China - third time around

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Hello to all of you:

First I must apologize for not writing an update sooner. This always happens. When I’m teaching, I really don’t feel as though I’m on much of a holiday. I just go about my daily routine - teaching.

However, my social life here in this small village is much more active than last year. I have dinner out with friends at their apartments at least twice each week. Sometimes I even cook here and invite some friends in. On many weekday nights, I have various students drop in to talk. On weekends, I try to go for a long cycle on one day and visit a nearby city the next. I have also stayed with my friend, Chris, from New Zealand, at his place in Guangzhou - twice, and twice to stay with Thai in Zhongshan at my old school. It’s nice to catch up with old friends and talk real English. As you may know, I’m the only foreigner here at my school and certainly in my village. When I say “village”, I really mean “village”. The narrow main street is about 400 metres long bisected by a short wide street with some new food places. One half of the main street is market and fruit and vegetable and animal stalls outside and tiny shops selling wire, bowls, rice, oil and whatever you need. The other end has the same but more shops and less stalls.
You can buy snacks or meals at the snack stalls or you can eat at one of the few restaurants.

One day the students were asked by the town to line the streets for a parade - you’ll never guess what and you won’t be surprised - it was for the local boys who had joined the army and it was a send-off for them.

On the other hand, behind the main street are many canals - it’s so peaceful and many peaceful alleys.

I spent last weekend with my friend, Rosea, at her school. Rosea was my best friend at my school last year. What a beautiful school! Right now there are only 800 students from Primary to Senior but the school has been built to handle over 3000. The owner has promised the parents and thus the Headmaster that there would never be more than 40 in a class. The track is just like the one at York University. There is an indoor Olympic size swimming pool and huge gym above it. The indoor and outdoor court surfaces are all rubberized. It’s only about 10 minutes from the biggest supermarket in Zhongshan . But there is no small village nearby. I would say that it’s in a modern suburb but Rosea loves it there. As beautiful as the school is, I prefer my dreary little village.

Today, I needed a repair to my hiking boots. In a city, I’d have to take a bus somewhere - who knows where. Here, I walk outside the school gate, go about 50 metres to the shoemaker and Voila - repaired in 2 minutes for 15 cents.

I have finalized my plans for the vacation. I will go to Nanning, in Guangxi province. It is very poor just like my poor school last year. It will really be just a home base as there are 2 areas of interest SW and SE of it. Of course, I will be on my own and having to use my Chinese skills, not to mention my acting and mime skills.

The first is Detian Waterfall - the 2nd largest waterfall in the world that is between 2 countries - after Niagara Falls. http://www.detian.com - click on the title on the left.
The problem is that it is not easy to get to. So I will see several villages on my way there and back to Nanning. That will be a 5-day trip.
There is one village in this area (probably more) - but I read about this one. There is one man in the village who is the most widely-travelled of his village-mates. And the furthest that he has traveled is 30 miles from the village! Can you imagine!

The second is a visit and homestay in the ethnic minority Panlong village. To get there, I will ride in a riverboat for a few hours and also visit very famous cliff paintings. I’ll stay in the village. From Nanning and back to Nanning will be another 5 days.

Then I must make my way to Wuzhou because it is close to a friend’s home where I will spend Spring Festival. On my way, I will stop in Guiping (Feb.3-5) where I will stay in National Forest in a cabin and do some hiking. I plan to spend about a week at her place. Nearby is the 2nd largest monolith in the world, next to Ayer’s Rock So we will travel to see it. She said something about some gigantic cave system too - so that’s another visit. Then, of course, all the family visits to see the foreigner that she has brought home!

I’m interested in the customs in her hometown at Spring Festival. Last year in Guizhou, I was at a man’s house and he celebrated by doing 4 things: 1 - burning incense for the ancestors 2- burning paper money (fake) to show that money is not important 3- pasting new banners around the doorway for good luck, health and prosperity in the new year and 4 - this is a biggie - cut the head off a chicken, drained the blood and drank the blood - raw, at first, and then cooked some for me!! I declined.

I hope to return to Guangzhou after 3 weeks and stay with Chris for a few days then come back to my village to do some laundry with a real machine (no dryers here). Then another teacher and I will travel to a nearby village famous (UN Cultural and Heritage site) for its old towers. http://www.icm.gov.mo/exhibition/tc/kpintroE.asp

My first term here has been wonderful. Sometimes I can’t imagine being anywhere else and then I remember the clean air and orderly traffic in Canada and I think that the 6-month plan is the best.
The luster is still not off. When I appear at the door of a class, I hear “It’s Bonnie!” and they cheer and applaud. So different from Supply Teaching at home whe I show up and they complain.

The village WC’s - not all of the homes have a WC. Theirs is a brick enclosure over a fishing pond - handy when I'm out biking. However, some homes are quite modern - some beautiful and some pretty ugly. All are made of tile.

Students stay at their desks and the teachers go from class to class. Actually most teachers teach only 2 classes per day but have duty hours from 6:30am to 10:30 pm various days. Each class has a “head teacher” and “assistant head teacher”. They are responsible for the character education, daily living and study habits of their students. Each month classes are awarded prizes based upon their marks and behaviour. At the end of the year, the Head Teachers get more money if their class is one of the top 4. In addition to money, they also get rice and cooking oil! Maybe the schools in Canada should do this and give Tim Horton certificates!!

Christmas Day, several students came to my place and cooked a Chinese dinner for me, after which we played dominoes and cards and sang Christmas carols.

One of the things that I don’t like about this school - and it is not unique in this - but when a student is bad, he or she must be criticized. So when each grade has about 20 bad students, they have an assembly and the bad student is called up on stage to stand before the crowd while the Vice-Headmaster harangues them for several minutes. This was never done at my old school. However, at the old one, when a student was bad in class, the teacher yelled at him or her. Here, the teacher talks quietly with him or her. The assembly is for such things as:
Climbing the walls to go to the computer shop, fighting, smoking, drinking, and one little boy cut a hole in the wall to get to the room next to his bedroom. They rarely expel anyone.

Of my 1000 students in 16 classes (do the math), I have learned about 6 names in each class. I see them only once each week so it is difficult. Thanks goodness some come to my apartment.

Re: exercise. I run around the wonderful track fairly regularly, badminton 3 or 4 times each week and a long bike ride once each week. Last year, I needed my bike to go to town to buy fruit but here I can walk so I don’t get as much exercise when getting daily necessities.

Just so you can laugh by the time your eyes are so bleary - here’s a quote from an ad for a resort in China. The Chinese language is very flowery, to say the least, and often they use a dictionary or electronic translator to change the words to English: Enjoy:
“When staying at the bamboo villas in the clustered forests, you can enjoy roric lotus and rising sun in the morning, take a shower of lotus pond's moonlight in the nighttime, and even enjoy whiffing from terrace and picking lotus.”

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Photos

Town gate
My village - Xin Cun Village, Beijiao Town, Shunde District

Street in the village
Outside of the 2 or 3 main streets, most are like this.

Snack food
Grab a snack or even dinner

Canal
The village has dozens of these peaceful waterways. Sometimes you can be fortunate enough to see a local paddling a wooden dinghy of sorts.

Main Street
They recetnly painted a yellow line down the middle - it's barely wide enough for 2 vehicles - and besides the drivers in china don't care about the lines!

Supermarket
Everything you could possibly want - except cereal, fruit juice and skim milk!