Posts by: Robert Ford

One of the many highlights from my trip to Sias was meeting Chung To, Founder of Chi Heng Foundation, a program for AIDS-impacted children. He spoke at the 6th International Women’s Symposium, highlighting the massive AIDS problem in central China, primarily caused by illegal blood selling. Because of unsanitary practices, up to 1 million people are infected with AIDS in Henan province alone. The Chi Heng Foundation focuses on those children impacted by AIDS. They have lost their parents to the disease, and many of them have contracted HIV/AIDS themselves. Their program supports the placement of children locally and those…

23 hours of travel down, just 8 more to go. That means I’m in Los Angeles (LAX) with a 3 hour layover before my red-eye flight to Philadelphia. It just took about an hour to retrieve my bag and get through customs. My bag was the one that had clearly been opened by security in Beijing, and rather then bothering to close it properly, they’d wrapped it with plastic ties.  As I stepped out of customs, I saw a Starbucks and headed over for a large breakfast tea. I did manage to get a couple of relatively long sleeps on…

As I mentioned in my last post, last night was pretty emotional for me (and today was even worse). I’d bought gifts for some of the students that I really bonded with, and I’ve just been so busy for the last two weeks that I’d failed to personalize them (I’d bought most of them journals, and so I wanted to write something in each of them), and then I still had to wrap them. From 8 o’clock onwards, until about 11:30pm, I met with a stream of students, and each meeting was a mix of laughter, happy tears and words…

Usually, when I’m on vacation or visiting a new place, some form of mechanism kicks in about a day before I’m due to leave, and I find myself ready to go home. I always enjoy my trips and adventures, but when it is time, I usually can’t wait to be back in my own house. This trip to Central China hasn’t been like my usual trips. While I long to be back home with my sweetheart, I’m also very sad to be leaving here.  I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to get to know and love the…

Yesterday was Homecoming day on the Sias campus. As that wasn’t a tradition in the UK when I wasn’t a college, I can’t really comment on how true to form the Chinese version was.  The morning started with a parade outside the main Administration Building. Each of the different Schools within Sias had been given $150 to decorate their floats, so it really was an exercise in ingenuity. Apparently, this is a relatively new tradition on the Sias campus (last year was its inaugural year), although you wouldn’t think it from seeing the floats, as some of them were really…

Today, we’re in Zhenghou, which is the largest city in Henan Province. From the 5 star hotel that we’re staying in (courtesy of the Henan Province Cultural Department) to the beautiful Henan Museum that I see from my window (that we’ll we be getting a private tour of this morning, it is vey clear that China’s economic miracle has reached this city of 10 million people. Last night, we had a traditional banquet (at least 30 dishes, accompanied by at least 8 toasts) with our gracious hosts) at an incredibly beautiful high-end restaurant a short walk from our hotel. I…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 10 days or so, or are hitting delete whenever you see a post on Facebook or LinkedIn, or receive email from me, then you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I’m rather smitten with the members of the Women’s Academy for the Future of Women. These young women are incredible. I feel certain that I’m going to be stopped at customs, and have to declare my 6 new Chinese daughters that I’m trying to sneak in. There is an innocence and naivety that I didn’t think existed in the…

One of the students in the Men’s Academy is a young man named Bush, who more makes up for his less-than-perfect English with his energy, enthusiasm and resourcefulness. On Tuesday, Bush had asked me if I’d meet with him, but wasn’t really clear what the meeting was about. I agreed, and then throughout the day, I found that he’d also invited others to the meeting.   Lunch was scheduled for noon, and we were to meet outside the foreign faculty apartment building, which is where I’m staying. when I got there, I found there were about 6 or 7 of…

The other night, I took a stroll down to Italian Street and found a nice spot to sit and people watch, while I enjoyed a taro bubble tea. As I settled in to my favorite spectator sport, I happened to turn around and notice a man with a young baby sitting at the next table. The baby was the sort of infant that you see on Chinese calendars; sturdily built and of generous proportions, with the sort of cheeks that any Jewish grandmother would die for. He was just so happy, that I thought about asking if I could take…

At the Women’s International Symposium over the weekend, I was particularly taken by the translating skills of one of the World Academy members. Some of the speakers would speak for 2 or 3 minutes before pausing for translation, and she would then deliver what appeared to be a flawless translation. One speaker in particular was delivering a really flowery and energetic speech (she’s a lawyer by trade, but the way she worked an audience tells me that she would have done well in stand-up) and all of that energy and passion came over in the English translation. At the end…