From Grits to Chopsticks

Now that final exams are over and grades have been submitted, it’s time to begin the English Summer Camps.  We have a wonderful group of students and teachers from America who are working with three different groups, starting with university students (about 80 this year):

In the opening ceremony speech, I pretended to be a doctor and did some “surgery” to expose barriers to learning:

I was able to recycle the theme for the other opening ceremonies, using a cartoonish character for the children’s camp (about 180 kids):

The team is also working with rural English teachers (150 this year), giving them new ideas to use with their primary and middle school students.  Since each of these teachers will instruct about 200 students, this effort has huge leverage:

All of the students and teachers get an official camp shirt.  Here we are wearing this year’s attire for university students:

In addition to morning English classes, the college students participate in afternoon activities.  Last week, they enjoyed a mock American wedding and reception:

Here are some friends of the bride:

There was some fluffy icing left from the cake, so two of the American students gave a “pie-in-the-face” demonstration:

We are very grateful for the willingness of these American students to come to China and be a blessing to our school!