CHENGDU FIRST STOP

We are loving our time in China. We arrived a week ago Saturday and stayed at a hotel in downtown Chengdu for several days. While there, we learned more about what we are to do in China and also began our Chinese language classes. We enjoyed meeting and working with the other volunteers from all over the country, including Alaska and Hawaii.

Then we were divided into two groups. Our group was assigned to do their training at Chengdu University. We were also placed with a family. They will be our hosts for the next ten weeks. We are off to a great start with them. We met their extended family on our first day. They live a couple of hours away, but I think maybe they came to help with our luggage! We needed them. Our host family's son has been dubbbed as our teacher. He has helped us with our lessons and also with the customs of the house and China. Our host mother and father are about 15 years younger than we are, but it is a great match for us. We got the placement because I play tennis. The father and I have already done that with good success.

We are going to the university each day for classes. We have two language classes each day. Renee and I have been in the same class, We have a great teacher and we have made good progress. We are able to go to a restaurant and order food, pay the bill, and be courteous. We can get directions and ask and tell time. We also have classes in cross cultural contact and in teaching English as a foreign language. We mostly enjoy all of this along with eating great Chinese food particularly in our home and being with some outstanding young people.

The other day we were treated to an interesting cross-cultural simulation. A young man and a young woman entered the lobby in which we were all assembled. They were dressed in white toga-like garments. The man communicated with a series of clucks with his tongue. something like "Clock, clock." After a few "clocks", the woman knelt. The man then pushed her head futher down. Then the woman got up and give the man a bowl. He took it to all the men and indicated that they dip their fingers in the bowl. Then the woman came to the women and hissed. She wiggled her toes and we figured out that we were supposed to take off our shoes, which we did. Then the man when to each of the men and made his sounds and assumed a position before each one that looked sort of like a Hindu god. Then the woman took another bowl and fed the other women. Finally, the man and the woman took a female member of our group and departed.

During the "debriefing" most of us felt that this was some sort of a sacred ceremony in a culture that was definitely male dominated. (The woman had knelt and had her head pushed down more than once.) One funny comment was from the male language teacher. "I like this culture," he said, "because in Chengdu the women are the boss." Men must have a "soft ear." Then the leaders explained the simulation. In this culture the earth is sacred because it can produce life. Women are also sacred because they produce life. The women are the only ones who can touch the earth. Hence, they do not wear shoes. The man touched the woman's head because that is the only way he can worship the earth. The women were fed because they must keep up their strength. They picked the woman with the biggest feet to join them. The point of the simulatin was to show us how our own cultural experiences color our interpretation of behaviors in another culture. I thought it was a very interesting experience.

We sweat all the time. Today was no expection. We traveled about an hour and a half north to observe some Peace Corps volunteers who are doing a summer project that tries to improve the classroom teaching of teachers from outlying communities. Then after lunch we visited the Giant Buddha, the largest Buddha statue in this area. The town is LeShan if you would like to Google it. Rich climbed and I rode in a boat, but we both sweated.

OFF TO CHINA

The days have gone by quickly. We are in better shape for going than we thought we would be. I can tell you that Goodwill, Purple Heart, and CityTeam in Chester have gotten a good deal from us over the last two weeks.

In addition to getting ready, we have been visited by our son and his family and Doug Long, one of Renee's high school classmates. Any number of friends have stopped by and it was great to see each and every one of them. It has been also good to get the phone calls and notes from so many people. Thanks for all of the good wishes.

Tomorrow at 8:15 we leave for the train to Washington. In Washington we take a taxi to the Doubletree Hotel in Arlington for staging. We will meet our teammates and some of our leaders. We will learn more about procedures. One night we will be out to dinner with some returned Peace Corps volunteers. We fly out on Monday the 30th. We go direct to Beijing and after a short layover we fly to Chengdu.

In Chengdu we stay in a hotel for a couple of days getting our sea legs. While that is happening, we will begin our Chinese lessons. We will meet our In Country staff. By the end of the week we will be introduced to our host family and be moving in. Pray for them and us. We also will be divided into two groups and then even smaller so that the training will be more specific. After going out with the staff for one meal, we will have to fend for ourselves.

We have been warned that internet access this first week may be limited and may even be more so when we move in with the host family. Every day's schedule seems packed, so our time is structured. We will do our best to communicate, but be patient. You can always reach us at erickson3@comcast.net.

We are as prepared as we are going to be -- now the adventure begins.

Home Again Home Again

We have spent the last three weeks traveling. First we went to North Carolina. We visited with our son, Ned, and his wife, Lia, and daughter, Anna Rose. We were joined there by my sister, Janet, and her husband, Dan, and their grandson, Jacob. We had a great time hanging out. Jacob and Anna quickly became great friends. This was our really first goodbye. It was hard to do - two years seems like a long time, but we do know it will pass quickly. Fortunately, Renee's sister Melanie and her family live close by so that we were able to spend some time with them as well.

We then flew to Turkey to visit with our daughter, Lee, and her husband, David, and children, Rebecca, Joshua, Samuel, and Peter. We barely got settled in Istanbul when we left for Macedonia to visit our friends there. We took an overnight bus trip complete with the smuggling of cigarettes and prerequisite border stops. It was worth it to see Nikola and Anica and their new daughter-in-law, Goce. We also were able to meet our Roma friends, the large Gashi family. We were able to see first hand Iso's new baby Erhan. The newlyweds seem to have settled nicely. Iso has found a steady but hard job. Seeing others from the Roma church was also great.

Back in Turkey we visited David's English class. We met Hafize, who became our tour guide through part of historic Istanbul. Most of our time, though, was spent playing with grandchildren. We were able to play with the neighborhood kids -- taught a little baseball -- and met many of the neighbor mothers. One family had us in for an evening. Peter, the youngest grandchild, has been growing fast. He certainly looks and feel sturdy after a seven week early start. Their neighborhood is new so the roads are dusty and often noisy with construction, but that will soon enough be complete.

We arrived home with much to do. High on our list is the language training. We continue to try and spend some time each day. Second, we have worked on the myriad of forms that need to be filled out before our departure. Third, has been the consideration of packing. Suitcase space is limited by number but also size of bags - we usually try to play by the rules. Renee has a mound of clothes on a bed just for her that will never fit into the suitcases - Help!

Our address for the first three months will be

Dr. and Mrs, Richard Erickson

Sichuan University

Mail Box 278

Wang Jiang Road # 29

Chengdu, China 610064

People's Republic of China

We give you this only because we know you would like us to have mail when we arrive.

Yes, Chengdu is the staging area for all of the earthquake relief that is going on in China. We have been able to get good information on the extent of the tragedy in the area. It will not directly affect us. The only change we know so far is that some of the host families will not be able to take PC volunteers this time because they have taken in family from the affected area. If you would like to contribute toward the relief effort, we know the following agency will send all contributions with no administrative cost to the effort.

American International Cultural Exchange Institute

216 Avondale Drive

North Wales, PA 19454

This is the group we went to China with last year. They will be able to do direct funding of the relief monies. You could also contribute to the Chinese Red Cross or other agency which is working in China.

Pray for us to calmly use these last weeks to prepare ourselves for this adventure.

From Winston Salem to Istanbul

The last two weeks have been busy ones. We have continued to spend time each day studying Chinese. We have a teacher from our church, Michi Chen. She patiently listens to us butcher the pronunciation of every phrase. She says we sound like foreigners. Go figure. We can say a few standard opening phrases, but really we are building some vocabulary and some structure. Ni hao, ma? Hun hao! Wo zai kan su. Ta zai tiao wu. Nimen shi de women peng you. Try and figure that out. (How are you? Very good. I am reading. She is dancing. You are our friends.)

We are in Winston-Salem this weekend with our son, Ned, and his wife, Lia and daughter, Anna Rose. My sister, Janet, and her husband, Dan, and grandson, Jacob, also came up to say goodbye. It is the first real goodbye we have had. It was hard, but they will get worse. We will get home Monday night and then leave for Istanbul, Turkey to visit our daughter, Lee and her family -- husband, David, and children Rebecca, Joshua, Samuel, and Peter. It will be a long time away from home, but it is important to make the connection.

There is movement on the home front as well. I think we have solved the social security riddle, but I still need to work on the supplemental insurance. The house has been taken care of.

Jesse Bean and his wife Tanya will be living here for our twenty seven months away. The Ford Focus was sold to our Ukrainian friends who now have their first car. The Taurus is spoken for but the details need to be worked out. There remain a lot of nitty gritty things we need to do to get ourselves ready. Pray for us.

We were shocked as much of the world by the 7.8 earthquake in China. The location of the earthquake is right in the area where we will be going. The Peace Corps has contacted us and reports that all current volunteers are safe. The center of the project is Chengdu, 60 miles from the epicenter, but that city was not damaged and the program and timing remains the same. We have also been in contact with several of our friends in China and they also report that daily life continues. One of the places we are likely to be placed had the volunteers evacuated not for damage or danger, but because they were foreigners. They hope to return, but we wonder how the Chinese in this area will feel about new foreigners arriving. While the Peace Corps seems in good shape, the Chinese country side needs much help and support. We hope that we can be agents of some comfort for them.

Week Two of Preparation

Hi All,
Ni hao, ma? Hun hao.
Actually, we can say and understand much more than that, or at least we think we can. We have been working with the Rosetta Stone computer program now for several weeks. We hope to be understood (with patience) saying I, you, walking, sitting, reading, eating, drinking, running, jumping, kicking, swimming, flying, some colors, numbers to 99, and a few nouns. There are a lot of words which indicate units of items (We have to figure out what that means). Chinese words do not grow like English words through the addition of prefixes and suffixes. A Chinese sentence involves a long string of one syllable words. Quite a challenge to keep them straight. In addition to the computer program, we have had a couple of native speakers work on our pronunciation of these words and encourage us. Please pray that our work will be beneficial when we get to China.
We have been able to contact another member of our team from the Virgin Islands who has also been a teacher and is now off for adventure in China. Two current Peace Corps volunteers have shared what they are doing and have given us some advice on what to bring with us. I (Rich) mostly wanted to know about the packing list which did not include anything formal, but my experience in China has been that there are formal occasions all of the time.
In preparation, we are trying to finish up activities at home. My semester at West Chester has two weeks left with the pressure of all the ending paperwork. The Chester Ridley Crum Watersheds Creek Clean Up is next Saturday. It will be the last one I need to organize - we hope that we will go over the five hundred volunteer mark for our 44 sites this year. Then there is insurance - I think we have a plan for how to cover that while we are away. We think we have sitters for our house, one car is sold as of May 14, the orchestra tickets are gone as of April 25 - only the Taurus remains in need of a loving owner as of June 28.
Work in the garden is done, at least as far as we will go this season. Gardening is an activity that I will miss over the next two years. We hope to have some lettuce by the end of June, but the other fruit will be for someone else.
I (Renee) have started to investigate drawers and closets. Of course, I am finding interesting things that I had forgotten, but also a great surplus of items that we do not need. The linen closet resembled one of those clown cars in the circus; the towels just kept coming and coming and coming. Tomorrow begins a new week with new lists and hopefully new accomplishments.

Opening a Blog

Hi All,
Tonight I am in Winston Salem, North Carolina. My son has set up this blog for me. I hope that Renee and I will kept it up to date and you can follow along with our preparations and eventually what happens to us in China.
Today Renee FedExed in our final medical reports. These are sent directly to the Chinese. Hopefully they will accept them and we can finally be done. Since we were nominated for English teaching in China we have already done several things. We have been posted on the Rosetta Stone program for learning Mandarin. It has been fun, but how successful I don't know. The Peace Corps has its own program which we have copied so we may work on both. We also have the opportunity to do some work with two native speakers. I am interested in learning, but I know from former teachers in China that they would prefer we speak English than Chinese.
We have also completed a new resume and a list of aspirations we have for our time in China. It was really interesting to think about what we would like to see happen.
We have not as yet found someone for our house. We hope that there will be someone who can take advantage of this possibility for us and them. We also are looking for someone or a group to take our Philadelphia Orchestra tickets. Our seats are so good we hate to give them up. It would be great if someone can save them for us. We also need to sell two cars. We have one of them sold. We are offering them at a good price. Anyone interested in a Taurus at the end of June??? We still have much to do to get things in order before we leave.
GRANDMA AND POP POP WITH ANNA ROSE


Among the things we are going to do is to visit Lee and Dave and the grandchildren in Turkey. We will be gone May 21 to June 4. We also will be visiting Ned and Lia and Anna Rose for a long weekend in mid May.

Rebecca, Anna Rose, Samuel, and Joshua with Ned

This is Peter John Giles, our newest addition! Born on Jan. 13, 2008