Bilety Radom

Before rushing off to an In Vitro Fertilization Clinic if you cannot conceive there are natural ways to increase your chances of having a baby. IVF procedures can be costly and there are no guarantees of success even after repeated attempts by a couple.New studies reveal that stress of today’s lifestyles is causing much of the fertility problems experienced by couples wishing to have a baby. Other research indicates women who have high levels of the hormone cortisol which is linked to stress do not have a menstrual cycle at all.

Foods which are high in anti-oxidants, iron, calcium, zinc and enzymes will greatly increase your chances of fertility. A daily cup of organic blueberries can increase the chances of success as well the natural Goji berry using in traditional chinese medicine can boost your drive better than oysters.

Foods to Improve Fertility: Fruits that are both colorful and high in anti-oxidants such as: red peppers, orange carrots, green salads, mangoes, apples, figs, yams, nuts, salmon, oysters, and carrots improve fertility. High calcium selections for women improve the ability to conceive. Lifestyle and diet improvements are great alternative healthful ways to avoid infertility.

Exercise: Prenatal preparation is enhanced by moderately strengthening the body through exercise. The best method is yoga since it produces melatonin which helps reduce the stress of trying to get pregnant.
Pre -Natal Yoga classes also teach you to strengthen the muscles of the body which are used during giving birth.

Relaxing and meditating on the wonderful bundle of joy that is about to enhance your family also is a powerful effect on getting pregnant. This type of yoga with specific positions strengthens tone and flexibility which increases reproductive health.

What to Avoid for Improved Fertility: Alcohol and caffeine do affect both parents-to-be in decreased chances of fertilization. Plenty of restful sleep, fresh air walks in the sunshine and reduced stress all are goals for all young couples wishing to have a baby.

Acupuncture: Through balancing the body’s energies that may be stuck, a traditional Chinese method of using acupuncture can create the harmony necessary for conception. Balancing the body’s energy levels of the uterus, liver, and reproductive systems is a valued and successful process of creating a baby.

Herbs and Supplements: Dong Quai, Nettle Leaves, Damiania are all herbs that can increase ovulation, balance hormones, adrenal glands and increase the bodies energy levels for conception.

Vitamins: Increasing intake of Vitamin E helps the reproductive glands in their production of key sex hormones in conceiving a baby. Selenium is also being studied for its effects on lower male fertility by the University of Padua in Italy.

Detoxing the Body: All herbal cleansers such as colon, kidney, liver and blood cleansers can have a very positive effect on achieving conception. A sluggish colon which increases the toxin levels can actually prevent fertility.

Herbal Colon Cleanses: and colonics increase blood flow and support the liver to remove more toxins as well as stimulating the gallbladder to release bile.
All these methods result in a cleaner, healthy and safe environment to start manufacturing a baby.

Even after pregnancy occurs detoxing and these techniques is optimal for caring for a healthy bouncing baby the natural way.

Author:Eric Cho

The term, ‘Special Operation Units’ is used to refer to highly specialized and extensively trained military operation units who are known to perform highly volatile military operations. These forces are specially trained to participate in unconventional warfare tactics, reconnaissance as well as counter the highly dangerous terrorist activities. Around the world, in various countries, these ‘Special Operation Units’ are also termed as ‘Special Forces’ or ‘Special Operation Forces’.

Specialty of special operation units

Special Operation Units typically comprise of small teams of highly trained military personnel. These units are unique because unlike other military platoons, they operate on the principles of self sufficiency, speed, stealth and are extremely dependent on team work. These elements are what make these special operation units highly desirable for volatile and dangerous missions. The units are usually trained in using exclusive armament and special equipment to aid in their equally special operations.

Special Operation Units are called upon by the government to handle specialist situations like terrorism activities and other such dangerous activities both on the international and domestic front. On some occasions, such units are also termed as ‘force multipliers’ when they are used to train indigenous military forces in the specialist technique of guerrilla warfare.

Historic account

Special Operation Units have played a significant role in the shaping of nations and their respective militaries, the world over, since time immemorial. History has abundant accounts of the heroic tales of Special Forces across the world, who have played an important part in changing the destinies of nations. The special operation units are known for their sabotage and surprise ‘hit-and-run’ warfare techniques. They do not indulge in traditional face-front combat. Such units act as a single entity during the operation, which is the secret of their success. History has tales of ancient Chinese and Japanese Ninjas. These were special troops skilled in Martial arts, who indulged in espionage and specialist guerrilla warfare.

Special operation units in the world wars

Many such special operation units were part of World War I and World War II as well. The Italian “Reparti d’assalto” was famous for their shock attack techniques in World War I. In World War II, Winston Churchill also formed various specialist British operation units like Long-range Desert Unit, Special Naval and Air Service, various Raiding Forces etc.

Special operation units in the 21st century

In the early 21st Century, Special Forces were using by both sides in the effort to win sub-military operations. Examples can be cited from the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, War in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka etc. The most recent accounts of the special operation units can be cited from the recent war on Iraq, launched by the US to counter terrorism. The specialist force called the “Navy SEALs” were an important part of this operation. Using their shock and awe techniques, they defeated the Iraqi forces.

Author:James Kara Murat

As happy as I am that we the people have elected Barack Obama as our next president, this does not discount the fact that a large number of the people in our country are still batshit crazy.

Case in point: So I typed “Obama” into Google this morning hoping to find the latest news related to our recent president elect. Under related searches (there were only 2) the following came up: the first, of course, was the president’s full name, “Barack Obama” and the second was something so odd and frightening that it made me try the search once more just to make sure it wasn’t all a mistake. Sure enough, it came up again. There, right next to our president’s name under “see related searches” was: “Obama Antichirst.” Apparently, there are enough loony tunes people in this country that believe Obama is the work of Satan that the subject has garnered a majority of searches on Google. Not only that, but the search term itself yields over 900,000 page results related to the investigation of whether or not Obama is indeed “the man of sin,” “the wicked one,” “the angel of the bottomless pit.” It is worth noting at this point that the term “Obama anti american” yielded 2 million results, and “Obama muslim” yielded 10 million results, a rather obvious correlation between religious and racist thinking. Below are some of the sites created by these believers of political witchcraft.

Random anonymous forum guy states he has the ultimate proof that Obama is the anti-christ: Obama’s zipcode!

BarackObamaAntichrist on blogspot contains whole blog devoted to debunking the idea that Obama is the messiah (which is probably just as wing nut crazy as calling him the anti-christ, though certainly not as offensive). Includes all the crazy religious shizzle surrounding his campaign from sacrificial offerings made by supporters in Kenya to golden monkey idols.

A Coalition called O.BamaPost dot com arranged to prove that Obama is the anti-christ based on everything from the origins of his name to the fact that Oprah supports him.

Hal lindsey of “World Net Daily” argues in an article entitled “How Obama Prepped World for Anti-Christ” that Obama is not strong enough to be the anti-christ, but is instead paving the way for the one who will come after him by visiting Europeans and being nice to them.

The Washington Post reported that the authors of the Left Behind series release a statement that Obama is not the anti-christ. Surely, they are a reputable enough source to crazy religious zealots that this will settle the issue right?

The Paliban, at Paliban dot org is a group of religious-leaning Palin supporters, wants to congratulate us on electing the anti-christ as our next president. Apparently because we did not elect John McCain or his running mate who believes it is sometimes necessary to have witches exorcised from your body, we have moved away from god. I thought we had made a good go of that with the whole “church and state are separate” thing, but as every president must include god in his speeches no less than is typical in biblical passages, this is obviously not true. *sigh*

So just to re-cap, yes, America, we have done a fine and noble thing by electing Obama as our new president. We are being progressive. We are being proactive. We are saying that enough of us are ready for change, believe equality is achievable, and are ready to make a serious investment in our country that we will back an African American of Muslim decent who is under the age of 50. This is certainly us turning over a few new leaves. But don’t let down your guard thinking this marks the end of the coalition of the religiously insane. They are still out there and just because Obama is president now does not mean they will lessen their efforts to turn the country into an evangelical utopia. There are many issues ahead that we need to focus on and if we let our religion get involved in our politics then we will end up with the same religio-politico soupy mess we have been drowning in for the past 8 years, regardless of who is acting as Commander in Chef.

Author:Mary Stevens

I am neither from Cross-River nor Akwa-Ibom states but as a Nigerian which I am shall always remain eternally grateful to Olusegun Obasanjo and Bola Ajibola, a duo of two Yoruba who as an act magnanimity either sold or presented our own Bakassi peninsular as a gift to Cameroun. As I write this piece, I express my bitterness on this very matter because in history no elder statesman for any reason will display such an unpatriotic willingness to part with the territory of his or her country. This team, which also comprised of Chief Richard Akinjide has since seen the man (Richard Akinjide) regretting the action of Obasanjo pointing it out as one of the wrongs done by this man (Obasanjo) to his nation.

 

Suffice it then that the people of Bakassi were either not considered important to Nigeria as a nation or there were just certain things known to Obasanjo and Ajibola outside the knowledge of Nigerians, all of these things are still shrouded in mystery. Surely our leaders are incapable of protecting us.

 

The focus of this article is that very aspect of the foreign policy of Obasanjo pertaining to Bakassi peninsular. Bakassi can be likened to Obasanjo as June 12 is to Babangida. June 12 however became more prominent because the  Bakassi are minorities with almost nobody to advocate or fight their cause in the political entity called Nigeria. It remains the biggest injustice Obasanjo perpetuated on Nigeria. Obasanjo swore to the oath of allegiance to protect the territory of Federal Republic of Nigeria thereby upholding the constitution of the country but he would readily and weakly fail in this. Obasanjo and Bola Ajibola provided the platform under which the territory of our nation was given out to France and Cameroun, an act only as good as condemnably obnoxious because it led to the denial of Nigerian citizens. The whole drama was set out to please Britain, France and Cameroun by Obasanjo and Ajibola for the reasons not yet disclosed to Nigerians.

 

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The nature of the claims by both Nigeria and Cameroun is what is known international relations as irredentism being “an act of advocating or agitating for the reunion to one’s country territory (ies) which is (are) naturally or culturally relocated to it, and which has (ve) been lost to a foreign country. The Bakassi peninsular is an area of some 1000km mangrove swamp and half submerged islands known as the Bight of Bonny (previously known as Bight of Biafra). The Bakassi is located in Cross-River state of Nigeria and its indigenes are Efiks who are by occupation fishermen.

 

It is important to understand here that the colonial powers are to blame for this crisis because of the injustices they visited on Africans of which Bakassi is not an exception. It is also unnecessary to point out here that colonial powers sat down in Berlin and arbitrarily demarcated drew maps of Africa in 1884 and 1885 leaving African countries with no rhymes in ethnic character and complete meaningless boundaries. This situation has therefore led to wars on some occasions and international legal disputes, which almost remain impossible to solve.

 

The Nigeria-Cameroun dispute can be traced to the so called July 23 and September 10 1884 treaty which Queen Victoria of Great Britain entered with the king and chiefs of old Calabar province with King Honesty vii and Edward Hyde Hewett representing Bakassi and Britain respectively. Other kings and chiefs in the region also signed acknowledging the protection of their territories from external aggression by Britain. Expectedly, the British were granted the rights of trade over the administration of justice and taxation.

 

1885 ANGLO-GERMAN TREATY

 In 1885, Britain entered in another treaty in which she ceded all the regions she had earlier recognized as the jurisdiction of Obong (King of Calabar) to Germany, an act that greatly contravened the earlier 1884 treaty. This resulted in controversy as the chiefs of the territories totally rejected and committed themselves to the new treaty still binding on them.

 

JULY-AUGUST 1886 TREATY

This particular treaty between Britain and Germany sought to rectify the anomalies created by the imprecise demarcations of the boundary. This failed to make the achievement of much that was expected and much of problem having to do with these were carried over.

 

1906 TREATY

Again in 1906, both Britain and Germany agreed to make certain boundary adjustments when it was discovered that certain anomalies still existed, mutual agreement or understanding were to be utilized if the need arose.  

 

THE MARCH AND APRIL 12, 1913 ANGLO-GERMAN TREATY

This agreement turned out to be the last of the agreements between Britain and Germany yet the most contentious because the Bakassi indigenes protested against this. Britain and Germany had redefined maritime boundary in such a way that Akpayafe River and the entire Bakassi peninsular had been placed under the German authority. Bakassi indigenes again sent representatives to London office in which the traditional rulers of Calabar argued that Britain could not have given out Bakassi because Britain did not own it. Britain did not own Bakassi by conquest but by free and peaceful protection treaty. The British in their imperial and arrogant reasoning rejected and ignored this. This treaty was never ratified neither did Germany take control of the province until the outbreak of the World War II in 1914. As a matter of fact, the treaty was never completed.

 

International Relations observes have pointed out that the lack of ratification of the Anglo-German treaty fuelled the Bakassi peninsular crisis which enabled both Nigeria and Cameroun to continually lay claims to the ownership of the peninsular, this also made possible the various declarations made by both countries.

 

DECLARATIONS BY BOTH COUNTRIES

THE NGOH/COKER DECLARATION OF 1971

In 1971, experts from Nigeria and Cameroun reportedly marked the maritime boundary between Nigeria and Cameroun, these two countries met in Lagos Nigeria but in its infamy denied Nigeria the legitimate right of ownership and control of Calabar River channel and transferred it to Cameroun. This was later rejected by Nigeria because Calabar channel had remained under the territorial and sovereignty of Nigeria from time to time immemorial. The Nigerian government on quickly realizing that this was suicidal to the territorial integrity of the country took series of steps to reverse the declaration. Cameroun backed by France would stick to its gun leaving no stone unturned.

 

THE MAROUR DECLARATION OF 1975

Exactly four years after the Ngoh/Coker Declaration of 1971, Nigeria and Cameroun entered into another round of negotiation aimed at resolving the palaver, by this time Nigeria had hoped to correct the adverse effects of the 1971 declaration, which she was suffering. Gen. Gowon the then Head of state failed to internationally score a point against Ahmadou Ahidjo of Cameroun who had the full backing of France. Before Gowon who personally represented Nigeria would meet with Ahidjo, Ahidjo had obliterated the identity of Nigerian settlements while replacing them with Camerounian indigenous names, a situation that killed Nigeria’s claims to the peninsular and diplomatically put Cameroun ahead of Nigeria.

 

Gen Murtala Mohammed who emerged as the president in 1975 rejected the agreement entered by Gowon, thus the Nigerian government blatantly refused to ratify Marour Declaration, declaring that the agreement was flawed and prone to shortcomings. In 1977 Obasanjo repeated the action of Murtala stating that all the accords regarding the Bakassi peninsular were biased and lacked the way forward for the determination of the true ownership of the territory.

 

SPORADIC CONFLICTS

Cameroun resorted to the employment of violence in seeking to affirm its claim of ownership of the region as advised by France; this was however aimed at attracting the sympathy of the international community. This caused Nigeria to lose a lot of lives and properties in this territory.

 

(i)                 The first of these cases was in 1981 when the world woke up to hear of the killings of six Nigerian soldiers by Camerounian gendarmes in the Bakassi peninsular

(ii)               February 6, 1996, the most violent of such hostilities took place. An account has it that fighting broke out when some Camerounian gendarmes stationed at Atabong east portion of the peninsular seized the catch of a Nigerian fisherman off the coast and ordered hi to return to Ibaka in Akwa-Ibom state of Nigeria. A Nigerian Army officer who witnessed the act regarded it as an affront and beckoned on the fisherman to return to Atabong west for debriefing. The gendarmes then opened fire on both the Nigerian soldier and the fisherman wounding the Army officer seriously. The gendarmes who were in patrol boat returned to base within minutes opened fire again on Nigerian positions.

(iii)             In May 1996, 13 Nigeria soldiers who ran into the ambush of Camerounian gendarmes along the creeks of Bekoro and Gidigo escaped death while some of them were seriously wounded. Still the Nigerian military did not take an action either for fear of possible intervention of France or “Big Brother” role.

(iv)              Again in May 1997, the Nigerians who lived on the northern side of the Bakassi peninsular reported how Camerounian gendarmes who also took over their villages afflicted and tortured them.

(v)                July 1997, Camerounian gendarmes captured some 300 Nigerians living in the territory and detained them in their underground prisons in Manaje under inhuman conditions. Still the Nigerian Military led by Obasanjo was not spurred to action to defend its citizens or what at best was their own.

(vi)              In 2007, reports had it that some armed men in the peninsular driven in gunboat opened fire killing six Camerounian soldiers. While the Camerounian government insistently claimed that Nigerian soldiers were responsible for the killing, the Nigerian government would deny this shifting the blame to the Niger-Delta militants who also denied the allegation. Cameroun in their typical manner, the following day opened fire on Nigerian soldiers killing an undisclosed number of them. He Nigerian Military took it with strange silence

 

It is pertinent to add here that while Cameroun troubled Nigeria in the Bakassi region, Nigeria did not consider it appropriate to take any action or at least a drastic measure aimed at addressing the sad situation whether militarily or otherwise outside the failing treaties she continued to enter into. Any nation which values the lives of her citizens would have asked and gotten solution quite earlier. We trust that nations like USA, Britain, Russia, France, Iraq, China, Argentina, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Pakistan, India, Libya, Pakistan, Israel, Egypt, Morocco etc would have chosen the battlefield rather than losing part of their territory as did Nigeria.

 

Between July 2 and March 11, 1998 hearing of the dispute at the International Court of Justice commenced and in October 202, the ICJ gave its infamous ruling in favour of Cameroun. He ICJ in its ruling erroneously maintained that colonial imperialism took precedence over the inalienable rights of ownership of land by Nigerian inhabitants, the court further ruled that all lands and territories comprising of Nigeria are specified in the constitution of Federal Republic Nigeria. ICJ did not bother to conduct plebiscite in Bakassi to determine the opinion of the people.

 

According to Chief Richard Akinjide Nigeria lost to Cameroun because:

 

“France was against Nigeria, and at that time, the president of ICJ was a French. Also, Britain was against Nigeria because Britain knew that if Nigeria won, the illegal transfer of Bakassi in 1913 through the Anglo-German treaty would expose Britain for breach of trust. Therefore, you have two powerful members of the ICJ opposing Nigeria. All the laws and the facts (both in international and municipal laws) were in favour of Nigeria, and we canvassed that. We have some of the best brains in international and municipal laws, and they were assembled at the ICJ for the case. But they still ruled against us” (Haste to Hand Over Bakassi was not only a Blunder but also Indecent   Nigerian Tribune, Sunday 25, November 2007)

 

Consider my candid personal opinion that Nigeria (Obasanjo and Ajibola) erred by accepting to appear before the ICJ as the same Nigerian government erroneously, misguidedly and naively believed that the ICJ will be impartial just because we do not learn from history in this country. The ICJ is owned by UNO, UNO by USA, Britain, France, Germany and the ICJ is the instrument of power as well as political and economic conquest of poor countries of Africa and Asia.

 

The United States was dragged before the ICJ by Nicaragua twenty-six years ago. Nicaragua won the case against USA but the judgment has not been implemented till today by the USA. In the maritime problem between Norway and the United Kingdom, which was referred to the ICJ, the judgment remains unimplemented till this day. In another case between France and the United Kingdom, the judgment, till now have never been implemented. So, why did Obasanjo resort to indecent haste in implementing the Bakassi judgment? Only time will tell us.

 

USA declared war and used Atomic bomb on Japan because Pearl Harbor, its supposed possession was invaded by Japan. Britain went to war in 1982 with Argentina over the ownership of Falkland Island in an undeclared war. Israel continues to enjoy the possession of Palestinian territories backed by the USA shunning every of the resolutions the UN has issued against her. Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Pakistan, Morocco, Spain are some of the countries with similar problems. Yet these countries exist today. France advised Cameroun to report to the ICJ because the president of that court was a French citizen and Nigeria (led by Obasanjo) in her typical manner failed to make a quick and firm diplomatic calculation. Any leader seeking for genuine judgment would having learnt of the citizenship of the president of the court would have protested against this and appeal for the leadership of the court by another national. Ordinarily, the people of the Nigeria Delta in Nigeria understood and used it against Ibrahim Gambari and it worked out.

 

Cameroun was also able to achieve this result with the deployment of warships by France to the region in February 1994. Cameroun and France were obviously ready to employ force if the need had arisen while Nigeria was all out to give out Abuja if only peace could be maintained. We all know that in this country our leaders lack the faintest idea of what the ordinary citizens are facing in this country, it was therefore very convenient for Obasanjo and Ajibola to majestically sit in their palaces and make policies detrimental to the ordinary citizens of this nation. Ajibola would just not choose to remain quiet and let the National Assembly clear the mess himself and Obasanjo his mentor caused us instead he would occasionally visit the press and warn the National Assembly on the dangers of not ratifying the cessation of the territory to Cameroun just to quickly cover up the mess.  History will surely remember them both.

 

The ICJ has ridiculously ruled that the territory of Bakassi belongs to Cameroun but the indigenes Nigerians because the court realized that while the citizens were of paramount importance to Nigeria, Cameroun and France were only interested in the oil believed to abound in the region.

 

We thank our National Assembly for standing firmly on the side of the Nigerian masses to refusing to ratify the cessation of the territory to France and Cameroun. Our African leaders have always been ready, hasty and desperate to please the western world because of their personal gains and this must surely meet ultimate resistance. Bravo to our National Assembly   

 

 

Author:Emeka Esogbue

“The ancient building is renovating. Excuse me for bringing trouble to you” read the apologetic sign on a building in the centre of Beijing. For Faith Withnell, aged 66, of GinGin, Western Australia, it was just yet another example of the gentle manner of the Chinese way.

Faith and her sister Lyn, also in her 60s, from Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, spent two months as volunteer teachers in China with the Global Volunteer Network at Fushan No. 1 Senior Middle School, near Yantai in the Shandong Province. The school has about 4000 students, aged between 16 and 20, almost half of this number being boarders. Lyn and Faith worked with 14 classes of Grade 1 students, aged around 16 - 18 years old, teaching conversational English. And what a time they had.

“As my sister and I were both nearing retirement at the end of busy working years, we talked about finding a different and interesting challenge whilst we were both physically able, and which would be like nothing we had done previously. Overseas volunteering appealed to us both,” said Faith.

“Although we had previously travelled overseas, to UK, Europe and Asia, we could not have foreseen the adventure we were to experience when we enquired about the Global Volunteer Network opportunity to spend time on their project in China,” said Faith.

Volunteering is a travel experience like no other, because by spending time with the Chinese students, Faith and Lyn were able to develop strong bonds with people they would never have usually come into contact with, and found out what it is really like to live the ‘Chinese way’.

“I consider tourism to be all about seeing places and taking photos,” says Faith. “It is a short term, though most enjoyable, journey. [But] volunteering is a real life experience, understanding the culture, history and religion of others, explaining our differences, cementing goals and giving encouragement and praise for [the student's] hard work and the discipline which is their way of life.”

And the way of life in a Chinese boarding school is quite different from schools in Western countries. Students are required to attend school six to seven days a week, and students begin their day with a 6am exercise program every morning. After breakfast, lessons commence - and continue until 8.40 at night, with a two hour lunch break in the middle. Students are also responsible for chores within the school. These include cleaning blackboards and replacing drinking water supplies in the classrooms, sweeping walkways, cleaning toilet areas, and sometimes the windows in the accommodation blocks. Also, as well as normal school hours, there are monthly exams, which the students need to study hard for.

“There is much pressure put on students in China, and education is seen as very important. The problem with this, however, is that there aren’t enough teachers to go around,” says Faith.

With up to 85 students in each class in a school of 4000, students benefit hugely from the help of overseas volunteers. In China education is seen as the way to become successful in life, and in a country with a population of over one billion people, good grades are very important.

Faith and Lyn were each teaching classes of 85 students, with only a copy of the current English textbook as a guide. They had to prepare their own lessons, which was a little overwhelming at first, but was less difficult than they first thought.

“We found the students to be so friendly. They showed extreme interest in what was discussed, and were most willing to participate in lessons, and had a wonderful sense of humour,” said Faith. “I feel that our students enjoyed our classes, our company and our friendship.”

The students were fascinated to learn that Lyn and Faith had come all the way from Australia.

“Most of our students were amazed and excited that Lyn and I had come so far,” she said. “We had taken to China some coloured wildlife pictures, family photos etc. - but the items in which the students were most intrigued were the Australian stamps, coins and notes we had with us. Some of these were eventually left with our students at the school and I’m sure they are looked on as treasures by our young friends.”

Both Lyn and Faith had weekends for exploring, and on unrostered afternoons, they would explore the streets of Fushan, and were amazed at the friendliness of the Chinese people they met.

“We made a particular effort to be very approachable, at the school, in the street and whilst travelling. Many complete strangers would ask to practice their (very minimal) English with us, and were absolutely delighted with our responses,” said Faith.

“We became quite familiar to the stall holders in the marketplace, the girls in the cake shop and supermarket, and people in the street who were keen to identify with the two ‘Adalian’ ladies from the school.”

Faith jokes that their departure will undoubtedly affect the local Fushan community economy. “Both the strawberry seller in the market lane and the cake shop proprietor will not go ahead with the planned extensions to their homes,” she joked.

And when it came time to leave after the two months, both Lyn and Faith found it very difficult.

“The biggest challenge for me as a volunteer was overcoming the emotion of becoming so attached to the students. Some of these young people are so genuinely friendly, and with our maternal instincts, when the time came it was extremely difficult for us to leave.”

But halfway through packing, Faith and Lyn received an unexpected summons to a meeting in the school boardroom.

“We thought perhaps we were to be thanked and wished a safe and enjoyable trip home,” says Faith. “Unbeknown to us a team from the Yantai TV network had been assembled to make a documentary and we were the ’stars’.” Yantai TV is the local television station, and broadcasts to millions of Chinese viewers!

Faith and Lyn were introduced to a young TV producer, 2 journalists, 2 cameramen, 2 soundmen - and were asked all sorts of questions - how old they were, where they came from, how they had enjoyed being at the school etc etc. Then with the whole crew in tow, they walked around the school, joined by their favourite students Wang Kai (Tim) and Ziang Xiao (Shyna) and many others. There was also the re-enactment of a classroom lesson.

“Needless to say with cameras rolling, the involvement and conduct of my class 5 was nothing short of perfect,” said Faith. “Then it was signing of autographs, writing some words of encouragement to students about their future, then a farewell speech - all for the camera and all without preparation.”

The crew then filmed them getting ready to leave. Both sisters found the experience very exciting, not to mention the humour of two fifty-year-old women walking up four flights of stairs with a full TV crew and six excited students trailing behind to inspect their apartment, with the sisters only halfway through washing, cleaning and packing.

Volunteering in China was an experience like no other for Faith and Lyn, and it has cemented a special bond between sisters, who in their retirement, are using their time to make a real difference to the lives of others.

“The biggest rewards for us both were the enjoyment we had together as sisters and the ongoing friendships we made with complete strangers in such a faraway place that no-one at home can completely understand,” said Faith.

Lyn and Faith Withnell are two very adventurous women, and they are part of a growing trend for older travellers seeking to step outside their comfort zone by visiting a foreign country. They enjoyed their time so much that they decided to volunteer again in October this year.

Both are looking forward to meeting again with the Chinese friends they have made, and no doubt, the local strawberry stall will be pleased with the return of the extra business!

For more information on volunteering check out: http://www.volunteer.org.nz/

For more great articles on volunteering check out: http://globalvolunteernetwork.blogspot.com/

© 2000-2007 Global Volunteer Network

Author:Julie Thompson