Today we had an art and craft afternoon where we first made egg holders by using strings and putting knots in them. This necklace is used to carry a boiled egg, "a lucky egg" so that you can eat it whenever you feel like it. We thought this was quite funny. Then we made perfume "fragrant" bags by using small cloths and sewing them together to form a cute little bag where a bag of some type of potpori was put in the middle. This is supposed to have some medicinal properties, such as keeping mosquitoes away. It does smell a lot like curry though. Some local ladies came to the class to help us making these things, although they didn't speak English, they were very kind and my helper lady even made another perfume bag for me.
Then we had a painting/calligraphy class in the appropriately named painting and calligraphy classroom which had a very authentic look with all the painting items and of course our lao shi (teacher) was the typical old man you would expect to be doing calligraphy. He showed us how he drew a blossoming tree and explained about all the inks and brushes and then it was our turn.
Painting/calligraphy class
The lao shi
Dumpling making evening
Dumpling making evening
Some of the Chinese student volunteers
My beautiful works of art - blossom tree painting and perfume "fragrant" bags
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