WHAT WE UPTO!!!

Well America, and host of nations that read our blog...I'm back, its been Joshy boy for a while, but now Olliwood is back in the blogger game!

We have been in Kunming China the past two weeks, visiting some of my old friends from a previous trip to China that I made in 2006. It has been a great time of pickup football and morning dumplings that are honestly more addictive than most drugs. It has been awesome spending time with Chuck and his family, and for me, these two weeks have been like a semester at school.

We have been honored with the stories of countless years of Chucks life experiences, and the information that we have gleaned is worth so much. Preparation is key when you are in it for the long haul. I now am armed with many legit life stories of failure and success,. Not saying that I have anything close to figured out, but its nice to have the knowledge that someone else has been through a similar situation, and has come out alive! I kind of know what to expect, in a much realer way. The struggles of the modern worker are nothing glorified, its the same thing that everyone everywhere deals with.

So we leave tonight for the city of Nan Ning with a skater we met the other night. He is an awesome guy. I know this because he is currently in the middle of serving a month long pact to wear a full blown suit! Everyday, Everywhere! This week should be a blast, and as soon as we step off of the train in Nan Ning, I expect that craziness should ensue!

If ya could Josh is feeling pretty bad right now, if you could remember him in your thoughts and p, that would be awesome.

OLIVER

So we have been busy growing beards in China. Oliver has been much busier then I:

Our Contact loves heavy metal music. On a typical evening we eat dinner with his family, then crowd around his computer to watch epic live metal concerts from days of old. He then will pick up his guitar and melt our faces with his shredding abilities!! It has been a great experience hanging with the Lenharts. We helped him clean out his garage the other day and threw away boxes and boxes of cassette tapes. He told us that when he first came over to China (20 years ago) that these tapes were his lifeline. The man loves his Hair Metal! Check this sick jam from 1987:

We are at a weird spot right now, our contact is leaving the country soon here in Kunming, and we are unsure what our next travel move will be. We hope that this weekend doors will be doing some opening and closing. There are many options and travel within China is pretty straightforward because of the train system. We should know by Monday, hopefully.
On another note, I started reading "The Heavenly Man" yesterday. It is quite a read. Intensely challenging and powerfully informing about China. Reading it feels like I am read a modern day book of Acts, and the coolest part is, it is happening now! Tight stuff ya'll.
-Josh

Meet Giardia:

This has become a close friend of ours in the past couple weeks. I first heard of this cute little parasite in the infamous Keith Gogan Backpacking Class at ORU. Gogan described it as pretty hellish, and he was very correct. Luckily the medication is cheap and works quickly, but we just found it today. In the meantime, we have learned superior sphincter and esophagus blocking abilities.

It has been a while since we posted, we apologize for that, but we have been busy entertaining some friends in our small intestines. We are currently in Kumning, China and the possibilities are pretty rockin'. We are safe, sound, and hanging with the Great White Buddha (as our host has been nicknamed). Here are some photos from Laos:

Sam = stud...unicycle super star and phenomenal human being

Glorious night at the mighty Me Kong river!!!

After a night at the bus station being harrassed by tuk tuk drivers this is what we woke up to




Paul and family at there Center for Streetkids

-Josh