The Bible (TV miniseries)

THE BIBLE (TV miniseries)

During my life in China, I was pleasantly surprised to find Christianity everywhere I turned. There were home churches where believers would meet. There were jewelry and pictures depicting Christianity. I found the Bible in bookstores, that were in English and Chinese. There were even people would celebrate some of the Christian holidays, such as Christmas and Easter.

For most people in China, they saw the Bible as only another fiction story. The symbols, such as the cross worn as jewelry, were seen as just that, jewelry. Christmas and Easter are only seen as fun activities for the children, and for most of Chinese, have no spiritual meaning.

I should say here, that in my opinion, these latest actions by the Chinese government, are not an attack on Christianity, but a response to disruptions in society because of extremist from other religions in China. Over the years, especially in the northwest of China, there have been numerous outburst in communities that are predominately Muslim in religion.

There are more Christians in China than there are people living in the United States of America. And now, the Chinese government is trying to eliminate all religion in China, and requiring people to denounce their faith and embrace atheism.

A student from Taiwan introduced a website to me last year where I could watch movies and TV series. Today, I saw they had added a new series that I want to introduce to you.

IT IS NOT FICTION.

IT IS A REPRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE.

THE BIBLE IS A HISTORICAL DOCUMENTATION.

THE BIBLE IS FACT.

THE BIBLE IS TRUTH.

You can also watch the 'Jesus' film here.

Answers to common questions: 'Teacher, why have you lived in so many different countries?'

My father was in the United States military when I was born in the USA, and was stationed in Germany for about one and a half years when I was still a baby.

My parents divorced after returning to the USA, but my mother remarried to another military man, and we moved to Italy to live there for about another one and a half years until I was twelve years old, and then returned to the USA.

Later, we moved to England for three years, until I graduated from high school.

I moved to China after I was married and had my own family. We lived there for three years, from 2010 through 2012. We lived in Jiamusi, Heilongjiang for two years, and Beijing for one year. This is when I started my teaching career.

Z-Visa problems.

When we were first coming to China to teach, we had to go through a process of exchanging information with the school and sending papers to get our Visa. We believed until recently that everything was alright. It turns out that the first school did not give us the correct visa. We had a Z-Visa for working, but not for teaching. As a teacher, you should also have an expert certificate book. We thought the first school had this, but kept it for some reason when we left and that the second school would get another for them. An expert certificate book is something that is gotten once and is not the schools, but the teachers. Something else that you keep with you is a resident registration book. This is something the school helps you get, but you hold onto and get a new one each time you change schools. If you are coming to or are already in China, be sure you have the correct paperwork. A sticker in your passport may say you have a Z-Visa, but it might not be the correct kind. Your passport may have a sticker that says 'resident permit', but this is only used for entering and exiting the country and is not the same as a resident registration permit. All the correct paperwork takes about 6 to 8 weeks to process. The school should pay for everything and the total cost is less than $100. you should also ask to see the schools license to hire expert teachers. It will have a license number and you should make note of this for future reference. There are places you can contact and may get some help if you have problems with a school, but the best thing is to be alert to fakes or scams.

DJ update.

In this blog post I have included some new pictures of DJ and a couple of the beautiful roses the city has planted everywhere in the city. I also will tell you about our recent visit to the local clinic with DJ. DJ had a runny nose all of last week, but on Thursday evening, she also had a swelling under one of her eyes. I knew right away that this wasn't just a cold anymore; that it was an infection. She didn't have a fever, but we took her to the local clinic the next morning anyway. In just thirty minutes we had completed her paper work, seen the doctor, had a blood test done, seen the doctor again and gotten the medication she needed. Not only was all this fast and easy, but it also only cost about $20US. Some people will say that China is behind the times when it comes to medicine, but I don't think so. Just like in the states, there are good doctors, clinics or hospitals and bad. We weren't the only ones at the clinic that day. There were about 40 to 50 others patients. The blood test was done, not using a needle, but a laser to prick her finger. We only had to wait a few minutes to get the results which included a long list of things they tested. She is taking both traditional and modern Chinese medicine. The next day she was already showing great signs of improvement including the swelling under eye was almost gone. Just like people in America, the Chinese complain about their health care system. Having experienced both, I don't see why they complain.

Windows.

One of the things that takes a little getting used to is the fact that most things are done in what seems to be a very backwards, illogical way in China compared to the United States. The heat in our apartment is very good, but there is no thermostat and we do not choose when it is turned on or off. We have to open a window to regulate the temperature. The heat is also very good at the private school where I work and they too open the windows, but for a totally different reason. They open the windows between classes to kill the germs with the cold air. The problem with this is they also do this in the summer. If we open our windows at home, they say that we are wasting heat, which is included in the cost of the monthly fees whether there is heat or not. The private school has air conditioners that are used during class time for one hour in the summer, but is turned off for the fifteen minutes between classes and what cool air was produced during the class is quickly wasted when they open all the windows after each class. We try to explain they could save energy if they leave the air conditioners on and not open the windows, but that sounds backwards and doesn't make since to the Chinese. The long and short of this is that non-Chinese are wasteful and Chinese always do things the right way.

Have a drink, have some rice, go to the bathroom, enjoy the view and meet the newest teachers.

DJ likes to have some of our drink now every since she learned to drink from a straw.

She has found that she really likes cola.

If she can catch the straw.

Suzanne was having lunch and doing school work while Deb and I were gone to a lunch meeting at Sharon's. DJ was keeping her company sleeping at her feet.

"I can't find it, can you Spot?"

Actually, DJ had spilled her rice by accident on the floor and Spot was cleaning it up when DJ decided to help her big brother by getting down on the floor and licking it up like he was showing her.

DJ calls her pacifiers 'bofoes' and still needs them from time to time. She was having an especially bad day here, needing three.

All at once.

"Stop taking a picture and get me a magazine."

If you looked at some of the previous post, you would see how this was an old building that they tore down six months ago. They have been building a senior living center. The buildings in the foreground are two levels with storage on the bottom and apartments on top. The tall, long, brown and white building with the red roof is five floors. They are almost ready to have people move in.

These are the newest teachers to Ivy, Chloe and Adam. They had been teaching in Cambodia for nearly the last two years where his father is a missionary. He's from Florida and she's from Essex in England. They just arrived on Sunday and started on Monday. We took them around today to get money changed, phones and groceries.

Migrant Workers Children Spend Childhood Scavenging Landfill.

Life here in China is good for us, but like any country in the world, yes, even the U.S.A., life isn't good for everyone. Here is a story and a link that will help to understand life in China a little better.

Migrant Workers Children Spend Childhood Scavenging Landfill

by Fauna on Wednesday, August 24, 2011106 comments

From NetEase:

Guiyang migrant worker children spend their days scavenging garbage dumps

Guiyang Gaoyan Garbage Landfill, is Guizhou province’s first and largest municipal landfill. Around it live over a hundred migrant worker households who scavenge the garbage for a living. It is on these garbage heaps that the children of these migrant workers spend their childhood.

A three-member family that lives here, who spend 8 hours every day scavenging from the garbage, their income only 700-800 yuan every month, only enough to maintain the lowest standard of living. So the children here, as small as six to seven years old, all spend their time outside of school following the adults in scavenging on the garbage piles for “treasures” that can be recycled or sold, to reduce the financial burden in their households.

During the school year, they will work at the garbage dump from when school is out until eight or nine at night before going home. During the summer break, the older children will enter the garbage dump at dusk and work until the next morning before leaving. Photo is of a child scavenging in the garbage dump.

In order to save on rent, the families here often live four to five people in a 10-something square meter house, with the empty space being piled full of garbage. Without any disinfectant measures and long-term exposure to garbage has greatly increased the chances of the children suffering infectious diseases. Photo is of several children sitting on a salvaged sofa.

These children live on the city’s fringes, in bad living conditions, with extremely poor family situations, usually entering school very late, some only entering school at 11-12 years of age, while others don’t even have the opportunity to go to school at all. Due to the lack of education and life skills, of these children who spend their childhood years growing up in the garbage dump, some have already dropped out of school while others have already “taken the occupation of their fathers”. Photo is of a small girl doing her homework beside a pile of garbage bags near the entrance to her home.

A child sleeping on her mother’s back. Due to not having anyone to take care of them, some children spend their days on their mothers’ backs in the garbage dump from the moment they are born.

Photo is of a mother taking three children to go scavenge garbage.

Photo is of several children playing in front of her home.

God of Wealth.

Friday, August 19th on the solar calendar (July 20th on the lunar), was the Chinese god of wealth's birthday. Almost every business, some all day, would shoot-off fireworks to celebrate on this day. It is believed that the more fireworks you do, the better your business will do in the coming year. I personally think they would have better profits if they better invested their money or just simply saved it, instead of spending so much on an old superstition. Chinese do love their fireworks and any excuse is good enough.

Odds and ends.

This is DJ playing with another kid on a ride outside a convience store.

DJ likes to go fishing at the grocery store. 

 

DJ tries out her sisters heels. 

 

Spot's water. 

DJ figuring out how to use a straw. 

Eating corn-on-the-cob. 

Listening to music on sissy's MP3. 

I think she likes it. We know what to get her for Christmas now. 

Her new sip cup has a straw. 

This is at the entrance to our housing area from the main road. The three wheeled converted motorcycle has a truck on the back that holds all the tools and spare parts that a bicycle repairman would need. He parks here all the time. When he isn't working, his wife is.

This is a battery recycle canister just inside our housing area. You don't see these in American apartment complexes. They recycle a lot more than most people think. 

The construction that was started at the beginning of spring is coming along very quickly. They have mostly finished the outside of the five floor main building and have put up most of a two floor structure beside the main. The workers that are doing the construction live on the bottom floor. They put sheets up for privacy because the building isn't finished with doors, windows or anything else except maybe a drop light. They live here with their family. It is a difficult way to live for now but will be okay once they finish it, which I hope they do in the next month before winter starts. 

There is another long structure behind the main building that is only one floor right now that will also be two by the time they are finished.

Park outing.

There are only a few good days left for the summer that I will have most of the day off, so today we walked to the big park.

These flowers were very unusual to us. They are very stiff and almost looked fake.

Just as we arrived at the park, there were some fireworks being set off. Because it was daytime, the fireworks were in the form of colored smoke.

There was a large ceremony of some kind at the art gallery. There were many people of the press taking pictures and television cameras. As soon as they saw us, they turned their cameras on us. I am certain we will be in newspapers and on television all over China in just a few days. Susan was even surrounded by this form of 'paparazi' in the same evening when she went down to the river for a walk.

These group of drummers are famous in Jiamusi and some of them live in the same housing area we do, where they also store their very old drums.

This and the next several pictures show some of the ornate work on one of the pavilions in the park.

Just like our trip to Willow Island this year over last year, DJ is a little older and can better enjoy going to the park and looking at the fish in the pond.

Of course, she also had to make some new friends.

We stopped for lunch on the way home.

DJ took a nap on the way home and just as we were walking into our housing area, it rained heavily just until we got inside and then stopped. A fun, wet end to a nice day.

Willow Island trip: 2011

Come with us on our trip to Willow Island this year.

This is a short path we take from our housing area to the main road that leads down to the river. You can see the one story old housing that used to be everywhere in the city. Most of it has been torn down to build apartment buildings. There is still people that live here. They have not been forced out of their homes and made to purchase an apartment they can't afford. It must get very cold inside during the winter.

Just before we get to the main road, there is a church where you would normally find shops. This is on a friday morning. Not an empty seat to be found.

We walked along the river for a ways to get to the boat that goes across to the island. The parks are very nice and our favorite part of the city.

DJ stopped to play a little chess with some of the other kids. The pieces are too big and heavy to move.

We are finally on the boat and pulling away from the city side of the river. People are sitting down below and standing along the rail.

We stood inside the wheel house.

DJ enjoyed this trip on the boat across the river better than she did last year I think.

Once on the island, we took another ride. The boat was 12 RMB for both ways for all of us. The horse or camel rides wanted 10 RMB each. We finally talked one of the drivers into taking all of us for 20 RMB.

There are many carnival boardwalk type games on the island, as well as rides of all kinds and several haunted houses. There is also lots of places to buy food and drink and increased price. It is a great place to get away from the city if you don't bring a lot of money to waste on the games.

I think DJ liked the buggy ride the most.

It is a little different walking along the river on this side looking back at the city.

They were setting up a stage with lights for a concert down by the river along the beach on the city side. We did not go to the concert.

DJ made friends with this little girl and they played and had a good time at one of the little outdoor restaurants on the island.

New swimsuit for Suzanne and new haircut for Deb.

This is almost the finished product of my cutting Debs hair. I thinned it out a lot and then cut it away from her neck and ears. 

We are going to go swimming next week and Suzanne needed a new swimsuit. 

DJ got some bubbles to play with. 

If you check last months, you will see an update for the building they have started putting up near our apartment. This is the latest update. Next weekend, they are going to switch off the power to our area while they connect to this construction. 

Baby tired. 

Dog tired. 

This is what Deb's hair looked like before I got started. 

A boy down at the river gave DJ this fan. 

 

 

Walking the river walk. 

 

 

 

 

We have some pics of this monument on the blog already from last year. It is a monument to the local people defending the city along side the soldiers during WW2. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A group of people playing croquet. 

There are several people growing gardens along the river bank. 

 

 

Odd how a lady in America is facing charges for growing a garden in her own front yard while people in China can grow a garden on land that isn't even theirs. 

 

 

This is a passenger train crossing the river. 

 

 

We got a taxi at the main road near our apartment and had him take us across the river to the north for a drive in the country. The plan was to go see a lotus pond I found on Google Earth. It was a nice drive in the country but the lotus pond wasn't in use. 

 

 

A 6 kilometer walk to the southwest side of the city.

We are getting out and exploring the city again now that summer is here. This is the Jiamusi Hotel. The name of the hotel is on the front in Chinese, English and Russian.

Many places of business start the day with the employees either marching, singing or dancing in front of the store or restaurant.

This is a restaurant across from No.1 high school.

This is looking east along a tree lines road.

Looking at the park across from the Jiamusi Hotel.

I thought I would include some pictures of some of the kinds of transportation they use around here. This is a motorcycle converted to act as a kind of small taxi. There is much government regulations on these so prices per trip are negotiable.

Here is another version that is a little longer.

There are also motorcycles that are converted to small trucks.

This a lady peddling a bike cart. It looks like she is selling baked sweet potatoes or something.

There are lots of city buses and tour buses around town. There are even some double-decker buses. You can get a better look at the bike cart in the foreground.

No.1 high school. The two colors of flowers are arranged to say something in Chinese. The way the public schools work in this city is that students are placed in schools according to their test scores. The better the score, the better the school. The students can be placed in the better classes in a school if their parents give money for placement preferrence. No.1 high school has the most students with the highest scores to enter college.

No.1 high school campus is really big and nice.

I don't teach at No.1 high school but I do have several students in a class at Ivy that attend No.1. They are the students we had over to the apartment last week.

A closer look at the motorcycle truck.

There are also pull carts.

You can see a small electric three-wheeled scooter. You can also see a worker waiting for employment. There are numberous places in the city where people who are unemployed wait with the tools of their trade or trades and signs advertising to passerbys what they can do in hopes for employment.

The only Good Year store we have seen here.

This is at the end of a road in a very nice gated community. The streets are lined with various shops.

Here are some ladys playing cards in front of one of the stores. Right next door to this store was a  Mahjong house.

This little boy wanted to pet Spot but the mother told him that dogs are dirty and he shouldn't touch. This is a commun view here.

This is looking back to the north along a very busy road on the west edge of the city.

Here is a big round-about at the southwest corner of the city.

You can just make out the mountains to the southwest through the city haze.

Jiamusi University is a large university and popular with locals and many foreigners from all over the world. The university is on the southwest side of the city. This is the university's football (soccer) stadium.

Another view of the mountain in the distance.

This hill is next to the stadium and part of the campus.

This is looking to the east along the northern edge of the university. You can see the guy on the scooter looking back at us. This kind of thing happens everywhere we go.

Deb checking out the stadium.

Spot was very tired after our long walk.

It was nice to rest at the park next to the stadium.

There were several students relaxing or studing in the park.

Construction is everywhere in the city, but especially in this part of the city. The area where all the cranes are building are shown Google Earth as nothing but old one level small homes.

Looking at the mountains from the pavilion on the hill top.

I would like to go visit the large building in the distance and find out what it is.

An armored car.

The government banned rickshas pulled by people except in high tourist areas, so now they are peddle powered. If you don't have your own car, there are four kinds of transportation available not counting bicycles: taxi, bus, ricksha or walk. How you get around depends of how far you are going, how much you want to spend, the weather, whats available and how much time you have. Many people will take a variety of modes of transportation. The rickshas are enclosed during the winter and have plastic to go over the tops during the rain.

Sometimes they actually use a motorcyle as a motorcycle.

I was this on top of a building a little over a block away and thought it was nice.

There are four christian churchs in the city. This one has sevrvices on tuesday, wednesday and friday with one of them in English. We have not been yet, but have gotten some dual language bibles for some Chinese friends from this church.

There are some horse or donkey pulled carts around town.

Because there are so many bicycles, you can find several places where people have set-up shop to repair bicycles.

At one point we had to go under the train tracks connecting to the northern part of the province from Jiamusi. We saw two trains while going this way, but didn't get a picture.

Here is a three-wheeled truck that is powered by a very unique engine that makes a noise that sounds like it is saying 'tug, tug, tug'. The "tug's" come in a variety of sizes and really are a workhorse.

This is the Chinese version of an 18-wheeler.

This banner shows what an area that is under construction should look like when complete, including a Wal-Mart.

Kite, kids and ...

Nichole, Harold and friends, Suzanne and DJ.

This is our friend Nicole's son, Harold.

Harold and a couple of his friends.

DJ and other kids in the park.

She was listening to the man playing.

She wasn't sure what to do.

It looks like an Albatross.

They attach foam to the outside of the buildings for insolation because they are all concrete.

This was an empty lot a month ago.

Dinner at Nichole's.

How lazy is this? He has such a hard life here in China.

This is out back of our apartment. All three kids sitting and resting.

We went to dinner at a friends apartment on the southeast edge of the city. This is looking back to the north. You can see some of the low farmers housing to the left if you look closely.

The apartment where our friends live is right next to the toll gate for a busy road. Every city charges you a toll to enter or leave.

DJ and Harold get along great.

Nichole did a wonderful job preparing dinner.

DJ watched everything Harold did.

Then it was her turn.

Dead eye DJ.

She took us down one by one.

Not even her big sister was safe.

Look out DJ!

The apartment was a little smaller than ours but still nice for its age. They bought it when they got married in 1997 and in a few months they will be moving to Harbin where Nichole's husband is working.

This was just out back of the apartment. It is a local group doing organized dance marching to music.

The food was good. She cut some tomatoes for us to eat and asked if we wanted salt or sugar. I am glad she asked, because they never eat tomato with salt, only sugar. They also do not cook their rice with salt. I suggested she try it sometime.

Deb had bought me several games and we brought them with us to play. Harold and his friend wanted to learn how to play chess. It was nice to have someone to play with again.

After getting a good lead, I let them start to win a little. That was almost a mistake, because they were are both very smart. In the end they saw that I was not going to let them win.

A day for the birds.

This is from on top of an exhibition hall in the middle of the park.

We were lucky enough to be there just as two men were checking on the penguins in their coop.

They have installed some new trash cans since last year. It is an improvement, but still a little chinglish.

When a place of business is having a big sale or grand-opening, they really go all out to try to attract customers.

A couple nice days this week.

There were a couple of days this week when it wasn't raining and I wasn't working that we got out and enjoyed the day.

One of those days we went down to the river.

DJ makes new friends every time she goes out.

This is not chocolate. There was a planter nearby that she kept trying to play in.

One of the times none of us were watching, she ran for the planter, not to play, but to eat.

Our zoo has on loan a Giant Panda. There are less than 2,000 in the whole world due to a history of man first hunting them and later clearing forest to make room for cities or more farm land. About 250 pandas live in zoos. They are mostly in the high mountains of central China. We thought this might be something special to see.

Panda's are meat eaters but do not hunt, so they mostly eat bamboo. The Giant Panda eats about 30kg of bamboo every day. There are over 200 kinds of bamboo but they only like about 20 of those. They also eat small animals like birds and mice. In the zoos, they also eat some fruit and special cookies.

Panda's live alone. The females are old enough to have babies at around 6 years old and can only get pregnant once a year. The males fight for the right to be the females mate and after they are forced to leave.

They give birth five months later and the babies are no bigger than an adult human hand. They will nurse from their mother for about eight months and after one year they are as big as a small 10 to 12 year old human child.

Panda's will only raise one cub at a time, so if they have more than one, they have to choose which will live and which will die. The cub is full grown after two years and the mother will make it leave. Pand's live about 20 years in the wild and 30 in zoos.

There are two kinds of panda, the Giant and the Qingling. The Qingling has a smaller head but larger molars. Unlike the familiar black and white for the Giant Panda, the Qingling is dark and light brown in color. There is another animal that lives in the same area as both kinds of panda that is called the Red Panda. The Red Panda is not a panda, but instead is related to the raccoon or skunk, and is much smaller than the panda.

Panda's are the only bears that do not hibernate during winter. They are usually very mild tempered but will fight to protect their young or if they are provoked. An adult panda standing on its back feet can stand about five feet tall and weigh around 160kg.

Dj was so tired after viewing the panda that she had to stop and take a nap sitting on a bench and leaning against her mother. She slept and snored for about an hour.

DJ's newest stuffed toy.

Beautiful afternoon.

Suzanne bought a new guitar for the equal amount of $15US. She plans on taking guitar lessons.

This little boy was just outside when we were leaving to go for a walk down by the river.

DJ ran right up to him.

He was very fascinated by her too.

The corner store put these in last month.

Down by the river looking East.

This is the biggest boat we have seen on the river here.

It came just by us and then started doing all kinds of fancy moves.

This is a newer section of the boardwalk.

These are the tall apartment buildings just behind ours.

It was a great afternoon along the river.

This area is so new that the grass hasn't even grown out yet.

This lot is on the way out of our apartment area going to the main street. There was an empty building here two weeks ago. They tore it down and seperated out the metal, brick, and concrete to recycle all of it into the new building they are starting. This time next year there will probably be a 30 story apartment building here.

DJ was playing with Suzanne on the couch when she ran out of energy and decided to take a nap instead.

Once around the block.

DJ, Deb and I took Spot for a walk around the block.

This is some construction down by the river that was started last year.

This is a faux light house that was put up during the winter.

If you go back to April 8th's post from last year, you will see these apartments under construction still. Now they are all finished and people are starting to move in.

This building wasn't even started last April and is almost finished.

This is the main building to a large factory. It was already here when we arrived last year. I like the clean marriage of modern and traditional architecture.

This walk around the block was 5.5Km and towards the end, Spot was a little tired.

May Day.

This year I nearly get five days off for May Day with only having to work one hour Tuesday evening. We went to the zoo on the first day. This was the first ride we tried after getting in. It's a good thing I took this picture before they got started. DJ doesn't like this ride. She also didn't care for the enclosed Ferris wheel.

We took DJ's stroller with us because some of the hills are a little steep. We knew she would get tired at some point, but she really liked walking around. She is better at going up steps than she is down.

The temperature was middle to upper 60's Fahrenheit with a strong wind from the ESE. DJ didn't care for the bell or the wind.

DJ got stares everywhere we went and several times we had to go around people to avoid stopping. Every time we stopped DJ was surrounded by a crowd.

This is some of the exercise equipment that can be found at several of the parks in the city.

Construction like this can be seen everywhere.

DJ loves her big sissy.

This is what happens at 7pm when you are twenty months old and have a very busy afternoon at the zoo.

On Sunday I took Suzanne to see 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' in 3D starring Brandon Frazier. It was all in Chinese of course, but we still had a good afternoon.