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Published: November 29th 2005
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Kids playing and talking.
Every day children climbed all over this building, playing, talking, or doing their homework when school was in session. One night I was writing in our journal. I wrote: "Outside I can hear the happy voices of many children playing. They were playing a childrens singing game. If I am right in interpreting what I hear, one group sings and the second responds. Intermixed with the singing I could hear children laughing, calling to each other ... having a great time together. Living in a safe and a secure environment these children have a great time together."
This Quonset hut type building, which was beside our building, was a favorite place for many children. Every day several would climb onto the top to play, sit and talk, study, and call to friends. Surprisingly no child was hurt the entire time we lived here. Big kids would help smaller children on and off the building. Parents seemed unconcerned. I never saw a parent tell their child to come down. I never saw a parent refuse to let their child climb on this building.
Most of the building is underground. We were told that previously it was used as a cold cellar for storing vegetables, primarily Chinese cabbage, over the winter. For the first twenty or thirty years of Communist
Two girls stamping their feet in a mud puddle
It isn't just boys who like to stamp their feet in mud puddles. These girls, on their way home from school, had a great time splashing each other for several minutes. rule Chinese cabbage seems to have been the only vegetable available during the winter. “It became terribly boring,” we were told. I expect by the time spring vegetable appeared many people were sick and tired of cabbage.
And children are children regardless of where they live. Boys shouted and played, as do girls. Friends sat and talked and others did their homework here. All children seem to love playing in water and the summer of 2000 gave the children of Xi’an ample opportunities to splash, stomp, and walk in water. The summer was very wet breaking an eight year drought. When Nancy and I arrived in Xi’an in June the Wei river was almost dry. When I left in late October this same river was at flood stage.
The children of NPU appear happy and secure. They are allowed to be children. There seems to be no fear that anyone is going to hurt them, at least as long as they stay on campus. I do not know what warnings, if any, their parents give them when they have to go off campus. I am very sure that children under ten are never allowed off campus without an
adult being with them. Parents or grandparents walk the children to school and are waiting at the gate of the school to pick them up when school is out, either for lunch or the end of the day. A huge crowd waits, watching for their child or grandchild to appear.
Two girls, on their way home from school, stop to stamp their feet in the water and splashing each other after several days of rain. They had a wonderful time splashing each other. In a few minutes, laughing they went on their way home for lunch. I wondered what their mother's said when they arrived home with soaked shoes and socks.
I could not believe one girls flexibility. She was watching, waiting to grab tadpoles in a small fountain across the street from the NPU Library. She was so absorbed in her play that she never noticed us watching her. I could no more get into this position then fly. With this flexibility I think she could be trained to be part of a Chinese acrobatic team.
Not long after we left for home the concrete Quonset building was torn down to make room for a new
building. I thought it rather sad that the children no longer had such a wonderful place to play, do their homework or just sit and talk to each other.
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