Tuesday June 29, 2010

Thought for the Day: Into each life a little rain must fall.

And each summer day in Kunming, it usually will – likely a warm and gentle rain, creating a good market for the ubiquitous umbrellas for the pedestrians and ponchos for the scooter riders, including the fashionable pink matching set seen on a mother and her little daughter this morning. Tuesday was such a day of steady morning rain, prompting our leaders to exhibit the flexibility that we all strive for in this program. They canceled our outdoor field trip to the Hump Memorial.

Fortunately, Dixie literally stepped up and led the afternoon singing and dancing program a day early. I thought that the idea of packing all 75 of the teachers plus us into one room and teaching song and dance would be like herding cats. However, Dixie was not fazed, and the teachers took to the whole affair with great humor, enthusiasm and talent. We volunteers did our best to keep up! What better place to learn “Here We Go Looby Loo” and a medley of French Canadian, American Indian, Israeli, Russian and pioneer dances?

Our teaching continues to challenge and inspire us. Who knew there could be so many different ways to approach simply introducing an assignment such as the upcoming Speech Festival? Thus we learn from each other and from our teacher-pupils. That is partly why we want to return to this experience in China again and again.

- Betty