The 14th of august in the morning we went to the marina where we went to a room where all the kids were waiting for the other kids and us. When everybody was there, even Vicky.The leaders of the marina started with their speaches. They thanked every one and after having given the certificates, we makes some pictures with the leaders and we went to a restaurant where we had a diner with our Chinese sponsors. Then we took a taxi and started our trip to Qingdao where we met Dancker and Wieke.
The second day was a normal workday for the others but for me, it was my last work day in China. In the afternoon we visited some ars and clubs and then we went to the apartment where we get to sleep.
At 5:30 in the morning I woke up and dressed me. Then I Wait for a Taxi and go the airport. When I arrived 2 hours later in Beijing I waited for about 5 hours in the airport and when I could finally step on the plane, they started the engines but stood at the same place for 20 minutes when they finaly told us that the plane have a little mechanic problem that put us for 2 houres on the ground. I arrived at 21 30(European time ) in Amsterdam.
I want to thank the RBSC, the NOCSP, CYBP and the sponsors for the opportunity they gave me to participate to this marvelous project in China. I am also gratefull to everyone that helped me during my staying in Rizhao and Qingdao and mostly the translators who helped me to give the lessons to the children. This was for me a fantastic experience that I certainly wish to renew.
Mathieu
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Teaching is over, the race is comming
Last week we have been teaching 8 kids in the morning and 14 in the afternoon. However, from Tuesday on 10 extra kids came “experiencing the Rizhao marina” for 6 whole days. They came from some other province, that was far away, but do not ask me the name of that province. Mathieu took the new students, and I continued with the morning and afternoon group. The original planning contained a lot of swimming. Our planning focused on sailing with some swimming, if time was available. Sometimes it was difficult to find feasible plans, as we only had one motorboat most of the time.
Finally, I had my first official Chinese meal with Miss Joe and some representatives from that far away province. Off course, we got all the special dishes…I heard a lot about them but never had seen one on my table. Sea cucumber, jellyfish, some insects… now I’ve tried all of them, but the most ugly one tasted the best: the Big Bee…sadly enough there are no pictures of that animal, but it looks like a huge “hommel”. And apparently you also have to gambe during work.
The last days it was raining continuously. Big parts of the city were flooded. Reading the blogs of our colleagues in the Shandong province (Weihai and Qingdao) we see that we are not alone. This limited off course the time on the water, but it also damaged the hot water supply of our hotel. Already 3 days without a warm shower…Friday we wanted to check out the only decent club in town (the Baby Feeling Bar) but we stranded 500meters of it, as the water was to deep to cross the streets.
Today we did a trip in a yacht around the harbor, and we went out on the sea for 10 minutes. At first, it seamed a bit strange to me but the kids really enjoyed it. Probably for them it was the first time on the see and the first time in a big motorboat. The afternoon we spend in the bamboo forest with Lucy and Sky.
As Pia and Thomas, we will organize a race this Monday (tomorrow). Since there efforts two weeks ago, every camp has to end with a race. No complaints as this will mean that we will have an afternoon off.
Jan
Finally, I had my first official Chinese meal with Miss Joe and some representatives from that far away province. Off course, we got all the special dishes…I heard a lot about them but never had seen one on my table. Sea cucumber, jellyfish, some insects… now I’ve tried all of them, but the most ugly one tasted the best: the Big Bee…sadly enough there are no pictures of that animal, but it looks like a huge “hommel”. And apparently you also have to gambe during work.
The last days it was raining continuously. Big parts of the city were flooded. Reading the blogs of our colleagues in the Shandong province (Weihai and Qingdao) we see that we are not alone. This limited off course the time on the water, but it also damaged the hot water supply of our hotel. Already 3 days without a warm shower…Friday we wanted to check out the only decent club in town (the Baby Feeling Bar) but we stranded 500meters of it, as the water was to deep to cross the streets.
Today we did a trip in a yacht around the harbor, and we went out on the sea for 10 minutes. At first, it seamed a bit strange to me but the kids really enjoyed it. Probably for them it was the first time on the see and the first time in a big motorboat. The afternoon we spend in the bamboo forest with Lucy and Sky.
As Pia and Thomas, we will organize a race this Monday (tomorrow). Since there efforts two weeks ago, every camp has to end with a race. No complaints as this will mean that we will have an afternoon off.
Jan
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
07/08/07 Arrived of new students from another province of China
Today we get ten new students that will be in the morning and in the afternoon. In the morning only two of our regular students were there because it was lightning and raining so the other student prefer to stay at home. The mother of one the child wanted to take her boy back home because she thought that we could not learn them something new...
In the morning we told them how to rig and unrig the boats, they got a tour in the marina and after that, we learned them some knots wich they will use on the boat.
In the afternoon all the children were their and we had to splits the group in two parts: one group was for Jan with the old students and another group was for me with the ten new children. Because we don't have enough lifejackets for everyone of them, I first go swimming with the new children during Jan was giving the other group theory lessons. After one houre we switched, but because their was a risk of lightning Jan went not on the water for sailing with his group, so he continue his theory lessons for a some time. A half an houre before the end of the sailing course he went with the children on the water and let them swimm. I give on my turn theory lessons to my group: where they have to sit in the boat, how they have to hold the mainsheet how they have to sheet in andagain doing a few knots to see if they are remember them the knots
In the morning we told them how to rig and unrig the boats, they got a tour in the marina and after that, we learned them some knots wich they will use on the boat.
In the afternoon all the children were their and we had to splits the group in two parts: one group was for Jan with the old students and another group was for me with the ten new children. Because we don't have enough lifejackets for everyone of them, I first go swimming with the new children during Jan was giving the other group theory lessons. After one houre we switched, but because their was a risk of lightning Jan went not on the water for sailing with his group, so he continue his theory lessons for a some time. A half an houre before the end of the sailing course he went with the children on the water and let them swimm. I give on my turn theory lessons to my group: where they have to sit in the boat, how they have to hold the mainsheet how they have to sheet in andagain doing a few knots to see if they are remember them the knots
Monday, August 6, 2007
Cleaning the boats
Our biggest achievement so far is the cleaning of the boats. The water in Rizhao contains a kind of slib...
Today I was introduced to miss Joe and the kids.
Some motorboat problems during the last week caused a small delay in the training of the kids. Apparently, some days the trainers had no motorboat to their disposition. Therefore, they only could send a few kids on the water. However, today we had one motorboat and we could send all kids on the water as the wind was not too strong and the risk of capsizing was minimal.
From tomorrow on, we might even get a second motorboat, but this is because we have to train 10 extra kids. For the moment, it is not clear how we will handle 24 kids in the afternoon with only 13 boats.
This marina is quite impressive. Most impressive are the surfboards, they are very nice (a kind of formula race boards with modern sails) and they have them in huge numbers.
This is it for the moment!
Today I was introduced to miss Joe and the kids.
Some motorboat problems during the last week caused a small delay in the training of the kids. Apparently, some days the trainers had no motorboat to their disposition. Therefore, they only could send a few kids on the water. However, today we had one motorboat and we could send all kids on the water as the wind was not too strong and the risk of capsizing was minimal.
From tomorrow on, we might even get a second motorboat, but this is because we have to train 10 extra kids. For the moment, it is not clear how we will handle 24 kids in the afternoon with only 13 boats.
This marina is quite impressive. Most impressive are the surfboards, they are very nice (a kind of formula race boards with modern sails) and they have them in huge numbers.
This is it for the moment!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Bye Bye Rizhao
Dear friends and family,
Yes yes tomorrow is our last day here in Rizhao. Friday we will be replaced by Taco and Matthieu. For tomorrow we have organized a little regatta for the children as a closing ceremony. This has taken a lot of energy from us to organise something like this here in China (everything goes very slow and changes all the time). All of the kids will take part of this regatta wich will be held in the morning. We've decided to make four groups of 10 children each. So there will be no more then 10 boats on the water at the same time. We've also invited the local press and all the parents. The only thing we still need for tomorrow is some wind and good weather!!
Today we had finally again a beautiful day. We've decided that we let the children sail the same course as they will sail tomorrow. The kids didn't know it of course. We've noticed that there is a big difference between the morning group and the afternoon group. However the morning group sailed more than the afternoon group.
We also had our first television debute today. We had to do an interview with the local Rizhao television channel. They came quite unexpected so it was really difficult because we had to watch the kids and gave an interview at the same time
Before the regatta starts we still have a LOT of work to do so we will get up very early in the morning! (7.00 am)
Pray for some good weather for us tomorrow!!
Greetings
Pia and Thomas
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
DHL number one in logistics??? We don't think so!!
Dear friends and family,
Our day started with something that didn't surprise us. Yep the rib wasn't repared. We didn't bother and started our sailing lessons with our morning group.
Because we only had one rib Thomas went on the water with an OP. We've placed the course in such a way the kids had to beat to get to the buoy that was the farest from the coast. In the beginning they struggled a lot but once they could follow Thomas everything went great.
Untill we saw a huge storm heading towards us. The moment that we noticed that, we decided to go back. Afterwards was this the right decission because only two minutes after all the kids arrived at the slibway the hell broke loose. We de-rigged the boats as quick as we could and get them as fast as we could inside.
In the noon Pia's DHL package finally arrived after exact three weeks. So you could imagine how excited Pia was when she saw her beloved chocolate and Thomas with his genuine "duck tape". Because we did had to the hotel to get the package we didn't had any time left to fix the rib. So we started our sailing lessons ( storm was over) with our afternoon group and sailed the same course with Thomas again in an OP.
After finishing our sailing class we "repared" the rib. We also adjusted the turning circle together with the local employees of the marina. Hopefully our reparations will hold untill the end of the week.
Then we went to the local supermarket again where we bought our new addiction "OREO'S" (cookies) and all the different kinds of flavours of chips (ex. prawns, cucumber, drumstick, italian meat in tomato sauce, spare ribs). Believe us they were all grose but funny.
Greetings
Pia and Thomas
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Just another day in China
Dear friends and family,
Today our weather here was "susu" (chinese for not good, not bad). In the morning there was a lack of wind. We revised the sailing directions, the knots and the priority rules. If tomorrow is again a bad day we have no more inspiration what we could do with our kids. So if anyone has some fun ideas to keep the kids busy during the bad weather, don't hesitate to mail us!!
In the afternoon the sky "cleared" up because of the upcoming sea breeze. So we put the kids immediatly on the water and yes yes we have some pictures of it. We placed two bouys in the water (because we only have two) and let them sail beam reach around the track for start. Later we wanted to change the bouys in such kind of way so that they had to beat to get to the other bouy and sail back broad reach. But we didn't had to replace the bouys because the weather gods were so kind to us to turn the wind from south to south - east so we didn't had to replace the bouys. (that is the most exciting thing that happened this day).
In the evening Thomas found a gigantic hole in the kiel of his rib. Wich gaved us the explanation of all our troubles with this rib of course. We've reported it to Miss Joe and she said that it will be repaired in the morning. We really wonder how they will fix that by tomorrow?? Anyway we shall see.
Greetings,
Pia and Thomas
Sunday, July 22, 2007
The Kidnapping
From Thomas Annicq:
I apologize for the lack of communication from Rizhao. I am to blame.
I visited them this saturday and am very proud of our team from 'het Zoute'. They are running a really good programme. Very smooth. RBSC quality! I spent the afternoon with them on the water. Had a blast! I even jumped on board some of the optimists to teach from there.
In the evening I kidnapped them and took them with me to Qingdao, where on Sunday (Today) we had the closing ceremony and race of the Qingdao-Kiel Sailing Camp. A race with 380 optimists who had no more than 7 days of teaching. You'll get the details from our Qingdao and Rizhao bloggers.
So fear not, they will be back online tomorrow night!
Thomas (Tom)
I apologize for the lack of communication from Rizhao. I am to blame.
I visited them this saturday and am very proud of our team from 'het Zoute'. They are running a really good programme. Very smooth. RBSC quality! I spent the afternoon with them on the water. Had a blast! I even jumped on board some of the optimists to teach from there.
In the evening I kidnapped them and took them with me to Qingdao, where on Sunday (Today) we had the closing ceremony and race of the Qingdao-Kiel Sailing Camp. A race with 380 optimists who had no more than 7 days of teaching. You'll get the details from our Qingdao and Rizhao bloggers.
So fear not, they will be back online tomorrow night!
Thomas (Tom)
Friday, July 20, 2007
Fête des belges in Qingdao!!!
dear friends and family,
Thursday 19 july:
Today we had some very bad weather, rainy, thunderstorms, cold wind... So that's why we decided not to go on the water and teach some theory of sailing. First we revised the sailing directions (because our students have still some problems with the directions of sailing). Afterwards Pia tought them the knots in the morning group it took very long before everyone could do the knots by themselves, but in the afternoon group it went very fast. Some of the kids had immediately their own ways of doing the knots, but it didn't matter because the result was correct.
After our knots-lesson we tought them the kapsize theory. Everybody enjoyed Thomas' drawings and explanations.
During lunch time we sticked some other stickers on the sail, but only one sail got finished, because of the Mcdonald's stickers who are soooo big ( more than 1 square meter!).
In the evening we had dinner with some friends of Mr. Mu and again with a parent of one of our (best) students. The dinner was nice: we finally ate the Beijing Duck, it tasted like chicken and meat.
Friday 20 july:
Today we had some better weather, but it was still cold (20-25°). In the morning we planned not to go on the water untill Mrs. Joe came by and said that we had to go on the water because of the Mayor of Rizhao would come and see the camp. But first of all we did the knots test, conclusion: there where a lot of kids who haven't practiced them, afterwards hurry, hurry, and everybody on the water. First there was a lot of wind, but after a while there was not so much wind anymore. Finally the kids and we were glad we went sailing. No accidents happened and the sailing went really good. The mayor was satisfied and even took some pictures of our sailing students.
Then we had lunch, today it was a bit special, because Thomas told everybody yesterday that today is Pia's birthday (wich is totally wrong, it is 8 April!) , we'd never thought they would take this so serious. This was something we never expected it just started as a laugh because Thomas wanted that the children would sing for Pia. But what happened was incredible. They bought a birthday cake and even some presents for Pia. Even some of our students bought or made some gifts. Pia didn't feel very comfortable about it because she got all the gifts and presents without actually a real reason.
In the afternoon we sailed again. We had the idea of putting on each boat a girl and a boy. Because the girls are still very afraid of the sailing. We explained that it is much safer with a boy on a boat. It had some good results because all the girls where smiling and laughing with the boys all the time. Even Kate was laughing on the boat and enjoying the sailing. The sailing also went very good, we did some exercises of following Thomas' motorboat in an esquadron. They did it very well, we were (again) very proud of them.
After our class went home we started sticking again. Again with the thought we could finish all the boats on one evening, but off course we couldn't. Thomas is getting enough of the Mcdonald's stickers and Pia is getting enough of the complaining about the Mcdonald's stickers.
Tonight it is our first evening in four evenings that we could have dinner on our own, so we went to one of our favorite restaurants Ming Tien Coffee where we ate Pizza!
Tomorrow Thomas Annicq (our general manager) is coming to visit us and we arranged a dinner with the sponsor of BIG (Beaulieu International Group) and with Mrs. Joe, specially for our Belgian friend.
Saturday 21 july 2007:
Today was a perfect day, sun, wind. We decided to go on the water immediatly but first the kids had to do the knots - test again.
While we were launching the kids on the water Thomas Annicq (Tom) arrived with the flags. Thomas received him because Pia was already on her favorite rib.
Meanwhile while the kids were on the water with Pia, Thomas gave Tom a quick guiding tour around the marina. Thomas explained the trouble we had with our sponsor stickers and introduced him to the president of the marina and Miss Joe.
During the noon Miss Joe was so kind to invite us all to have lunch together. The lunch was long and relaxing but above all a lot. We were served over more then 20 dishes. So we had to hurry to go back to the marina to be there on time to welcome the second group of the day.
Once we arrived back at the marina the kids were already waiting for us and we started immediatly with the knots-test with the help of Tom. After the test we went on the water and you could see that tom was pleased to be back on the water. He even got on the OP's!!!
During the afternoon course Tom proposed us the great idea to join him to his trip back to Qingdao. That was a question he even didn't had to ask twice!!!
After our class we rushed to the hotel here and grabbed quick some basic stuff and jumped back in the car to Qingdao.
During the car trip we discussed where we would stay in Qingdao. We decided that we would stay in the Shangri - La Hotel (read: shangely - la) at our own expense ( sorry dad ;)) but oh boy did we enjoyed it, especially the (kingsize) bed because chinese beds are rock hard!
After dinner in a "italian restaurant" we went to the Q-bar in our hotel where we met the germans from Kiel, who are also taking part of the gouvermental sailing project in Qingdao, and the other NOSCP trainers. After having probably all the beer in Qingdao in the Q-bar, we went to the Jazz club, one of many bars in Qingdao. Tom said wisely thank you guys but I am going to bed.
Oh yes the madness went on into the early hours ...
Sunday 22 July 2007:
As the RBSC - spirit prescribes we were back on the water around 09.00 am to follow the Qingdao - Kiel regatta. Although in the morning there wasn't much sun but we all had our sunglasses on. :)
The regatta was very spectacular 380 OP's on the water, and off course all our fans (spectators).This was crazy!
Next item on our planning was Lunch at La Villa, a "french restaurant", where Tsing Tao beer was our first course of the day.
During the lunch Tom came up with the great idea to go sailing with one of the boats of ZOU intermarine ( Tirion) with some white wine. Unfortunately or luckily the sea was to rough to open the bottles of wine. Remarkable was that the first 15 min on the boat everybody was pretty quiet especially Dirk and Taco ;).
Because the wind fell down, we decided to go back and have our "apéro" on one of the many Qingdao rocky beaches. We sat down on the biggest rock and had a great time and a nice chat.
Afterwards we were expected at the price giving ceremony in the Qingdao no 2 Middle school. According to the chinese culture it took a while before everybody had their speeches and prizes, where Tom also had to tend to give a speech (his speech was short but the best).
Then we went to Mcdonald's because we had to go back to Rizhao at 22.00 and the ceremony ended at 21.30. It was very funny according to all our Mcdonald's sponsored Tshirts.
Then we went back to Shangri-La, where we checked out. We said goodbye to everyone and lots of thanks to Tom for an unforgettable weekend!
Monday 23 July:
Today the weather was very bad, the rain was poaring out of the sky so we gave both of the groups some theory (again). Tell-tales, Property rules, Starboard and Port side, Beating, Leeward and windward and revision of the knots and wind directions. We're getting very tired now. We're very sorry about the delaying of this post, but we hope you are satisfied with this report.
We are missing you all!!!
greetings
Pia and Thomas.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
The sponsortickets have arrived!! We're lovin it!!!
Dear friends and family,
17 july 2007:
Today was a beautiful day but it was bloody hot (36°C). We had a south; south-east wind (1-2bft).
The morning group and the afternoon group went on the water. We've put 2 bouys in the water (beam reach) and let them sail the course clockwise. It's very remarkable how some of the kids get the hang of it very quickley.
After our working day we had a dinner with our sponsor ( Hans and some of his colleagues), that we've arranged, together with miss Joe, the president of the marina, and our head-coach Mr Mu. We had dinner in a western restaurant. We were very pleased to see the other belgians and who were all from the city of Waregem. Of course Pia had some trouble to understand them.
18 july 2007:
Today was again a very hot day (38°C). The wind was very good in the morning for the children let's say a light breese. So we did the same excercise as yesterday and our intention was to let them follow the rib in four groups (5 per group) and do some tacking excercises. Unfortunatly it didn't go as planned because we had some troubles with our bouys. They were drifting away all the time to the place in the harbour were the big tourists boats sail. So the excercise consisted really of getting the bouys to stay on the right place and let the children sail around them. Long live the "zoute anchors".
In the noon we've finally get our sponsor stickers and T-shirts. You really can see how Pia loves to see the golden M again.
In the afternoon the wind had come up but we tried to get the children to do the same exercise as yesterday. The children, aspecially the girls had some trouble to control their boats, some of them capsized. The girls panicked very quickly so we decided to let them go back and we did in and outs together with Thomas in a OP witch was a funny sight.
We were also very surprised today. You'll never guess who turned up today. KATE!! The girl who had the accident. We couldn't believed our eyes and told here that is was very brave of her. We let her sail together with a chinese local girl who can sail very good with an OP.
Tonight we were invited by the parents of Kate to thank us. Believe it or not but we're getting used to the chinese specialties but we still can't eat the jellyfish. We also tried the chinese "white wine" (read: some kind of wodka) wich was horrible of course.
Something intresting to know: the bad weather here that we've had on sunday was small and weakened part of the japanese typhoon.
We will get the whole typhoon here this week but here it will be just a heavy storm.
Bye Bye,
Pia and Thomas
Monday, July 16, 2007
Dear friends and family,
Morning group:
In the morning there was a light breese from the west (off shore breese). So we deciced that all kids could go on the water with the OP's. We placed two buoys in the water so they could sail beam reach. It was a perfect morning for sailing. Some of them capsized (5) but no harm was done. Some of them even liked it. The ribs are still in very bad shape but we've managed to control them. The kids can already rig up the boats quite good and their launching and mooring is also very good.
In the noon Hans Pieter Nollet and his wife Vanessa (from Beaulieu International Group) visited us. We showed them our classroom, the OP's and introduced them to mister Mu who was so kind enough to invite them over to have lunch together.
They have been living here for over more than 2 years now and they say that the city is developping very fast.
In the afternoon Hans Pieter Nollet and Vanessa stayed for a while and watched how we launched the second group in the water with their OP's. Unfortunately the wind has turned in the afternoon to south west so the breese was stronger. We tried to do the same thing as in the morning but because it also was spring-tide here today the current was very strong. The children suffered a lot to stay on course. Altough only one boat capsized this afternoon Pia had to do a rescue. A girl got strangled in the ropes. Pia had to cut the ropes in two because the girl was in shock. Pia brought her immediatly back to the shore and handed her over to our nurse. She is alright now and we really hope that she will come back tomorrow.
After this was happened we called all the boats in and we did only in and outs.
We do must say that we've miscalculated us in the strengt of the current this day, so for the people who will come to Rizhao watch out!
We also arranged dinner with the president of the marina and our sponsors for tomorrow.
We still haven't received any sponsorstickers our flags. We hope they will come soon.
Pia misses the belgian choclate a lot because her package hasn't arrived yet. Tonight we will have a beer with our local surfing boys. We are very curious where they will take us now.
Greetings,
Pia and Thomas
Morning group:
In the morning there was a light breese from the west (off shore breese). So we deciced that all kids could go on the water with the OP's. We placed two buoys in the water so they could sail beam reach. It was a perfect morning for sailing. Some of them capsized (5) but no harm was done. Some of them even liked it. The ribs are still in very bad shape but we've managed to control them. The kids can already rig up the boats quite good and their launching and mooring is also very good.
In the noon Hans Pieter Nollet and his wife Vanessa (from Beaulieu International Group) visited us. We showed them our classroom, the OP's and introduced them to mister Mu who was so kind enough to invite them over to have lunch together.
They have been living here for over more than 2 years now and they say that the city is developping very fast.
In the afternoon Hans Pieter Nollet and Vanessa stayed for a while and watched how we launched the second group in the water with their OP's. Unfortunately the wind has turned in the afternoon to south west so the breese was stronger. We tried to do the same thing as in the morning but because it also was spring-tide here today the current was very strong. The children suffered a lot to stay on course. Altough only one boat capsized this afternoon Pia had to do a rescue. A girl got strangled in the ropes. Pia had to cut the ropes in two because the girl was in shock. Pia brought her immediatly back to the shore and handed her over to our nurse. She is alright now and we really hope that she will come back tomorrow.
After this was happened we called all the boats in and we did only in and outs.
We do must say that we've miscalculated us in the strengt of the current this day, so for the people who will come to Rizhao watch out!
We also arranged dinner with the president of the marina and our sponsors for tomorrow.
We still haven't received any sponsorstickers our flags. We hope they will come soon.
Pia misses the belgian choclate a lot because her package hasn't arrived yet. Tonight we will have a beer with our local surfing boys. We are very curious where they will take us now.
Greetings,
Pia and Thomas
Sunday, July 15, 2007
first sailing experience and lazy day
dear friends and family,
Yesterday our "creepy little bastards"(morning group (21)) and sweeties (afternoon group (19)) had their first sailing experience. Thomas stayed with the children at the slibway, while Pia recieved them at the water with her rib. Thomas explained them how to launch the boat in the water and Pia let them do some exercises on the water like tacking and gybing and returning back to Thomas. It was quite difficult because we only had one translator because our dear Olive was 'sick'. In the morning Pia was alone on the rib and had a bit of communication problems with the children on the water, but we didn't had any accidents or hurts. In the afternoon our good friends Tosh and Keith (locals) were so nice to help us. Our translator called a friend of him and so everything went quite good, but we only had one problem: suddenly there was no wind anymore! We had the great idea to take the kids on the rib, Thomas stayed with them in the water (swimming) while Pia made some rib-tours with each four children. Thanks to our translator Sky the kids could understand Pia on the rib and Thomas had some translating help from Tosh and Sky's friend. The kids were very excited about their first sailing experience and immediately wanted to learn more about sailing.
There is still a lot of work to do before we can have a race with the children, but they are very motivated.
We also arranged a nurse for the children because at the beginning lots of children scratched their knees.
=> divide et impera ;)
In the evening we had contact with our sponsor BIG (Beaulieu International Group; Hans Pieter Nollet) with whom we arranged an appointment for sunday. Apparently their must have been a communication problem because he didn't showed up. We will try to contact him again this week!
Today we had our first official resting day, oh boy did we enjoy it. Sleeping until 11 o'clock, having lunch in Dio Coffee ('western' restaurant), "shopping" (read: wondering around) in all shopping malls of Rizhao. Unfortunatly we had some real belgian weather (rain, windy, cold).
Afterwards we tried to get to the marina to do some preparation for the following week but everything was closed and their was no living soul around.
Then we had the great idea (according to the rain) to buy some DVDs, so we called our Sky to tell the taxi driver where to go. He sent us to a mall at the other side of Rizhao, we bought 3 DVDs (the girl in the shop said that they were in english). Entering back in our room, we tried the DVDs but they were dubbed in chinese (very irritating), so we saw Mr. Bean because there is not a lot of speaking in it.
Greets
Pia and Thomas (aka: Tante Pia en Vieze Freddy)
Yesterday our "creepy little bastards"(morning group (21)) and sweeties (afternoon group (19)) had their first sailing experience. Thomas stayed with the children at the slibway, while Pia recieved them at the water with her rib. Thomas explained them how to launch the boat in the water and Pia let them do some exercises on the water like tacking and gybing and returning back to Thomas. It was quite difficult because we only had one translator because our dear Olive was 'sick'. In the morning Pia was alone on the rib and had a bit of communication problems with the children on the water, but we didn't had any accidents or hurts. In the afternoon our good friends Tosh and Keith (locals) were so nice to help us. Our translator called a friend of him and so everything went quite good, but we only had one problem: suddenly there was no wind anymore! We had the great idea to take the kids on the rib, Thomas stayed with them in the water (swimming) while Pia made some rib-tours with each four children. Thanks to our translator Sky the kids could understand Pia on the rib and Thomas had some translating help from Tosh and Sky's friend. The kids were very excited about their first sailing experience and immediately wanted to learn more about sailing.
There is still a lot of work to do before we can have a race with the children, but they are very motivated.
We also arranged a nurse for the children because at the beginning lots of children scratched their knees.
=> divide et impera ;)
In the evening we had contact with our sponsor BIG (Beaulieu International Group; Hans Pieter Nollet) with whom we arranged an appointment for sunday. Apparently their must have been a communication problem because he didn't showed up. We will try to contact him again this week!
Today we had our first official resting day, oh boy did we enjoy it. Sleeping until 11 o'clock, having lunch in Dio Coffee ('western' restaurant), "shopping" (read: wondering around) in all shopping malls of Rizhao. Unfortunatly we had some real belgian weather (rain, windy, cold).
Afterwards we tried to get to the marina to do some preparation for the following week but everything was closed and their was no living soul around.
Then we had the great idea (according to the rain) to buy some DVDs, so we called our Sky to tell the taxi driver where to go. He sent us to a mall at the other side of Rizhao, we bought 3 DVDs (the girl in the shop said that they were in english). Entering back in our room, we tried the DVDs but they were dubbed in chinese (very irritating), so we saw Mr. Bean because there is not a lot of speaking in it.
Greets
Pia and Thomas (aka: Tante Pia en Vieze Freddy)
Friday, July 13, 2007
We're back
Hello everybody,
Our sincere apoligies that we gave no update from yesterday but we had no inspiration and our day was pretty much the same as the day before. We taught the chinese children how to swim and some other children how to stay above the water and gain their fear of water.
Unfortunatly their is one kid who we couldn't persuade of going into the water. The first day of swimming was really hectic and he swallowed some seawater and wouldn't go back in the water. We tried to convince him that he shouldn't be afraid of the water but he keeps on resisting. Now we have talked to his mother to help us to persuade him. Otherwise we cannot allow him to go on the water with an OP.
We hope that she can persuade him off course.
Today we gave our children their first initiation in sailing. We told them about the basics of sailing. That means where does the wind comes from and how can we see that, the parts of the boat, how to rig up the boats, how to deal with on and off the water, how to tack and gibe, how to launch the boats, ...
This was all theoretically because there was to much wind (4 Bft and increased in the evening to 5 Bft). We hope that we will have less wind tomorrow so that we can launch them in the water.
While we were teaching we were also assisted by some local windsurfers who also can sail the OP's (Keith and Tosh). They have also offered us that they will gave us some windsurfing lessons in our spare time.
For lunch we ate a chinese burger (read: chinese pitta). It tasted funny but good.
We didn't get some news from our sponsorstickers for the boats so as soon that we will get them (hopefully tomorrow) we will sent you some nice pictures of our fleet.
After work we went exploring "Rizhao downtown" and went to local supermarket in a shopping mal. Pia was so excited and couldn't resist to buy choclate and some "chinese cake stuff". It tasted pretty good though.
We're sorry that we didn't post any pictures today but we had some "camera problems" (batteries) and they are solved now.
Greetings
Pia and Thomas
Our sincere apoligies that we gave no update from yesterday but we had no inspiration and our day was pretty much the same as the day before. We taught the chinese children how to swim and some other children how to stay above the water and gain their fear of water.
Unfortunatly their is one kid who we couldn't persuade of going into the water. The first day of swimming was really hectic and he swallowed some seawater and wouldn't go back in the water. We tried to convince him that he shouldn't be afraid of the water but he keeps on resisting. Now we have talked to his mother to help us to persuade him. Otherwise we cannot allow him to go on the water with an OP.
We hope that she can persuade him off course.
Today we gave our children their first initiation in sailing. We told them about the basics of sailing. That means where does the wind comes from and how can we see that, the parts of the boat, how to rig up the boats, how to deal with on and off the water, how to tack and gibe, how to launch the boats, ...
This was all theoretically because there was to much wind (4 Bft and increased in the evening to 5 Bft). We hope that we will have less wind tomorrow so that we can launch them in the water.
While we were teaching we were also assisted by some local windsurfers who also can sail the OP's (Keith and Tosh). They have also offered us that they will gave us some windsurfing lessons in our spare time.
For lunch we ate a chinese burger (read: chinese pitta). It tasted funny but good.
We didn't get some news from our sponsorstickers for the boats so as soon that we will get them (hopefully tomorrow) we will sent you some nice pictures of our fleet.
After work we went exploring "Rizhao downtown" and went to local supermarket in a shopping mal. Pia was so excited and couldn't resist to buy choclate and some "chinese cake stuff". It tasted pretty good though.
We're sorry that we didn't post any pictures today but we had some "camera problems" (batteries) and they are solved now.
Greetings
Pia and Thomas
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
There hasn't drowned anyone
Dear friends and family,
Today we had a special day, we tought the kids how to swim and we launched them in to the water.
At first they where a bit afraid of going in, but when they saw us going in the water they followed us like little ducks. In the beginning they hesitated and stayed in the water where they could stand, but very quickly they were allready trying out the exercises we explained and showed. Most of the kids could 'swim' quickly, except for some who were afraid. We took the afraid ones apart and gave them a private swimming lesson.
Thanks to our translators and the assitant (local) trainers we could handle all the kids.
We did swimming races and games, the kids had a lot of fun and want to swim again tomorrow.
The weather was (luckily) good untill the evening when it started raining a bit.
The water here in Rizhao is so dirty, there is sea weed everywhere, but we went in it and had a great time with the kids.
For us it was a big experience, because it was the first time we taught swimming. Two kids were a bit afraid, but we don't push them and will try it again tomorrow. The parents and all the (chinese) tourists in the harbour were looking at us and at the kids and admiring us. We were (again) the attraction of the day. The kids were all very kind today and listened better than yesterday.
Tomorrow we'll have another swimming day and the day after tomorrow we will start the sailing lessons.
After our working day, we had a great experience by going home with a tripod taxi. (it was raining so no bikes...). Funny thing about this was that it took longer than going by bike. Everything over took us except the pedestrians.
greetings
Pia and Thomas
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
press conference and first trainig day.
dear friends and family,
Where to start?
Yesterday we worked during all day on preparing the boats. The boats were brand new from the Zou factory, but we still had to prepare the sails and unpack the boats. Because we didn't had a manual, it took a while before we finished the first boat. But after three boats we knew how to do it and Pia prepared one boat in ten minutes!!! (very fast!). Applause??
Tomorrow we will also try to put the sponsers, if we get them, on the boats and take some pictures of them.
Mister Mu called his local sailors to help us.
At 16.00 o'clock, we had the press conference. Totally dirty (because of the working off course) we entered the press conference room. There were nameplates in front of our (parliamental) chairs. Thomas became TOMAS and Pia became PIA (chinese people have difficulties with writing european names!). During half an hour we listened to the chineses who talked about this project and about us. Thanks to our two translators Olive and Sky we could understand the most of it. Our dear Vicky also held a speech, wich was very good!
Unfortunatly we can't provide from any pictures of that because both of our camera's were still at the hotel. We did take some pictures of it with our mobile phones. As soon as we get the them on the computer we will post them on the blog.
After the conference, Penny (owner of the Zou inter Marine Company (opti fab)) brought us to our hotel so we didn't have to go by bike. ;)
At night we had an official dinner with the local sponsor Mr. Dong, Mss Joe (Leader of the marina), Vicky, Penny, and some other people. It was (again) a traditionnal chinese dinner with weird dishes like jellyfish, seacucumbersoup, vegetables, prawns (tastes different then in Belgium), big fish, ...
Off course the table noises were there too (slurpen, smakken, spugen), Thomas had to hold in his laugh and Pia got goose bumps (kippenvel).
Pia got surprisingly a job offer to be the face of mister Dong's company (real estate king of Rizhao) wich she kindly refused.
Again we came to the conclusion that the nightlife in Rizhao is a big Zero. Mr.Dong invited us to go to a karaoke bar. Conclusion: The Belgians CAN'T sing!!!
Today we had our first training day to the kids.
In the morning group we have 18 kids, in the afternoon group we have 14 kids.
The morning group was very exhausting because they were so excited! After giving every child an english name (Johnny, Danny, Jack, Oliver, Oscar, ...) and did some name games. We gave them also a little initiation of swimming. Pia demonstrated it on the bank and Thomas checked if everyone did it right.
In the morning group we have 7 children who allready can swim, in the afternoon group we only have 2! The kids are so excited to learn how to swim and sail, it's so nice to see them being so excited. When we are speaking they try to listen the most of the time, but off course there are in each group some kids who aren't interested in what we are saying. We also had a hughe thunderstorm in the afternoon the sky turned black (as you can see on the photo) and in a split of second everything was soaking wet. The thunder was so loud that the windows were vibrating and several car alarms went off. It was impressive for us but for the locals this kind of weather is quite common.
The kids from the morning group (our creepy little bastards) all have the age of ten. The kids from the afternoon group (our sweeties) are between ten and twelf years old.
Tonight we finally have a resting night, Pizza is on the menu! The chinese food is coming out of our ears for now!
Tomorrow we will launch the kids in the water, curious how that is going to turn out!
greetings,
Pia and Thomas
Where to start?
Yesterday we worked during all day on preparing the boats. The boats were brand new from the Zou factory, but we still had to prepare the sails and unpack the boats. Because we didn't had a manual, it took a while before we finished the first boat. But after three boats we knew how to do it and Pia prepared one boat in ten minutes!!! (very fast!). Applause??
Tomorrow we will also try to put the sponsers, if we get them, on the boats and take some pictures of them.
Mister Mu called his local sailors to help us.
At 16.00 o'clock, we had the press conference. Totally dirty (because of the working off course) we entered the press conference room. There were nameplates in front of our (parliamental) chairs. Thomas became TOMAS and Pia became PIA (chinese people have difficulties with writing european names!). During half an hour we listened to the chineses who talked about this project and about us. Thanks to our two translators Olive and Sky we could understand the most of it. Our dear Vicky also held a speech, wich was very good!
Unfortunatly we can't provide from any pictures of that because both of our camera's were still at the hotel. We did take some pictures of it with our mobile phones. As soon as we get the them on the computer we will post them on the blog.
After the conference, Penny (owner of the Zou inter Marine Company (opti fab)) brought us to our hotel so we didn't have to go by bike. ;)
At night we had an official dinner with the local sponsor Mr. Dong, Mss Joe (Leader of the marina), Vicky, Penny, and some other people. It was (again) a traditionnal chinese dinner with weird dishes like jellyfish, seacucumbersoup, vegetables, prawns (tastes different then in Belgium), big fish, ...
Off course the table noises were there too (slurpen, smakken, spugen), Thomas had to hold in his laugh and Pia got goose bumps (kippenvel).
Pia got surprisingly a job offer to be the face of mister Dong's company (real estate king of Rizhao) wich she kindly refused.
Again we came to the conclusion that the nightlife in Rizhao is a big Zero. Mr.Dong invited us to go to a karaoke bar. Conclusion: The Belgians CAN'T sing!!!
Today we had our first training day to the kids.
In the morning group we have 18 kids, in the afternoon group we have 14 kids.
The morning group was very exhausting because they were so excited! After giving every child an english name (Johnny, Danny, Jack, Oliver, Oscar, ...) and did some name games. We gave them also a little initiation of swimming. Pia demonstrated it on the bank and Thomas checked if everyone did it right.
In the morning group we have 7 children who allready can swim, in the afternoon group we only have 2! The kids are so excited to learn how to swim and sail, it's so nice to see them being so excited. When we are speaking they try to listen the most of the time, but off course there are in each group some kids who aren't interested in what we are saying. We also had a hughe thunderstorm in the afternoon the sky turned black (as you can see on the photo) and in a split of second everything was soaking wet. The thunder was so loud that the windows were vibrating and several car alarms went off. It was impressive for us but for the locals this kind of weather is quite common.
The kids from the morning group (our creepy little bastards) all have the age of ten. The kids from the afternoon group (our sweeties) are between ten and twelf years old.
Tonight we finally have a resting night, Pizza is on the menu! The chinese food is coming out of our ears for now!
Tomorrow we will launch the kids in the water, curious how that is going to turn out!
greetings,
Pia and Thomas
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