Into the mountains of Lijiang 2014: part 3 (moved from old blog)

 Crossing the mountains of Lijiang: part 3

 The second school was about a half an hour drive away through some of the most terrifying road I have been on. We had a driver who though he was an extra from wacky races and cliff on both sides of the car. It was a hair raising experience. When we arrived at the school we told the driver about our silent screaming and clinging to each other and he couldn't stop laughing at us. 
The second school was a boarding school with about 100 students aged between 6 and 15. Just after we arrived we were treated to lunch of chicken and veg and some homemade rice alcohol, one of which was tasty and the other not so tasty. The alcohol burnt for a long time after drinking, in true rice wine tradition. 


Grade One

 Kevin suddenly announced that he wanted us to teach a 40 minute class in five minutes time. Several break downs in communication this weekend! Anyway, I pulled a lesson out of thin air and taught Grade One (six to seven years old) who all seemed to enjoy the class. I only managed to teach them "hello", "goodbye" and "one to ten" but we had a giggle and their regular teacher seemed to have had a laugh too. I bullied him into playing basketball and the kids thought it was hilarious when their teacher was rubbish. 


After the class we gave out new school bags and pencil cases to each of the students and sporting equipment to the whole playground. We felt sorry for some of the kids as only about half of them got the cool back packs and the rest got the crummy Shane ones. we tried to even things up by giving the kids with the boring back packs the more interesting pencil cases but it didn't always work. After the gift dolling out we went and played football on the playground, but first we had to clear the broken bunk beds and oil drums off the pitch. We were at some serious altitude so running about nearly killed us. I only played badminton for about fifteen minutes but it made a huge difference. 

We packed up, said goodbye to the kids and teachers and piled back into the cars to make our way back to Lijiang and our return train. We were scared stupid for the return journey but our driver was much nicer and drove like a nun. 5 hours in a car and we were all shattered and looking forward to nothing but bed. We stopped a few times on the way home to take some pictures of the view, which was amazing!

 

Back in Lijiang Kevin took us for one final meal, a famous fish restaurant by the old town, so we tucked into the speciality dish of raw salmon slices and dipping sauce. I think Nat and I finished a whole plate between us, it was so tasty. 

Also the restaurant had an automatic Lazy Susan so the food just kept wandering past looking tasty, it just wasn't our fault. 
The train was due to leave at 10:30 and I was tucked up in the bunk by 10:15, I only woke up as we pulled into Kunming station.

A shattering weekend but I am so glad we were given the opportunity to see the schools. We have now set up a charity organisation in the school to try and help out and raise money from within Shane. Fingers crossed we will be able to help out. 

Into the mountains of Lijiang 2014: Part 2 (moved from old blog)

 

Crossing the mountains of LiJiang: Part 2

Day 2 of our trip started earl in the morning, long before the sun was up. We piled into a car and tried to get some sleep. we failed as the road soon became twisty and roller coaster like. The three of us on the back seat kept smashing into each other and so no sleep was had by anyone. 
We travelled for about three hours before stopping for breakfast in a tiny place in the middle of nowhere. Four foreigners in this little town at the crack of dawn caused quite a stir and the locals seemed quite excited/confused.

Another hour in the car and we arrived at the first school. A primary school with only ten students, one classroom and a small courtyard perched on the side of a mountain. We turned up armed with basketballs, badminton rackets, pencil cases and skipping ropes and met the kids. Their teacher has been teaching in this school for the last seventeen years and he is in charge of the donations and money the school get, he has to split up and dish out the cash.

We kicked balls about with the kids for a while and then Stefan taught them for about twenty minutes. 
One of the students took us ten minutes down the hill to see the house where she lives with her Grandmother and brother. there were about four or five little houses or huts in a collection and a  bunch of animal pens. Most of the land in the mountains is too rocky to grow anything so the majority of people make money with their animals and sell them once or twice a year for meat. The parents are usually off in local cities sending money back when they can. 

A few minutes looking about her house and the area and we were back to the school to take about a thousand photos and say goodbye to the kids. We were off to another school, this time a boarding school further round the valley.