Asa Becomes a "Little Sprout"

For Emily and I, part of making our home outside our home country is learning to let go of the expectation that your children will share the same childhood experiences you went through.  Case in point - Elementary School Pageants.  In central Nebraska (where I grew up) we had seasonal music pageants that included traditional Christmas songs and Disney theme songs. 

For Miriam and Asa, the big first grade event is the "Little Sprout" induction ceremony.  "Little Sprouts" are the first in a line of government sponsored student organizations that Chinese students join throughout their educational experience.  While we don't support some "Little Sprout" ideals (IE: The Party is the Sun and the "Little Sprouts" are flowers), there are many common values around learning and family that we whole-heartily support.

To the kids, it is largely just part of their life in this adopted second home where your elementary school years include group song and dance instead of choir concerts with Disney themes.  Below are some pictures to capture the experience.   

Asa stands ready for his performance to begin

Asa and his classmates pretend to study as part of their performance

Asa and Miriam show off their "Christmas Themed" Scarfs:

Asa's Green "Little Sprout" and Miriam's Red "Young Pioneers

Update with four kids!

Here we all are! After taking this picture Asa said " Mom I really tried". That means he really tried to be normal and not goofy! I so appreciate this!

Update on how we all are

Miriam- Doing just amazing at school. Her grades are higher than ever while her school work is harder than ever. Honestly, I have no idea how she can learn so much Chinese. She also just elected to her student council for the third year running. She was elected "head cleaner of the classroom", a duty she does not take lightly. Both she and Asa have a field trip this week to the Science and Technology Museum in town and they are thrilled. On Sunday afternoons Miriam and a few other girls in our neighborhood have started to study the Narnia books. We are so thankful for friends who included Miriam in this class.

Asa- He has recently learned how to slide like a baseball player all over the house. So, he slides from his room into the bathroom. So far he has ruined two pairs of pants (blew out the knees). I am trying to get him to just walk from place to place...we will see how that goes. He is loving school. That also amazes me. He learns at a very different pace and style than Miriam, but none the less is learning! One night Joab was helping him with a Chinese story. Asa then turns to Joab and says "Daddy look", he had used the Chinese characters he was suppose to be learning in the story into his own poem. He really likes art, which has helped him get into writing all the Chinese words!

Salome- When I was pregnant she was also "pregnant" with her own baby. I just assumed that when Silas came out hers would too. But, when Salome learned her baby was only pretend and a REAL baby would not come out until she was much older really made her sad! She wants a real baby, and tells me that all the time. She loves and I mean loves Silas. She will not keep her hands off of him! She is also really loving spending time with her friends and wants to know everyday "who are we doing to see today".

Silas - Is six weeks old this week! At two weeks he was 7.5 lbs and at four weeks was 10 lbs! The doctor was pretty shocked at this! Most of the time he is pretty calm and loves to just look around. He prefers to be in the middle of all the action asleep in his bouncy seat. This week at church we was dedicated - below is the certificate. We are just so thankful for his life!

Emily- Most days I just fall into bed exhausted (okay all nights).  Told Joab during the day I am busy physically caring for the two smallest. But then when the big ones come home from school I am busy emotionally caring for them. At this point in my life I am thankful to be busy with four kids. I know the days are long LONG but the years short. And trying to enjoy them!

Joab- He is doing just a great job trying to balance work (which is going well) with helping me at home. He has been able to work more from home so he can take the big kids to school each day. What a huge gift this is! He kisses me the kitchen and makes me laugh and not freak out when I am about the totally loose it with the kids!

Thanksgiving 2012: Shanghai Style

Thanksgiving is completely foreign to Chinese people, but as a family we are blessed to not only have developed our own unique way of celebrating in Shanghai, but also have many Chinese friends to celebrate it with.  Although most of them have never celebrated Thanksgiving before, enjoying food, friends and giving thanks is clearly universal.  It is also a gift to be able to introduce our friends to the faith heritage of the U.S. and the traditions our family has to give thanks to God for his many blessings.

Below are a few pictorial highlights from this year's celebration that took place earlier tonight (November 24).

The girls pose with the smoked turkey, which we once again picked up at Bubbah's Texas Style BBQ.  What a gift to NOT have to cook a turkey and too have it smoked Texas Style!

 



The boys also got in on the turkey action.  Carving the turkey is one of the few times that Joab puts on an apron each year!  Sorry I don't know how to orient the picture correctly:(

 

 

Miriam was delighted to show off the min-pie she had made as well as the fact that she had marked "M" on the top of the pie for Miriam.

 

 

But Miriam's min-pie was just one of many of the AMAZING baked goods that Emily created.  From left to right we enjoyed a cherry pie, Miriam's min-pie, homemade bread, min-apple pies and (Joab's personal favorite) pumpkin pie.

 

 

Amazing sides included: mash potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing and roasted potatoes.

 

 

The meat section was a East meets West cornucopia; from right to left: braised pork , turkey, rice covered pork ribs and spicy roast duck.

 

 

Before starting the meal we asked the kids to join in our family tradition of putting something they were thankful for on our family "Thankful Tree."

 

 

 

Stocking Fun

Silas is my Grandma Tweedy's 12th great grandchild!! She sent this very cute stocking all the way from Iowa for his first Christmas! I could not resist capturing him inside of it- while he is still so little!

Sleep in heavenly peace little Silas.....

1 Month and Jack O Lanters

As you can see from the picture below, we are all excited that Silas is one month old! 

What a gift to have this little boy in your family. 

Never too late for Jack O Lanters! 

Our kids received pumpkins at a birthday party this weekend and we decided to carve them.  Pumpkins are more commonly used for soups in China than as Fall decorations,

so it was a bit of a challenge to properly carve them.

The kids also thought it was fun to pretend to be pumpkin heads!

It was also really cool to see one of the pumpkins in the dark. 

Joab's Jottings: Technology as a Tool

Since starting to work for a technology company (Cisco Systems) over two years ago my personal interest in how technology is actually used to improve our daily lives has grown.  Therefore, I trust our regular blog readers will indulge me in a few "jottings" on a topic that I see closely connected to my work and (hopefully) to our lives.

Two Examples of Using Technology in the Developing World

Over the past couple weeks I have ran across two very different examples about how technology is successfully applied in the developing world. The more I compared these two examples, the more I am convinced it is the people piece that makes the difference. 


#1 Lap Tops In Peru

The first case is about Peru’s One Child, One Laptop program, which according to this National Public Radio (NPR) story has largely been a failure. This is largely because while children in rural communities have laptops they lack basic infrastructure to support that lap tops (power, internet connectivity, etc).

#2 Cell Phones in India

The second case is automated call center run by OneWorld South Asia centre that allows farmers in rural India to use cell phones or telephone kiosks to access information that will benefit their crop production. As a result of this effort, which is supported by Cisco Systems technology and part of Cisco’s CSR program in India, the center has made information available to over 150K farmers in 1,000 villages and participating farmers are seeing a 20 to 30% increase in productivity.

What Does it Matter?

It strikes me that there are at least two major implications that we can draw from these very different cases:

1) Technology Solutions Must be in Context: Technology is not a solution in and of itself, but simply a tool. It is effective when used in a way that fits appropriately into the context of the economic and social limitations of the end users (IE: cell phones in rural India vs. lap tops in rural Peru).

2) The People Piece: Technology is most likely to be used if the people selling it understand the context of their customers and sell the value of their solution accordingly.  For example, offering audio services to farmers who are largely illiterate rather than asking non-tech savvy teachers to teach their students how to use laptops and not even providing a power source for those lap tops.

So, what is your take?  Where have you seen technology "over-sold" as a silver bullet and where have you experienced it appropriately applied?

ICS Carnival - 4th Anniversary Celebration

Today was memorable as I (Joab) took our three older kids to a special community party- a Carnival to celebrate the 4th anniversary of International Church of Shanghai (ICS). 

It has been a gift for our family to be part of this multi-cultural international church that today has over 600 people in attendance each Sunday that come from nations around the world.  As you can see from the pictures below, the kids had a grand time (and so did I)!   

Miriam enjoys a horse ride

Asa enjoys his first cotten candy

Salome and her good friend Ava enjoy some popcorn

 

 

A Chinese acroebat balances a large pot on his head

The street filled with booths where the kids played games and win prizes