Children’s Day was June 1. The schools celebrated it on Friday, May 30. At DuTou, where I now spend all my teaching time and efforts, the students began to gather on the playground at 9:30.
They carried their chairs or benches from their classrooms to the designated area and soon were settled in an orderly fashion.

Then it began to rain. Only a few sprinkles. But some students went to get their umbrellas.

It continued to rain. And now it was a bit more of a drizzle, so the students were told to take their seats back to their classrooms. The recitations were postponed. The day’s festivities would begin with the games. The students cheered. Imagine that.

For......
hooking a fish.....

kicking a ball between the legs of a bench...

throwing a ping pong ball into a basket....

picking up wet marbles with chopsticks...

throwing a baseball through this hole...

tossing a ring onto a beer bottle...


....you got piece of candy.
And though it continued to rain, I don’t think anyone minded.

On Sunday, the actual Children’s Day, there were performances at 99 Supermarket in the center of Yangshuo. LanLan, the 4 year old daughter of my Chinese teacher, performed. She introduced herself in English: My name is LanLan. I am 4 years old. My father is a teacher. My mother is a tour guide. Then she recited a poem about apples. In English. I was impressed. You can see her proud parents watching her just behind the speaker on the right.