Yuan's adventures continued...

 l  Something new in life, family trip and Running forward

In August 2014, I took part in a 10-days workshop on storytelling by photographing in JiAn city in the central part of China. Two mentors from Nepal are experts on expressing feeling, passion and voices of vulnerable people through the lens. Together with another 9 participants, I tried to explore an unfamiliar city with my camera, and my heart. Products exhibition were held in JiAn city, Beijing and Katmandu successively. 

                                                My first product of storytelling by photos

Family life is very important in our lives. My parents are getting old as I grow up. This year I decide to spend more time with them. So we took a 10 day family trip in November 2014. Frankly speaking, that was my first time to have a vacation trip with my parents, which was a little bit challenging but definitely worth the experience. During the last 20 years, I have spent less than two weeks each year with them. This family vacation trip helped re-bond the close relationship between two generations. We are planning our next trip in 2015.

In January 11st, 2015, I finished the Marathon race in 5hour 9minute for the first time in my life at a coast city of Southern China, YEAH! During 2014, I ran 3 half Marathon in different cities of China, and am going to go on running. This year, I have one more half Marathon at the end of March 2015, Pyongyang half Marathon on April 13^th 2015 and Mogolian Temujin Grassland half Marathon in July.

My running exercise began from my time in Hawaii. Gretchen, Nina, Taku inspired me to start my physical exercise, the weather in Hawaii made me enjoy the physical training time. I still remember Gretchen, Megan and I jogging during our GIST trip. Just need to continue the passion to run when I live in Beijing, which is not easy considering the bad air pollution here. But I have adapted myself by running on any sunshine day, or taking my jogging shoes with me on my field visit for convenient running whenever possible.

 

The certificate of my first Marathon  Aloha, APLP 12 friends---from Yuan after her 1^st Marathon

Seems what I am talking is too much, I’d better stop hereJ

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Thousands of thanks to AHILA, who reminded me to finish this sharing paper, and pasted it on behalf of me at the page of G12 Adventure. As you know, there is still some barrier to accessing internet from mainland China, but I believe the upcoming future is promising and would try my best to achieve it.

May I wish all of you wherever you live throughout the earth a HAPPY NEW YEAR of the SHEEP!

Yuan from Beijing

February 4^th 2015

Btw, Feb. 4^th is the starting point of Spring season in Chinese/Asian calendar, so Happy Spring Season to all of you.

[Note: As Yuan does not have direct access to the blog, I am posting her blog post emailed to me - Ahila]

Yuan's adventures since returning from APLP adventure

Aloha,

My dearest G12 friends. This month is my turn to tell you my adventures since we parted in Hawaii! Thanks Ahila for such an excellent idea that we can still exchange our stories and keep connected with each other.

It is sunshine outside when I am typing these sentences, which means in Beijing today we have a nice weather, no fog and haze, good news:)

After returning from GIST in June 2013, I came back to my responsibility at Oxfam based in mainland China. The stories below are from that time till January 2015. I picked up some exciting highlights in my life to share with you guys.

l    Still working for, helping and supporting poor people and vulnerable groups.

One of my working products is my team’s collaboration with researchers on a study series of a situation analysis on rural women, children, elderly people and people with disabilities in China and providing policy recommendations to the central government on pro-poor and inequality reducing. We also launched three sub-reports in bilingual version on International Women’s Day, International Children’s Day, and the Double Ninth Festival respective to raise awareness on these vulnerable groups. The report on rural disable peopled is in progress and will be launched in May, 2015, which is the National Help-The-Disabled Day.

            Picture 1 - 3: The covers of reports

l  Photos by GISTers have been selected into Oxfam’s case study report
In April 2013, Taku, Michelle, Duan, Nancy and I visited a small mountain village located nearby Lijiang city, Yunnan province. We had a memorable experience there in terms of nature scenery and ethnic minority people's culture. (I feel sorry for Michelle and Taku's physical discomfort, but we were still quite happy). Oxfam Hong Kong has worked in that village for more than 10 years. Based on these programme outcomes, we launched a case study report to reflect approaches for this type of mountain village which is facing double-faced challenges including natural ecology protection and need for poverty alleviation. The report has been selected into China's Poverty Alleviation Case Report Database which is set up by the Department of Poverty Reduction supported by World Bank.

In this report, I selected specially a photo of Taku in the Yi people’s village, taken by Nancy, to represent a tourist enjoying the scenery of the villageJ. Some flower photos taken by Taku were also included into the report (pl. refer to the picture below). We are working on revising this case study report for better understanding by international communities, hopefully the English version could be shared with you in the year of 2015.

The cover of the case study report. the Back cover is collection of media reports on this village.

                                               Look, Taku is at the top left cornerJ    

                

                                          Some flower photos taken by Taku

l  Friend network moving forward

In September 2013, Ahila and I experienced a wonderful mountain trip in the north-west part of Yunnan province, China. We visited the Mosuo people’s village at Lugu lake, in which most people are part of a matriarchy society and still live their traditional life style.

 

Ahila with two Mosuo ethnic ladies          Ahila, was on the way to Lugu lake, in mountain area

Our Aloha Hui group whose members are Nancy, Aiying, Ahila and me continue our skype chatting every three months for status updating. It is quite nice to hear the girls’ voices respectively from Australia, New York and LondonJ. The friendship is going forward from the time it was formed in Hawaii. Oh, one more thing is that we are planning to go to Colombo for half-Marathon plus a sightseeing trip around Sri Lanka at the beginning of October, highly welcome more APLP friends join us! 

To be continued next week....

[Note: As Yuan does not have direct access to the blog, I am posting her emailed posts here on  her behalf. However, she will receive your blog comments and queries via her email. So, please do share your feedback via the comment box below - Ahila]

Hi from SE Asia

Hi! I haven't made much progress on the headstand, yet. But I gave myself the whole year to work on it. If you've figured out how to do one, I welcome your suggestions!

My life's been pretty dominated by work these last couple of weeks: I've been in Malaysia with Nina and Scott and the G14 GISTers. EWC has a big training project there, and we'll be back a couple more times this Spring. I'm now in Bangkok, and tonight I am meeting up with Nam for dinner and a stroll. Last night I had dinner with some alumni (Nok, Trevor, Junita - some of you know them). A fun part of this job is getting to spend time with interesting people. The travel's alright, too, but sometimes it's too much. That work-life balance thing can be elusive, can't it?

I'm not really sure what to write about, so I thought I would share some things that I've come across over the last month, that have really impacted me.

• One of those was an article in The New Yorker, but Teju Cole. Unmournable Bodies took a  refreshingly critical look at the Charlie Hebdo events, and put words to some of my thoughts. I like this quote: "We may not be able to attend to each outrage in every corner of the world, but we should at least pause to consider how it is that mainstream opinion so quickly decides that certain violent deaths are more meaningful, and more worthy of commemoration, than others." 
• Another thing: I saw a movie this month called The Act of Killing. Have you seen it? It's a really, really amazing film - a documentary, actually, but almost not. The subjects are former Indonesian death squad leaders who are unrepentant about their role in the violence of the mid-1960s. They basically make a film about their actions. It sounds macabre, and it IS, but it is also incredibly moving. And the film has been used by Indonesian rights advocates to open up dialogue about this era.
• OK, I haven't only been paying attention to grim stuff! I've been watching a bunch of films, one right after the other, on the long flights I've been on this month. I recently saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about a bunch of British retirees who move to India and grapple with a world that's new to them. Have you seen it? It's very funny in places and I was laughing loudly on the plane. I am looking forward to the sequel that comes out next month (The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel).

And speaking of next month (er, this month, actually) - Yuan will be the hostess of the blog in February. I'm looking forward to her updates.

Warm Alohas to you all!
Gretch

(Some pictures from Kuala Lumpur: Nina pointing out some words of wisdom, and the Jalan Alor food street.)