Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Brutus Welcomes Margaret Back

Brutus welcomed Margaret back from her vacation, but he didn't think that she enjoyed having her face licked as
much as he enjoyed licking it. He was also relieved to learn that she hadn't eaten any dog meat, although she did like the donkey.

These are Brutus' favorite pictures. The first one shows her with one of the co-teachers in the English class. They worked on conversational English skills with Chinese teachers. This was interesting work and the teachers were very friendly.

In the second picture, she is standing in front of a public library in Beijing. This library provides services to migrant children; these are the children of rural families which have moved into Beijing to look for work. Often there is no one at home when they are out of school if their parents can even afford to send them to school. Also, while the library is public in the sense that it is open to the public, it is not supported by tax dollars; the man who runs the library also has to raise the funds. Owosso's library is much bigger than this one and provides a lot more books and materials than this one; there were no computers in this library because they were too expensive. (By the way, the city of Beijing is bigger than the state of Conneticut and has more people than the entire state of Michigan).

The third picture was taken on the last day of the trip while doing a little sightseeing at the Great Wall.

Brutus now wants to to go to China, too. He asked the staff to promise to smuggle him unto the plane so he doesn't have to travel as cargo. Can dogs apply for a passport? He also wants to make sure he can come back to the U.S.; he hears that there aren't many pets in China and he likes his cozy home at the library.