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| Kelley talking with men in the village |
It has been several weeks now of having opportunity to learn Chinese. Kelley and I are both able to communicate some basic phrases and our vocabulary and understanding of sentence structure is constantly improving. Hardly a day goes by that we aren't finding ourselves in an opportunity to try out our new growth in language skills. If it's not cab (Chu Zu Che) drivers, or store (Chao Shi) workers, it's people in the primitive village behind where we live.
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| The village we live near with people living on rooftops. |
The village is a bustling community of many young and old people. The old buildings and narrow alleyways might make you think that it is a depressed area of struggling people, but we have found that most people there are happy.
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| Children playing in the village |
Playful children and unkempt street dogs run through the alleys. Its primitive in the sense that many modern conveniences are not available to them (for example the sewer system is basically small trenches that are covered with bricks to keep it hidden). But in the village is a vast network of businesses, stores, and restaurants.
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| Doug with boys playing a game in the village |
We absolutely love these people. The children are adorable, and the older folks are so kind. Relationships are starting to flourish although conversations are still very simple. We sense that there is great interest in who these Mei Guo Ren (Americans) are who talk with them.
We've recently visited a nearby community to help with training Chinese teachers who teach English in grade schools... (I'll share more about that in the next blog entry).
Thanks for your interest and support for our being here. There is great purpose and many like minded folks we meet are very excited that we are here.
