Days 89 & 90 - Matchmaking and Banana Bread

Day 89

David got to class and realized that he didn’t have his class rolls with him or his water.  I was video chatting with Caleb and family at the time, so I had to break it off with them and take them over to him.  Of course, I get applauded when I get there.  I went back to chatting with Caleb, Bethany and Aleeyah when I get back.  We also had a chance to do Facetime with Rachel.  I worked here on lesson plans and grades.  That is pretty much all we did the rest of the afternoon.  David did have some students signed up to play games at the canteen at 4 p.m., so he went over there for that.  We just had supper here and did more work in the evening.

Day 90 Matchmaking and Banana Bread

I had classes this morning and David was a sweet husband and mopped all the dirty floors!  It was terribly dirty from the Sunday Evening guests, so it is really great to have them clean again.  My classes went well.  We met Eva at the Teacher Restaurant at the canteen and had lunch together.  

I had a Skype meeting with Elise Britton about the Relief Society in Ji’nan.  I sure wish I felt more adequate for this calling.  I don’t know that I have ever felt this way about a calling in the Church.  They all seemed to fall in line so well for me and I just wonder if I am doing all I need to do here.  Time to pray…

Wendy Purnell and Pam Carter were coming to visit teach me and they were taking the Bus 75 here and so David and I went up to the stop to meet them so they could know which stop for sure to get off.  They were a little later than I had hoped they would be and so we didn’t really have time to talk much.  We started walking to our place, but it was time for me to go to the Tower Building for the tour of the museum they have here on campus.  They went home and I hurried on to the tour. 

Wayne, Libby, Stan and Nancy were all there along with some other teachers.  The museum is nice and the tour guide had memorized her lines well, but if we asked a question, she couldn’t answer it because she didn’t know any more English than the memorized lines.  They have some better items than some of the other museums we have been to in China. 

Burial plot of the ancient site they are working on.

They said this was a wine drinking vessel.  Yes, I know it's sideways.

And ancient grinding stone.  Looks Navajo to me!

A piece of pottery from the dig that they have put together.

They used this to haul water 5 km each day for fresh drinking water at the dig site.  The water in the area was contaminated.

Monica, one of the people in charge of the foreign teachers, was talking to me on the tour and said that she had heard some wonderful things about my classes.  She wanted to know if I had been teaching my students to cook.  I laughed and told her about my lesson plan for the day of the banana bread.  I had given the students all a piece of banana bread during the break in the class (they are all two hours long).  After the break, I had a power point on how to make the banana bread.  At the end of the lesson on making banana bread, I gave them a little quiz to see how well they were listening.  It was all quite fun and I guess it really impressed the students… and some administrators.  We are finding that they talk to the students to get their impressions of the teachers and how they are doing.  I guess they think I am doing well.  Monica wanted me to send her the power point.  She wants to make the banana bread!  Yes, I’m smiling!

After the museum, they all came back to our place.  David wasn’t able to go on the tour because he was doing square dance with his students.  He had enough for almost three squares!  They were having fun.  David got an email from one of the boys who had attended and he wanted some information from David about one of the girls there that caught his eye.  He was wondering if David could send him her class information so he can meet here again and get to know her better.  Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match…

With the Clarke’s and the Pace’s here, we all went to the teacher restaurant and order (successfully!) a meal for the six of us.  Before we went, Wayne Clark home taught us and then after the meal, David and Stan went to home teach Kathy Gao and family.  It was a nice successful day.