China or Tanzania?

Apparently, the Chinese government is not giving our team permission to enter their country. They are not giving us our visas and our trip may be postponed until Summer 2010. 

The story goes something like this:

There are 2 major anniversaries this summer that would take place while we are there: A 20-year anniversary of the student-led protest in Tiananmen Square (1989) and the 60th anniversary of the Communist government. The Chinese officials are afraid that we, as Americans, are going to cause 'a disturbance of peace' - I guess because some members of our team have misdemeanor on their record? I have a foggy understanding of everything at this point. So, the people who have records here are seen as a threat by the Chinese who are reviewing our background checks/visa information. 

What does this mean?

We are patiently waiting to hear back from Dr. Lu Jr. to see if we can get the visas for China. He said we will know by tomorrow. He is working with an international lawyer and has many people on his side backing his story. He is telling the government that our team is going over there not to protest, or inhibit with the celebrations, but to teach homeless, impoverished HIV/AIDS infected youth. Michigan's GIEU program is also writing letters on all of our behalf saying that Larry Gant, our professor leading our program, is our 'dad'. Yes, our dad. He is writing a letter saying that we are his kids and that we will not go anywhere in China without him. Should be interesting - considering we have people of all ethnicities and we're all pretty much the same age. I guess we'll say we're adopted.... ?

So we will find out tomorrow if the trip is a go or no-go. If we do not get access to China and our visas, we will be taking an alternative trip to Tanzania this summer. The trip would be completely paid for by GIEU (airfare, lodging, everything.) We would be working with the same types of children (HIV/AIDS/severely impoverished) doing the same teaching modules we had originally planned for China (arts and English). Then, in 2010, we would be given the chance to go to Golden Courage to do our lesson plans. This trip in 2010, would be through GCI, not through GIEU - kind of like a study abroad. 

There are still many questions to be asked and details to be figured out. But for now, we just sit and wait, patiently, and trust that Dr. Lu Jr. will do his best to get us over to China. Most importantly, we need to go for the kids. The kids have been learning our English and Chinese names for months now, and they are anxiously anticipating our visit. Dr. Lu said they are very excited to have American big brothers and big sisters. They would be devastated if we cannot come over this summer. So I hope it works out. (Even though a free trip to Tanzania sound breathtaking - we NEED to go to China for those kids.)

So, that's all I have at this point. Our entire meeting last night focused on this new drama. Everyone was silent - stunned - numb. The situation is completely out of our control. All we can do at this point is be patient and hope things work out as originally planned.

This is going to be the longest 32 hours of my life. 

I will update as soon as I have more information. 

Always,

Mo chou