October - visitors, autumn days and dogs for sale.

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Jerry and I have had a very busy month. Lessons are going very well and my students have accepted that I will be using the text book for all my lessons and have stopped grumbling about it. It is hard work though as I have a lot of subject matter to get through each lesson. It is made more difficult because I can’t explain meanings of words to them in Chinese. Anyway we are halfway through the text book now - I actually only have 4 more lessons to plan before the end of the year. The rest of the time will be taken up with revision or fun lessons. Jerry is still thoroughly enjoying his classes and the students certainly love him! They are now able to stay in bed for an extra 20 minutes a day - the wake up bell now is at 6am, with morning exercises starting at 6.20 - in the half dark. The days are getting a lot shorter and much cooler.

All our days follow a similar pattern - eat, sleep, read, watch tv, school, shop and Jerry plays his flutes regularly. On weekends though we still explore the area and usually spend both days walking. One weekend we decided to catch the mini bus to Guangshui Town, 20 minutes away and walk back along the main road to our school. We were the centre of attention as we did this - it was so funny to watch the local drivers swivel their heads to look at us as they drove past! However we decided that we were creating a bit too much interest - so for the sake of road safety we headed off into the hills. It was a great walk, very pretty country and we were able to watch the farmers separate the rice grains from the stems. First the rice was cut by hand and left to lie on the fields for a few ew days before it was tied together in small bunches which were then left standing upright on the fields for a few more days. After this it was taken to the edges of the roads and left lying for the traffic to run over it - as they seem to do with most grain crops here. Then the dried stems were shaken to remove the rice grains before the grains were taken away, laid out to dry yet again and then tossed high into the air with wooden shovels to dehusk the rice. A long but interesting process. The fields have mostly since remained empty but a few farmers have started to plant small plots of winter vegetables in some of them.

The country road we followed was in very good condition but seemed to be going nowhere. However we rounded a corner and suddenly the road ended at the gates of a large air force base. There must be many other similar bases in the hills around here as we’ve been told that thousands of air force personnel are in the area. Our town has at least half a dozen visible bases in the town centre. We walked back to the main road with a group of giggling young teenage girls who were heading back to school after their Saturday half day. They attended a small private school in the next village and spoke very little English. We took a lot of photos that weekend of Gaungshui streets and markets which I will download as a separate photo page on Travel Blog soon.

The following weekend was the beginning of the National Day holidays in China and my mother and aunt were coming to stay with us in Guangshui. The Chinese National Day is October 1st and it celebrates the birth of The Peoples’ Republic of China. Our school had a 4 day break, though most of the junior schools and all Government offices had a weeks holiday. We had both asked for an extra day off - Friday - and the school was happy to give it to us. I planned on going to Wuhan at midday on Thursday (after my morning classes) to stay the night with Mum and Dell at a hotel, before Jerry came down on Friday to help us take the luggage (they both had a fair bit and I had a long grocery shopping list) back by train to the school. However at the last minute - we are always advised of changes at the last minute - I found that I was to be given the morning off so was able to catch the train to Wuhan at 8am on Thursday. It was great to see Mum and Dell. They both looked surprisingly well considering that they had just finished a 25 day, very intensive tour of China. First duty in Wuhan was to extend both their visas as they would be expired by 2 days when they left the country otherwise. They would have been fined 1000 yuan each and had a grilling by Chinese officials at passport control at Beijing airport as they left to fly back to Australia. I dread government offices here - they are very hard to deal with, usually very rude and seemingly inefficient. We caught a taxi to the PSB - Public Security Bureau - which was thankfully only ten minutes away. It could very easily have been an hours taxi ride across the city!

I presumed that the visas would have been able to be extended immediately in Wuhan - it is the 6th largest city in China and has regular tourists pass through it enroute to the Three Gorges. How wrong I was! I should have realized after our visa problems previously that it wouldn’t be easy. The girl told us to leave the passports and come back in 10 days to collect them. It was the 29th and they were leaving the country on the 4th - 5 days later! I explained that that could not be possible and asked if they could be done in 24 hours. She said that you have to wait 5 days usually but because of the National Day holidays we would not get them back for 10 days. She said that as I was a teacher in China if I took the passports to my local police station they would process them straight away. I rang Champion, our wonderful support teacher, from the office, who immediately rang the local police in Guangshui. It appeared that it could be done but we would have to be back in Guangshui early Friday morning. We decided to catch the train which left Wuhan at 7am next morning. After going back to the hotel we had a great lunch in the restaurant at the hotel and spent a short time catching up. Champion rang back and told me that he had spoken to the headmaster who said that the school would send the school car into Wuhan to collect us late that evening. The car was already in Wuhan - the headmaster was attending a party - but after he returned to Guangshui the driver would drive back to Wuhan (2 hours!) to collect us! We went downstairs and booked out before catching a taxi across the city to the museum. I particularly wanted to show them the artifacts from the tomb near Guangshui, including the marvelous bells which were buried in the tomb. The museum was still under renovation though the main display from the tomb, which is the highlight of the museum, was open. We were lucky to catch a short concert on a replica of the bells which was interesting.

Next on the ‘must do’ list was a visit to the supermarket and Dvd shop. I was not leaving Wuhan without more tuna, cheese and brown bread! Trips to shops in Wuhan are at least a month apart. We wandered around the central shopping area for a while and visited my favourite dvd shop before I left Mum and Dell recovering with a pot of tea at the Holiday Inn. I dashed down the road to the supermarket - it was now 7pm and the school car was due in an hour. Whilst I was there Champion rang up and said that the school car had not returned - the headmaster was obviously enjoying his party - and it could not collect us!!! And he said that we needed to be back in Guangshui by 8am next morning! There was nothing else to do but hire a car to get us home. An hour later - and 1000 yuan on Mum’s credit card - we were in the Holiday Inn car heading towards Guangshui. Deducting train, taxi and the cost of the extra nights accommodation we had cancelled the trip actually only cost 200 yuan more - a mere AUD $30 for the 2 and half hour ride. And we didn’t have to worry about the luggage.

We were very tired when we arrived at our school - only 104 steps upwards to bed! We had a quick snack and headed off to bed. Next morning we were up early but had still had no breakfast when Champion phoned and said that we must go to the police station ‘Now’! We arrived at the police station and Champion started filling out forms etc - it all seemed to be progressing smoothly and quickly. Half an hour later he came over with a handful of papers and said ‘we must go’. Home - we thought! But no! The papers had to be taken immediately to Suizhou - one hour away - to be stamped and the office was closing for the National Day holidays in 2 hours! We left Jerry and Champion hiring a taxi to drive them there and back and went back home. Two hours after they left I had a call from the office in Suizhou - they had forgotten to cancel the old visa and the new one was not valid until it had been cancelled with another stamp. Thank heavens for mobile phones as I was able to contact Jerry to go back to the office - by that stage they were half way back to Guangshui! Jerry arrived back (with the new visa stamps) thankful to be alive as they had a maniac taxi driver - the worst driver Jerry had experienced in China and we’ve seen some pretty bad ones. The whole morning cost 200 yuan in taxi fares, 160 yuan each for the visas and Champion had to cancel two classes and miss his niece’s wedding feast (most wedding feasts are held at lunchtime).Our support teacher, Champion certainly lives up to his English name - he is a real champion! He has helped us graciously and happily so many times since we came to China.

The remainder of the day was spent quietly catching up on news. Next day the school had arranged to take us all out for the day. They had been very excited when we told them that we were getting visitors from Australia and very dissappionted that they weren't able to stay longer. We had asked to revisit the little village and the mountain area that the school took Jerry, Mel and Renee and I when we first arrived in Guangshui. The school bus was full when we left with the five most important men in the school (the headmaster and deans), a lot of the English teachers and their families. We were very surprised when we saw the five senior staff on board the bus and were very appreciative of the compliment they paid us by coming. It was the first day of the holidays and they were all out to have a fun day. The noise level on the bus was incredible - we are used to it but Mum and Dell looked a little stunned by it. They stopped for a breakfast of steamed buns 5 minutes after we left and then we headed off out into the countryside. I love the area nearby as it full of tiny villages and a constantly changing rural tableau. The roads were very rough as they are unsealed but an hour later we arrived at the village. An enjoyable hour was spent wandering down the street and looking through one of the village houses before we got back onto the bus and were driven to another ‘scenic spot’, again over rough dirt roads. This one was another reservoir - the Chinese love water. Back on the bus and we were taken back to the village for lunch which had been cooked for us all by a villager.

After lunch many of the teachers stayed in the house and played mahjong whilst the rest of us were driven to the Three Ponds scenic area. It is very pretty area, with a large waterfall flowing down a gorge through 3 ponds. It was raining lightly and was slippery underfoot so Mum and I sat and enjoyed a pot of tea together in a small restaurant. With typical Chinese generosity the restaurant would not allow me to pay for the tea. These small courtesies happen regularly here. We went back to the village for an evening meal before heading back along the rough roads to Guangshui. Next day was spent quietly exploring some of the city markets and shops and an enjoyable hour was spent having a facial. On the last day of Mum’s visit the weather turned bitterly cold and as Mum already had a bad cough we decided to spend it quietly watching dvd’s and talking. Next day the school drove us all to the airport in Wuhan where we sadly said goodbye to them both. It had been great to see them and when we left Australia I certainly never expected my first, and so far only, visitors from home would be my Mum and aunt. They had a long trip home - we left the school at 9am on Tuesday and they didn’t arrive back in Australia until 6pm Chinese time on Wednesday. Thankfully they arrived back safely and with no problems with customs or flights.

After they left we both felt down but I guess that is a normal reaction. The weeks are flying by and they have now been home 3 weeks. We have booked return tickets to Australia for 22nd January which will be at least a week after school finishes. The school really wants us to stay but I’m looking forward to returning to Australia. Jerry would love to spend another six months at least here. Both of us are now concerned about Avain flu breaking out here, particularly as the Chinese government has advised they will be closing the borders immediately they have the first case of human to human flu. I am currently concerned because the Chinese government is now not allowing access to the World Health Organistion website - it downloads and then instantly disappears off the screen. This happens here regularly with internet sites. Both of us will miss China a lot though when we leave. We love our students and the people here are so incredibly friendly and welcoming. The school has done everything they can to make our time here comfortable and stress free. The main reason I'll be pleased to return is to see friends family and again - I have missed them - and it will be great not to have difficulties with communication. That is the hardest thing to overcome in China - the language is incredibly difficult to learn because of the tones (and I will admit we haven't made an incredible effort to learn it) and even the best English speaker in our school (Champion) has a very limited dictionary of English words he can use. Also their values on life in general are so different that even if we could have a really indepth conversation with them we would have difficulty understanding each other vviews. I feel sad that they have so little freedom here - they need permission to do so much which involves enormous amounts of paperwork. The teachers here regularly have to attend Communist Party meetings, most of them hate it but the headmaster tells them they must so they have to!

The school has installed satellite television for us - we now have 157 channels of which only 2 are in English! Most of the channels are from China, India, Pakistan and Omman. The English channels we get are CCTV9 which is a channel about China operated by the Chinese government which does have some interesting shows about China on it, and one reasonable half hour of international news a day. The other channel is from Singapore, Channel Newsasia, and their news reports are much more indepth. It is free to air television and as official approval has been granted for us to have it (many satellites are set up illegally but we have the certificate with the red star stamp) we be should be able to arrange for some pay services. But at this stage of the year we really couldn't be bothered trying to sort it out - we'll leave that for the next teacher. It is great though to see international news pictures etc.

One weekend we caught a bus to Gaungshui and then another bus onto the next town called Dawu. It was a really interesting town, obviously poorer then Yingshan. It had a couple of large factories, belching smoke, on the edge of the town and no 'brand name' shops in the main street. We didn't even see a supermarket but visited a very large market area which followed the river bank. This area was Yingshan 2 years ago before supermarkets come into the city. Since our arrival 9 months ago a large part of the central market area has disappeared under construction sites and many more smaller supermarkets have opened up. We saw many Chinese medicine stalls with strange dried things on display - snakes, animal bones and heads and internal organs and numerous dried insects etc. We watched a man make the hand held scales that all the farmers use when thay sell their produce on the street. We also saw our first dog (totally skinned, head still with teeth but furry paws) hung for sale in the markets, along with rabbits (unskinned but very dead). I felt quite ill when I saw the dog - later we saw life ones caged ready for the markets. My stomach turned again as we watched a man skin live frogs in one very quick movement. Yuk!

We had another thoroughly enjoyable walk the weekend after Mum left. We packed a picnic lunch (mandarins, crackers and cheese spread) and headed off into the hills. We passed a couple of tiny villages and whilst having our lunch watched lines of young children come out from their school and run down the hill to the river. We wandered what they were all doing but when we went closer realised they were taking their rice bowls down to the river to wash them. We went into the school - it was a large primary school and were soon surrounded by a jostling giggling crowd of children. Unfortunately none of them spoke a word of English - not even the usual 'hello'.

Next day we met the two new foreign teachers (Mel and Renee's replacements)who had just arrived in town. Their school has had trouble finding teachers and the other teacher who was due to arrive a couple of days later never arrived. She gave false travel details so obviously had a change of heart at the last minute. She was a dark skinned African who didn't speak English as a native language. Kyle and his girlfriend Olivia are 19 year olds from Canberra - neither look much older than their students! We felt so sorry for them after we spent a few hours with them - they had the same look of shock on their faces that I remember seeing in the mirror when we first arrived! They were due to start classes the next day and hadn't even been given the books they were to use - though they had found text books in the apartment and presumed they would be teaching from one of them! Next day they were given their roster and thrown in the deep end - as we predicted. When I heard that the other teacher was a no show I told them that the school would ask them to do her classes - she had 25 each week, all the senior students in the school. The school did ask them and now thay are doing a lot of them. They asked for more money and it has been promised... You learn very fast when you come to China to sink or swim! Thankfully they got through the first week and seemed much happier last weekend - they are dog paddling very well at the moment! I read a comment on a esl forum by another teacher who had just arrived to teach at a school in China - a 62 year old man, not a qualified teacher in Australia. He asked about the text book he would be using - the headmaster said " We have no text book but at our school meeting it was decided that you may have 1 week before you start teaching to write it!" That is so typical of China.

Last Saturday we lost electricity - for the second time this week, both times for 9 hours. Because there is so much road construction happening the workmen have to remove power poles. We decided to go out for the day so walked 12 klms (again with a picnic) along another road (we've really explored our local area now in all directions) and caught a bus back into the town when we got tired. We were surprised when we boarded the bus to see a Tibetan man dressed in robes, jewellery and the turned up cowboy hat they all wear, on the bus. The three of us created a stir when we got off the bus in Yingshan - it was an area of the city where we weren't familiar faces and obviously the towns' people would not see a traditionally dressed Tibetan very often, if at all! We spent Sunday walking in the countryside with Kyle and Olivia. It was a great day - the weather was pleasantly cool. We walked from their school (at the opposite end of the city to ours) across the fields to the temple on the hill that we visited pre iously with Mel and Renee and then through more fields, across the river to our school. It was a very long but enjoyable walk which I think they enjoyed. We were at the temple at lunch time and the monks insisted we ate lunch with them. It was a very tasty meal! This week, Friday and Saturday the students here have a sports meeting so we have the day off. Next week the old school have a sports meeting as well so I'll also have next Wednesday off. The following week is the mid term exams, Tuesday and Wednesday with a preparation day on Monday so we have another 3 days off work. As far as we know the students then have a four day holiday but we haven't been officially advised of this - no doubt we'll be told the day before! Anyway we are almost certain that we will have a 9 day break - we will spend part of that time in Wuhan. We cannot complain that we are overworked here. Life is pretty easy here even though frustrating at times!

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Photos

Cutting the rice crop.
This photo was taken from our balcony window.

Tossing the rice to remove the husks.
This is on the main road into Guangshui town - the roads everywhere are carpeted with rice for kilometres!

A country road
Note the tiny traditional farmers chair - we love them - and the school has offered to buy us a couple as a farewell present and are checking shipping costs at the moment.

Happy smiles from Mum and Dell
Note the underwear laid out to dry on the wood heap!

Champion and his gorgeous daughter, Engel
Our wonderful support teacher and friend.

The deans of the school playing mahjong.
This photos was taken in the village house where we had lunch and dinner during the day out with Mum and Dell.

The last day of summer - maybe!
Walking in the fields behind the school.

Making hand held scales.
These scales are used by all the farmers here when they sell their produce.

Winter is here - dog is for sale!
Our first sight of dog meat for sale - it was in Dawu, 40 minutes from Guangshui.

Skinning frogs!
Dawu markets again - very interesting town.

Footpath vegetables
A typical footpath scene in all Chinese small towns.

Comments

[Colleen Farry]

Hi
Linny I am still enjoying your diary! Would never tire of reading your adventures! You should think of putting all your travels into a book. I am sure it would sell well. Keep up the writing. All is well in Sarina and very busy with my weddings. Colleen

[Timer]

enjoy your dairy
you really write well. it attracts me a lot . in fact, i am a student of u, in 2004,when i was in grade 2.