How lucky am I?

I have visitors in China!! At the beginning of the month, Eli came to Kunming to enjoy my life with me and next week my parents and sister are coming to China. We'll travel from Beijing to Yunnan to Shanghai. Then my dad and sister will take off and my mom and I get to explore the region around Shanghai for another week. I know this trip will be well photographically documented. Stay tuned.

Train ride to Dali:

Climbed Cangshan Mountain and spent the night at the top. The view in the morning:

Learning about the Environment in China?

I was asked by a friend if I could help edit a film sponsored by WWF, World Wildlife Fund for Kunming's bi-annual film festival this month. I enthusiastically replied yes without having any clue what she was really talking about. I went to the office of the movie editor, who doesn't speak a word of English and speaks with a heavy dialect. He showed me the thirty minute film with broken English subtitles and requested I fix it. He gave me the movie on a USB and emailed me both the English and Chinese subtitles.

It was only after I went home and started editing and researching that I realized what the movie was about. It's a short informational documentary on the importance of FSC, the Forest Stewardship Council and a successful case study in China. FSC forest certification is an important label for timber production enterprises and consumers who support sustainable forest management. Companies obtain certification only after they meet international standards of forest management. WWF has been working within China to promote FSC certification and as consumers we can help the cause by purchasing FSC certified products.

This was a thrilling experience for me to conduct myself entirely in Chinese. I was able to collaborate with the editor and partake in an environmental education product. Although I used many online resources to help me, I was successful in editing and translating Chinese into English.

Apparently in China I'm learning about important environmental practices. At the World Agro-Forestry Center, I used agro-forestry resources as reading comprehension material for the North Koreans and worked with the students to digest the information. Now after this editing project, I support a label that promotes responsible forest management. (http://www.fscus.org/)