SGS

The Trip

I just returned from a one-week trip to Gan Quan (甘泉), a county situated 3 hours north of Xi’an, or 30mins south of Yan’an in the Shaanxi Province.  Together with 14 others, we conducted an English Training Seminar to train local teachers who taught English to primary and secondary students.  In these rural parts, there isn’t much of a chance for students to speak English with their peers so it was a treat that these local teachers had the opportunity to mingle with foreigners.

The Team

The team comprised of 4 people from Hong Kong (me included), 6 from the United States and 5 who were lived in the Shaanxi province (3 of them were originally from the States).  Most of those in Gan Quan have never met a foreigner so it wasn’t unusual to get the frequent stares from the locals and it was an achievement we didn’t see any motor accidents either as drivers dangerously craned their necks!  I did blend in for a while, until I opened my mouth – to which I get even weirder stares!  Unfortunately, the Hong Kong team did not have any time to tour Xi’an… will need to come back with Steph next time!

The English Training Seminar

This was a 5-day course which began with an Opening Ceremony on the Monday.  60 participants (so named to avoid confusion as we were the teachers during the week) attended and were split into two groups.  While one attended a lecture, the other group was further broken into 5 lab (or tutorial) groups.  Each lab had two teachers and in these sessions, we taught the participants 2-3 activities.  The objective of these labs was to give the participants a wide range of ideas to incorporate into their teaching methods.  Of course, we were not there to replace their system of teaching, but to enable them to take good parts of both the Western and Traditional styles of teaching to boost the learning in their classrooms.  On the Wednesday night we held an English Corner where participants brought their families and students to meet and greet us foreigners.  About 100 showed up!  We had much fun meeting more locals and organised a few games.

The Food

Shaanxi tends to be a little drier than other provinces.  It is mostly barren and is situated approximately 3,000ft asl.  Mantau (bread buns) and noodles (potato starch and the glass types) rather than rice are the staple diet here.  They serve many variety of vegetables, fresh and preserved and they add large quantities of garlic and chilli too!  Shredded pork and chicken or diced sheep are also served with vegetables.  The locals pride themselves on their tofu (someone mentioned it could be the water) as well as their bran porridge (very similar to couscous).  On the Thursday night, one of the Americans and I decided to abandon the rest of the team to hunt for local food – we settled at a satay stall and enjoyed 110 marinated pork satays between us.  Man food: a welcome break from all the vegetables we’ve been eating!

The Highlights

For me personally, I loved hearing the stories from the local teachers as well as from the other team members.   It was interesting to know most of the locals get married around 23-24 and have a child shortly after.  Very young families!  They loved sharing about their personal lives.  Some shared about how they don’t feel confident or well-equipped to teach, perhaps a product of having no choice in what course they wanted to do or they did not know better when they had a choice.  Our primary purpose was to encourage them – after all, we need good teachers no matter what part of the globe we are.  As I kick-off my teaching career, this was a great insight to the Traditional teaching style where success is about the student’s grades more so than the teacher’s ability to teach.   I hope I can bring Steph on such a trip some day – just not sure if we’ll go back to the same place or another!

Some photos below (some are courtesy of the trip photographer, Rita – more on her photo sharesite)…

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We were in a team of 52 pilgrims, organised and led by the amazing Daljit & Gurmit Gill as well as Dan and Alison Daniels. The two-week trip began with a day in Cairo to marvel at the Pyramids of Giza. Our 16-day tour of Israel was compressed into 9 days and we stayed by the Sea of Galilee in Ginnosar (Gennesaret) and subsequently in Jerusalem.

The tour was led by a guide/historian/theologian extraordinaire, Erez Bar David, who did not only show us the old-time places, but challenged us to read the Bible and understand the literal and figurative contexts as well. The tour stops included Herod’s palace in Caesarea, the high place in Tel Dan and the old city’s gates, a cruise on the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River where Jesus was baptised, the cave at En Gedi where David hid from Saul, the pit at the House of Caiaphas where Jesus was held before his trial, the Garden Tomb, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives, the Mount of Beatitudes, the Mount of Precipice overlooking the Valley of the Armageddon, the (muddy) brook where David gathered his five smooth stones, the extremely salty Dead Sea. Wherever we stopped, we paused to read from the Word of God and reflect on stories past. It served as a reminder that our Lord Jesus Christ was real and many of the places mentioned in the Bible still stand today.

Another day in Cairo with an Egyptian dinner on the Nile cruise concluded our trip. It has been a spiritually enriching experience and we highly recommend this trip of a lifetime!

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More photos are available on Sam’s Facebook albums (part 1 and part 2).