Moslem Quarter

Wednesday Debra was able to secure the use of a second bicycle. With it we went for a ride. One of the main destinations of the ride was the Moslem Quarter.

This section of the city contains some of the oldest buildings that are in regular use. It is identifiable from a distance by the lower skyline. The buildings are, almost, all made of rough brick and the streets are much narrower, having been made at a time that had no need to accommodate motorcars.

As there was little need to accommodate motorcars, the streets were available for more practical uses, like the slaughter of animals. The skin was first opened, in order to provide a clean work surface, and then the cow was sectioned and butchered in the street. Similarly, there were also goats foraging, being sold, and being butchered in the same streets.

While there we visited three Mosques. At the second we were invited to walk to the top of the calling tower and see the city form there. It turned out to be the highest calling tower in the city and provided an incredible view of the Moslem quarter. Like many other buildings in China, it was made entirely of masonry and the stairs were steep enough, in places, to more resemble a ladder than what they were.

We also visited a couple of outdoor produce markets with one small disaster. It turns out that Debra lost her wallet. We rode for a while in hopes of locating it; but to no avail. The good news is that she had very little in it: about 60Y, her Hostel card, and her bankcard. The bankcard may turn out to be the hardest loss of the three. The banks in China should be able to replace it. The problem with dealing with any institutions is always the language issue.

Zeneta's visit with Debra

Visit with Debra

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

2:35 PM

Met Debra at train station

Went to her hostel, then walked around Xian

Arrive in Ankang 5 Nov after dark

Take train from Xinyang to Xian

Ride in hard sleeper on lower bunk

Left Xinyang 21:26 4 Nov

Arrive Xian 9:30 5 Nov

Spend Monday at her apartment while she was at school

Met Lucy and Lily…persons from the school Debra works for

Went for long walk in the evening…took lots of photos

During lunch met Ulla, the other English speaking teacher at her school

During walk met LaVelle, another teacher placed by Buckland at a different school here

Sunday on the train we met a very nice young lady. She was 6 years old. She sang and drew for us. Her mom could speak some English and so could she. She wrote her name for me and her mom gave me an email address for her. Her name is Bao Rui Xue. We got some pictures of her, but there were technical problems with the camera and several did not come out.

We also met a young boy. I am guessing he was about 3or 4 years. He let us take pictures of him…

Today spent morning working and playing on my computer

Lunch break spent with Debra…ramen and bread and fruit for lunch

Made shopping list during morning

Breakfast…cheese, fruit and bread

Went on walk when Debra got done teaching

Purchased several scarves

Went to supermarket, purchased writing boards, dictionary and book

Ate at KFC on the way back to Debra's apartment

Also purchased music cds on the way back after dinner

Watch "Nanny McPhee"

Wed 8 Nov 9:30

Uggg…it is grey outside

Breakfast will be fruit, cheese, crackers

Worse than grey outside is cold inside

And no internet

All in all today was a good day. I worked on the computer and on my journals. I also spent time listening to music.

Lavelle and nick come for their cheese 13:50

Debra goes to teach class

Sun is out and shining...flat is still chilly

Lucy comes with computer men to get internet and network fixed. They arrived at 2:30pm

Dinner was at an acquaintance of Debra's

The food was cooked by the husband and was very good to eat

After eating, we took lots of pictures

The pictures were taken with two cameras

We left at 6pm and returned at 8:55pm

Thurs 9 Nov 9:35

Breakfast consisted of sliced and pealed fruits, buns, several cheeses and breakfast biscuits type of cookie). An apple and pear were sliced and an orange was peeled.

The internet repair person comes by as do the computer repairmen. They are currently working on the computer to fix the entire problem with using the internet.

My laundry is done and waiting to be hung and dried. All is now drying.

The sun finally came out which will help with the stuff on the roof drying.

2:55 computer men return with Lucy. She leaves to give Debra the tickets to Xian. When they arrived I was busy sweeping the floors.

During lunch hour, Debra and I went and got a rack for drying laundry inside. We stopped at the bank on the way there and brought a taxi back to her apartment. Lunch consisted of orange slices and small bread buns.

The computer men appear to have reformatted the drive…internet was available tonight

Cut out arrows for Debra…after playing on internet for a couple hours

Listen to music

Fri 10 Nov

Called Robert at 12:58

Breakfast is fruit cheese and breakfast biscuits

Lunch is cheese and biscuits

Debra has left for her teaching assignments

I am here in her apartment which is warmer this morning than it has been for the last few. I am listening to music on my computer.

I have taken a shower and washed my hair

Later this morning my laundry will be completely dry

We are packed and mostly ready for weekend trip to Xian. While there we plan to explore and go to see the Terracotta Army. I plan to purchase a small backpack. I will use the pack to help take things back to Xinyang. Things include cheese and tomato sauce, chopsticks and small gifts for people.

Listen to music throughout the morning and afternoon

Started watching third Harry Potter movie and making questions about it.

2:50 Lucy arrives with someone she says will fix internet.

Dinner out with Debra and other teachers. Ate at a Hot Pot. Food was good and so was the company

Leave for station about 9:20

Catch train to Xian

Sat 11 Nov

Arrive in Xian at about 4am

Wait outside station till about 7am

At 7 catch bus to Terra cotta army site

We both got a little chilled while waiting for the bus to start running

At the site, we went through the three pits

I took lots of picures while we were there, both inside the protective buildings for the site and outside them

The place was well worth seeing, and I think going first thing is a very wise choice as there are very few tours going then

Pit #3 was as well lit as the first one. Pictures were easier to take and seem to be better.

This pit may be as excavated as it is going to be

We started with Pit #1, the first of the pits to be discovered. It is supposed to be the largest of the pits, and holds a large number of statues. I took lots of pictures with both of the cameras I had with me. I suspect that I have more pictures from this pit than from the other two combined. There seem to be four to six columns of the warriors in this pit, each column containing four warriors across.

The columns stretch to the back of the protective shelter

There is still a lot of the area which could be excavated. Part of the very back is used to piece together the broken statues

Pit #2 is very dark and seems a bit disappointing after the first one.

There were several glass encased displays in the building protecting this pit. It also looked like there was current and ongoing excavation happening

When we were done we went and got a room for the night in a nice youth hostel it was very nice and we were fortunate in that we got the bottom bunks and did not have to share the room. Well we did, but there were two rooms in one, and we got the back room.

Pictures of the room we were in

After getting accommodation for the night we went and did some shopping. I wanted a small pack, some chopsticks and some other items. Debra took me to the shop and I got the pack I wanted, we then went and got something to eat. After eating we went down a street with lots of small shops and carts in it. At one of the shops we purchased fans and in another I purchased some chopsticks. As we left I also purchased a small dangly to help locate my USB drive.

Sun 12 Nov

We went to three tourist items today, one before checking out of the Hostel and the other two before catching the train

The first was the "tablet forest" this was within walking distance of the place where we stayed for the night. It was a very nice place.

I took a lot of pictures while we were there.

This is a map of the place.

Some examples of the different styles of writing

We also visited the Great Mosque

After visiting the mosque we did some shopping in the lane out to the main road. Items of silk and a variety of other things were available.

The train station waiting room

The last place we visited before going to the train station was the Bell Tower.

This was one of the bells at the tower. The others were in the tower and there was some music being played.

Mon 13 Nov

Did not sleep well last night. Got a good hot shower this morning. Am starting to feel better. Apartment I still very chilly and damp. Have been wearing my shawl today.

Debra went and taught this morning. When she came back we spent some time and talked to family via Team Speak. Members included Victoria, Mom, John and Serena. We both spoke to everyone for a few minutes or more. Fixed Microphone so it was working. I think we both got to talk for a minimum of 30 minutes each and maybe as long as an hour

I spent some time this morning ad this afternoon working on the Power Point and On my journals

Debra has gone back to teach classes for this afternoon. Reminded her to ask for train tickets to Xian for Sat Morning. I have been writing notes on postcards. We are planning to go to the post office this afternoon and mail packages and postcards out to people.

Went for a walk to post office with Debra and Ulla. Did some shopping and stopped for dinner on the way back to apartment.

Talked to family again this afternoon via TS

Listening to music

Did laundry tonight

Tues 14 Nov

Grey and chill day

Spent morning on internet and talking to john and mom

Lunch was ramen, Debra style

Again wearing the shawl to help keep warm

Working on movie questions and webpage while Debra is at school this afternoon

When Debra returned from school, we went an visited with Ulla. I showed my power point presentation and we also shared photos. Ulla gave me copies of some of her pictures

Discussed her classes and the use of an assistant

Dinner was sandwiches and cheese and crackers.

We also watched a movie, Harry potter and the prisoner of Azkaban

Still waiting for the laundry to finish drying

Wed 15 Nov

Chill and grey day

Spent morning on the internet

Talked to mom and john

Went for walk about noon and got veggies and fruit with Debra

Have afternoon also on internet

Thurs 16 Nov

Played on WOW for a while this morning

Also checked e-mail and visited other sites online

Grey skis abound outside this morning

Set batteries to charging

Now cooking rice and playing on my laptop

Now eating the rice

Played with mom on WOW. Advanced elf hunter to level 25

Fri 17 Nov

Listen to Chinese language cd

Had eggs onion and cheese for breakfast

Played online till power went down about 11:00

Now working on journals and packing

Cheese and banana for lunch/snack

No power from 11:00 am to 4:30 pm

Getting ready to go an a walk, take photos and get dinner with friends

Walk was very nice. Dinner was also quite good. After dinner walked to bridge and took photos of it and one of the buildings near it. From the bridge went by the apartment of one of the teachers and made use of her toilet. We then went to KFC and got sundaes with strawberry. Then we returned to Debra's apartment to finish packing and prepare to leave for Xian in the morning.

Xinyang's churches

12 Nov 06

It was another slow week here. Zeneta is still in Ankong visiting Debra. I have spoken to the both a couple of times, this week, on the phone. Things are settling into a bit of a routine. Colin purchased a study guide for the grade four, English major, graduation exams. With that we have been reviewing our curriculum. It appears that what we are doing is very close to what we need to be providing the students.

There is a definite lack of leadership from the administration here in the capacity of telling us what we need to be doing for the students. There is no good reason that we, people who do not have a firm understanding of what is required of the students, should be working on a curriculum goals guide. However, it is something that has never been done here.

Michelle has been trying since she got here to get a now couch, and she has still not succeeded. However, she mentioned a problem with the building; in this case, the shade over the window, and there were a couple of maintenance men there that afternoon.

Now, what is funny in this picture is that they are doing outside work on a fifth story window that has no rail. Tell me, do you see a harness? That is because he is not wearing one. At various points, both of there guys were outside with no safety gear at all.

What I missed a picture of was how they plugged the drill that they wee using in to the socket. As you can see, there are a number of different styles of plugs. This dual plug socket is the most common seen. In order to insure that the drill would fit whatever they came up on they had nothing but bare wires on the end of the cord and they shoved the bare wires into the socket. The whole operation looked like one of those posters that one sees in a shop with the caption, "can you spot all of the safety violations in this picture."

Before I left I was unsure what the shape of the local power sockets would be; here is a picture.

On Friday we had a couple of visitors from Australia. They were here on college business and the school arranged for several of the teachers to have lunch with them. It turned out that Colin was a friend of the visitor's father and had known him for years. They had worked on several large projects, in Australia, together. Colin had known our visitor since he (the visitor) had been a small boy.

As our visitor sped off in a chauffeured Honda we returned to class. I ended up forgetting to go by the payroll office and will have to on Monday.

That evening we were invited to an activity being out on by one of the schools English clubs. The event consisted of several skits, some songs, and other musical numbers. Of course, we all ended up speaking for a few moments. Even though it was a bit cold by the time it ended we had a good time and each got a small gift from the event.

On Saturday I was invited to go to dinner by the other English teachers. It was a day before my birthday; however, it fit everyone's schedule better. I was given a cap with Australia and a national logo on it. We had a pretty good evening. I have now turned forty, in China.

Last week we had all been invited to an event in town, although the invitation came to each of us through different means. The even was the opening and dedication of a new building for the Xinyang Christian Church. It is across the street from the cities only Masjid (the picture of the Masjid [proper name for Mosque] is at the top and was taken from the steps of the church that I was visiting).

The first thing we did was to get approval for our attendance through the proper authorities. After it was made clear that this was not a regular service, but an event, we were given the permission. As it turned out, one of the people speaking was the leader of the regional Communist Party. We were picked up on Sunday morning and taken to the church in cabs. At the church we were, of course, escorted to the front pews where space had been reserved. I was somewhat surprised to find that the person next to me was from Congo; the amount of chatting we were able to do was limited because he spoke little English and I speak even less French (if a person plans on much traveling, English and French are the languages to learn). The only language we had in common was Chinese and I am not able to hold any sort of a conversation in it.

The church service was a very common type of service with a choir, congregational songs, and a short homily. This was followed by a number of dedication speeches.

He was able to help me find the toilet. One of the first things I learned to do, when I came to China, was learning how to ask for the men's room. I cannot say it well; however, I can write it (yes, in character, not pinyin). His name was Rock and he is studying Chinese. When he is done will remain at the air force school and study engineering. That was about the limit of our conversation that we conducted in three languages, none of them shared.

After the services we first were hustled up the many flights of stairs to wait, and have tea, while the rest of the congregation had time to leave. Many of the visiting Americans were clearly surprised to find that the buildings in China are not heated and clearly enjoyed the hot water and tea. We then went out to a waiting bus that took us to a hotel where we had lunch with the head missionary.

His name is Paul Martinson and is with a group called,

"China Service Ventures." We were given several pins and other souvenirs from the opening of the church. It turned out that he was born in Xinyang and has since returned to the U.S. However, he visits Xinyang and the Henan province regularly. I was given a small book on the history of the church in Xinyang. The church is an, approved, non-denominational church. However, the sponsoring churches are Lutheran.

After lunch I took a cab back to the University and later had dinner with Colin and Brawnie. That was pretty much my week.