Team 161, Kunming, June 30

By Kathleen

Thought for the Day: eat less, exercise more, and drinks lots of liquid.

Photos for the Day: 1) Kathleen is shining her students' faces with beautiful smiles, taken in a field trip. 2)"We are good helpers". taken at a local wholesale flower market.

I started my daily routine getting up before sunrise, showering, taking my medications, and doing some lesson planning. While martin was getting his act together, I went to the western restaurant about 6:30 where I met the other charter member of the early risers club, Corrine McCarthy, we are occasionally joined by the third member of the club, John Doty. All of us spent this pleasant time chatting about anything or everything. A side benefit of the early risers club is that Bird, the hotel staff member in charge of the coffee bar, made a freshly brewed pot of coffee for the three of us.

By seven o'clock we were joined by the rest of the team for breakfast. John read his journal entry followed by my thought of the day. An educational lecture about population changes in china was given by Hu Di. I thought it was interesting that 147 million Chinese are constantly moving, working in areas different from their official residence.

After breakfast 9 Global Vlunteers took a field trip led by Chris Li to the Dounan wholesale flower market in the new Kunming area. Besides seeing all the beautiful cut flowers and plants for the region, the volunteers interacted with many local citizens. I especially enjoyed meeting and playing with the young babies in the market, buying flowers and souvenirs. Then the group returned to the hotel for a short break before an enjoyable non-spicy lunch.

Our teaching session today was in the afternoon. Leon and I continued our usual lesson plans but discussed the major change of the speech festival scheduled for Thursday afternoon our students were little anxious because they realized that they would have to work hard but they also realized that the volunteers would also work hard to get them ready for the festival.

After the teaching session, the team went directly to the 1915 restaurant, a restaurant of historical significance, where we enjoyed a mildly spicy dinner. I was happy to return to the hotel for some personal time before going to sleep.