Last Saturday had my apartment filled with eager English Center volunteers.       What was the occasion?  It was time for us to record, catalog and fill the shelves of the English Center with the many books and games that so many of you have sent over the years.

            If you remember, I had been collecting books for an English Language Center in my former placement, Luzhou.  In 3 years, we had quite a nice display of English language materials in book cabinets I had purchased for the English office.  But we ran into a problem.

            The departmental staff wanted the books to be kept in the office, not shared with the students.  They were worried the books would be borrowed and not returned.  And so there they remained, under lock and key, with only the faculty using them as resource materials.

            While I was very happy the staff was making use of our small library, that was not the original purpose I had hoped for.  So upon my move to Longzhou, I went through all the donated books and pulled out the ones I felt would be appropriate for my new college’s English Center.  These went into boxes and were trucked, along with all my things, on the 4-day journey to Guangxi.

            In addition to books from Luzhou, other reading materials have also arrive in M-bags from the States. 

            Last week, the English Center students finally cleared away enough space for all your offerings.  It was time to get them into the student population for use.

            On Saturday, 15 volunteers and I spent 2 hours preparing 243 books and 42 DVDs for the Center.  Afterwards, we sat enjoying my homemade banana bread, fruit drinks and candies as my thank you for all their hard work.

            As each left my home, their arms loaded with books for the hike to the 6th floor Center, they thanked me again and again.  I think those of you who sent these donations would truly have been moved by everyone’s excitement and gratitude.

            I know I certainly was.

            Thus from a grateful American, I want to say from all of us, “Many, many thanks for all you’ve done to make our English Center a shining star on our campus.”

            Ping An (Peace) from China!

Connie Wieck

Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities

125 Dushan Road

Longzhou County, Chongzuo City

Guangxi Province, 532400

P.R. of CHINA