Jill's Travels: China 2011 - Olivia donates to local school

Jill's Travels: China 2011 - Olivia donates to local school: "Jingzhou, China Prior to the trip, we let our guests know of an opportunity to donate school supplies to a local school along the Yangtz..."

China 2011 - Olivia donates to local school

Jingzhou, China

Prior to the trip, we let our guests know of an opportunity to donate school supplies to a local school along the Yangtze River. In Olivia fashion, many of the women carried bags of supplies in their very limited luggage!  Each woman was allowed a total of 44 lbs of luggage for the entire trip, and most did this in just one piece! So to see such an outpouring of love and generosity of supplies was heart warming.

We drove through the town of Jingzhou on our way to the rural area of the city. 

Jingzhou, China

Jingzhou, China

Jingzhou, China

Jingzhou, China

When we arrived at the school, we were greeted by the children playing all sorts of instruments and practicing their English with "Hello, how are you?  What is your name?" Their families and the local village all came out as well as this was a big deal to see 250 women from the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil and more! Us foreigners have big noses you know :-) And everywhere we looked, smiles were freely given.

 



Lisa, Barbara, Susie and Linda with the local girls

Lisa Koch and Roxanna Ward

After our warm welcome by the children, the girls performed a song and dance for us. The boys are very shy and looked on as the girls took the stage!



After the performance, we officially donated a huge box of supplies to the head of the school, and many of the women donated cash as well.  They were so moved by  Olivia, and I am sure they will never forget our visit, as we will never forget them.

We presented the Head of the school with the donations

One of the boxes of school supplies donated by the women of Olivia

After the festivities, we were invited into the classrooms to have a more personal interaction with the kids. They recited the alphabet, we sang "Old McDonald Had a Farm" together, and shared laughs and precious interactions.

At the end of our visit, most of us felt this was one of the highlights of the trip.  Having the one-on-one interactions with the children and local farmers was priceless. In Olivia fashion, we were ambassadors, leaving a place better than we found it :-)

We boarded the buses back to the ship, and were on our way after clearing a temporary road-block

 More to come!





China 2011

Just 2 more days here!  I don’t even know where to begin to explain how amazing this trip has been, and how many lives were changed. This includes our Tour guides.

Each one of these four Chinese Women below were in tears as they articulated what a deep, spiritual experience this was for them to be with Olivia, and how proud they were to be leading us through China.  Because of them, we have all come to have a deeper love and appreciation for our Chinese neighbors and culture. From both sides, stereo-types vanished, and we all felt like sisters. They all shared how powerful the experience was for them to be with such love; such strong, independent, fun women. This gave them the strength to step out and stand tall. Some of the women have invited each of them to their homes.  Jamie, 3^rd from the left, was in charge of all the guides and the logistics, and did a fantastic job.  Such big hearts and big smiles!

The Olivia Hong Kong Extensions staff with our local Tour Guides.
Jamie, Linda, Susie, Jessie, Paula, Jenna, Jill, Barbara and Shanshan

Local Tour Guides - Jessie, Jenna, Jamie and Shanshan

Guilin below

Forrest

“Forrest” is the young man above.  He was our local guide in Guilin, and he happened to be gay.  He was so moved by our presence in Guilin; a town where Gays are still in the closet, and really not out at all except to few.  He also told his story about being suicidal recently because of the pressure to marry, few friends who knew, and that he could not tell his Mom.  His Dad knows though. He broke up with his boyfriend and was heartbroken for a year.  He really had no one to share his pain with, and here was a bus full of women taking him under their wings, and giving him the strength and friendship he needed so desperately.  He spoke at the end his heartfelt love for us, and how this was THE most memorable and meaningful few days of his entire life. Our women really appreciated hearing his personal story as he also related the local culture. This is just another of many, many stories we experienced by just being present in this country.

I took about 80 of the women to a place for $20 one hour foot massages in Guilin where Foot Reflexology was first created, and this was a highlight of the trip! We called in ahead of time to have enough masseuses and we had 4-8 to a room in 3 different shifts. This place was able to take 30 women at  a time.

Today we marched 4 groups of 8 women each hour from 3pm to 7pm to an excellent tailor here in Hong Kong.  It was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, so I definitely got my exercise in today J I pre-arranged with Louis the tailor, who I experienced last year on my site inspection, to have tailors on hand to work with 8 women per hour. They are thrilled!  They all go in tomorrow for their fittings.

Hong Kong - Barbara and Jill

Hard to believe it has been almost 3 weeks. Tomorrow we go visit the largest sitting Buddha in the world as an extra excursion We organized this tour as many of the women were inquiring about it.  We had 41 people sign up, so we had a nice response.  Others are taking a Ferry to Macau to gamble for the day and of course, others are shopping.

More to come!

A new way to follow Jill's Adventures

This is my first "Blog", and is probably long overdue.  I have been so fortunate to have a job that takes me all over the world; to places I never in a million years would have thought I would have the opportunity to go. Alaska, Amazon, India, Africa, Turkey, China, Bali, Antarctica, Galapagos, Mexico, Europe and so much more.

2011 travels have already taken me to Costa Rica, Mexican Riviera and Amsterdam, and I am about to depart for the National Geographic Alaska expedition next week, then off to Tahiti for a site inspection, China and Hong Kong, Paris to Normandy, Budapest to Prague, Galapagos and Amazon.

Many people have told me I should start writing and posting photos from my travels with a blog for people to enjoy, so here is my attempt. Sit back and enjoy as we travel the world together!