Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were spent running around the countryside to schools and students houses. Some of them are a couple of hours outside of town. I got to see 4 of my sponsored students
, the last one at a dinner at her high school - where I had to give an unplanned speech.
One small thing worth noting on Tuesday was that (just after passing it, so no pic
) the driver noted that a particular home belonged to someone quite special. The charity's founder has sponsored 3 girls who went to nursing school. Only one passed. She later went to Hubei at the height of the outbreak to help in one of the cities there. In the charity, we hope that the students grow up and do good things. Heroism is a lot more than we expect. She exceeded all expectations. I asked if I could meet her. A few phone calls later determined she was out of town.
Another bit of fun on Tuesday was a small . . . civil disturbance at one school where I was mobbed by a few hundred students. This happened at different school last time. That time, they wanted autographs and were all shoving pens at me. This time I was prepared, with a self-inking chop, so I should have no problems.
This time they didn't want autographs.
After a few minutes, I was dragged to the relative safety of one of the vehicles. Then they all wanted to shake my hand. It's a bit disturbing to extend a hand and have 5 different kids each grab a finger. I counted twice to make sure I still had a full set.
Eventually the bell rang and most of them went back to class. That let me come out and deal wih just the sponsored kids and do a quick visit to one classroom.
Let me elaborate a little on the Pandas.
PANDAS!!!! 
FengHuang has a new (actually, still under construction) panda facility, currently housing 8 pandas. It's so new that some of my FengHuang friends didn't know about it. I had no clue about this until one of the local charity members (sponsored when he was a student) shared a video. I tried to see if anyone else who was free on Thursday could go. No one was available, so I was 50 meters from entering Old Town when I got a voice chat call. The charity's founder had arranged for one of his students (now enrolled in a university) to take me to visit the pandas.
A few of them were hidden away, but I got to see either 5 or 6. My lovely tour guide and I weren't sure if one we saw walking into an outdoor enclosure was one of the same pandas we'd already seen inside or not. Sadly, petting pandas wasn't on the agenda, but one got close enough for some good pics and videos.
I'm looking forward to returning when the weather is a bit cooler for a more extended visit.
In the meantime, all I can say is
PANDAS!!!!!Then there was The Southern Great Wall. It's like the Northern one, only not so massive. It's not as tall, not as thick, and is supposed to have been approximately 120 km long when completed. I'm still trying to get more information about it, but there's very little information available about it in English. Unlike on prior trips, I finally managed to tour the restored section.
Although visiting the Wall was on my agenda, my original plan for Wednesday was to visit some more schools with the group. For some reason, the founder seemed like he didn't want me on the school trips that day. My best guess was that he decided that one civil disturbance per charity trip is the the quota. Then things got weird. No one was responding to messages, and other than a couple of photos taken early in the morning, no one was posting anything in the WeChat group created just for the trip. I finally had to resort to messaging my wife and having her contact a couple of people to make sure they were ok. Finally someone sent me a message about where and when to meet everyone for dinner. Even then, the WeChat group which was normally full of pics and comments was silent.
I got to dinner and only a few people were there, including a retired government official I'd met at dinner the previous evening. Finally, everyone else showed up, along with an absolutely lovely girl I guessed was about 25 or so. This was normal, since students and former students often join at various times during these events. She wasn't just any former student. She was THE nurse.
It turns out that wherever the group was that day, they were close enough to collect her and bring her along on school visits. In order to make sure no one accidentally shared anything that might tip me off, they went silent on the group. Only later did I see pics of her at several of the schools visited that day.
It's rare for me to meet one of my personal heroes, so I don't always know how to react. I can say it took considerable willpower not to kowtow. I got to sit next to her at dinner. I had some help from a couple of people translating, but also made use of WeChat and translation apps. Her personality was every bit as lovely as her face and her selfless actions fighting the virus.
Lots more happened, but those are the main highlights.