(This text was written yesterday)
Yesterday we participated in the ceremony for the opening of the mega teaching program here in Qingdao.
It was immense, 1000 kids, 1000 rigged optimists, lots of music, pigeons, and many other official things. Impressive!
That day was concluded with a small tour on one of the yachts. In the afternoon the kids went to school number 2 ( the new one) which was too far away for us to go and visit. The free time we had, we used to put our heads together during a meeting with our local chief at n°1 beach.





Today was the second day of the 8 day program in Qingdao (The 1000 kids in 8 days).
We teach 160 kids at beach n°1. The day consisted of an introduction to the water (handled by the local sport teachers) and in the afternoon an introduction to sailing. Apparently some of the kids were already scared off by the sea, so in the afternoon we only got 120 - 140 kids to train how to sail. We divided the groups in two, so that the local trainers did the rigging and de-rigging and that we could do the theory part (tacking, gybing, and safety). Surprisingly all went fine...

They all wear black neoprene shirts from wrist till ankle. Some were fainting during the day, but still they had to wear it. I heard this kids are selected on two criteria, one is the ability to swim (duh), and the second one are their grades.

Tomorrow half of the group is going into the water, which might mean 60 boats in the water. This is however not sure yet because we had thought off dividing the whole group in 4 and only putting one fourth on the water and working in shifts.

More pictures can be found on this site.