Chinese Lunar New Year

I've been in Zhuhai, China since Jan.25. I am visiting my friend Alina and her family, David and Jerry. I hosted Alina when she was a student at Harvard. It has been a fairly quiet time, as they are on vacation, as is the English Center in Macau. Everyone takes off one to two weeks for the Lunar New Year. It is a family time, so families visit each other. Alina and David's families live in Kunming, Yunnan Province. It didn't work out for us to visit them.

We did go to Guangzhou (formerly Canton) on January 28-29. We visited and stayed at Sun Yat-sen University, where Alina and David went to school. It is a beautiful campus with red brick buildings in Chinese style. It is laid out in two main tree-lined boulevards: north to south and east to west with four gates at each end. The original buildings built around 1905 are still in use, but of course many new modern buildings have been added, as about 20,000 students are enrolled. Some of the new buildings are also red brick. It was originally Lingnan University founded by the Presbyterians. Lingnan is now in Hong Kong.

We also visited an archeological site going back to the Ming Dynasty and the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Guangzhou. Our mistake was having dinner at a restaurant where there weren't too many patrons. Jerry (age 12) and I got very sick that night from contaminated food. In the morning we went to a clinic and were given antibiotics. It has taken us several days of careful eating to get back to normal. We are calling our return to Zhuhai on Thursday, the "Flight from Guangzhou."

Next I will visit Singapore from Feb. 4-8. I will visit Eng Titus Yong, another Harvard student I hosted six years ago. His wife Li Ching had their first child, Aron, in Boston at Brigham and Women's. They have a two year old daughter named Chloe. This is a Christian family. Eng was converted in Malaysia when he was 14 years old.

February 8 I will return to Macau, classes at the Concordia English Center begin again February 10. Then I am on the home stretch: I return to the States March 27. More stories and pictues will follow once I return to Macau and have a better Internet connection and can send photos.

I appreciate your prayers and e-mails. I am also praying for many of you, as I know there are many feeling the loss of jobs, income and facing serious illnesses. We pray for missions around the world, and our new president. God bless you all.

Jane
Jane Moody

in Zhuhai