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

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

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

The nocsp boats have arrived!!!

Dear friends and family,

This morning we went by bike to the marina. But not for Pia because she smiled to mister Mu and so she got the scooter from him and he took her bike.

Once we arrived at the marina the people were very busy preparing everything for the ceremony. First we saw the Shanghai sailing - and surfing team training on the water in the marina. Wich was very spectacular. Later the started a regetta.

At the time the regetta would start we had to go because we were expected for the ceremony as the guests of honour.

The ceremony was very beautiful and impressive. There was only one minor aspect about the ceremony and that was that it was bloody hot. We had to stand for 45 min in the burning sun. We were almoast roasted shrimps.

The purpose of the ceremony was the visit of the tibetann sailers who have travelled all over China to promote the olympic games and to annonce and introduce us to the people of Rizhao.

We also met the vice mayor of Rizhao and got his card.

Afterwards they wanted us to have dinner with the officials of the city of Rizhao.

After lunch we had a traditional chinese rest on the ribs who are becoming more clean every day.

Finally after a long rest and long waiting and waiting and waiting for mister Mu we prepared the trolleys for the opi's. The rest of the boats will be prepared tomorrow because mister Mu again thought he had worked enough and that it was enough for one day.

Everything here goes very veeery veeeeeeeery slowly. We are not used to this rythm because we work for Zven off course. ;)

But we really miss it though

Tonight we had dinner with the mister Mu family at a steak - BBQ house. We ate meat ( the heart of a cow and chicken, the tongue of a cow, little birds)=> what did you expect were in China? Prawns and specially for Pia barbecued bananas wich she wisely passed.

Tomorrow we will have the opening ceremony of the training camp, we hope we will get the boats ready on time.

The nightlife is a big zero here in Rizhao so sleep tight and good night.

Pia and Thomas