Visit from Sogn og Fjordane University College (HSF)

Christian and Tom are now officially famous. Or at least a little bit. They've made it to the official pages of Sogn og Fjordane University College (Høgskulen i Sogn og Fjordane) in Norway. How on earth did this happen, you might ask. Well, I'll tell you.

It all started when we on the 11th of October got a visit from HSF. Two lovely ladies, Åse Løkeland and Helga Kalhagen, came to visit Ningxia University to see whether there are possibilities of an exchange program. They have heard nice things about our Sinonor project and wanted us to tell about our experiences so far. And since we both did our teacher training in Sogndal we were more than glad to help.

So we went with them to an amazing mosque (looked kind of like Taj Mahal) and told them how nice Yinchuan is. We also got to watch some calligraphy art, and got two master pieces of the artist (who looked remarkably like a chinese Jahn Teigen). There we told them about our follow-up work, that we would like to spread the word of our project and the work we do here in China. They were really nice ladies, so they asked us if we wanted to write a web letter to their web pages. We said "definitely, yes" and sent our little letter. And now you can read the letter for yourself. Unfortunately for you English speakers, this is only in Norwegian.

http://www.hisf.no/no/internasjonalisering/nyheiter/reisebrev_til_hsf_laerarjobb_i_hjartet_av_kina

What does the Ningxia Red Cross work with?

Two of the main things the Ningxia Red Cross work with is teaching first aid to people, and stem cell research. Teaching first aid is an educational part of their work, and working with stem cells is the research part of their work. They make people donate blood to use in research, to help people with leukemia (blood cancer). The Red Cross in Ningxia have been doing this since 2003. They also have other focuses but these two are the most important. Here you see pictures where we are joining the Red Cross in their work - first aid course in the old city of Yinchuan, and getting students to donate blood for stem cell research at North Campus og Ningxia University.

Teaching at the The Ningxia Red Cross Society

Between 15.00 and 17.00 every Wednesday we teach the staff at Ningxia Red Cross's administration building. The students we have are members of the staff at the Red Cross administration. They're a group of between 10 to 15 people, varying from one week to the next. Aged between 21 and 50 makes them a diverse class. They are a busy crowd, often picking up their phone in class and running out in the hallway to talk. This is because we teach them during their working hours. The first time we had to start from scratch. Some of the younger members know a little bit of English, but most of them know next to nothing. But they are very eager to learn, and they see that in order to get connections with other Red Cross Societies around the world, they need to learn and improve their English.

We have started the teaching by letting them learn single words, which are important for their work, and personal interests. They are learning to count, to greet and to introduce themselves. And we are trying to learn them simple, but useful sentences. When we teach there we have an interpreter with us, Jia Lei. He is crucial to us now in the beginning because of the language barrier. Teaching there is fun, and we learn about the Red Cross and their work here in Ningxia. We are dreaming about being able to join them for an excursion to the more rural parts of the region during this year. Their building is situated in the Old Town of Yinchuan.

The Ningxia Red Cross Society's homepage: http://www.nxredcross.org.cn

FK Network Meeting in Beijing

Last Saturday we went to Beijing on the night train. 19 hours and hard sleepers again, but it's always fun so we didn't mind much. We travelled through the desert lands of Inner Mongolia, through Shanxi and Hebei, saw a lot of beautiful scenery, until we finally arrived at Beijing Railway station.

In Beijing we had two free days before the show (network meeting) started. We decided to be crazy tourists and went to the Great Wall, Ming Tombs, Jade Factory, Tea House, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Beihai Park and Jingshan Park. All this in just two days. Imagine how tired we were of all the walking. Especially the day we ran to the top of the Wall. But it was definitely worth it. We got to see a lot of China in two days, and had a lot of fun.

But after the fun started the work. The reason for travelling to Beijing was that we were to attend an FK Network Meeting for FK China. It lasted for one and a half day, but it turned out that it wasn't half bad after all. We discussed and shared experiences and from the looks of it it was rather successful. One of the best, some people said. So with a satisfied smile on our faces we flew back to Yinchuan on Thursday to plan Friday's teaching. It was a hasty but fun week in Beijing. Looking forward to going back there some day.

Link to Fredskorpset's coverage of the meeting (in Norwegian):
http://www.fredskorpset.no/no/Fredskorpset/Media/NyheterPressemeldinger/Nettverksmote-i-Beijing/

Welcome Party for freshmen students at Xinhua

Thursday 16th of October the teachers and students at Xinhua invited me (Chris) to attend the annual Welcome party for the freshmen at the college. I was there together with the rest of the freshmen's teachers. It was a 3hours lasting fun event, with singing, roleplays, acting and breakdancing. Many of my students attended the singing, acting and dancing on stage. One of the things I liked the most was when a group were doing tai chi with chinese fans while two famous calligrafers were painting on stage. The local TVstation was there, and my name was annonced in public together with the rest of the teachers, The concert hall at school was as full as could be, people were standing everywhere and all seats were taken.