Today marks the end of our 6th week here in Ili; the start of our 7th week! We have been busy settling in. We are grateful that just outside our apartment is a large public square within which all the neighbourhood kids gather and play. They have been very welcoming of Liberty and Van; Van just jumped right on in and started getting dirty with the other boys. Liberty enjoys talking with the small groups of other girls who, having gotten brave in a group, come over to Liberty to try their English. But Liberty also likes watching the boys do their crazy stunts, and when there is something they ca not do, such as climb a particular tree, she sort of wanders over there, then climbs the tree! “I am just trying to help them see how to do it,” she says when we ask her why she did that. 🙂

How many times?

Here is a question for you: How many times in the last year have you needed to confirm with the local police your living arrangements? How many times in the last 5 years, you know what, let’s make that TEN years, have you had to visit the police for any reason pertaining to your person (I am not including crimes or emergencies)? Well, in the first 6 weeks we have been here we have had 2 visits by police to our apartment, 2 visits to the main police station, 2 visits to the campus police office, and one interview at the university Foreign Affairs Office with the Chief of Police, 2 assistant police officers, and the University Dept Chair, and the Faculty Head, and 2 other people (I have no idea who they were). You may recall us saying this part of the world can be tricky to get into, and to stay in… these police visit and interactions are all part of it.

Through it all we have had deep peace. Praise God. Near the end of the interview with the Chief of Police she began to relax and become more friendly. She thanked me (and by extension, our family) for choosing to come to her city to help teach the young people. She said to me, “Do you know what the greatest lesson you can teach them is? It is to help them appreciate all that is around them, and to help them learn to live as full a life as possible.” All I could respond with was, “Yes, I totally agree!”

Our Home

Food as usual is delicious! So glad to have some spicy noodles again. And even better, because there are actual Russians in this city who have a bakery, we can actually buy loaves of bread! Remember, we usually only have flat nan-style bread. Do not get me wrong, nan is delicious too and comes in handy for making pizza. We Westerners love our bread but our style typically is not available in China. But, it is here! White bread, brown bread, and even rye!

We are thankful the apartment we have been assigned is more or less fully furnished. We do need to get beds for the kids, and we needed some curtains and rugs, but by and large it is fine. The building we are in is called The President’s Building… because this is where the President of the university stays when he is here! He stays on the 3rd floor, and we are on the 4th floor. When we look out the windows we see many trees, so that is a nice change from our Urumqi apartments which usually looked out on another building.

Schooling

I started teaching classes 2 days after we arrived. Currently I am teaching 8 hours a week, spread over 3 days (Tues, Thursday, Friday), with about 4 hours of prep each non-class day. All my classes are first year students, which means for most of them I am the first foreigner they have seen and interacted with! The other day I needed something from home, so Michelle and the kids interrupted their homeschool to bring the things to me. Well, it was like Justin Bieber came to the class when Van and Liberty walked in! All the students were oohing and aahing, pulling out their cell phones to take pictures, even rushing to the front with their arms outstretched to touch or grab Van, or Liberty!! Then Michelle came in! Oh my, some of the students almost fainted with delight at the sight of her blond hair and bright smile!

Homeschool is also back in swing. Michelle has been amazing keeping things on track and in order despite all the travel and upheavals of the past year. It has been interesting trying to explain to people here what we are doing. The previous foreign family actually sent their kids to a local school, so we assume everyone thinks all foreigners would do the same. It maybe worked for that other family, but we have chosen to not do that, and Liberty and Van are thriving.