China = no panic

My dear friends,

Today was very windy (30 knots and more), so we couldn't sail. We tried this morning, we launched our best sailor Wim, but he screamed that there was too much wind and the optimist was turning like a fool. So this morning, Evelien and I gave a demo on the water, we both sailed and optimist and the kids followed us in the motorboats.

We rigged 10 boats, but only one got on the water for like 10 minutes... So we learned the kids some tactics about sailing and teached them the parts of an Optimist.

In the afternoon, the wind was getting stronger, so we decided to entertain them with games and theory concerning the Olympic Games...

We let them make the Olympic rings outside, with everything they could find in the right colors. They were very busy and enthousiastic, because we told them they would receive an award after they finished... We gave them the nice NOCSP Tshirts, with all the names from the sponsors included.

Evelien gave them some explanations about the Olympic classes and sports, and let them play pictionnary. The kids were very interested, and the father of one kid asked us if his sun was good enough to become a PRO. we said: with a lot of ambition, you're always good enough!

During our course, I saw a 49er in very big trouble. They were capsized next to rocks, and everybody was looking at them like this situation was normal... I started running around like a chicken without head, and made noise for the whole harbour that we had to help them! result : nobody moved, so I jumped in the motorboat, picked up their coach and helped them out this creepy situation... I can asure you, this gave me a lot of adrenaline!! Evelien kept the kids busy untill the end of the course, and then run around with her camera to make some nice pics.

The people here are so funny, they never panic in dangerous situations, but we did!

We hope that the wind will change his mind tomorrow, because sailing is too difficult now. But, like we all know, nature is the boss... and we don't have anything to say about that...

big kisses,

the Xiamen girl power team!