Here's how I spent September 22, 2007. Sixteen of us from Owen College spent the day on the Li River.







We hiked two hours on a path beside the river, which also led us through villages and farmland where we saw corn, rice, and persimmons.

Then we we took to the bamboo rafts thinking we would be cooler and could enjoy the scenery better if we didn't have to watch our feet. We were right, the bamboo rafts were a good way to go.

I've returned to China. In fact I'm back in Yangshuo in Guangxi province in southern China where I was twice during my first year. I came here for my initial training in February 2006 and to teach summer school that summer. Yangshuo nestles at the foot of these extraordinary hills and beside the Li River
in a most beautiful part of China.

It is in Yangshuo where Jennifer and O'wen have established their businesses. As Buckland Group they place foreign teachers in locations all over China. They placed me in Ankang, Shaanxi in 2006-2007. They also run Owen Language College here in Yangshuo for Chinese young adults who want to improve their English.

Betts is Owen and Jennifer's teacher trainer. Her husband, Laurie, runs V.E.T. (Volunteer English Teachers). And that is what I am this time. I am a volunteer English teacher at DuTau and FuLi Elementry Schools. More on that later.


As a volunteer teacher I am given housing, transportation to my schools and food. For the time being that means that I live in a room at Owen College but will be moving to a VET apartment soon. I take my meals, and will continue to do so for the year, at Owen College. Owen and Jennifer are very supportive of my role as a volunteer teacher. In this picture the dining room is on the ground floor, classrooms on the second and my room on the third. (And, yes, these are all pictures I took last year.)

Is this working?