Car wreck stories (not mine)

So we were talking about getting a driver's license here in China and a guy told us two very unique stories.
So he was driving along down a one way street, minding his own business when he sees a scooter come down the street the wrong way. Now, this is nothing new especially in China, so he didnt think much of it. Well, somehow the driver lost control of the scooter and ran into the car that this guy was driving. So being the ignorant American, he gets out of the car to see if the scooter driver is okay, which he is fine. But getting in an accident is like being on the soccer field. If you are totally fine, you still have to act like you are dying. Well, the American told him it was his fault and asked him to pay for the damages to the car. Then he makes the big mistake of calling the police. So the police come and examine the scene and find that it was 100% the scooters fault. However, since he was driving the car he has to pay for all the damages to the car and the scooter. So he asked the police officers why that was. And they said it was just the law. So a few months later, the American was out with a friend who worked in the government. So he presented the situation to the government official. Well, the official said that since China is still a developing country and there is still a vast difference between the poor and wealthy, that the wealthy have to pay for accidents. He said that even though the person with the car was not at fault, the person riding the scooter would not be able to afford to pay the damages. Another reason is the if the people who owned cars would act like they ruled the road and not pay any attention to anybody else. Especially if they knew that they would get away with hitting someone and then just driving away. He said that at first it was the way of who evers fault it is would have to pay. But the cars were just causing the poor people to pay off the damages over a couple of years and since the people with cars have the money, they instituted the "Law of the Rich" (it is what i call it).
The next story is one day the same American guy was the passenger in his friend's car. They were again driving down a road, but this was a two way street. It is just a two lane street and here comes a government official vehicle. Well, the government official swerved into the oncoming traffic lane and side swiped their car almost to the point of pushing them into the canal next to the road. So the cops come over and look at the accident and deemed that it was 75% the officials fault and 25% the Americans fault. And here is the reason why. The Americans decided that they were going to drive their car to their destination. That is why it was deemed 25% their fault. The officials vehicle was clearly in the wrong lane and had obviously caused the accident, but they were government officials so they could not be at 100% fault.

Character and Summer

So Kevin Hardin (China Call Director) is in town this week sorting out the Character Camps and speaking to a couple of groups. We had a meeting with Odies (the English School that I teach at) about them sponsoring the camps. It went very well. We talked about the camps and what we were going to do at them. And we talked about some of the administrative things which was boring so I will not tell you about that part. Then we moved on to Character Clubs. Ross (Odies Manager) was telling us about parents that have come in and requested there be a class for character development because they want there kids to go study aboard, but they know that it is a very different society from that of China. They told him that the kids need a class like that. We did not spend much time talking about it, but it seems like this is something that “when” we start up next September, it will take fire which is a real answer to pray.
We also had a meeting with all of the Odies Employees to talk about summer classes and new ideas. Of course, the summer camp came up which we are doing Soccer and Rugby along with a lot of English as this is an English school. I am really looking for the this summer as my class schedule will change also. Since it is the summer and the kids do not have school during the week, we go to a four day work week with 3 day weekend. This will allow me to attend soccer and rugby matches along with been able to go to the fellowship every week. Now this starts in three weeks. Some other classes that are coming up this summer are adult classes, speech contest and skills based courses. The adult classes are self explanatory. The speech contest is a speech contest. Odies is going to be hosting training for the Regional English Speech contest. If we can find enough teachers to help out, we will be sent 1000 new students from around Yunnan to train. Also, our school will be granted 400 students to sign up for the contest. The winners will be granted a trip to the UK. Right now, those are all the details that I know about. And finally, skills based courses. China has a really problem with their students wanting to go study in the States. Well, the Chinese teaching is very different from that of the American Style which presents a problem because it takes almost a year for the Chinese students to learn the American Style. So I went to Ross and told him that we should do a international college pre course and also, a skills based courses where after kids graduate from the odies program, they can go on to get ready for the next level. And by skills, I meant like computer skills, business skills, teaching techniques…etc. I figure it is never to soon to start learning what you plan on becoming in the future.
P.s. I had a friend get stabbed and mugged over the weekend and he spent a couple of days in the hospital. Please pray for him and safety.

Everything is going as planned

I am officially off of recovery from my mouth. I ate some almonds last night. So i was pretty happy about that. Which is good timing because we have a rugby match on Sunday. However, because i know that i would take a scolding from my mother if i played, i have decided not to participate.
The owner of China Call is coming into town next week to discuss the camp in July and how to proceed with the Character Clubs. I have been gathering information about activities from the Korean School which we will use. We did a blind auction the other day for the activity, but they had to abide by the rules before they could place a bid....like sitting down and raising their hand and not talking....I was trying to get them to be obedient main so i didnt have to yell over them. And it was pretty hard for them because they all wanted to see what each person was winning. Plus it was an activity at the end of the day after being in class all day...They had fun.
The soccer camp and rugby camp is progressing very well. I had a 2 hour meeting with the school administrator about it on Tuesday and we got a lot accomplished. Our goal is to nail down a field by the end of the week. And we are going down to the sporting goods section of town to price out equipment. Side note: I dont know if people know this, but in every city in China, the each type of shop is not just anywhere in town. There is a flower market, electronics market, sports market, animal market, cell phone market, etc...and you have to go to this certain section to find these types of items. Luckily, i live close to the cell phone market and sports market. It is really weird, but if someone was to open a sports good store someplace outside the sports market...people would not know about and it would probably not make any money....end of side note. It was funny though. We were talking and i asked him how many kids he was excepting to have at these camps....he said 20-30...i said 100+...I dont, but i figured the rugby would only get maybe 30. The soccer camp however, i want tons of kids because i was hoping that we would start a couple of teams inside the schools and play other teams in the area. I am staying busy

Recovery

The recovery is going really well....When all you can eat is soup, yogurt, and ice cream, you mostly eat ice cream....I have been eating maybe a pint of ice cream everyday and you know what....i like my personal recovery process....eat and sleep...The problem is that i can not eat fast enough to get full so i have been hungry for the past six days. I was going to eat some fried rice for lunch, but i didnt make it to the push cart down by the school. Luckily, the dentist was setting up his cart next to the fried rice guy and i had him look at my teeth really quickly. He said all good....but i didnt see any PhDs in his cart so i think i might get a second opinion. I was actually able to eat some scrambled eggs with syrup on Thursday and then i am going to try some Shepherds pie on Sunday for our Rugby meeting....Don't worry, mothers, i am not going to participate in practice. I will, however, be trying ultimate frisbee on Monday and then soccer on Tuesday to see how the mouth feels.  Alls well the ends well.....