Introducing Glynn County Government

Just after breakfast we were supposed to go to a nearby lake that had some value.  Unfortunately, due to area storms we were not able to go.  However, that turned out good for me since I was not able to update the blog on Tuesday due to a very busy day and a late night.  I was also able to catch up on some e-mails and read the Brunswick News on line.  I also enjoyed my time to prepare for class today.  For lunch we had rice, tofu and peppers, soup, which is served at every meal, no fish at lunch today, a mushroom and egg dish,  a type of green in the shape of a green bean and very spicy, some type of noodles that had a fish taste and watermelon.  They usually serve some type of fruit at every meal.  With the exception of the watermelon I have no idea what type of fruit they are serving. 

At lunch we had a conversation about home ownership.  In the City a person buys a house and can live there for 70 years.  They only own the inside part of the house and the land is owned by someone else.  If you die before the 70 years are up your children can live in the house, but as a family your limit is 70 years.  Then either you have to buy the house again or someone else buys it.  In the country you own the house and the land and it can be passed from one generation to another.  We also discussed the ease or lack of for a Chinese citizen to get a visa to travel outside the country.  Apparently it is very difficult to get a visa to travel abroad.  You have to have a very sound reason for the travel without any hint that you may not return.

In class today I discussed Glynn County government.  They found great interest in our organizational chart.  I showed them a picture of the Board of Commissioners and they were interested to know what type of work each commissioner did.  They also wanted to know what type of qualifications one had to have to run for elected office.  They were surprised that most elected positions did not require any qualifications to run.  I also showed them a picture of the management team and they were interested in what each person did.  They wanted to know if county employees had a contract and if they had to have qualifications to be hired or could be hired like a person is elected without any qualifications.  My interpreter is doing a great job and we have developed a nice routine.  They were interested to know what were the priority services of the County.  When I showed them the organizational chart, I explained the difference between city and county government and how county government was far more complex than city government in terms of our multitude of boards, elected officials, etc.

For dinner we were hosted by the owner of a large construction company who has 20,000 employees and builds all over China.  The President of the company actually hosted us.  There were two round tables that sat ten.  The Chinese people enjoy meal times very much because that is their opportunity to build relationships.  The President brought in a private chef to his company who prepared 18 dishes for us.  One was a duck that had been cooked and laid on a platter head and all.  We had fish, soup, pork, veggies, rice, chicken, noodles and egg and 11 other dishes most of which I was scared to ask what they were.  14 of the 20 people smoked so the room was filled with smoke.  99%  of the time dessert is not served unless it is fruit.  Tonight Fey, who is from Carl Vinson Institute, celebrated his birthday so they had a cake for him.  It was very nice to have something sweet to eat.  I am looking forward to my wife's pound cake when I get home :)  I am amazed at the amount of food that they cook for a special dinner.  It is my understanding that they do not eat like this all of the time, but only at special dinners.  

The President of the company was a great host.  One of the members in the group had been to Brunswick before and I certainly invited him back.  Another lady indicated that she would like to visit our community, as well.  In class today I invited anyone with any friends who wanted to invest in the US to call me.  I told them I had extra business cards that I could share.  I think they appreciated me promoting my county.  The drive back to the institute from the construction company was very interesting; we had so many close calls with other vehicles and motor scooters.  You have to have a quick brake foot here.  Motor scooters are a big thing here.  We passed at least 30 stores all in a row where they were selling motor scooters and there must have been a hundred in each store.

On Thursday I will continue with information on Glynn County and then I will talk about planning and our strategic planning process.  I am scheduled to be taken on a tour in the morning, but I am not sure where at the moment.  Two days left here teaching then it will be off to Beijing!

Sightseeing and Teaching

Rural area north of Nanchung

On Tuesday, we started the day with our usual breakfast.  It is my understanding that fried eggs and bacon are not a normal item for them to eat and they prepared these just for us.  I will say it is difficult to pick up a fried egg with chop sticks as they are a little slippery.  To properly eat one you hold the whole thing in your sticks and bite off pieces at a time.  My new Chinese friends are very kind to not laugh at me while I am using the sticks.  I am sure to them I am quite hilarious.  After breakfast Kristy and Bubba went off to teach class and I was escorted on a tour of a pavilion that was built over 1300 years ago.  The one that I saw had been rebuilt a few times, but it still looked very old. 

What made it famous was that a poet wrote a poem about it.  In China if a poem is written about something, it makes it very special.  All school children in China are required to read the poem about this pavilion.  Because of that, young and old from all over China come here to see this.  It has eight floors and has beautiful tile paintings throughout.  It also has a place where the emperor sat.  While there, I saw a group from New Jersey and one from Pennsylvania.  They both commented on how hot it is here.  Even for south Georgia standards it is hot and sticky.  I wish all of this rain could be sent to Georgia.  There would be no problem with forest fires.

On the way to the pavilion traffic was again very heavy.  The main roads here, like Golden Isles Parkway, have traffic lights.  All other roads do not have traffic lights or stop signs.  It is drive at will.  When cars, motorcycles and people go through an intersection it is every man for themselves.  It does not matter what side of the street you are on you just find a path and go for it.  One has to be quick on the brake pedal here.  I saw one lady get hit by a motorcycle.  The driver of the motorcycle and the lady had a stare down for a few minutes then the motorcycle guy started laughing and went his way.  It did not appear that the woman was hurt.  People walking on the street are right next to the cars.  I am talking inches.  In fact, when I walked to the bank yesterday when we crossed the street cars whisked right by us when we were in the crosswalk.  Again inches.  The cars was so close I could have handed the driver a diet coke if I had one :(   I felt like I was playing dodge ball with the cars.

There are hundreds of speed bumps here and rumble strips.  Based on what we just went through with speed bumps in Glynn County, I think this is interesting.  Although I am not sure that they really have an effect on people driving.  With all of the traffic and playing dodge ball a car cannot go fast.  I am absolutely amazed at the number of stores here.  People are spending RNB right and left.  I have never seen so many electronic stores in my life.  Numerous shops all with the doors wide open.  There are also numerous cigarette stores.  Most everyone here smokes.  At dinner they have an ash tray at everyone's place and a pack of ciggs on the Lazy Susan.  People light up at will.  It is especially bad walking in the elevator.  When you are tall like I am you tend to get all of the smoke in the elevator.  I also noticed that they have a vibrant fruit market here.  They come from the country each day with their farm products. In reality, China may have a bigger capital market that the US.  Lots and Lots of things for sale with thousands of people buying and from what I understand everyone wants to gain more wealth.  Most cars are small and the average cost of a car in US dollars is 10k.  A basic cellphone plan costs $10 per month. 

At lunch we had a conversation about the Communist party.  Apparently one has to make application to be a member and there is a year waiting period while they check your background.  Most Chinese think Americans have the wrong impression of them.  I did see a lot of poverty when we drove to the lake on Saturday, but I will have to say that while this City (capitol of the province) is a very busy place, people work, shop and spend time with their family just like we do.  Family is very important to the Chinese.  They want to spend a lot of time with their family and they cherish their children.  They all want to work hard and have a better life.  They put others above self, which I think is good.  That is truly what County government is all about, serving others. 

The Chinese are concerned with the success of the group rather than the individual.  I do agree that for an organization to be successful the team (in our case) has to be strong.  For Glynn County to be successful we have to work together to provide our services.  If one department tried to do things on their own without consideration of how their actions affect other departments then we most likely will have problems.  However, if time is taken to consider the affects of our actions on others then I believe we can be more effective in accomplishing our goals.  Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to find time to think through all of the ramifications of an action or decision.  When an organization has to downsize because of less revenue it places more pressure on those who remain to take on more responsibility, which uses up more time and leaves less time to carefully think through issues or planning.  The Chinese think the American news media puts a twist on what their life is truly like and would like for America to leave them alone to live their lives and they would leave America alone to live their lives.

The people here are very friendly.  Our hosts have been wonderful and have gone out of their way to meet our every need.  The Chinese believe very strongly in service.  Certainly that is the purpose of county government, to serve others.  The culture here promotes service.  Individuals are not pressured to serve rather it is a part of society.  It makes me curious of how many county employees ( not just in Glynn, but in other counties as well) are truly committed to service or are just there for a paycheck.  How is commitment achieved?

They have assigned a young student to be our guide.  Her name is Kitzu.  She is 21 years old and speaks good English.  She has come here just for the next three weeks of the institute to be one of the hosts and guide for the groups from Carl Vinson.  She is an English major at the university, she is petite in size and very bright.  The women here dress very fashionably.  I have been impressed with how well dressed the women are.  Men on the other hand dress very simply and with the heat are wearing a pair of khakis and a knit pull over shirt.  Not a polo shirt from a brand standpoint, but that type of shirt. The people here use a tremendous amount of expression when they communicate and with over 2000 letters in their language they say a lot.  I think American women would like their husbands to show a little more expression when they communicate like they do here :)

I hope I am starting to make progress in my class.  On Tuesday I spent more time on state and local government.  I left off on Monday with the concept of Home Rule, which is a difficult concept for them.  I revisited that topic when I started class on Tuesday to make sure they understood.  Here home rule does not exist.  The Central Government hands down policy to the city governments.  My class is very attentive and their questions are very perceptive.  One question was if those running for office received campaign contributions from individuals and if so, once they were elected were they heavily influenced by those who contributed financially.  I provided some examples of where this has happened.  They wanted to know if a person had to have any qualifications to run for office.  They wanted to know if an elected official had a business if the business did better because of them being in office.  I told them it usually had the opposite effect.

Here the head of the City is called Party Secretary who is appointed by the Central Party.  They wanted to know who was in charge of negotiations between a city and county.  They were very interested in our web site.  They wanted to know if when a person runs for office if the county posted their bio and platform on our website.  They were very interested in what information our website provided and the overall purpose for it.  It sounds like we share a mutual purpose in having a website.  Although I gathered that the web sites in China are more advanced than those in the US.  I would like to learn more about the web sites here and how they use technology in their City.

The leaders of the class took us to dinner last night.  The food was not as exotic as the other meals, with the exception of goose liver and snails still in the shell.  I passed on the goose liver, but I did try a snail.  They provided a tiny fork to take the meat out of the snail.  Again most of the meat was surrounded by bone.  Although my wife would slap me if I spit bone out of my mouth onto the table, I am getting pretty good at it!

As I write this Wednesday has started.  It is 9:30 pm in Glynn County and when this is posted I will have finished my class for today, which by the way is focused on the the government of Glynn County, and I will have had dinner.  I wonder what will be on the menu for tonight?

The First Day of Teaching

Today (Monday) was our first day teaching.  We met for breakfast at the usual time and had the same food as the previous days.  I could really go for a real cup of coffee. Green tea is not my thing nor is the coffee that they have.  Both are very good, but I would prefer a Starbucks.  I had a light breakfast.  I have been on a diet for the past month and lost ten pounds.  I am afraid with all of the food that they are feeding us I may gain it all back.  I seem to be surviving with chop sticks, but barely.  Please don't ask me for a lesson on how to use them, because I do not have a clue.  I am just managing the best that I can.  I have been offered a fork twice now and I am sure it won't be the last time, but I am sticking with my vow.  

After breakfast we had an opening ceremony for the start of the institute.  Those in my class are mid-level government officials from this province.  After the opening ceremony we went to the classroom, which is a small room and might be typical of a US high school classroom 40 years ago.  It did have a small standup a/c unit in the back of the room, which was very nice since it is so hot and muggy here.  After the introductions I left and went back to my room.  Kristy is teaching the morning session and I am teaching in the afternoon from 2:30 to 5:30.  After I prepared some more for my class, an institute official offered for me to use his computer in his office, which was very kind of him to do.  Thus, I was able to provide the first blog update in a few days.  This afternoon they loaned me a computer which is right in my room.  They have been very kind and considerate.  I met Kristy and the others for lunch.  They provided 15 various dishes.  Rice, greens, squid, donkey, fish, cabbage soup, pork soup, dumplings with pork, beef, chicken w/ bones, duck with bones and watermelon.  I forgot what the other ones were. Unfortunately, I had donkey before I knew what it was.  It actually tasted good until I found out.  I was not going to try the squid, but our host insisted.  It was not bad either.  I did manage to consume something very spicey that caused my lips to burn the rest of the afternoon.  I am glad that I had some chapstick, which did provide some relief. 

This is the donkey dish. Hee Haw!

To start class, I provided some information about myself and my family.  I showed a picture of my family   With the one child rule in China they were all amazed that my wife and I have ten children.  I told them a few years ago that when the children were small I was buying 40 pairs of shoes a year.  I thought some of them were going to fall out of their chairs.  After my comments I went around the room and allowed each of them to introduce themselves to me and share where they worked, about their family and what they liked to do.  At least two said they liked basketball.  My slides today were centered on Federal government, state government and local government and how they each relate to one another.  With interpretation I do not have to worry about having enough slides.  There is no way that I will cover all of my material. 

I mentioned city-county relations and one in the class asked a question about an example of how the two might have conflicts.  I mentioned the jail issue between the City of Brunswick and Glynn County.  They found that quite interesting which led to 30 minutes of questions.  If I wrote what type of questions that they asked it might open up the entire issue again, which I know better not to do.  I will say that they are a very perceptive group.  They also asked me personal questions about how much I earned in money, how much I spent on food, housing, etc. and how much I saved.  I think they save quite a bit of their income in China.  They also asked my if I paid my wife a salary to be a stay at home mom.  It would be great if I could afford to do that :)  They also wanted to know if I was a happy man.  I told them I was very happy, I had a beautiful family and a job that I enjoyed going to each day.  I expect that before the week is up I will be asked much more about my family.  I found a stopping point in my presentation and we broke for the day.  During the first part of my presentation I showed them a video of the Golden Isles in Chinese that they loved.  I appreciate the Golden Isles CVB providing the video.  I brought a copy of the video, as well as my presentation on a thumb drive for each one in class, which total 22.

This evening we had dinner with the President of the Institute in his private dining room.  The Lazy Susan on this table was motorized and a staff member stood to the side and stopped the turning when you took an item for your plate.  She had a small remote control.  The most interesting item on the menu tonight was a complete goose that had been cooked and then cut up bone and all.  Head, feet, wings, etc were all right there. Fairly tasty, but processing meat and bones in my mouth is a very new experience.  I also forgot that at lunch we had chicken feet.  One ended up on my plate, but there it stayed.  It was a very nice dinner and no one went away hungry.  I will sign off now.  As you begin your day it is time for me to go to sleep to be well rested for my second day of class.

Chinese Driving 101 and A Trip to a Lake

The first side trip in Nanchung

I had a good rest Saturday evening and slept for close to ten hours.  I felt well rested on Sunday and for the most part was over my jet lag.  Our group met at 7:45 for breakfast.  Our group consists of Fey who is on staff at the University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute of Government and is a native of Shanghi, Kristy Lindstrom who is the Director of Communications for the office of the Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, her significant other John David who goes by "Bubba" and Kitzu who is a Chinese student here helping be our host this week.  We also have officials with the Jiangxi Administrative Institute with us.

The breakfast each morning is pretty similar to the day before.  After breakfast we boarded our van and headed to a very large lake.  Driving here is insane.  In the US I would be scared to death, but so far I have not been.  They say pedestrians have the right of way, but I have not witnessed that yet.  If you are near a car you better get out of the way or you will get run over.  Cars drive in the middle of the road, they drive on the left hand side of the road (their laws are the same as the US in terms of you are supposed to be on the right side of the road).  Here, if there is open blacktop you take it.  I cannot begin to say how many close calls we had.  There is no doubt our driver is a true professional.  He also has a horn that sounds like one on a large Mack truck.  He has  a smaller horn too that he just uses for motorcycles.  There must be a million motorcycyles in this city.  They are everywhere. 

We drove two hours to a very large lake that they say has over 1000 islands.  It was very pretty and reminded me of a James Bond movie.  There is a national park on the lake that we walked around in.  We walked on a swinging bridge high over the lake.  They had screened off areas in the lake by the shore to raise fish.  Little fish and very large fish.  Very few birds in China.  It is my understanding that many years ago they were considered unclean so most of them were killed.  It is also my understanding that they got rid of anything pretty, but that thought has changed now and we have seen some very pretty flowers.  The revolution started in Nanchang, which is the City in which I am teaching.  Nanchang is in the Jiangxi Provence, which is the same province that the sister city of Brunswick is located.  In fact we have one student from our sister city.  I think it is Gangzou.  After we left the lake we drove to a nearby resort and had lunch at a restaurant in the village.

These people, for being so skinny, eat a lot.  I do not know where they put it all.  By now, I have forgotten all that we had.  I know we had fresh whole fish from the lake, spicy veggies and a host of other dishes.  On the way back to the city we stopped by locals selling peaches by the roadside.  My guess is we were the first Americans to ever buy fruit from them.  They were all amazed at my height; of course everyone has been.  I expected to get comments, but not to the extent that I have.  It has been fun.  I usually do not stand up straight, but I have tried to stand nice and tall to provide the full effect.  In class today I rested my head on the top of the doorway.  You should have seen that reaction :)  When we returned to our dorm it was about 4:30 pm and we all took a rest.  It was good to have a nap after our lake excursion.  We met at 7:00 pm and took a walk down the street to Wal-Mart.

I can now say that not all Wal-Marts are the same. Wow!  For a Sunday evening I was amazed at how many people were out.  There must have been thousands.  The most interesting thing about Wal-Mart was the food section.  They had a fresh cooked section that to me smelled like a septic tank or worse.  You come down an escalator, turn right and you are hit with this odor.  I will never forget that smell.  I have no idea what they had cooked and what was for sale, but it was not going back home with me.  They also had live turtles, frogs and eels for sale.  I cannot imagine that in the grocery store back home.  We had frog for lunch yesterday bone and all.

Apparently the Chinese consider meat next to the bone good meat.  They put it all in their mouth, process the meat and bones, then spit the bones on the table.  It is totally opposite of everything my mama taught me.  But they say when in Rome do as the Romans do.  I tried it tonight at dinner and it was very odd spitting bones on the table.  It makes me laugh just thinking about it.  The looks I got in Wal-Mart were hysterical.  I think when I retire I will be a greeter at a China Wal-Mart :)  For dinner we went to KFC and got a spicy chicken sandwich.  No diet coke in Nanchang and I am having withdrawals.  However, KFC did have ice cream which was very much a treat.  Yum!  We left KFC and came back to the dorm to get a good nights sleep for our first day of teaching.

First Sights and Tastes in China

The flight from Detroit to Shanghai was long, but good.  We had a few periods of bumps, but not anything too bad.  I had a connecting flight  from Shanghai to Nanchang.  Nanchang is the city where I will be teaching.  The Shanghai airport was an amazing experience.  It is certainly the largest airport I have ever been in and, from the size of it, may be the largest in the world.  If China has a billion people I think half of them were in the airport.  I have never seen so many people in one place.  It is one of those things hard to describe.  Absolutely amazing!  What was supposed to be a three hour layover turned into six.  

At first, I guess for a couple of hours, I was in the upstairs main terminal, but then they said the gate was changed.  I gathered up my belongings and went on a long walk downstairs into a room that in Glynn County would be rated to hold a 100 people and that had close to 500.  Al Thomas, Glynn County Fire Chief, would not have been happy!  People were smoking and the air was thick with humidity.  Bad weather is what caused our delay.  The room had windows to the outside.  It was dark and dreary and very hot and sticky.  I felt like I was in an old movie.  So not having a clue about when my plane would leave I tried to make my way to the gate agent.  I initially tried to be a good southern gentleman and wait in line.  It did not take me long to realize that I had to take a different approach.  The Chinese at the airport were not very patient.  They were butting in line and talking so fast it would make a New Yorker out to be a slow talker.  In an aggressive manner I made my way to the gate agent.  I understood enough of what he said that my flight would board in twenty minutes.  I realized later that he just told me that to get rid of me.  He did not have a clue when my plane would arrive or leave to take me to Nanchang.  It was two hours later when we finally boarded our flight to Nanchang.  By the time I got to my room at the government institute in Nanchang I was ready for a long rest.  

While I was at the Shanghai Airport watching everything take place I was reminded of the virtue of patience.  The people I saw, not all but a lot, were not patient.  The next time I see someone at the Delta counter in the States complain I will think that they have nothing to complain about.  Obviously the poor gate agent could not do anything about the weather.  Rather than complain if people took the time to listen and understand there would be more peace and calmness.  I believe there is a lesson for local government in this.  Often times we press forward with a project without fully understanding the needs of the community.  I believe it is important to take time to listen and understand an issue.  I also believe it is important for the public to be more patient with their government and try to understand why a project is taking longer than expected  or why a certain project is needed.  Like with the weather delay at the airport, somethings are out of our control.  The gate agent was doing an awesome job controlling the situation, but a lot of the people did not want to understand. They just wanted to blame somebody.  

I think Glynn County employees do an awesome job, but sometimes things are out of their control and the public just wants to blame someone..  Based on this experience at the airport and my observation, I plan to work to be more patient and to take more time to understand the issues at hand and who will be affected by our decisions.  I think more thought needs to be given in this area not just by me, but all county officials.  Just like there is a delicate  balance with our coastal ecosystem we need to delicately balance each issue Glynn County faces.

I was able to get some rest Friday night.  I slept for about four hours and then it was time to meet our hosts for breakfast.  I was pleased to find the bed was long enough for me.  However, it is very hard compared to my bed at home.  When you are tired a hard bed works well.  I also was pleasantly surprised to find a tall shower.  My room is very small and has a bed, a desk, a chair and a small bathroom.  I cannot seem to get the door to close so when I am at the sink shaving the door hits me on my backside.  I have found out that I am 2.3 meters tall.  

Breakfast here is unusual.  It is funny watching me eat a fried egg with chopsticks.  A little slippery.  They have an orange drink with every breakfast and Coke.  They also have some type of instant coffee with sugar and milk already mixed in.  They have lots of other things for breakfast, as well.  Breads, rice porridge, spicy carrots, green steamed vegetables and bacon.

Saturday afternoon we took a trip to the mountains.  Unfortunately, I am not able to send pictures at this time.  We ended up at some trail that took us up the mountain.  It was made out of what we would call brick pavers and the labor to build this trail up the mountain must have been exhaustive.  Part of the trail was washed out.  It is the rainy season here.  Our shoes got wet through one part and then we were stopped by a very strong current of water washing over the trail.  We tried to use better judgement and turned back.  It was a very beautiful place and the park host, which was a woman, said that we were the first foreigners to ever come there.  

We stopped on our way back to the institute at a very nice restaurant in a new part of our city.  The Chinese people dine at round tables, which promote unity and better conversation.  My family purchased a round table when we moved to Glynn County for the same reason and it does seem to work well.  Each table has a Lazy Susan in the middle.  All food is placed on the Lazy Susan and individuals use their chopsticks to take off a small portion of food at a time.  Since I have been here I have not gone hungry, but they must have felt sorry for me because halfway through the meal I was provided a fork.  However, I took a vow before I came here that while in China no fork would touch my hand.

Lazy Susan

The dishes were plentiful and exotic.  Whole steamed fish, rice, veggies, cooked pumkin, dried fish.  It is amazing to watch.  Our driver sat next to me and he was an amazing guy to watch eat.  He would put a  whole small fish in his mouth process the fish and the bones then spit the bones on the table.  Absoultely incredible.  Not sure how he did that.  It was a great meal and the fellowship was wonderful.  Our hosts are very kind. Very kind and a true delight to be with.

Chinese Veggies

Whole steamed fish

The Journey Begins...

I have started my travel to China.  I am currently aboard a flight to Detroit.  According to the on flight computer we are at the Kentucky Tennessee line.  It is pretty much a straight shot north from Atlanta.  I am sitting next to a guy who is from Detroit and who has a sister who lives on Tybee Island.  I told him I was close by, but the islands of Glynn were far better!

Today marks ten months since I started work in Glynn County.  A lot has been accomplished in a short period of time. Through my years of local government service I have worked with several boards some of them have been good and others have been challenging.  The current Board in Glynn County is one of the best I have worked with.  Now I know what people may think about that, but my comment is sincere.  We also have a great group of department heads and elected officials who are committed to serving the citizens well and striving to find ways to improve services.  I will be sharing about the Glynn County team in China.  I am very proud of who I serve with and I believe the Chinese  government officials I share with will understand why after I tell them about us.  I hope to learn from them as well.  In the last two months I have read three books about China and I am on my fourth.  There is tremendous history that dates back thousands of years.  We can learn a lot from history and I hope to share the history of Glynn County while I learn more about the history of China.

It is an honor for me to participate with the University of Georgia team and to represent the Golden Isles.  Hopefully, I will have wifi in China and can share my experiences.