a barrelful of tomatoes

After an extended break from teaching – all of February – we are excited to be back in the classroom and sharing the duties of working with a lively group of 32 students.

While the majority of the class is made up of students with lower confidence in their English speaking abilities, it has not dampened their enthusiasm for speaking and giving our listening skills a good workout. Our recent experience in Mandarin TIP has renewed our appreciation of the challenges they are facing.

This session there are more than 300 students on campus from all over China including Guizhou, Shaanxi, Sichuan and Gansu and Shandong provinces.

We are also excited that Krista is bouncing back from a bout of walking pneumonia that has had her sidelined off and on for the past month. After hitting the local Chinese hospital for IV transfusions of strong antibiotics eight straight days, her latest x-ray shows her lungs are much improved. Continued rest is prescribed (as well as more antibiotics in pill form this time), which may be a bit easier now that she is not investing up to four hours a day in hospital treatment and travel. (Chinese medicine for the most part is delivered via IV rather than pills.)

While we would have chosen different circumstances, the experience did provide Krista an excellent opportunity to hangout with some of our Chinese staff – who were gracious escorts when understanding Chinese was a must – as well as practice her Chinese speaking and listening skills while making a couple of new Chinese friends (who now have her phone number, and only speak Chinese!!).

We have received many messages from former students encouraging Krista to rest. One student also paid a personal visit bringing treats and prayer support. Our current students have strong opinions about how she should work to regain and maintain her health and have plied us with melons, apples, bananas, tomatoes
and suggestions for what she should and should not drink. We are still not sure where the students – who must remain on campus – got their hands on a flat of cherry tomatoes or how we will ever eat so many. But we are working at it and it is wonderful to eat as much fruit as we want whenever we want.

The week ended on a high note as the weather finally showed a hint of spring, allowing us to scrub the winter grime off our bikes and pedal to the local coffee shop. It may not be taxing on the lungs, but Beijing traffic can take a toll on the heart.