next to small kid and tried to sing along with him with the characters that I recognized.
July 31st
Field Trip Day 2
The kids arrived at a similar time, and we had them do drawings. These drawings were of their worst and best environments. We had crayons and markers for them to illustrate their creative side. We also had them explain to everyone why they choose their particular landscapes.
In addition, we had the children fill out Robert Efird’s surveys about their short summer camp experience.
The next hour we dedicated to the last hour of rehearsal for the performance. We added a dance into the song, which I will have to show all of you when I return to Seattle. The students hesitated at first, but once I began to have some fun with it, they were all having good time.
There were six performing groups. All did dances, singing, or a combo, except for one group. They did a skit on environmental protection from a tourist viewpoint. I could write a couple pages on this, but I rather tell you in person.
Besides the children, the Yale University students including me sang the Yale’s Bright Years song. I learned as I sang it. I had to sacrifice a little Seattle University pride. J
The Hunnan University students put together an awesome performance with two songs. The last one was called ‘Friendship.’ All the students clapped along and seemed to enjoy it whole heartily. We also handed out reusable bags as prizes to the children for most team spirited.
We had our last lunch with the children and shared our final goodbyes. The bus for the Hunnan University and Yale-China Student was waiting for us outside Ailuwan. Before I got on the bus, Chen Laoshi handed all of us interns a certificate of appreciation for our service to the Green Education Center. The next 8 hours were bouncing around in the back of the bus back to Kunming City.
We arrived at Kunming at 10:00 P.M. I took a nice shower and slept at the Yunnan EcoNetwork’s main office, which also had a bedroom.
August 1st
I met the Hunnan and Yale-China students at Cuijin University entrance gate at 10:00 A.M. Xuanyang, Chen Laoshi’s son, had told me to meet them there because he was going to take me to Yunnan University to help me take care of any last paperwork details and getting my belongings moved. However, Xuangyang was guiding the students out as the two groups were planning on departing Kunming City to the final destinations. We had a quick breakfast in the nearby area of the university. Xuanyang decided to call Si Nan, an employee of the Yunnan EcoNetwork, to assist me.
I got to say my final goodbyes to all 20-university students, which was a difficult process.
I went with Si Nan to Yunnan University to take care of the administration paper work and got my key to my dorm. I was informed I had been assigned to a South Korean roommate. Yunnan University actually has a foreign student dormitory. I recall the secretary and the employees in the office all spoke in Chinese to me. It was a great feeling. I should mention that Si Nan doesn’t speak a word of English, which made the day all the more interesting. Hence, everything I desired to talk about I had to recall back to every vocabulary I had learned. There is a sense of satisfaction when able to communicate one’s idea in another language, but it can also be a little exhausting. I have to say that from being with Sam, my pronunciation improved immensely. Si Nan and I soon afterwards had lunch. We discussed my passion of environmental policy and global environmental problems and her role at YEN.
I have to say this was the perfect learning environment. I say here was an incentive to speak for myself, not have someone else do it for me.
We went back to the YEN office by bus and picked up my luggage and brought it back to the foreign student dormitory to the third floor.
We walked around for the rest of the afternoon around campus and to the Kunming Park. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon observing beautiful Lilly pad flowers and learning Chinese vocabulary to describe them.
To my surprise once more, I ran into Seattle University Professor Robert Efird outside the Foreign Student Dormitory. He was talking with a Chinese man who looked like he was giving him a bag of tea. According to Dr. Efird, he and his family were living just down the road. I had seen Dr. Efird the day before in Lijiang during the Summer Camp. I can’t help but say how coincidental it is to have met Dr. Efird three times in one trip, which I had no prior arrangements. He told me his family was leaving the next day back home. He wished me good luck in the rest of my stay in China and complemented me on my ambition and persistence to make all this happen myself.
Back in my room, I dozed off. My new roommate, Dean, awakened me. As I awoke, I spoke Chinese very quickly as if I was trying to defend myself. ;) I later slowed down and caught my breath. He invited for a late midnight snack with some of his other South Korean friends. They complemented me on my Chinese skills. Many of them had studied for three or more years. I was the underdog, but it was great learning environment.
August 2, 2009
Dean and I slept into the late morning. After washing up, we took a walk around the surrounding area to look for a restaurant to eat at rice-versioned breakfast. I also brought some sunscreen, which I had run out of. Coincidentally, it was a Korean brand. I had wanted to find the hidden soccer field and track. We decided to go together. It became more of trek than I first realized. That is because we got a little lost. We actually walked right past it; however, it was good to get a feel for where all the local shops were. It turned out that soccer field was more like abandoned plot of land. There was no track. When we returned to the courtyard of the dorm, I met two Italian college students. They had studied Chinese for three years. There were Antonio and Lorenzo. They were an interesting bunch. I felt their oral ability was moderate. I think I could say my speaking ability compared to them was noticeably better. They often seem to not know many of the words that I was speaking. For example, the word ‘jianmian’ – to meet – created a blank on their faces. This should have been like lesson 1 vocabulary to them, but it wasn’t. I ended the conversation with an invitation to join us for dinner tonight. They welcomed it and we planned on 7 o’clock to meet up.
The rest of the day was a mixture of listing to hip hop music and writing in my blog.
In the evening, all four of us went out to eat hotpot. There was only one problem, most of the menu I couldn’t understand. We selected only a small handful of vegetables and some noodles with already included beef. The hotpot wasn’t particular great, but with increased vocabulary and a copy of the menu, I will be back next time ready to order.
Tomorrow starts the first day of the language program. It will officially start at 8:00 A.M. with oral test. Wish me luck.
Kind Regards,
Kevin Osborne
Wednesday July 15th, 2009
This day is particularly easy to summarize. Chris and I reviewed, edited, added, and cited new content for the Lashi Lake Tour. Chris brought a few suggest books from Wheretherebedragons on environmental problems in China, which he decided to add. He also brought a fresh pair of eyes to the drafts (a work in progress) in terms of organization and flow.
That evening, Chen Laoshi returned back from Kunming, an 8-hour drive. He spent the weekend back at the YEN office (Yunnan EcoNetwork) to do some other work and pick up some supplies to bring back to the Green Education Center. One of the supplies was the desperately needed picture frame to replace the poster boards (had looked like a science fair) in the renewable energy section. He brought 26 of picture frames from the Kunming office that was identical to the others already at GEC. I had personally tried to get these frames for several weeks, and I was thrilled to have them. In addition, he brought extra sheets, beddings, and quilts for the incoming 18 or so university students from July 26th to July 31st.
Thursday July 16th, 2009
That morning, I was eager to start taking down the posters and substituting it with picture frames. The first picture that I took down, I realized it would not fit directly into the frame. The margins were a little too large and would require the use of the cutting board. As I was about to take out the cutting board, Chen Laoshi immediately requested me to have everyone including Chris, Xuanyang, and him to come together to discuss the best approach to do the photos. Eventually, we concluded cutting the rims would be just fine.
Chris and Chen Laoshi went out of rest of the morning traveling to various villages and different government bureaus in terms of planning for the field trip.
When they got back, Chris cleverly found a way to hand the picture frames. The frames could not simply be nailed into the walls, so he took some wire to hang them from a nail.
I will mention that for the past 5 days I had been constipated. Chen Laoshi had given me some medications yesterday, but it was not having a quick effect. That night, my long intestines were beginning to ache. I informed him that I should go to the drug store to purchase some laxatives. It turned out that he didn’t know it was my 5th day, and he rushed me off to the local Lijiang hospital.
The experience at the hospital was story within itself. The emergency room appeared to be like a ghost town. The person at the front desk had her back turned to us knelled over crying. She was not in a uniform, so I assume it was a patient’s family member. Down the dark hall, a door was open with a young girl on a medical platform undergoing a surgical operation. This didn’t give me much confidence in this hospital. More than anything, it felt like I was in a horror movie. We left that building in a hurry. Across the road was another building of the same hospital. This entrance had someone at the registration desk, which I paid 10 RMB to be checked out. We walked to another room in a poorly lit hall with two nurses. After filling out some paper brief paperwork, they wanted to do an X-ray of my long intestines. We first went to the payment desk to pay 65 RMB, and walked over to separate building. The whole process of taking the X-ray and printing (I really don’t know the technical terms of the radiology) took just over 15 minutes, which I thought was remarkable fast and efficient. The nurse examined the X-ray photo. She said that there were no issues and prescribed me some medications. Guess how much the cost of the medication was, just 1.5 RMB. So let’s add up the cost 91.5 RMB or $13. 39. That’s medical care for you in rural China.
Friday July 17th, 2009
Friday was primarily the continuation of taking down poster boards from the exhibition hall, using the cutting board to appropriately size that per frame, and hand them up.
Saturday July 18th, 2009
Saturday morning was a very special morning. I had arranged with Nainai the night before that I wanted to wake up early to help and learn how to cook a Chinese breakfast. I should mention here that all the food at GEC is homemade, and Nainai is the master chief. We started at 7:30 A.M. sharp. She taught me how to make baozi, which is a somewhat similar to preparing jiaozi. What was most interesting about assisting Nainai was partaking in preparing meals from scratch. When we finished, there was a special satisfaction of preparing this myself rather than having a boxed up, prepared meal. I also thought I could use some of this cooking lessons to show off to the Yunnan University students that I would meet in August and Joyce’s family who I will stay will with in Shanghai.
Chris, Chen Laoshi, and I did a practice run of the tour to Lashihai; however, I wouldn’t call it a practice run. I did some talking, but most of it was spent listening to Chen Laoshi educating us about the area we were walking around. For example, he pointed out some the sapling sites that his volunteers had planted around Lashi Lake. In addition, we walked around the shore of the lake to choose some littered sites in which the children could come clean up and sort the trash. We also located sites over grown with invasive species, another activity for the field trip, as well as sites for sapling in which the university students can learn about the local ecology of the area and make a positive contribution to conserving the wetlands.
One thing to note here is that we crossed an open, public field roaming with cattle on the edge of the lake. It led to a drainage system in which the water flows to Lijiang’s old city, which is the primary water source. As we overlooked, it was actually quiet disgusting. The water was filled with garbage and had a mucky appearance. Water quality in China is graded on a scale from 1 to 5. At this part of the lake, Chen laoshi said that the quality was probably a 3 or 4. It was hard to believe this could possibly be the drinking water for tens of thousands of people.
That afternoon, I sat down with Xuanyang and redid the headings in both English and Chinese and printed out the headings.
Chris and I made a commitment to get all the research done for the bird captions totaling about 15 different species. Some species were easier than others to gather information or should say had more information available via Internet.
That evening, Jill called Chris and invited us for dinner at N’s Kitchen, the best Western restaurant in Lijiang. Chris could not refuse. He was absolutely dying for a burger. Since he had arrived, he had felt meat deprived and needed some refueling. As you can image, Chris ordered the master burger. Besides food, we had a great conversation with Jill about the TNC, biogas, more about her work, and what has been going on at GEC. A point worth mentioning is that according to Jill, of the 300 reported TNC installed biogas digesters in various villages around Lashi Lake, the truth is it is only around 10 or so. The article by CNN titled ‘Green Revolution Under Way in Rural China’ is completely bogus. The person interviewed was set up by the TNC, and supposedly he is the primarily person that TNC refers news agencies to when discussing their renewable energy projects, specifically biogas. In other words, his house is the showcase, but doesn’t represent an accurate picture of the situation in terms of usage of biogas digester around Lashi Lake or Yunnan Province.
July 19th, 2009
I wanted to wake up at 8:00 AM to help Nainai cook breakfast, but I ignored my computer alarm clock and slept for another 1.5 hours until 9:30 A.M. I started the morning by doing some touch ups for the birds captions such as their scientific names and editing and researching information on identification, migration, and diet. Later, there were 6 wooden planks, three that would be hung in the kitchen labeled ‘energy appliances, energy efficient stove, and biogas rice cooker and stove.’ Three were unused. Chris and I decided to use them in the exhibition center for the headings. Once we nailed them in, they looked excellent. It appeared to make a large difference in terms of presentation and aesthetics. Only one problem, we were short by a number of 8. Chris also had a suggestion for having a wooden plank for the biogas digester in the garden labeled ‘Biogas Complex.’ During lunch, we discussed about the number of planks we had in mind. Chen Laoshi felt it was a good idea and added another 2 planks for labeling the biogas digester inlet and outlet. He said he was more than willing to saw all of them. I almost forgot to mention that the weather was excellent, clear blue skies. This is very unusual for this time of year. The summer is actually considered their rainy season. Lashi Lake annually receives 900 to 1000 ml of precipitation between late June and early October. I hear from the locals that it usually rains at least once everyday during this time of the year. Chris and I decided to take full advantage of this by taking a long hike. We hiked up the same trailheads that Sam and I had done about two weeks ago. As we hiked and climbed, every piece of it was from memory. There were no trail signs to lead the way. Thank goodness that I have a visual memory. Once we climbed over the treacherous traverse to the peak, we arrived at the peak of the mountain range that separated Lijiang and Lashihai. A small problem was there was still a lot of forest cover that made viewing a little difficult. We came across another trailhead along the peak and located an absolutely stunning, open view of both Lijiang city and Lashihai. In addition, compared to the 4.5 hours hike last time, Chris and I managed to do in a little over 3 hours.
July 20th, 2009
Chen Laoshi had informed us that he had wanted to test out a different meal plan. Instead of eating at the LGEC (Lijiang Green Education Center), we would have all our meals at the Ailuwan restaurant across the street. This morning was the first day of this transition. The thinking was that currently we hand Xuangyang and Nainai who mainly prepared our meals; however, Nainai would not be returning next year. She wants to return to her hometown in Sichuan Province. Xuanyang would also probably not be coming back. Hence, Chen Laoshi thought it would be more convenient for future interns to eat at the restaurant. We were to do a trail for the rest of our stay here at LGEC and report back about our thoughts.
That evening, we had an in-depth conversation with Chen Laoshi on several topics. One of the subjects included Chen Laoshi’s (YEN’s) relationship with the Nature Conservancy (TNC). He explained that the TNC had a strong, good relationship with the Chinese government, and also reminded that their first priority and main focus is biodiversity protection, not in renewable energy sources. That is not to disregard the efforts of the TNC. He said that their alternative energy projects go through the government and trickled down to the citizens, which is why biogas has been a difficult sale and such a significant amount (over 50%) of 2 million units in Yunnan Province are not used. In a way, the TNC gets in return from investing donors money in the government projects is figures of how many biogas digesters have been installed and other data to return to their stakeholders, but in truth that is all that they are getting back are figures and numbers, not an increased amount of people using the units. In other words, this a top-down approach with TNC supports in this particular type of project. On the other hand, the Lijiang Green Education Center is a bottom-up approach in which it reaches out to the people directly through rural education and leads an example for others in terms of sustainable development. This raised a question for me. I knew that the TNC also conducted educational projects on sustainable development, and I asked him if he had tried to do any work with the TNC in this capacity. He responded that he made efforts on several occasions to take this initiative, but they never followed up.
One special tidbit of information I took away from that conversation was the mission of this center - rural education. Chen Laoshi’s vision is to education the youth to learn about renewable energies, specifically biogas technology. He hopes that the children will take the gained knowledge back home to share with their families and friends. The theory goes that the parents might or might not heed the children’s advice and inquire for info. If not, the children would recall biogas as adults and invest in it themselves. This is a long-term investment that doesn’t have the immediate, upfront results that the TNC sometimes looks for. It is an investment that can take as little as 5 to almost 20 years before witnessing the impacts.
July 21st, 2009
The following morning Alexa, a graduate from Yale University in Anthropology, arrived from Guangdong, near Hong Kong. At the age of 23, she was our fourth addition to the group of interns. She had been in China for over a year as a professor teaching American History at a university through a 2-year program through Yale-China. She had studied Chinese for 2 years – a year at Yale University and a year in Guangdong.
Alexa joined Chris and I to the Old City of Lijiang, where we planned to print out the brochures and distribute them to several hostels (basically anywhere where foreigners might visit). We found a small print shop, and we uploaded the file. We realized that we wanted to make some changes to the format. After consideration of the possible layouts, we finally we came to an agreement. We printed out 150 copies, which we were told to take about an hour. I don’t understand why it would take that much time, but we went along and decided to go to N’s Kitchen for a late lunch. Chris has grown to love this Western restaurant.
We returned backed to the print show confronted with the next task of folding the brochures. We asked politely if we could use their back room to do this, where we spent the next hour covering our hands in ink. The cost per print was .60 RMB or .088 USD cents, which in total added to 90 RMB.
I had a list of 6 hostels that Sam had sent me to distribute to, but some were in other parts of the Lijiang. We first went to a hotel that Chen Laoshi had some good relations with. I knew the manager from a prior visit, and I let him know in Mandarin what we were doing. I suggested that he could put these brochures on the front desk, which foreign visitors can take a look and be informed about some activities that LGEC offers. Through the Old City, we managed to visit 6 locations – hostels, hotels, bars, and restaurants all that had a large amount of foreign visitors.
The following day, we were expecting the arrival of a United Nations Environmental Program Representative. I was honestly nervous. Chen Laoshi was to leave that night to Beijing to do an interview for a Full Bright Scholarship. The representative was to do a survey of LGEC, which she would relay to the UN and other organizations in terms of financial funding. However, Chen Laoshi informed me that evening that the representative would be coming on Thursday morning at 10:00 A.M. That was a big relief because it gave Chris, Alexa, and me one more day of preparation. That didn’t let us off the hook. The next day, The UNEP representative was hosting a meeting at the Yulong County government building with all the stakeholders and partners of the Yangtze River Project.
July 22nd, 2009
The morning was spent getting Alexa caught up on the LGEC. One way we did this was do a practice run of the tour down to Lashihai, the exhibition center, and the biogas digester in the garden. I went through the tour as if she was the representative, and Chris made an obvious observation. My lecture of Lashihai was a completely different (wasn’t consistent) version from when I spoke to Wheretherebedragons group a week ago. There is such a large amount of information on the tour; it is very easy if not looking at the piece of paper to drift off from the main points. Chris gave a great suggestion that I pick five points that I want the visitor to take away when they leave the tour as reference points. This helped me refocus the tour.
I received a phone call from Sam about handbook that we wanted to put together. The goal of the handbook was to give an introduction about the location and biodiversity, LGEC, bio on the different groups attending, and a tentative schedule for the upcoming activities with contacts. He wanted us to take one of the above categories and write it out by tomorrow night.
Xuanyang, Alexa, and I left at 1:00 P.M to the Yulong Government County Building to partake in the meeting on environmental protection for the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. It actually wasn’t one government building, but ten in total. I felt as if I was in Beijing. The building structure was beautiful architecture, but it appeared to be a ghost town. Most or all of the building had the appearance of being vacant. We had no idea which building we were to go to, and after a while of wondering around, we found someone who could give us directions. The meeting room had a very official feel to it. It was set up with dark color wood tables lined up in a U-shape and a few rows of tables in the back. The tables were all field with fruits such as bananas and others that I didn’t recognize. At one of the U-table was labeled for the Yunnan EcoNetwork with two seats and a microphone. We decided that Xuanyang and me would serve as the representatives, since Alexa had only arrived the day before. The microphone came a little bit as a shock because neither of us had planned or prepared anything to say, nor did we know what were we suppose to speak on. The meeting began at 2:30, and some staff came around handing out cigarettes to the 15 plus stakeholders in the room. I have to admit that I was relatively anxious considering I was the only Caucasian male in the room. Some of the other organizations present were TNC, the Agricultural Bureau and a variety of other government bureaus. I got to see the UNEP representative, Ampai. She is from Thailand and had a translator for the entire session. It was nice to put a picture to this vague representative we had heard about over the last couple of days. The meeting was simply the discussion about the types of projects the stakeholders have been actively engaged in. We were one of the last stakeholders to speak, which gave Xuanyang and I plenty of time to whisper and gather our thoughts on what we wanted to say. After Xuanyang discussed the mission of the LGEC and biogas, I went into the topic of education and explain our two types of visitors – rural youth as well as domestic and foreign visitors – and their significance to this project.
The night was dedicated to printing, laminating, and posting of all the bird captions for upstairs in the exhibition center.
Chris prepared a solid introduction for the representative on the mission of LGEC and the activities we are actively participating in.
July 23, 2009
Long story short, the UNEP representative never arrived that morning. Her interpreter came rushing into LGEC about 11:00 A.M, an hour after she was scheduled to arrive. He spoke to me in Mandarin expressing that they are terribly apologetic and asked for Chen Laoshi. I told him that he was currently in Beijing. He said Ampai is across the street at Ailuwan having lunch and will be catching a flight at 1:00 P.M; hence they won’t have time to visit. I gave him our newly printed brochure and one of the Green Youth School as well as suggested to conduct Chen Laoshi for any inquiries.
We did have another visitor group scheduled for the afternoon. It was another group from Wheretherebedragons. It was large group of about 11 students including two teachers. When they arrived, there is a funny yet disgusting story that goes along with this worth including here. The trash basket in the outhouse had overflowed with used toilet paper and was beginning to reek. I asked Nainai to give me plastic bag and a tool to scope it out with. Chris assisted me in the process. Afterwards, I asked Nainai were the trash bin is and she told me they burn it. I guess there is no trash system around Lashihai. I had just gone out the entrance doors when those students arrived. The last thing I wanted them to see was I carrying a filthy plastic bag of used toilet paper. Nainai was kind enough to take the trash bag for me and took care of it herself (I owe her big time2) so I could go meet the students. Anyway, Chris got to use his rehearsed introduction to the center, and I gave them a tour into the conservation section of the exhibition center. This was my first time giving this section solo, but at the same time it was empowering. Chris gave the tour in the renewable energy section. The 1 hour and half tour overall went great. The groups was relatively silent compared to other visitors, perhaps it had been a long day for them. They students gave us 300 RMB as a suggested donation to the center, which averages about a little less than 30 RMB per person.
Beside all the planning and activities here at LGEC, I am suppose to go to Yunnan University in Kunming next Friday to start my month-long language program as part of my HSK scholarship. However, I never received confirmation that I had been accepted to the university or the program; something I was supposed to hear back in mid June. I had sent emails, but I had not received any responses. So I asked Xuanyang for help. We began by calling Yunnan University. They said they had not received any application form from me. Next we called the HanBan headquarters in Beijing who my application form was originally sent to and Xuanyang took care of the situation and got my CSI number, supposedly something that is absolutely necessary to have. That information was passed on the Yunnan University; however, they said the will need my application. Hence, I had to redo my application and sent it out to the following day. They responded that I had been accepted, and they would send me an email to certify my acceptance and answer my logistical questions I sent them via email. The moral of this story is that in China nothing is ever craved out in stone. I personally thought it was completely disorganized.
July 24, 2009
Early Friday morning, Sam arrived back at the Green Education Center from Kunming. I was excited to see him walk through the gates. He had taken the 8-hour night bus ride with little sleep; however, we went to Ailuwan for breakfast and immediately got to work. Chris, Alexa, and I had already created a tentative schedule of the field trip, which had been shorten to a day and half rather than two days. The scheduled I listed below is our final draft. Friday was bringing Sam up to date with our ideas and suggestions as well as incorporating his.
Field Trip Schedule
Thursday, July 30th - Day 1
8:30-9:00 Arrival, registration
9.00-9:30 Opening ceremony; divide into groups
9.30-10:30 Ice-breakers, create group name, banner
10.30-12:00 Round 1 of activites
12:00-1.30 Lunch at Ailuwan
1:30-3:00 Round 2 of activities
3.00-4.00 Preparation for performance: brainstorming, rehearsal.
4:00 Dismissal
Station 1 – Activities at Lijiang Green Education Center
0. Computer class (20 min)
0. Biogas cooking demonstration (20 min)
0. Tour of biodiversity and renewable energy exhibition hall (20 min)
Station 2 - Outdoor activities
0. Invasive species identification and removal (30 min)
0. Lashihai trash pick-up (30 min)
0.
Friday, July 31st - Day 2
8:30-9:00 Arrival, registration
9:00-9:45 Arts and crafts, discussion
9:45-10:15 Free time
10:15-11:00 Final rehearsal for performance
11:00-12:00 US-China multicultural performance
12:00-1:30 Lunch at Ailuwan, closing and award ceremony
1:30 Dismissal
Arts and crafts: small groups draw 2 pictures, one of their "worst nightmare" environment and the other of their ideal environment. Share the pictures with their groups and talk about some of the differences. We may also hang them up for the remainder of the field trip for everyone to see as they pass.
US-China multicultural performance: small groups will each perform Chinese, American, or Naxi songs or dances, and/or short skits about environmental problems and solutions.
We also discussed the layout of the activities for the university students who will be arriving on late Sunday evening. We came together and came up with this schedule. I don’t expect anyone to understand what it listed below, so if you read the blog through out the week, it should be self-explanatory.
We split up duties for the children’s field trip. I took charge of the trash pick up and invasive species workshops. It seemed most fitting since I had some experience in this area from a prior service learning at Seattle University. We had currently only had Chinese Invasive Species Report Cards and Evaluation Sheets. Hence, I had to translate it to English and redo all the formatting. At the same time, we were also creating a handbook for all the university students that had the schedule, different parties, description of biogas and the benefits, and a background on Lashihai. I wrote about Lashia and the biodiversity section. With the division of responsibilities we created a shopping list of need materials to purchase in Lijiang. We also received a call from Ester for invitation to come her house for dinner and make dumplings.
That afternoon, we purchased a gift of chocolates for the He Family. That night, we learned over half a different methods to make dumplings. There is one style that looks like a fish that takes much practice to conquer rightly, while others are just a few pinches. We made dumplings by the hundreds, and we ate them also by the hundreds. It was one plate after another of dumplings. When I refused to eat anyone, there was still one more plate. We went through about a total of 11 plates. Besides a dumpling fest, we also got a lesson on Naxi ethnic group pictographic written language. The drawings of each symbol are very similar in appearance to the object that it meant to identify.
July 25th, 2009
The translation for invasive species was more than a one-day assignment. I continued working on it into Saturday. I also worked out the logistics with Chen Laoshi about the coming of the Forest Bureau Official from the government who would talk on Invasive Species and conforming selected sites. That day was also spent discussing about the likely chance of rain and other optional activities we could do to improvise if was to wet to go outside. Simply put, it is basically reevaluating our entire schedule that was dependent on good weather. That was a long-discussion.
The evening was counting and collecting all the garments. Once we had the numbers jotted down, we began putting bedding sheets over the 18 large semi-filthy quilts for the incoming 18 university students. We also made up all the bed and tents.
This experience was giving me an inside perspective on the time and effort that goes into preparing for these types of activities. There are numerous details to consider that easily and commonly overlooked.
July 26th, 2009
We went shopping for supplies. Alexa, Sam, and I first went to a department store to buy more lamination material, crayons, colored markers, and computer paper. We ended up purchasing 30 sheets of lamination, 6 packs of crayons, 6 packs of markers, and 3 stacks of computer paper. Next on the list was to go to the Chinese Bank to withdrawal some cash to pay Chen Laoshi for the housing and food at the Lijiang Green Education Center. We also went to a print shop. I wanted to print 90 copies of the invasive species reports sheets and another 90 copies of the evaluation sheets. Sam carefully worked with employee to decided on proper size for the handbook and formatting and printed out 40 copies.
The rest of the day was relatively leisurely spent. That doesn’t take away the fact that we had to plan different scenarios. For instance, what if the students didn’t arrive at 5 or 6? That would mean that we would have to hold the official introduction until the next morning and arrangements with the local farmers who volunteered to host them for dinner. Hence, we were pondering different possibilities so we would have a plan b. I helped sweep the rooms one last time before the student’s arrival. The students were expected to come at 5:00 P.M. They actually didn’t come until 8:30 P.M. Not a problem, Frank, the village leaders son, and I had a long conversation in both English and Chinese. It was mutually beneficial. I even got to study some more Naxi traditional spoken language. We talked about the exciting field trip at the end of the week. Frank was going to be a zone leader at LGEC.
The university students arrived at Ailuwan in car, which look as if it was in a transition between a van and large bus. It was the first indicator the week we had been planning for almost a month was now underway. I was thrilled to meet them. During dinner, I was suddenly beginning to have some chills and decided to go to bed early.
July 27th 2009
I woke up with a massive headache and bad case of the chills. I have a high pain tolerance and tried to the best of my extent to cope with the pain and discomfort in the morning. I spoke at the introduction about the unique biodiversity of the region, and I attended the specialist talk on bird species of Lashihai and his guided tour of the birds in the exhibition hall. During the tour of the bird species, I lost it. I could not manage the discomfort and tiredness that made it a burden to keep my eyelids from closing. I immediately told Chris that I was going back to my tent to take a rest.
I slept on for the rest of the day and the university students continued their activities to see the old city of Lijiang and have dinner with local farmers.
My symptoms continued to escalate. I told Chen Laoshi that night, and he rightly again advised that I should go to the Lijiang hospital, which he said might mean an IV-like injection. I told him as long as the needle is clean I am okay with it. At the hospital, he explained to the doctor my symptoms such as headache, chills, tiredness, feeling weak, etc. The doctor checked my temperature. It was 39.5 C or 103 F. The doctor recommended an IV injection and some other unknown pills to take. The best he advised was the same, as any parent would advise: rest and drink lots of water. He said I should rest for a day and should be fine there afterwards. I stayed in a small room with another silent patient also injected with IV for about an hour. He beds had stains on them, but at the time I couldn’t really care with how I was feeling. A bed was a bed in my mind. I was wearing about 5 layers of clothing, and I still felt cold. I think that demonstrates how sick I was.
July 28th
There is not much to say here except I slept and guzzled water by the gallon.
Sam led the discussion with students about the summer field camp on Thursday and Friday. He informed them about our schedule, roles of group leaders, the different locations we would be moving from, and allowed them to come up with innovative games for icebreaker and the performance.
I knew this happened because I could hear some of their voices from inside my tent. The afternoon was a blur because was completely asleep. According to the schedule, they should have gone for a tour of the upper branches of the Yangtze River.
July 29th 2009
After two full days of rest, I started the day feeling great. Most of my symptoms had dissipated. In addition, the morning was to be spent for the long hike that Sam and I had craved out earlier in the month at 8:30 A.M. Hence; I felt good enough to lead a group. Do I think that was a smart idea, right now I certainly don’t think so, but at the time I was extra excited for it. I didn’t think twice about it. We decided to split up into two groups – the leisure group (Kevin and Alexa) and the crazy group (Sam and Chris). The crazy group was supposed to be the group to only hike to the mountain peak. As it turned out, my slowly trailing behind the Crazy group also wanted to do the same but at their pace. The hike became an unexpected 5 hours.
We made it back just in the time for the invasive species specialist lecture and identification of plants. I won’t go into detail about the lecture but note this one tidbit of information. The Lijiang Forest Bureau’s department on invasive species began in 2007, 2007!! It gives a perspective how far behind China is in some on the most basic environmental services that we take for granted in the United States. It also gives an impression into the magnitude of the work to be done in terms of education and awareness.
That afternoon, we set up the flags and banners in the An Shang village community center.
After dinner and laundry, all the interns and Chen Laoshi had a meeting about the logistics of the opening ceremony to the field trip and any last things need to be worked out. At this point in time, my body was aching. I felt as if some of my symptoms were returning. I had deserved it. I completely exhausted myself after having recovering from a 103 F temperature. At the same time, tomorrow was the grand opening to the field trip. I had not set myself in a good position.
July 30th
Field Trip Day 1
The kids arrived bright and early at 8:30 A.M. The university students had breakfast before hand with remarks from Sam and I about changes in the schedule. I was one of four group leaders for group #2. We had 11 students in our group who were all about 9-11 years old. We brought over all the supplies, which included the new T-shirts, straw hats, markers, gloves, and pencils.
We did some fun icebreakers. One was the games was ZOOM. Another was going around the circle sharing nicknames and our reasons for choosing it. My nickname was two-fold. It was K1 and Azi (Ozzy). K1 sounded similar to my Chinese name of Kaiwen and Ozzy was a knockoff of my English last name and the name of a famous American singer. We shortly afterwards headed to the community center and had Chen Laoshi give a cheerful and engaging introduction to the 2009 Green Lashihai Summer Camp. He introduced several people that included Katy (Yale-China director) Tiger (Hunnan University teacher), and several more local officials and village leaders.
We broke off into the first station at LGEC that had a computer class, tour of exhibition hall, and biogas and cooking.
I was exhausted by the end of the three rotations and took a rest as they had lunch. I actually slept until 3:00 P.M. I woke in time to participate in the rehearsal for the performance. We planned to sing the song ‘Childhood,’ a popular Chinese song. I practiced for about an hour. I sat next to small kid and tried to sing along with him with the characters that I recognized.
July 31st
Field Trip Day 2
The kids arrived at a similar time, and we had them do drawings. These drawings were of their worst and best environments. We had crayons and markers for them to illustrate their creative side. We also had them explain to everyone why they choose their particular landscapes.
In addition, we had the children fill out Robert Efird’s surveys about their short summer camp experience.
The next hour we dedicated to the last hour of rehearsal for the performance. We added a dance into the song, which I will have to show all of you when I return to Seattle. The students hesitated at first, but once I began to have some fun with it, they were all having good time.
There were six performing groups. All did dances, singing, or a combo, except for one group. They did a skit on environmental protection from a tourist viewpoint. I could write a couple pages on this, but I rather tell you in person.
Besides the children, the Yale University students including me sang the Yale’s Bright Years song. I learned as I sang it. I had to sacrifice a little Seattle University pride. J
The Hunnan University students put together an awesome performance with two songs. The last one was called ‘Friendship.’ All the students clapped along and seemed to enjoy it whole heartily. We also handed out reusable bags as prizes to the children for most team spirited.
We had our last lunch with the children and shared our final goodbyes. The bus for the Hunnan University and Yale-China Student was waiting for us outside Ailuwan. Before I got on the bus, Chen Laoshi handed all of us interns a certificate of appreciation for our service to the Green Education Center. The next 8 hours were bouncing around in the back of the bus back to Kunming City.
We arrived at Kunming at 10:00 P.M. I took a nice shower and slept at the Yunnan EcoNetwork’s main office, which also had a bedroom.
August 1st
I met the Hunnan and Yale-China students at Cuijin University entrance gate at 10:00 A.M. Xuanyang, Chen Laoshi’s son, had told me to meet them there because he was going to take me to Yunnan University to help me take care of any last paperwork details and getting my belongings moved. However, Xuangyang was guiding the students out as the two groups were planning on departing Kunming City to the final destinations. We had a quick breakfast in the nearby area of the university. Xuanyang decided to call Si Nan, an employee of the Yunnan EcoNetwork, to assist me.
I got to say my final goodbyes to all 20-university students, which was a difficult process.
I went with Si Nan to Yunnan University to take care of the administration paper work and got my key to my dorm. I was informed I had been assigned to a South Korean roommate. Yunnan University actually has a foreign student dormitory. I recall the secretary and the employees in the office all spoke in Chinese to me. It was a great feeling. I should mention that Si Nan doesn’t speak a word of English, which made the day all the more interesting. Hence, everything I desired to talk about I had to recall back to every vocabulary I had learned. There is a sense of satisfaction when able to communicate one’s idea in another language, but it can also be a little exhausting. I have to say that from being with Sam, my pronunciation improved immensely. Si Nan and I soon afterwards had lunch. We discussed my passion of environmental policy and global environmental problems and her role at YEN.
I have to say this was the perfect learning environment. I say here was an incentive to speak for myself, not have someone else do it for me.
We went back to the YEN office by bus and picked up my luggage and brought it back to the foreign student dormitory to the third floor.
We walked around for the rest of the afternoon around campus and to the Kunming Park. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon observing beautiful Lilly pad flowers and learning Chinese vocabulary to describe them.
To my surprise once more, I ran into Seattle University Professor Robert Efird outside the Foreign Student Dormitory. He was talking with a Chinese man who looked like he was giving him a bag of tea. According to Dr. Efird, he and his family were living just down the road. I had seen Dr. Efird the day before in Lijiang during the Summer Camp. I can’t help but say how coincidental it is to have met Dr. Efird three times in one trip, which I had no prior arrangements. He told me his family was leaving the next day back home. He wished me good luck in the rest of my stay in China and complemented me on my ambition and persistence to make all this happen myself.
Back in my room, I dozed off. My new roommate, Dean, awakened me. As I awoke, I spoke Chinese very quickly as if I was trying to defend myself. ;) I later slowed down and caught my breath. He invited for a late midnight snack with some of his other South Korean friends. They complemented me on my Chinese skills. Many of them had studied for three or more years. I was the underdog, but it was great learning environment.
August 2, 2009
Dean and I slept into the late morning. After washing up, we took a walk around the surrounding area to look for a restaurant to eat at rice-versioned breakfast. I also brought some sunscreen, which I had run out of. Coincidentally, it was a Korean brand. I had wanted to find the hidden soccer field and track. We decided to go together. It became more of trek than I first realized. That is because we got a little lost. We actually walked right past it; however, it was good to get a feel for where all the local shops were. It turned out that soccer field was more like abandoned plot of land. There was no track. When we returned to the courtyard of the dorm, I met two Italian college students. They had studied Chinese for three years. There were Antonio and Lorenzo. They were an interesting bunch. I felt their oral ability was moderate. I think I could say my speaking ability compared to them was noticeably better. They often seem to not know many of the words that I was speaking. For example, the word ‘jianmian’ – to meet – created a blank on their faces. This should have been like lesson 1 vocabulary to them, but it wasn’t. I ended the conversation with an invitation to join us for dinner tonight. They welcomed it and we planned on 7 o’clock to meet up.
The rest of the day was a mixture of listing to hip hop music and writing in my blog.
In the evening, all four of us went out to eat hotpot. There was only one problem, most of the menu I couldn’t understand. We selected only a small handful of vegetables and some noodles with already included beef. The hotpot wasn’t particular great, but with increased vocabulary and a copy of the menu, I will be back next time ready to order.
Tomorrow starts the first day of the language program. It will officially start at 8:00 A.M. with oral test. Wish me luck.
Kind Regards,
Kevin Osborne
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