Hello all, I am so sorry that its taken me such a long time to get this blog updated. As it turns out directly accessing my blog for update is very problematic from China, that combined with a very grueling schedule has kept me from devoting the time needed to get this out to you all -- happy reading.

I've landed safe and sound in Chengdu, all be it very jetlagged (30 hours end to end). Lauren & Bright (2 of our translators) greet us (I've connected with 3 colleagues in transit at the Hong Kong airport) at the Chengdu airport, GOOD THING, - there is 0 support for foreigners ; no signage/no tour desk/and no english speaking taxi drivers. Had we been alone, I'm convinced we'd never have arrived at the hotel.

We are the 2nd team visiting Chengdu, working with DOT (our NGO) so our onboarding experience is very positive. The NGO team have secured us rooms all on the same floor of the hotel, we're handed cash for daily living expenses, and each a phone for ease of communication. We are blessed with one team member from Malaysia who speaks Mandarin --- over time, we'll discover how valuable his language skills are to us as we struggle day by day trying to communicate in a world where there are few english speakers.

Our NGO treats us to dinner early in the week.... and we start out Monday with logistics reviews, and high level overview of the work activities, orientation to business etiquette etc.