Group Journal #1 (Friday, June 25, 2010)

Dear friends of the China English Exchange of the Outreach Foundation in Nanjing, China,

We are sending this regular update on the China English Exchange to you who are friends of the members of the Outreach Foundation’s group in China from June 23-July 3, with about 1/3 of us staying another week. Thank you for your interest and your prayers. We need both!

We arrived in Shanghai yesterday in two shifts. The earlier bunch of us (13) arrived in the afternoon where we were met by Outreach Foundation staff Peter Lim. On the way to the Majestic Plaza Hotel we passed by some of the venues of the Shanghai World Expo that is drawing thousands of people each day. We checked into the hotel and ate at a dumpling restaurant on the Nanjing Road shopping street.

Meanwhile the 4 who were arriving later finally got into China, but the bag of one of the participants was mistakenly taken by another person, and it wasn’t until today, June 25, that the person was located and the baggage retrieved!

Today was our first full day in China. It rained off and on all day, but that didn’t stop 3 souls from going to the Shanghai Expo while the rest of us walked along the famous Bund in the morning and saw the Shanghai Museum in the afternoon. The Bund, by the way, is the waterfront area of Shanghai that has buildings dating from the era when Britain, French, and other powers dominated the life of Shanghai. This area was restricted to non-Chinese, a fact that was greatly resented by the Chinese.

After lunch at a southeast Asian restaurant we visited the Shanghai Museum, which is a wonderful treasure-house of Chinese culture, ancient and modern. The China Expo attenders returned, and we continued the “non-Chinese” theme for food as we had supper at a Turkish Restaurant. From Saturday on we will be eating Chinese food morning, noon, and night, so this was a good day to do something different.

Tomorrow we head for Nanjing and our orientation to the materials we’ll be using in the English Exchange next week. The members of the group are enjoying each other, and all are great sports.

Look for the next installment of this “Group Journal” on Monday.

Jeff Ritchie