My wife really hates this statement but this year we have had two girls volleyball teams and they look exactly the same so you never know until play starts which one showed up.  Another way to say it is we are a bit inconsistent. 

Last weekend unfortunately our best team did not show up and we took 2nd place in the Shanghai International School Activities Conference.  We were three year champs so it was very hard for our girls to take.  The really nice thing is that this past weekend, I talked to the coach of the team that beat us and could tell that he had a lot of respect for our team and knew that if our team was on they could not have won.

So 4 days ago we went to Manila to play in the APAC (Asia Pacific Activities Conference) girls volleyball conference.  This is our first year in APAC and while we have visited 2 APAC schools, I was not ready for the huge jump APAC was from ACAMIS (Association of China And Mongolian International Schools).  APAC is composed of 11 schools with 7 from China which represents some of the largest international schools around Asia.  China, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines are represented.

When we arrived for our first game and walked into the gym it was like we came into the land of the giants.  After talking to fellow parents and investigating about our competition our little school (which graduated 39 students last year which was our largest ever) was in with schools graduating over 100 students each year and some of them much less transient than we are.  Since 4 of the schools in APAC were in ACAMIS last year, I sort of thought that we had joined schools like the best in ACAMIS.  No we had gone from Single A to Triple A in one season!!!

I will not bore you with details but our girls finished 4th!  They played well the last two days of the tournament and I feel showed the rest of the teams that even as the smallest school of the 12 that they deserved to be there.  

On a more personal note, one of the assistant coaches came up to our daughter and said that she was the best setter at the tournament.  A few other coaches told our coach that they just wanted our setter, nothing else just give them our setter! 

So we got to see some very good girls HS volleyball, our last as parents of a high schooler, and enjoy 3 days in the tropics!  Not a bad few days of vacation! 

 

I thought I would just write a little something on our church here.  It is a government sanctioned church so everything is on the up and up.  Again, I take a rather literal translation of His word so we have a good BS class with a great like minded teacher.  This has helped me as I get little from the sermon due to a not so like minded Brother.

Well when the head Elder's wife who is in charge of all BS classes asked me to teach next term because our current teacher can not, I was and yes it is hard to believe...speechless.  So I started thinking what book can I cover in 10 weeks?  We have done the first part of Genesis and now we are in Ephesians.  I thought, hey I could do 1st and 2nd Tim.  But since we have a lady elder..........Unity........Maybe..... not.

The sermon series is on Biblical Expats and we are spending a lot of time in Daniel.  So I'm now looking for a book in the Bible to teach.  I should add that there are topical classes but this class is the one that is specifically for an in expository study of a book or part of a book of the Bible.

Our current teacher is great and has his Doctorate in Divinity so as his "substitute" the class will get a freshman TA at best ! !

 

First a little definition.  The word ayi (pronounced long I and long E) literally means aunt.  I think in Chinese it might actually mean your mother's sister as they have specific words for the paternal and maternal sides of the family.  But it is in everyday use for a kind word to refer to your maid.

So most people only think about the positives of having a driver and an ayi. 

First, I will list some of the positives for your driver.  He keeps the car clean, filled with gas, maintenance up to date, you never need to worry about parking, you get dropped off at the door especially during the rain and he will even run simple errands for you.  So now you are wondering what is the downside.  Well you never know when they will leave you.  You could be waiting in the morning with a full day and get that phone call !   Or he might drop you off to work and then you get a call from his company saying that he just dropped the car off and has quite.  You get very use to your driver.  They know your routine, the places you go, etc.  It just makes life a little easier (not easy).  The other item is you have to plan every trip you make.  Your driver has a family and wants to know "Am I going to be home tonight with my family or not."  So you loose a bit of spontaneity and it does just wear on you.  You release your driver for the day then 2 hours later you think "I would be nice to ....." but then you forget it.  Then you have the just take the day off as I don't want to plan anything!!!  That means I will be free of planning and will go anywhere by bike will take me.  The verdict is I would rather live in a place where I could drive versus living in a place where you must depend on a driver to take you anywhere.  Also, if you have a medical emergency you are in a taxi ! 

Now for the ayi.  This person is in the house during the day when you are there and when you are gone.  So first, you must be able to trust them.  Second, at least in China, we can not communicate with them.  So it is awkward at first but you get "comfortable" with them around.  So the benefits are that you don't need to clean, nor iron and you can have them do the laundry and cook meals for you and even shop for you.  So you a free from the strain of housework.  The downside is that you need to teach them everything again and again.  I have the non-white whites to prove the laundry issue.  I have also had wrinkled shirts and trousers hung in my closet without ironing.  So the downside is that as you improve their skills, they will just one day not show up and you are back to square one.

So on the day when your ayi quits, your DSL repairman does nothing but the DSL just started working luckily while he was here and your driver seems a bit distant.......We call it a China Day!  Life is grand.

But as James puts it "My brethern, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing."  James 1:2-4 NKJV. 

I have learned to like small to medium size Typhoons in southern China for a few reasons.  First you must understand that a friend in another major city north of us was working with young elementary students on their English.  After teach them the colors the question was "what color is the sky?"  The answer from the class was GRAY!

Often in Shanghai you can see the haze when looking out to a building less than a mile away so when you get a day where you can not detect any haze when looking at a building 5 miles away you really take notice.  That has been our weekend.  We had a small typhoon come ashore on Thursday (no flooding, no deaths, no property damage) and it blew out all the pollution, gave us some rain to remove more pollution and dropped the temperature 15 degrees F. 

So Friday, Saturday and Sunday we had absolutely beautiful weather.  Mid 70s, blue skies and a gentle breeze.  Nice white clouds in the sky and last night we could see stars against a blue/black background.  OK we still have the normal light pollution from a major city but looking to our south away from the city I saw several stars.  Now you need to understand that it over a year in Shanghai, I can count on my hands the number of nights where I can see a star.  This is probably the 2nd night when I have been able to see several stars.

So for those who can see blue skies and stars at night, never take them for granted.  So look up into the sky and remember what the Psalmist said, "The heavens are telling of the GLORY of God"  Ps 19:1.

I have a few days off due to the national holiday so will do a few postings.  Tonight I will share a little about our weekend.

We attended a seminar this weekend that featured speakers from the Ravi Zacharias International Ministry.  We use to listen to Ravi on the radio in the U.S.  His headquarters is in Atlanta.  These two speakers were from the Asia-Pacific office in Singapore.  The elder statesman was a man from India who is about the same age as Ravi. 

This seminar was only open to foreign passport holders but it was still such a blessing.  There were about 50 people total with 12 countries represented.  For those who know me, I'm a pretty logical math oriented guy.  Let me just say that the logic of their arguments were great and a bit rough to keep up with at times.  After having sat through this weekend I must admit that I often say you need to take it on faith way too early! 

So the speakers were great (we were there 18 hours between Friday evening and noon on Sunday) but it was great to get to know some of our Asian brothers and sisters.  We spent a few hours listening about some ministries supported by our fellowship and just listening to the heart of these people was awesome.  For obvious reasons I can not go into too many details on some. 

One Vietnamese brother in his spare time leads outreach trips to help the poor in the country and recently led a group back to Vietnam and Cambodia where he acted as the interpreter while others taught the Bible to local leaders!  Another Chinese sister (who holds a foreign passport) started a charity here in Shanghai reaching out to the physically handicapped homeless. 

I think our U.S. churches could take a few lessons from their Asian brothers and sisters on just sharing the love of God.  That is all for now. 

OK, so it has been a few days.  Where do I begin?  So I have been back in ZJG for a couple of nights.  It is different when my roommate is there but I still miss the fam.  Since returning to China I have been in ZJG 50% of the time.

Volleyball season has started but it has not gone that well.  The team is now 3-1 but they are not playing well due to the coaches making too many changes too fast.  I can say that as the team never practiced a 5-1 rotation before the first game (they played a 5-1 all last year).  But enough on that.  It has made the start of the school year not as fun for Ab.

Bren has had a rough time settling back into life.  On 8/27 she got food poisoning and went downhill all day.  It didn't help that Ab and I were gone.  She got really sick before a nurse friend came to the house with meds.  The next day she was able to go see the doctor and got more meds.  By the 1st of Sept she was back to normal.  Then on the 6th she broke a tooth.  Fortunately we got several recommendations for the same dentist and they had an appointment open that afternoon.  She went back on Tuesday to start the crown process.  She has to go back again as the mould is not good and they need to take another imprint.  So goes life in China.

I wish I had my camera with me all the time as people just would not believe what we see going to and from work.  I can not have a camera at work so it is kind of hard to have one and leave it in various cars I'm in all the time.

So why Party Time?  Well tonight we have the girls v-ball team over and the adults have been banished to the upstairs.  They have what should be an easy game tomorrow morning so they are enjoying tonight.

So I am spending a week away from family up at our factory.  Several of us are on rotations and when you are on call you must stay within 1 hour of the factory.  I have a nice apartment to stay in that is very spartan but it is clean and comfortable.

So my entertainment system here is a CD player, TV, DVD.  Of course I don't have any CDs with me so I can listen to the one that was in the unit when we got it (it is a hand me down from a co-worker) which is the Best of the EAGLES.  So in a certain since I feel like I am living Hotel California right now.

Now the TV is hooked to a little box that seems like it gets the signal from a LAN system so this is not satellite nor cable.  I get one English speaking channel.  However, it took me 10 minutes to learn how to change the channel.  You see the TV remote doesn't change the channel.  You have to use the remote for this little box.  All of this is in Chinese.

Next I borrowed a few DVDs from a co worker who lives near me (there are many of us in this complex but mostly during the week).  So I place a DVD in and no sound no picture.  No problem.  Just start hitting buttons.  I remember my room mate saying that we use the CD player for sound so that remote and unit is English so I change to AUX and we have sound.  Again, I spend 10-15 minutes to try and change the TV from this LAN input to the DVD input.  No luck.  So we go to investigate the wiring and find out that you must physically switch the video input.  Case closed and I'm in business.

After watching one DVD I place a second on in to watch.  Now, this time I have picture, background sound but no speaking.  Now the DVD is Chinese and remote only has Chinese and all the menus are Chinese.  An hour and a half later I find a setting that turned on the speaking track!  I haven't tried to play another DVD to see if this setting will work nor am I sure how to get back to it.

Then there is the DSL and wireless.  The wireless works fine.  The DSL is extremely slow and reminds me of dial-up.  Not only that when you are switching screens (like on facebook) you get diverted to some Chinese screen.  You then need to go back and try it again.  It usually doesn't divert you twice but the time it takes!!!!!  This also happens with just going to Google.  You get diverted to China and you have to retype the google.com again to get the English version.

If there is a silver lining to being away from family up in ZJG is I have time to get caught up on work and exercise.  I would say reading but I lost my reading glasses on the plane and just discovered it a couple of days ago.  I don't need them often just for fine print.  Also, I forgot my Sword but then again that is fine print so........  Online versions are just too painfully slow with this DSL.

My complex is nice and quiet, I feel safe here and I don't feel too much like a fish out of water.  Yesterday I did go shopping with some friends.  We went the back streets and got a lot of stares.  Mostly people just looking at 3 white guys.  I started making eye contact with those on bikes to see if they would stare long enough to wreck.  OK it was bad of me but on the 25 minute walk only one girl almost wrecked. 

I think my room mate comes up on Monday.  He is on call next week.  However, I think his wife will come up once I leave so that will give him a break.  Abby had things this weekend in Shanghai and Brenda has been under the weather.

Back to work.......

OK, it has been a long while but I took the summer off from my blog.  The reason is quite simple.  After my ladies left it was just me, work, TV, work and well work.  So I had nothing much to write other than boring work and I was kind of burned out.

The three weeks home were GREAT.  I was out in the Rockies for a few days and just stared at the blue skies all the time.  Fortunately, our first full day back it rained heavily all morning and then lightly the rest of the day.  That meant that our second day back (yesterday) we had clear blue skies and you could see for miles (a very rare event in Shanghai).

So on my first full day I forgot a few important things.  First, how bad the traffic is on a rainy day.  Took twice as long to get to the office.  Second, to walk slowly on the polished stone sidewalks.  Yep, they look great when they are dry but in leather sole shoes when they are wet it is like walking on ice.  Third, even when the light is red and you have the "green" to cross, do your 360 continuously as you never know where a car or bike is coming from (that yellow line is only a suggestion).

I lived through my morning and got back into my Shanghai face.  I have so far only worked during the day and have avoided the nights.  Mainly because we have had things to do.  We celebrated Abby's birthday last night since I will be out of town on her birthday.  She has stuff going on at school tonight.  She is kind of a big girl on campus.  Volleyball and NHS officer.

This goes into those e-mails you never dreamed of getting.....I got an e-mail from within Dow Corning on purchasing masks to wear in case of an avian flu outbreak!  Kind of interesting. 

Since we live in Shanghai, people often ask us why we are not in Beijing right now versus on vacation in Kentucky.  The other question we get is "What do we think about the Olympics in China." 

Well since we are not in China and I don't need to be concerned about my transmission being read let me give a little more information.

China has a very large network trying to find the best athletes in the country.  From an early age these children are sent to special schools away from home and they train.  We have 7 sport schools in Shanghai (a city of 20 million) and even the local Chinese say it isn't good because kids train there for 6-8 hours a day and do little school studies.  That's right, these kids by the time they are 12-14 can already be years behind in school and if they aren't good enough what happens?  They are left to get the lowest paying jobs in the city or shipped back to their home city with no real education.  Pick up any paper business in China and it will talk about the need to educated local Chinese talent to continue the economic growth of China.  Many people say that it is not energy shortages that will slow China's economic development it is the lack of talented educated Chinese.  My department has hired over 80 people this year and I can tell you very few of them are up to Western standards.

In China the press is controlled and what is in the English press is just what they want you  to know.  So when there is an article about China busting a child labor ring in the southern part of the country you think oh this is good.  However, as you read this article you realize that they are making the case that is not bad that these children work because if they were at home with their families they would not get food to eat. 

So that is China, they want you to feel sorry for the starving children and view child labor as not so bad all the while they add to the problem by lowering the education standard for hundreds of children in search for the next Olympic star.  And why so much effort on the Olympics?  Because they want to be seen as developed as the West, as a world leader and also that they care about their people.

How much do they care about their people?  Don't forget about the little 9 year old who was not pretty enough to be seen on TV so she sang off stage while a prettier little girl got to lip synch on stage.  Why?  It made China look good and hides the fact that not all of their children are beautiful.  Give me a break, they are just like any other people in that we are not all TV models!  So China cares about people just like they cared about that little 9 year old back stage or in the west we might say about as much as the wicked mother cared about ugly Cinderella!

Another point someone asked me about was the government giving families permission to have another child in the earthquake devastated area of Sichuan.  That is really nice of them.  However, how is a woman who was sterilized by the government going to know have another baby?  It was a nice thing to do as it made them look good to those in the West who don't really know the truth.

Also, the locals are telling me about all the money going into the region.  It seems that the local party officials are helping the economy by having extravagant dinner parties.  So much for helping a poor family rebuild their house! 

So China has shut down by some estimates up to 20% of the GDP to clear the air for the Olympics as well as taken 50% of the cars off the road.  They have dressed up the city, placed toilet paper in public toilets and educated the people in Western etiquette as not be to offensive but it is still a just a big party and a facade to the real country.

Today is the first day of summer and my first full day in Shanghai alone.  It is still the rainy season in Shanghai and I'm told that it is after the rainy season when it gets hot.  Today's high was just 97 and humidity was in the 90s. 

My routine today was breakfast and a few exercises for my back followed by a little work.  Then I went into the office for some real work.  After that I indulged myself with a massage and dinner.  I am now back at the computer with some more work to do.  Of course I do have the TV on for a little noise.

Today my only contact has been with the locals.  So it has been a little strange for me in that I have most likely used more Chinese today than English.  Now don't think that my Chinese is vastly improved it is just that I have not seen any Westerner today.  Tomorrow I have lunch plans with a friend before church so it will be a more normal day.

Shalom,