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Published: July 20th 2008
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As dark rain clouds gathered , Alex ascended the first route up the steep cliff. His muscular, manly fingers gripped the sharp edge of the limestone karst cliff as he gazed up, up up......"Only 22 meters high? Ha! I could do that in my sleep!" he thought to himself. Down below, Julie looked up lovingly, full of the kind of confidence that only comes from experience. "Only 22 meters high? Ha! He could do this in his sleep!" she thought to herself.
Suddenly, Alex lost his grip! He frantically clutched at the rock, and his agile feet nimbly pushed off a tiny toe-hold, jettisoning his body up. But tragically, there were to be no handholds for Alex that day, no neat crack to grip, no easy way to the top. Alex's knee bashed against the jagged rock as he began to flail. Blood poured out of his leg and the whole valley echoed Alex's bellow of pain.
"Why, God? WHY?" Alex cut his leg while rock climbing last week. Actually, the cut was fairly deep, deep enough that I could see another layer of tissue peeking out from below. However, Alex felt that it was not deep enough
to stop climbing for the day. In fact, he cut his leg during the very first climb of the day, washed it out and then tied a bandana around it until he was finished climbing After we consulted our friend Glennyce, who is a top-notch RN, we took him to a Chinese hospital to get stitches.
The hospital adventure would have been hilarious if it weren't so very strange. Right before we came in, a
a man with a mangled leg was brought in, by his friends. Imagine a small lobby linked with three small rooms. That is the ER here in good old Yangshuo. Obviously , a mangled leg bleeds A LOT, so there was blood all over the floor, all over the nurses, and all over the doctor. The guy's girlfriend was walking around the lobby with blood splattered all over her clothes until the nurse told her to change. The nurses quickly swept the floor, but the doctor was still wearing his bloody lab coat when he was pulled OUT of the room with mangled leg guy, to check on Alex. Alex was not bleeding at this point and the other guy clearly had lost blood.
The privileges of being white in China.
Smoking is allowed just about everywhere. Even at our school, smoking is frowned upon but not forbidden. And hey, if you have to bring your buddy in for a mangled leg, the only thing that will make you feel better is a smoke, right? The friends of the injured man wasted no time in beginning a long line of chain smoking, hardly even putting one out before lighting another. The doctor asked for some help moving the man to another room and his friends were happy to oblige, lit cigarettes dangling precariously over his injury.
Alex got 2 stitches in his leg from the Chinese doctor and some great medical care from our friend Glennyce.
Also, have I mentioned that I just spent nearly 2 weeks teaching seven year olds? Oh , of all children, I think 7 year olds have the most to offer. They are big enough that if they jump on you, you will fall down. And yet, they are still small enough to intimidate! Best of both worlds, really.
The children really aren't that bad, but the teaching methods of their assistant teachers is off-putting,
at least by my standards. And remember, I don't even like kids! A few days ago, one of my children cheated during a game, and her teacher gathered all the other children around her to "criticize" her. I've seen the kids get smacked in the face when they misbehave, and I've seen the teachers openly mock the students. I think it must just be the culture. When the children learn anything, they must recite it as a class. If I say "How are you?" EVERY child in the room must answer at once "I'm fine, and YOU?"
Most of the kids have been speaking English in school for at least two or three years, so communication is usually no problem. But getting them to say anything original is like pulling teeth. I'll ask them if they had a nice nap and they will look to the teacher for prompting. Then, they will recite whatever the teacher says, usually in unison with any students who happen to be standing nearby.
Julie : Hey, did you have a nice nap?
Student: (looks frightened, bewildered, turns to assistant teacher for help)
Teacher's assistant: YES JULIE I HAD A NICE NAP!
Student (yelling ): YES JULIE I HAD A NICE NAP!
We've taken our kids down to West Street to invite foreigners to various events at our school, and usually it goes ok but sometimes.....The kids like to pounce on any unsuspecting white person, surround them and shout, all ten or fifteen of them at once: " HELLO! HOW ARE YOU? WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"
Sometimes even adults run away from them.
Two of our new friends got the unenviable task of teaching summer camp to middle school kids. On their first day of teaching, maybe just 48 hours after leaving Canada, they had to teach a roomful of Chinese students the following text ( this is it exactly, I stole a copy from the teacher assistant) :
I can't stand my poor English! I want to improve my situation! I want to change my life! I don't want to let my parents down! I don't EVER want to let my country down ! Most importantly, I don't want to let myself down! I want to speak perfect English! I want to understand all kinds of accents! I want to write beautiful articles! I want to read thousands of books! I want to translate freely between Chinese and English! I want to be the master of the world's two most important languages; Chinese and English!
There's more, but you get the idea. It must be a popular text because at dinner today, we ran into a Chinese guy who is teaching himself English and he recited the last part word for word.
I'm feeling pretty sad about leaving Yangshuo. Most of the people that were here when we started have finished. And we only have one more month of swimming, rock climbing, and just generally messing around until we start traveling again.
On the plus side, Alex's parents are coming to visit! We couldn't be more excited. Can't wait for you to get here, Janet and Robert!
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