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Since our arrival here in China two years ago we’ve been surprised by the vast number of Filipinos that teach English here in Xinjiang. It feels like there are just as many Filipinos who have relocated to China as there are Americans, although I doubt that’s true in the bigger cities. The Philippines , as you may already know, is located just 520 miles (840 km) south east of Hong Kong and seems to be well-known for exporting two things: teachers to China and nurses to the US.

We’ve met our fair share of Filipino teachers and have personally grown to love and appreciate the friendships that we’ve made with some of them. Over the past year we’ve skied together, traveled together, celebrated holidays together, and even received crazy Chinese cupping massages together. We’ve become close to one couple in particular whom you might remember from previous stories – Verna and Cons. They moved to China a year ago in order to make more money to send back to their family and kids back home (which is interesting considering that we, like most westerners, took a pay cut in moving here).  Not only have they been great friends who share the same beliefs as we do, but they have also been a wonderful encyclopedia of knowledge on anything having to do with the Philippines.

Well, after a year and a half of being separated from their family, a long-awaited reunion finally happened last Friday at about 5pm…that’s when they arrived back in Karamay with 3 of their 4 children in tow! It has been their prayer and ours that they would finally be able to reunite their family together – either here or back in the Philippines. Just like us, they traveled back home for the month of August. While we were lolly-gagging around, however, they spent the bulk of their time working out visas, passports, and tickets for their kids.

Now our rather boring “foreigner building” has been given a wonderful facelift by three young kids who fill our courtyard with games and giggles, and who have yet to understand that chopsticks are to be used with one hand, not two. We may teach young kids English for a living, but there’s just something exciting and fun about playing and hanging out with kids who already speak our language! You’ll probably be seeing and hearing more about this family in the months to come.

Steward (a.k.a. Superman), Russell (a.k.a. Pacman), Verna, Cons, & Cady

Note: Those are coins in Russell’s eyes, so don’t be freaked out. :)