4-A Friend Sports Friendship Program

We are currently coordinating a 4 A Friendship Program to occur this year in July 2010. A group of high school students will be coming from Memphis Tennessee to interact with a high school located in Yi Xian county. Below is the report from a previous program that we completed.

Name of Project:  Sports Health Week
Dates of Project:  June 28th – July 11th, 2008
Name of Project Manager:  Mark Wang and Mark Waters
Name of Participating Visiting Team:   Pershall Youth Team
Home Country of the Participating Visiting Team:  USA,  Philadelphia
Name of National Hosting Partner:  Hao Private  English School

Purpose of the Project:  Build relationships with Middle and High School students from Benxi City through sports and cultural exchange
Special Project Components:  Teaching of Character traits from the CharacterFirst Program.

Account of the Project:

After a couple of days in Beijing doing the tourist thing we were off to Shenyang for a one-night stopover and then to Benxi where we would spend eight days. When we arrived at the hotel in Benxi we were greeted by David Hao and two of his students, Dorothy and Maggie. Dorothy and Maggie were with us most of the eight days helping to arrange meetings with the students and guiding us to places we needed to go. 
     The morning of Wednesday July 2nd we met some of the students at Davi Hao’s English school. We had a time of introductions and some icebreaker games between the students. It was a great time for all as we got to know one another. It was raining so we needed to rent the local gym where we played soccer and American football. Some of the Chinese students really enjoyed football and by the time we were done we all needed a shower. John Hoffbauer, one of the leaders from the Visiting Team, was the first one to share the Character First program. Sports are a great tool to help to get to know each other and this time spent interacting together gave us a good chance to practice the character traits that we have just learned.
         Thursday and Friday we continued with Character First teaching in the morning and sports and shopping in the afternoon. According to their availability, some students came in the morning and some came in the evening and some were in all of the events. As the Chinese and American students became to know each other more the, 4-A-Friend team was able to share the love in them with the Chinese students. 
       Saturday the team visited the Benxi Water Caves, Asia’s largest under ground water caves. It was so cold inside the caves that we needed to wear coats, what a great way to spend a hot summer’s day. On the way back from the water caves the bus driver was able to take us to a small village right off the road and most of the people and the children from the town came out to meet us. It was a real treat! We saw ducks; chickens, dogs and many children playing in the street. We got to eat fresh berries. This village was a highlight! 
       Sunday we visited a local Church, one of seven in Benxi, which is a city of _______ million people. It had been raining and the bus had to maneuver through some very muddy roads. We arrived during the worship time and then listen to a sermon taught in Mandarin. After the service most all the church members greeted us. Some served us watermelon and with others we sang songs. After many pictures, the ladies stood at the gate to say farewell as our bus drove away.
       On Monday July 7th we took a trip to Dandong on the boarder of North Korea. It was hot so the first thing we did was to take a boat ride where we got a close look at the boarder of North Korea. We saw some people and activity in and around their shoreline. A few people waved but most seemed very cold and distant. After the boat ride we made our way onto the bridge that the Americans blew-up in the 1940s and is now part of the tourist area of Dandong. Some took the time to lift up an empty bomb that may have been similar to the one that bombed the bridge. Then we stopped to take one of the many group photos. The day was rounded off by a visit to the “One step across” and as well, a very well preserved portion of the Great Wall. Some scaled the backside of the mountain and then climbed down the wall. Others took a boat ride and had a chance to talk with some North Korea people. They kept asking, “What is your name?” On the bus ride to and from Dandong many of the students had a chance to share the love in their hearts with their Chinese partners. We got back to the hotel late and had a good rest.
    Tuesday after returning to Benxi, you could already feel the students sadden at the thought of saying goodbye. Ron Pershall shared the Last Character trait and a few of his tricks; we enjoyed one more sports time in the gym, but the highlight of the day was when we took the Chinese partners to “Europaer”, a pizza and malt restaurant near the Benxi train station. All enjoy talking and sharing about the past week and eating some familiar food, (to the Americans that is). That night “Strawberry” one of the Chinese students got permission to spend the night at the hotel and spent the last night having fun with the American students.
     The next morning we checked out of the hotel and we headed back to Shenyang. After checking in to the hotel we were off for shopping, and more shopping and again some shopping. The team found some souvenirs, swords, flags, tea sets, and many other items to give as gifts and share with their family and supporters.
     On Friday July 11th we loaded the entire luggage onto the bus and headed to the North Train station. We took the D train back to Beijing where we were met by the driver of a small truck whom delivered the luggage to us at the hotel. We all went to the Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant we ate at on the first night when the team arrived.