Boy it was a rough week for us here in Dongguan. It started with Pazi catching a cold some time on Monday. By late afternoon the next day she had lost her voice. She felt it was a bug that her pre-schoolers had pasted on to her. This was probably the case as many of her students had a cough and sniffles.As for Adan, by Wednesday night he too had caught the same illness. He managed to make it through the school day Thursday and then muster up enough energy to work the school carnival that same night. By Friday morning he was unable to speak just as Pazi was a few days earlier. Even though he was not able to communicate verbally he felt fine to go to work.
By Sunday morning (China time) both Pazi and Adan were recovered. It took some healing time but they managed to regain their health and are now as good as new.
QSI Costume Carnival
Here in China Halloween is not a celebrated or practiced holiday. The events of trick or treat, haunted houses, and costume parties simply do not exist. It appears that this is a practice of Westerners. But because our school takes every opportunity to expose our students to Western culture, the school holds a Halloween celebration of sorts.
Instead of having a full out Halloween school day, our director approved a modified celebration. Her practice is to allow positive and non-violent costumes and decorations. In her words she prefers to see "story tale characters" and "super heroes" not "ghosts or goblins." Also, so as to maintain classroom structure, the entire school orchestrates a carnival of contests and games complete with prizes and raffles. It was up to each teacher dress up in a costume or mask and to decide on at least one activity to coordinate for the kids. Pazi and the other pre-school teacher Miss Dasha chose to do a painting booth where the students could draw and paint fall pictures. They called their activity "Autumn Paint." Pazi also wore her cat mask that she bought while in visiting Guangzhou the week prior. (See picture below with her and Miss Sunna our Chinese friend from school.)
Adan with the help of his assistant teacher Mr. Bill, did bowling. It was a hit but it was exhausting for the two men to be human pin machines. Just as fast as the pins were put up, the children knocked them right down. What was interesting about this activity was that about one-third of the kids ten years old and under had no idea how to bowl. Some of them got creative and tried to kick the bowling ball to knock down the pins! You might have guessed already, but the picture at the top of the blog entry is Mr. Bill in his witch's hat and Adan wearing his Peking Opera mask.All in all, the carnival was a hit. The turn out was huge. Several children brought both their moms and dads to the event. There was easily 250-300 people in attendance. Everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves, and our director, Dr. Hall said this was by far the best event she had been a part of in a number of years.
