after the meeting and the opening already a lot of things have changed. we were told last sunday we would get 158 kids, at number one beach. 550 kids would sail in the marina and 250 kids at some other beach. other than that we didn´t hear anything new at all at the meeting, except for a lot of Chinese words.
then the day before yesterday in the afternoon Taco suddenly felt hungry, in a strange way. after he ate some that got worse and when we were starting for our dinner, he suddenly decided to go back to the hotel. later he had some terrible diarrhea and had thrown up. the morning after that Dirk suddenly had the same. but after having some heavy shit and puking, they both felt good again and got back to business. they must have been eating something bad last Saterday night.
so this morning we could finally sail. there were about 70 kids on the beach and we wanted to get on the water as fast as possible, because we don´t have much time. that is why we had already rigged the boats and had done as much as possible, but it still took quite some time before they where on the water. Taco went first in an optimist and about four kids followed. in the mean time, the other Chinese coaches put their kids on the water as well. that was a bit too much and in no time their was a chaos. they were all sailing through the other group and some kids capsized. we called back our kids and thought of a different plan. we made a mark of some life jackets and decided to put only put three kids on the water on the same time and let them sail around the mark and then return. after a while that went pretty well and only a few capsized and we had everything under control. for tomorrow we´ve got to make a different plan, so we can put more kids on the water in the same time.
when we were done we were all tired and went back to the hotel for a shower, after we heard these 70 kids are the only kids we will get this week in stead of 158. the rest couldn´t swim. that should make it a lot easier.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
(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.
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.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
D day
after two long nights we just woke up and now we prepare for a meeting we will have in the afternoon. this will be a meeting for all the trainers about (we hope) everything that will happen next week. who are all the trainers, which location will we get, what translators will we get. (we hope) the 600 boats will be delivered today.
we also hope we will finally get a serious program for the whole week. we still don´t know how much time we will get with the kids and how many it are going to be.
we will hear it today, we will tell all when we know it.
we also hope we will finally get a serious program for the whole week. we still don´t know how much time we will get with the kids and how many it are going to be.
we will hear it today, we will tell all when we know it.
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