Dear Family,
Uncle Bob wrote us an awesome letter and reminded me that it's been a LONG time since I've gotten my family letter sent around. I'm sorry! Busy isn't an excuse. It's funny how when you live someplace for awhile you begin to think your life isn't very interesting and it's become kind of mundane. Mostly you just don't take the time to sit down and write to those you love. I hope you know that we are thinking of you often, and that we love and miss you! We are loving our experience here, but find it takes longer to do things than it used to! I am attaching our letter, hope you enjoy it. Be sure to write us and keep us informed about how things are going over there. I can't believe how fast this year is going. Hard to believe that we'll be heading back to the states in three months! Where has this year gone?!
Love, Dondavid and ReNee.
March 29, 09 Letter.doc
Dear All,
I haven’t been very good at keeping up on what’s happening in China, have I! We have been really enjoying our time over here, enjoying the warm days of early spring (a day at a time) and the more common late days of winter. The snow and ice is all melted, the trees are beginning to leaf out, the fruit trees are partially in bloom, and the grass is even starting to turn green. Temperatures have been mostly in the 40’s and low 50’s, but we did get one day up to almost 80, followed two days later by 1” of snow! Reminds me of Rexburg! (Although I can’t remember 80 in March! We’ve had quite a bit of wind, only a couple of really strong that bring the sandstorms down from the Gobi Desert up by Beijing, mostly just cool breezes that make it uncomfortable to be outside much. So I’ll try to digress and catch you up to date.
February 23, 2009
Well, I decided I’d better get back to keeping a diary, or I’m going to lose a good part of this wonderful Chinese experience! It’s amazing how fast the time flies, and I’m more aware all the time at how unreliable my memory is becoming.
Feb. 13: Don, ReNee and I went down to the Macalline furniture store next to Metro and ordered some book cabinets and a desk and a drawer chest for the church. The book cases have glass doors, and are 3’ wide and 80” high. We ordered a case for the Relief Society room that is the same size, but has shelves on the top half, with three drawers in the bottom half. They want it to put their Relief Society supplies and vases in. The desk is for the Branch President’s office, and has a computer station on one side, and three drawers on the other side. The chest of drawers is for the Primary room. It has six large drawers, three on each half, that they can put their toys and primary supplies in. That chest is about 5’ wide, 36” tall, and about 18” deep. They are all an oak vinyl veneer over particle board, but are heavy duty. The shelves are all 1” thick. Delivery is scheduled for Fri. Feb. 20th. We had to submit the request to the Beijing International District for approval, which we received last week. We had one of our students, Alex, go with us to interpret for us. We got them for 15% off, and the total was 10,535 Yuan.
Thurs. Feb. 19th. Alex called and said they could deliver our furniture tonight, so at 4:00 p.m. we went over to the church with Birds and Lowders to get stuff ready. We spent about two hours cleaning, moving stuff, sorting, and getting ready for the furniture. It was supposed to be there between five and six, but when we called at six, they said they were running behind, and would deliver it by 7:00 p.m. They got there about 7:10, and Lowders had gone home, along with ReNee. They had sent a crew over to assemble it for us, and we were really glad, as it was a lot of work! The crew was very efficient and had obviously had a lot of experience, as they assembled all five pieces of furniture in about two hours. It would have taken us all day! The furniture looks really good, but we didn’t put anything away because it was so late.
Friday, Feb. 20th. ReNee, Don and I went over to the church this morning at 10:00 and spent all morning putting all of the books and materials into the new cabinets. It will be really nice to have a place to put the stuff, instead of just having it stacked on tables and in window-sills like it has been for most of the past year. When we first moved into the building we are in, the owner had left a lot of his furniture and we were using that. In about October, he sold the building to a new owner, but he took all of his furniture that we had been using. All of our stuff ended up stacked wherever we could fine some place to put it. Afterwards, Don went to Metro with Bonnie, and ReNee and I went to lunch at TGI-Fridays and had a chicken salad.
Saturday, Feb. 21st. This morning we went out to the Shi family house West of Tianjin. It is a large house similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing, only on a much smaller scale. It was the major’s house and the center of the government for Tianjin about 100 years ago. In 1951 Mao visited the major there, along with Chao En Lai, and made a big deal about how efficient the government was here and how pleased he was with the way things were going here. Two years later 
he “purged” the major (had him executed) because he was afraid of the popularity and potential for competition. Interesting. The house complex is now a museum, very well kept, and a lot of history. I had been there once last year, so I was able to tell the Lowders a little bit of the history of each part of the complex. We had a fun morning. In the afternoon we just came home, had lunch, then read. I finished the book, “Mao, the Untold Story.” It is a biography of Mao Tse-tong and his rise to power and rule of China. It was really interesting.
Sunday, Feb. 22. We had a good church meeting, but the new furnace they put in last month had a broken water line and was leaking water. I tried to shut it off, but couldn’t find the inlet. It wasn’t leaking TOO badly, so I just turned the furnace back on so we could have some heat in the building. I told the Chinese branch president about it, showed him where it was leaking, and he said he would call the owner to have him come fix it.
The Kim’s spoke today, Jen spoke in English, and her father spoke in Korean, with Jin (the older sister) translating for him. They gave really good talks about the importance of love, and of the love of our Savior for us. There was a little time left when they finished, so Pres. Bird asked Art Jones to come up and speak, as he was supposed to speak last week, but there wasn’t enough time because his family took more time than expected. The son and daughter-in-law were visiting from the US, and it was good to hear from them.
After church ReNee and I went over to Ron Derby’s house for FHE and dinner. Dolores fixed us Mexican food and it was a really good taste change. We enjoyed it. Scott and Chris Cunningham were also there. Scott suffered a stroke about a year ago, and is here in China getting acupuncture and Chinese therapy to help recover. He had made about as much progress as they thought he could make in the US. He is definitely improving.
Monday, Feb. 23rd. Today was the first day of our new semester of classes. I don’t have any classes on Monday, but ReNee went to her first one. I walked over with her to make sure the media was working OK, helped her put the curtains on the windows, then left her to her class. Only four people showed up. We are hoping more people come next week, as four people aren’t enough for the class to carry. They said we should have about 30 in each class. I stayed home and worked on the computer getting ready for my classes that start tomorrow. This evening we went to the Cunninghams for FHE dinner, had tacos. Mexican two days in a row! But that’s enough for now. My system isn’t used to that much beans! Had a fun visit, but Jones and Lowders didn’t come because of class conflicts. When we came home it was snowing quite heavily. Fortunately it didn’t snow too long, and there isn’t much on the ground Tues. morning.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009. I had my first class this morning. Only had seven show up, six guys and a girl, but it’s enough to have class. I’m really hoping I have more show up next week, as it’s easier to teach a class of 20 than a class of 7. You get a lot more participation. After class I came home and worked on my computer. At about 10:30 ReNee came home. She had 30 students in her 8:00 class, but NOBODY showed up for her 10:00 class. Guess we’ll see if anybody shows up next week! After she got home, we went over to the Waiban’s office and asked Li Fong to arrange for motel rooms for Warren and Tyler Klingler, who are going to come visit us in April. Tyler served his mission in Taiwan, so speaks Mandarin. He’s pretty excited to come visit! After lunch we got our bi-weekly massage. It’s one of our luxuries over here! We both get massages every other Tuesday, for 120 yuan for both. That’s about $18 for both! What a deal! That’s for a 60-min. massage each. Heaven!
Wed. Feb. 25th: We started classes this week. They are really lame. I don't know whether people are having a hard time getting back from the Spring Holliday, or if it's just the system, but our classes are really screwed up. They told us we should have about the same enrollments as last semester, but my first class yesterday I only had 7 students show up. My 8:00 class today (Wed) had 24, but my class at 10:00, one student showed up 15 minutes late. I sent him home, told him we'd try again next week. I asked for class rolls, and they said, "We don't have them yet. We should be able to get them to you in a couple of weeks." So we have no idea when or how many students we should have. They did send us our class schedules at 10:00 p.m. Sunday night to tell us what times and which room our classes are supposed to be taught in the next day, and urged us to be sure to be there on time because someone from the college was probably going to be there to observe us. Maybe they should have told the students when their classes were, too. Mom had 4 in her Monday class, yesterday she had 34 in her 8 a.m. class, but nobody showed up for her 10:00 class. Today she has about 20 in the class she is doing right now. Guess we'll see how the rest of the week goes. Don talked to Robert, our dept. chair yesterday, and he said a lot of the students are having transportation problems getting back from the holiday. He said he had to drive 12 hours to find a train station that had tickets available, left his car there for his wife to come get, and he stood up on the train for 5 1/2 hours to get back to Tianjin. Even with a good transportation system, I guess it still takes awhile to move 200 million people around from one place to another. That's over half the population of the entire US! I had one student that says he had to stand for 30 hours on the train to get home, and if you moved to go to the bathroom, you didn't have a place to stand when you came back. Robert said things should be more normal next week. Guess we'll see.
Thursday, Feb. 26: Went to my 8:00 a.m. class this morning, didn’t have anybody show up. Maybe some will next week. So I just came home and worked on cleaning up some files on the computer. ReNee ended up with one class that was pretty big, but her second class didn’t have many in it.
Friday, Feb. 27th: Well, I finally got some students. My 8:00 a.m. class has 22 in it, my 10:00 a.m. has 28. It’s a lot easier to teach a class that size than one with just a few. Then I came home and spent all afternoon doing rolls and student picture sheets for all of them. We take each student’s picture in class, then edit them onto a Word document with their names organized into their families so we can learn their names and which family they are in more quickly. Most of them have already chosen an English first name, but we put them into families of 4-6 and they have to choose a family name. For most of them it is the first time they have had brothers or sisters, so they get pretty excited about them. They bond really fast, and if you try to move one to balance families, they won’t go because they are part of the family. It’s pretty touching, really. Then we do class activities to help them bond and get to know each other. Some of the families get so close that they go places and do things together during the week, like go out to dinner, or to a movie or stuff. They write about how special the experiences are in their journals.
Saturday, February 28, 2009 (high 45, low 32) Today we had a branch activity and a group of 25 of us went to Ron Derby’s solar energy plant to learn more about what it is he’s doing here in China. There are 88 of these large mirrors on the platform, which revolves tracking the sun, above the large heat storage vault. It was very interesting to see his plant and to see where he and Richard spend their working hours day in and day out. 
Afterwards we went to a fantastic restaurant called “The Green Era” where we had a mouth-watering delicious meal. Steve Tam had taken us there before but I didn’t remember the food being so wonderful. The restaurant itself is a very special experience even if the food were not so special. It’s like being in a jungle and there are lakes full of fish, even a pond with seals that we watched being fed by some children. Richard was with us to help us navigate the Chinese menu and he took several of the group to help him order. They did a marvelous job and we had some of the best fried rice I’ve ever eaten in my life. There was also a fried onion bread that was to die for! We want to take our kids to that restaurant when they come to visit in April.
Mon. Mar. 2nd.
Tonight we had Family home evening at the Cunningham’s apartment and when we walked out the door, we were absolutely astonished to see the ground covered with snow and to see light snow falling. It was such a beautiful sight, just like a winter wonderland, the kind of sight that makes for a positively perfect Christmas season. It’s beautiful even at the end of February and especially since we know it won’t last long because our weather is scheduled to be in the 50s by week’s end.
Mar. 19, 2009
Our classes have finally distilled down to where we think they will be. I have one on Tuesday that only has 12 students in it, makes it hard to get good discussions going when there's only that many there and they don't tend to talk much anyway. On Wednesday I ended up with one good class of 26 instead of two classes, nobody ever showed up for my second class, so I quit going to it, too. So far they haven't said anything. I wrote yesterday and asked for class rolls again, and they said they would try to get them to us in a couple of more weeks. Oh, well. My Thursday class only had 7 in it, so I told them to come Fridays instead. So now on Friday I have two big classes, one with 30, one with 40. But it makes for good discussions! Then I spend half the weekend reading journals. I was hoping that my Friday class wouldn't carry so I could have a longer weekend, but didn't work out that way.
The weather here has been beautiful the past two days. It was really windy on Sunday, we had a huge sandstorm that about turned out the lights, then the wind went away Monday and Tuesday and yesterday we had temps up into the 70's. Today it's back down to 55, but still sunny. Will be windy again this weekend. This is the "Sandstorm Season." The Northwest wind from Mongolia blows the sand from the Gobi Desert that is only 15 miles from Beijing down through here on its way to the ocean. It really gets everything dirty. They say they usually get 6-10 major sandstorms in March and April. Oh, yay. Every time we had them last year I got bronchitis because the sand carries dust-mites and crap with it from the desert. Hope it doesn't work that way this year. Anyway, today the leaves are budding leaves all over the place, all of the flowering trees are in blossom, the fruit trees are in bloom, and it's beginning to look like spring! Two days ago everything was still dead and the trees looked like sticks. Amazing! Hope it doesn't mean we get an early summer and die of the heat this spring! They turned the heat off in our building, so we know for sure it's spring, whether the calendar knows it or not!
Well, I guess I'd better get to my school work. I can't believe how fast this term is going, we're preparing week 5 lessons, seems like we barely started school. It's fun to be getting the student journals again, some of them are really funny, some are just touching. It is really special to get a glimpse into these students daily lives and souls. Very humbling to see their strengths and quality.
3/29/09 - We’re trying to decide what to do for Easter. We think we should do some kind of holiday lesson for them, but don’t know if we’re going to have the time. We have so much to cover, and the weeks go SO fast! We try to get them talking as much as we can. ReNee is baking 200 cookies today, six at a time in our little 12” toaster oven. The kids love anything that is home-made, and they really think it’s special if they get a treat from an American. She’s making sugar cookies sprinkled with sugar sparkles. The cookies they make in China taste more like sweetened bread, so they really like the change. We take them to our classes and carefully hand out one to each student, or they’d take a whole handful! If you could make a big pan full at a time, we wouldn’t mind, but it takes forever to make them in tiny batches.
We have some really great news today! Our Amber who has been waiting for years to get a baby had her first one today! We now have a beautiful new granddaughter! She was born 7 lbs 13 oz, and she has light brown hair. After her 20+ hour labor, Amber is right now wondering if it’s worth it! But when she snuggled that beautiful tender soft spirit up next to her neck and skin, I think she changed her mind! Teresa is there to help, flew in yesterday just as Amber was feeling the first pangs of labor. Timed that about right! Warren is there, too, and is excited about a new niece! I think they are going to name her Kacie Jean. (Spelling is probably wrong!) Of course it’s killing Mom to be here instead of there, but thank goodness for Skype! After Teresa leaves next week, Tyler’s mom is going to go spend a week to help with the new one. We’re really glad. New moms need a woman around! Us men just don’t do!
I guess they are having a hard time finding enough teachers to fill all of the positions here in China this year. I don’t know whether it’s because of the economy, or because China is tightening their age limit. They want people to be 65 or younger when they start teaching here. The limit used to be 70, but they had three teachers die last year (only one in the BYU program, and all under 65), but it made them a little gun-shy because of the possible diplomatic relations. It’s hard to get bodies shipped out of China back to the US, (though sometimes I wonder how can tell if the people are alive or dead!), so the one from BYU was cremated here and his ashes sent back home. In China cremation is the standard procedure, otherwise they wouldn’t have room for all the graves with this many people. I told mom that when I’m dead I don’t really care. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust takes on a whole new meaning. Once I’m done with this body, I won’t need it again until the resurrection, and when the time comes I’ll have to start from scratch anyway, I think. I doubt I’ll be one of those that get to “twinkle.”
Anyway, if any of you want an awesome teaching experience, this is certainly the place to get it!
Well, I guess I’d better get ready for classes. I hope you are all well, and that you are enjoying the blessings that we have been given. I thank God every day for my dear wife and my wonderful family, for my good health, and for the privilege of being here in China to work with His wonderful children. It has truly changed and enriched our lives. I’m attaching some of our students journals so you can get a flavor of their feelings. Be sure to drop us a line now and then, we sure love you.
Dondavid and ReNee.
Pollina – Missing My Daughter
My daughter is three years old, and it is time she goes to kindergarten. My daughter have left me to her grandma’s home ten days. In these days, I miss her every time (minute). At noon, I want to have a rest after finishing my papers when I am going to sleep, I hear my daughter’s voice. I open my eyes to look for her, but I see nobody. Perhaps it is a dream, and I am so depressed that my tears emerge from my eyes.
Because of missing daughter, I always talked her with my roommate. She is a mother of a 8-years-old son. Although my daughter is not with me, things she had done appears my memory all the time. My lovely daughter. I remember a story of my daughter which was about a frog. Her aunt taked her a frog from field. She was so glad. Her grandma and her aunt told her was little Duo Duo (Duo Duo is my daughter’s name). My daughter accepted it gladly. But she felt the frog was lonely and asked where the frog’s grandma and aunt were. From then on, she asked for frog’s grandma and aunt when her aunt went home from field. Daughter didn’t make mention of her mother, because there was no mother in her daily life. How sad! I hope your time comes soon that you can finish school and return to live with your daughter. You need each other!
Bob – My new English teacher, Professor Powell, gives me an English family name: King, in my first class this term. I totally like it. It symbolizes gold or king of an empire. And I name myself Bob, for my wife’s family name is “Bao”. So my English name is Bob King. I am very glad to have the name, and it is so kindly of Mr. Powell that he takes photos for my new family members in his class. In my other class I feel it’s difficult for my teacher to give such a lovely and interesting class. They won’t talk with us unless they finish their work. We feel so boring. The class is not us, it’s teachers, the platform is for dancing, the blackboard is for seeing. We just like go for an artistic showing. Also we never take part in the showing, we are the audience.
I have the feelings all the time until I meet Mr. Powell, a fat but kindly American teacher. I am his student in class Friday 8, and we talk like we are friends, like we are family, and it makes me so well. We are going to really enjoy this semester together! J
Linda – Love Rituals
People who love each other often have love rituals, like bringing gifts, reporting what they are doing, saying good night by message and so on. And some of the rituals are only meaningful to each other. To others, it is totally a waste of time.
Here is a story of my friend. When he had an opportunity to go abroad he asked his girlfriend what she would like. The girl said, nothing special, a t-shirt was enough. As time passed my friend went back with 37 t-shirts as well, because he bought one t-shirt from wherever he had been. Doesn’t that sound like a legend that only can happen in the movies? The fact is that everyone can be romantic and everyone can do extraordinary things to their lovers. We all have chance to obtain the happiness from love rituals as long as we insist.
My father used to travel a lot of r business. But he never brings any gifts since I had memory. Sometimes I think he is that kind of person who is a workaholic and the only thing he cares about is his job. Until one day I found an old and luxury silk dress at the bottom of a box. That is a gift that my dad was on a business trip at the first time and it costed a whole month’s salary. Considering people even cannot afford eating vegetables, my mom pissed off and forbade him to buy anything. And my dad never did. Their new ritual is that my dad had is bring back every penny he earned instead of gifts. Maybe that is more realistic and reasonable. However, I know my mom is still missing the romantic idiot for there was a gorgeous smile on her face when she told me this story. We must be careful what we ask for! Thank you for sharing!
Stone – The First English Class
Today is 27 February. I have the first English class since I came to Nankai University. The teacher is Professor Dondavid S. Powell, he is a tall and fat man. He is not only kind and lively, but also strict and serious. I have earn English for many years from 3 grade of primary school to now, many teachers have teached me, but they are Chinese. Usually they teach me English like Chinese, and teachers, students and I all say Chinese in class, so my English has been improved very slowly.
Today I meet foreign teacher first time, he gives me a different impression. First his teaching still is different to Chinese teacher, he walks around in the classroom freely, and speaks as good as a play. Second, he gives everyone a paper to write their name, class, home, e-mail and telephone, and make four or five people to a family, then take picture for them. It’s very funny! I like Powell, I like English class. I want my English be good tomorrow!
Brad – Today is Friday. I’m very excited because it’s the first class of Oral English. I know the teacher is a foreigner, and I’m afraid too, owing to the poor level of English of mine. When I came to the classroom, I saw a fat man sitting on the desk. I know he was our English teacher. He is old and looks very kind. He is Professor Dondavid Powell, an American friend. He asked us why we study English firstly. To me, I study English mostly because of the degree requirement. Of course, I like studying English, too. But I find I can’t make much progress. So I find I can’t make much progress. So I haven’t full confidence to study. I am not dare to speak English to others. I’m afraid they don’t understand me. Professor Powell encourages us to speak loudly. I now it is my biggest question. I must change the situation. I believe where there is a will there is a way. You are going to do fine! We will have fun.
Katherine from last semester – an e-mail.
Dear Professor Powell,
Thank you for your kindness and your help. It really means a lot to me.
I am so excited with your experience during Spring Holiday. Actually, in the holiday, I was busy with applying the Joint Program in America. Fortunately, I got the opportunity to study in University of Wisconsin-Madison. So I will go to America in September if all the thing go smoothly. I feel so happy to make my American dream come true. I will never forget you and your encouragement, and I believe my English is getting better every day.
Best wishes. Sincerely, Katherine
3/4/09 Thomas: Because my English score is not very high in the entry test, so I was arranged to second term to study. From other classmates I have known that the English class was very funny, they hear, talk and play, so I hope to join in.
Today I got up at 7:00. This was some early to me. I thought other classmates also think so, for we are used to study at night. When I came in the classroom, the teacher was standing at the platform. What surprised me was that he only dressed a shirt in a so cold winter.
This is the first class a foreign teacher teach me, so I feeled some strained at first. But the foreign teacher was very humor. So I resumed soon. I couldn’t know accurately what the teacher said, I have studied English twelve years, but I can only read the English text; hearing, speaking and writing ability are very weak, so this English course is very available to me. I can raise my hearing, speaking and writing ability, so I must study hard.
James: New semester, new experience. Today I have my first oral English lesson. To be honest, speaking in front of a group is often a terrifying experience for me, so that I was a little afraid today that the teacher would be too strict for me. However, beyond my expectation, my teacher Powell was very nice, kind, good-tempered and sweet man. He told me the best way to learn English is talking. And he wanted us to make a LOT of mistakes when we speak English. All his kindness made me feel better and not so nervous.
Today I also had my “family” in oral English course. Our family name was “Washington,” which is the name of the capital of the US, the name of the first president of the US. Our family members were Coeman, Steven, Madeline and me. Coeman was little fat but very funny. Steven was very tall. Madeline was a pretty, lovely and smart girl. Most of all, she was the only girl in our class. A “family” without a female is just a like a spring without flowers. The only beautiful flower was in our group, so our group was the most lucky family. Even Mr. Powell said to me that “you are so lucky.” I hope “lucky” will accompany our family every after.
3/22/09 Dr. White
Mr. Powell is my English teacher. He is a good and kind teacher. I like to listen to his English lesson. My heart is in depression from lab, but when I have taken part in my English lesson, my heart will be happy again. I like my teacher’s spoken English. It’s very clear and wonderful. It’s like a song. I love the content of English lesson. I think some opinions are right and important, especially, I like some idioms about life. I like the music of some selections and the way that my teacher teach. Above all, I think he is one of the best teachers I have seen. Ok. Time is later. I must go to bed. (Thank you. You are very kind.)
Sunny – Professor at Nankai University
This morning I gave my students two college Chinese lessons. The text is “Zhi Yin.” It is an article chosen from “Wen-xin-diao-Long,” which is a very important theory of literature criticism written by Liu Xia, a great theorist of Nan Dynasty.
When explaining the title of the text, I remembered some new thinkings about friendship I had got from your lesson. Then I told my students: “In Tuesday’s English lesson, my professor told me, ‘There are three kinds of friendship—for a season, for a reason, and for a life.’ The first and the second are all necessary. But the third is the most cherished one. We call it Zhi Yin. It means a friend keenly appreciates your talents. With only just one friend of this kind, our life will be enlightened.”
Mr. Dondavid, thanks for your excellent lessons. It gives me fresh thoughts and good feelings. There are so many beautiful sentences in your PPTs. (Thank you so much for your kind words. I am glad you can use some of them!)
