I just realised that I haven't said thank you to everyone who made this project possible.
Let's start with the beginning.
Without RBSC I wouldn't even have known that there was a project in China.
NOCSP which made it all posible in China.
With Vicky and the others as representatives.
Lyndon and Zou Ching who made our stay in Weihai a pleasant one.
The translators, Caleb and Grace, the helpers at the club, Yewei and Spike.
And last but not least our sponsor, Australian Ice Cream.
Thanks a lot to everyone.
Philippe
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Well what do you think of this. An update out of the plane.
We took the night train from Shaghai to Beijing. It's a trip of thirteen hours.
We’ve been visiting Beijing like real “trotters”, even though we didn’t find our restaurant a few times. We’ve seen the Forbidden City, the temple of love (ahum heaven…).
The art district which was really nice.
We ended this walk around with three big beers and some coke for only 15 quay. Today, Friday we climbed the great wall. And if I say that we climbed it then we really did. We arranged the trip yesterday at our hostel, left at 7:30 in the morning, drove for 2 to 3 hours and then walked for another hour to reach The Wall. It was really wonderful while this part of the wall was situated in the middle of nowhere.
This meant that there were no ski lifts or roller coasters. This part of the wall has not been restored yet so sometimes it was really hard to get up. But we had a really great experience, I think there is no better way to visit the wall.
Back in the hostel at around 5’O clock we grabbed some beers in the nearby supermarket, popped them and chilled out till our minibus arrived to bring us to the airport.
At the check-in we tried to get into business class while we weren’t sure in which class we were flying. At the gate Eise-Jan joined us and we got on the plane. Now we just had some “delicious” dinner (at 02:43).
But now I’m really getting tired and I’m going to sleep or at least try to.
The last few days were such a great way to end a beatyful summer and a wonderful trip to China.
Manny greets from the Praeters.
(Barbara, Mathieu, Niels, Nicolas, Pieter and Philippe)
We took the night train from Shaghai to Beijing. It's a trip of thirteen hours.
We’ve been visiting Beijing like real “trotters”, even though we didn’t find our restaurant a few times. We’ve seen the Forbidden City, the temple of love (ahum heaven…).
The art district which was really nice.
We ended this walk around with three big beers and some coke for only 15 quay. Today, Friday we climbed the great wall. And if I say that we climbed it then we really did. We arranged the trip yesterday at our hostel, left at 7:30 in the morning, drove for 2 to 3 hours and then walked for another hour to reach The Wall. It was really wonderful while this part of the wall was situated in the middle of nowhere.
This meant that there were no ski lifts or roller coasters. This part of the wall has not been restored yet so sometimes it was really hard to get up. But we had a really great experience, I think there is no better way to visit the wall. 
Back in the hostel at around 5’O clock we grabbed some beers in the nearby supermarket, popped them and chilled out till our minibus arrived to bring us to the airport.
At the check-in we tried to get into business class while we weren’t sure in which class we were flying. At the gate Eise-Jan joined us and we got on the plane. Now we just had some “delicious” dinner (at 02:43).
But now I’m really getting tired and I’m going to sleep or at least try to.
The last few days were such a great way to end a beatyful summer and a wonderful trip to China.
Manny greets from the Praeters.
(Barbara, Mathieu, Niels, Nicolas, Pieter and Philippe)
Sunday, August 26, 2007
The last dinner
Yesterday was our last day of our program. So we taught we might do something fun. With the morning group we held a MSPC (massive slalom paddle competition). 
With the afternoon group we went on a big tour to the marina. We got there... Un fortunately once we got there we saw that the currents were really strong. And we had to sail upwind to get back. So we started sailing upwind with one hour left. But after half an hour we were still tacking on the same spot. 
So we tugged them back to the beach, had a group picture on the catamaran and had some fun playing with the kids. After class Eise-jan went golfing with Zou-Qing.
I stayed at the beach to go wakeboarding with Shark. We were ready to go, he tied to start the engine but the starter handle came off. So out came the tools and open went the engine. I tried to repair it yesterday but hadn't enough time so I will try again this morning. It's sunday and the end of the program, so it's time to something special I suppose. We will have a day full of entertainement at the beach. We will hand out the certificates, shake a lot of hands but the best of all is the big race. We will have three legs in which all the kids of the season will be devided into three categories. Each winner will get a special price. After the three races will be a graduation hour in which we will give the certificates. And after that there will be a bbq for everyone pluss graduation party. I heard Lyndon will take Vicky with him from Qingdao so that's some great news. Tomorow morning I will fly to Shanghai to meet the Shanghai and Xiamen trainers and the next day we will fly to Beijing. Eise-Jan prefered to go to Qingdao because he already went to Beijing.
With the afternoon group we went on a big tour to the marina. We got there... Un fortunately once we got there we saw that the currents were really strong. And we had to sail upwind to get back. So we started sailing upwind with one hour left. But after half an hour we were still tacking on the same spot. 
So we tugged them back to the beach, had a group picture on the catamaran and had some fun playing with the kids. After class Eise-jan went golfing with Zou-Qing.I stayed at the beach to go wakeboarding with Shark. We were ready to go, he tied to start the engine but the starter handle came off. So out came the tools and open went the engine. I tried to repair it yesterday but hadn't enough time so I will try again this morning. It's sunday and the end of the program, so it's time to something special I suppose. We will have a day full of entertainement at the beach. We will hand out the certificates, shake a lot of hands but the best of all is the big race. We will have three legs in which all the kids of the season will be devided into three categories. Each winner will get a special price. After the three races will be a graduation hour in which we will give the certificates. And after that there will be a bbq for everyone pluss graduation party. I heard Lyndon will take Vicky with him from Qingdao so that's some great news. Tomorow morning I will fly to Shanghai to meet the Shanghai and Xiamen trainers and the next day we will fly to Beijing. Eise-Jan prefered to go to Qingdao because he already went to Beijing.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Noname...
Thursday 23rd of August
First of all I want to say that we have a very good morning group. Everything we try with them becomes a success and they are really gaining a lot of experience. We had a little race were they had to go around two buoys and when I blew my whistle they had to sail to an upwind buoy. After this we made a big tour all the way to the golden bay hotel (that’s a long way). They were for the first time sailing on a straight line all the time and we were really proud of them. So they didn’t get any homework today.
The afternoon group tough is another story…
First of all half of the students were too late. But at least 7 of the 8 were there by the time we got on the water.
We started with the same briefing, the same race, we were doing the same as the morning group since we stated with this group, so you would think that they would perform the same.
The only one who was able to get to the upwind buoy was a boy from the morning group who unfortunately stops sailing today because of a roller blade championship.
It wasn’t working so we went on a tour and even then they are lying with their noses into the wind.
Because it really wasn’t working out as we wanted we just headed to the beach and let them get al the sand out of the boats and give them a thorough clean. This eventually turned out to a water fight but at least the boats got cleaned.
Friday 24th of August
With the morning group we held a competition where they had to sail around an old Olympic track.
As known they performed pretty well.
With the afternoon group we held another sort of competition. We laid 4 buoys in a rectangle shape.
Between the buoys closest to each other there was a line. So we had two lines.
And the way of competition was to pass the lines as much as possible.
They even had to sail upwind and they did very good. So we were really surprised about there performance.
We ended the day with some wakeboarding by sunset and a dinner with two Korean guys who were friends of Zou Qing.
First of all I want to say that we have a very good morning group. Everything we try with them becomes a success and they are really gaining a lot of experience. We had a little race were they had to go around two buoys and when I blew my whistle they had to sail to an upwind buoy. After this we made a big tour all the way to the golden bay hotel (that’s a long way). They were for the first time sailing on a straight line all the time and we were really proud of them. So they didn’t get any homework today.
The afternoon group tough is another story…
First of all half of the students were too late. But at least 7 of the 8 were there by the time we got on the water.
We started with the same briefing, the same race, we were doing the same as the morning group since we stated with this group, so you would think that they would perform the same.
The only one who was able to get to the upwind buoy was a boy from the morning group who unfortunately stops sailing today because of a roller blade championship.
It wasn’t working so we went on a tour and even then they are lying with their noses into the wind.
Because it really wasn’t working out as we wanted we just headed to the beach and let them get al the sand out of the boats and give them a thorough clean. This eventually turned out to a water fight but at least the boats got cleaned.
Friday 24th of August
With the morning group we held a competition where they had to sail around an old Olympic track.
As known they performed pretty well.
With the afternoon group we held another sort of competition. We laid 4 buoys in a rectangle shape.
Between the buoys closest to each other there was a line. So we had two lines.
And the way of competition was to pass the lines as much as possible.
They even had to sail upwind and they did very good. So we were really surprised about there performance.
We ended the day with some wakeboarding by sunset and a dinner with two Korean guys who were friends of Zou Qing.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
To the hairdresser!...
Monday 20th of august
To the hairdresser!...
Today we taught the children how to go around a triangle where they had to tack once.
The morning group did pretty well in the beginning, but after an hour they were tired of going round the triangle. So we made a tour where they had to follow the motorboat.
With the afternoon group we did pretty much the same but now we let Grace (the female translator) give the briefing. It seemed that they understood everything.
But once on the water they were all sailing in the opposite direction.
We relieved the children from lying with their sails flapping by let them follow the motorboat and going with them right at my tail around the track for a couple of times.
One girl however didn’t want to go on the water because she was so scared of the giant jellyfishes. After her dad speaking courage into her she went sailing with Eise-Jan in the opi.
Suddenly the wind fell away, just like that. And what do you do when there is no wind?... You play some water games, like capsizing or a water fight etc.
Because of the jellyfishes we couldn’t capsize and we already had a massive water fight on Saturday so we just lay still hoping on some wind to appear.
Our prays had been heard because after a quarter of an hour the wind came up. For every student this was really welcome because it took some of the heat away. The girl however became hysteric after she nearly capsized and you could hear her screaming and shouting along the whole coast. So we took her out en Eise sailed the opi back to the beach.
Because we knew that the group wouldn’t be able to sail upwind back to the club, I let them follow me again, and we came ashore in one nice line.
Right now Eise is getting a haircut at the Shangdong university grounds. This means enough time for me to write this update.
After this we will go to Liqun to get some chocolate and some ingredients to prepare some pancakes for dinner.
This afternoon we also heard what the plan so far is for the graduation day. You will have to be patient however because I will keep this for another update.
Tuesday 21st of August
Today we taught them how to sail around two buoys where they had to sail upwind to one buoy and downwind to the other.
The morning group did this very good and after one hour we went on a tour, a round the marina and back.
After some time I looked at my watch and saw that it was already 11:30 and we already sailed away for one hour. So that meant that it was impossible to be on time at the beach club.
We tight the opi’s to the motorboats and brought them back to the beach.
For the afternoon class we planned the same track, but there was no wind..
Only the amount of jelly fishes became more and more. The fishermen were really close to the beach (and to us). We saw how the fishermen pulled the jellyfishes out of the water, really disgusting.
During our lunch break we went with our Chinese friend (shark) to liqun (a big shopping centre) he wanted to buy deodorant, he didn’t know what it was until yesterday evening when he met our toilet bag.
Did I already tell you that we are actually getting darker than the natives.
The temperatures are getting every day around 30° today it was even 42° in Lyndon’s apartment so our t-shirts get off quite frequently. Even when we walk to the club at 8:30 in the morning we were obliged to take them of. Otherwise we would melt away and just go down the drain.
This evening we had some lovely bbq with Lyndon’s family. Afterwards we went on the bumper cars and had a really nice milkshake. We had really big amounts of fun and it was a great way to end our day.
Tomorrow evening we will be having dinner with Lyndon again we will make them some nice pancakes.
Wednesday 22nd of August
Morning
I’m writing this part on the beach with my feet in the sand under a big umbrella not a cloud in the sky.
With our morning class we tried to go on a big tour again but unfortunately the wind and currents were not very favorable.
The kids also had a hard time getting trough the (branding). But once they got trough they had a great time.
Afternoon
we a bit disappointed in the afternoon group today because only 4 of the 8 kids showed up.
We waited till 14:30, we gave our theory and then we tried to get on the water but the (branding) was too big to get trough. I (Philippe) could get trough but okay you can’t compare me to an eight year old.
The release pin of one rudder was broken so we just told the kids to unrig the boat. Afterwards I’ve put all the kids in my rib and went with them to make a tour to the marina. It seems that they all had some fun. Even the little girl was screaming of joy.
This became one massive update but now I'm really going to post it.
Many greets from Jan and Philippo.
To the hairdresser!...
Today we taught the children how to go around a triangle where they had to tack once.
The morning group did pretty well in the beginning, but after an hour they were tired of going round the triangle. So we made a tour where they had to follow the motorboat.
With the afternoon group we did pretty much the same but now we let Grace (the female translator) give the briefing. It seemed that they understood everything.
But once on the water they were all sailing in the opposite direction.
We relieved the children from lying with their sails flapping by let them follow the motorboat and going with them right at my tail around the track for a couple of times.
One girl however didn’t want to go on the water because she was so scared of the giant jellyfishes. After her dad speaking courage into her she went sailing with Eise-Jan in the opi.
Suddenly the wind fell away, just like that. And what do you do when there is no wind?... You play some water games, like capsizing or a water fight etc.
Because of the jellyfishes we couldn’t capsize and we already had a massive water fight on Saturday so we just lay still hoping on some wind to appear.
Our prays had been heard because after a quarter of an hour the wind came up. For every student this was really welcome because it took some of the heat away. The girl however became hysteric after she nearly capsized and you could hear her screaming and shouting along the whole coast. So we took her out en Eise sailed the opi back to the beach.
Because we knew that the group wouldn’t be able to sail upwind back to the club, I let them follow me again, and we came ashore in one nice line.
Right now Eise is getting a haircut at the Shangdong university grounds. This means enough time for me to write this update.
After this we will go to Liqun to get some chocolate and some ingredients to prepare some pancakes for dinner.
This afternoon we also heard what the plan so far is for the graduation day. You will have to be patient however because I will keep this for another update.
Tuesday 21st of August
Today we taught them how to sail around two buoys where they had to sail upwind to one buoy and downwind to the other.
The morning group did this very good and after one hour we went on a tour, a round the marina and back.
After some time I looked at my watch and saw that it was already 11:30 and we already sailed away for one hour. So that meant that it was impossible to be on time at the beach club.
We tight the opi’s to the motorboats and brought them back to the beach.
For the afternoon class we planned the same track, but there was no wind..
Only the amount of jelly fishes became more and more. The fishermen were really close to the beach (and to us). We saw how the fishermen pulled the jellyfishes out of the water, really disgusting.
During our lunch break we went with our Chinese friend (shark) to liqun (a big shopping centre) he wanted to buy deodorant, he didn’t know what it was until yesterday evening when he met our toilet bag.
Did I already tell you that we are actually getting darker than the natives.
The temperatures are getting every day around 30° today it was even 42° in Lyndon’s apartment so our t-shirts get off quite frequently. Even when we walk to the club at 8:30 in the morning we were obliged to take them of. Otherwise we would melt away and just go down the drain.
This evening we had some lovely bbq with Lyndon’s family. Afterwards we went on the bumper cars and had a really nice milkshake. We had really big amounts of fun and it was a great way to end our day.
Tomorrow evening we will be having dinner with Lyndon again we will make them some nice pancakes.
Wednesday 22nd of August
Morning
I’m writing this part on the beach with my feet in the sand under a big umbrella not a cloud in the sky.
With our morning class we tried to go on a big tour again but unfortunately the wind and currents were not very favorable.
The kids also had a hard time getting trough the (branding). But once they got trough they had a great time.
Afternoon
we a bit disappointed in the afternoon group today because only 4 of the 8 kids showed up.
We waited till 14:30, we gave our theory and then we tried to get on the water but the (branding) was too big to get trough. I (Philippe) could get trough but okay you can’t compare me to an eight year old.
The release pin of one rudder was broken so we just told the kids to unrig the boat. Afterwards I’ve put all the kids in my rib and went with them to make a tour to the marina. It seems that they all had some fun. Even the little girl was screaming of joy.
This became one massive update but now I'm really going to post it.
Many greets from Jan and Philippo.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Killer Jellyfishes
The new group is really doing well.
The first day we thought them the parts of the boat and the knots and they performed pretty well.
The second day we showed them how to tack and Celeb did a really good job showing the moves.
This day we also had a swimming contest and a game of football till the moment that I(Philippe) got some sand in my eyes. From this day on we also have a new translator.
The third day they went for the first time on the water with their boats and the first hour they were scattered around the beach but after some time they began to enjoy it and they could more or less stay on the track.
Today (Friday) they were reaching pretty well… The only bad thing is that we’re having really big jellyfishes (1,5 to 2 meters span) and the kids are scared of them that they don’t want to sail nor swim.
We even had one girl who just ran of and we had to search for her.
So no wakeboarding anymore. That’s a pity because we were really getting good at this.
Today we prepared some nice spaghetti for our host family and they liked it a lot.
Tomorrow we will try to make them sail close hauled.
That’s it for today
Many grtz from the Weihai team
The first day we thought them the parts of the boat and the knots and they performed pretty well.
The second day we showed them how to tack and Celeb did a really good job showing the moves.
This day we also had a swimming contest and a game of football till the moment that I(Philippe) got some sand in my eyes. From this day on we also have a new translator.
The third day they went for the first time on the water with their boats and the first hour they were scattered around the beach but after some time they began to enjoy it and they could more or less stay on the track.
Today (Friday) they were reaching pretty well… The only bad thing is that we’re having really big jellyfishes (1,5 to 2 meters span) and the kids are scared of them that they don’t want to sail nor swim.
We even had one girl who just ran of and we had to search for her.
So no wakeboarding anymore. That’s a pity because we were really getting good at this.
Today we prepared some nice spaghetti for our host family and they liked it a lot.
Tomorrow we will try to make them sail close hauled.
That’s it for today
Many grtz from the Weihai team
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Big storm #2
As you can see on the picture below, we had some waves of around 4 meters, and this on a Sunday, a free day. So Shark took us to the city and drove around with us with the taxi which is extremely cheap(1 yuan per kilometer). He brought us to a computer hall where he wanted to show us his CS skills (shooter game) which was also extremely cheap (2yuan per hour)...
On Monday the weather became better but there were still some pretty big waves. So we couldn't sail with the newly arrived group. Wath we did instead was: Take three mooring lines, knot them together and then tie one end to the OP and the other end to your rib. Take the sail out of the OP and tug it around. Like this they can learn how their rudder works en they can get used to the sea.
With the afternoon group we held a regatta with two legs and one final leg.
They al performed very good but there can only be one the winner.
Today we have seen the knots with the morning group and we learnt them to swim. We even had a competition in swimming.
With the afternoon group we made a big tour and they had some great fun .
Tonight we went to eat some bbq with the friends of our host Zou Qing (our host) and we ate some chick (not very good).
any grtz from the Weihai team
On Monday the weather became better but there were still some pretty big waves. So we couldn't sail with the newly arrived group. Wath we did instead was: Take three mooring lines, knot them together and then tie one end to the OP and the other end to your rib. Take the sail out of the OP and tug it around. Like this they can learn how their rudder works en they can get used to the sea.
With the afternoon group we held a regatta with two legs and one final leg.
They al performed very good but there can only be one the winner.
Today we have seen the knots with the morning group and we learnt them to swim. We even had a competition in swimming.
With the afternoon group we made a big tour and they had some great fun .
Tonight we went to eat some bbq with the friends of our host Zou Qing (our host) and we ate some chick (not very good).
any grtz from the Weihai team
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