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Published: April 12th 2011
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Greetings. I've not written owt for a bit. The reason for this is relatively simple. I recently asked an ex-VSO China volunteer (a recent escapee) for a bit of information over the internet. They happened to comment that China was a fascinating place to live and a shit place to work. I guess this has become all too apparent, and I've been counting the days, inbetween occasional lapses into minor interest. I've slipped from studying Mandarin on a daily basis and practicing it with whoever I have the chance to at every opportunity, to not studying at all and not even bothering to chat to people at work. Mmmm...why? It's complex. I think the only thing I can say right now is...I will never, ever, ever come back here. When I look at it objectively, I find this a bit weird, as the local people are generally lovely, smiley, friendly and show no real hostility.
Working within this system is so incredibly frustrating, and involves a total loss of independance and control over when and how you do things, in a million ways. For the Chinese, it's ingrained. Standing back to usher the 'superiors' through the door, fighting with them
to force them to sit down in the special seat facing the door which is the most auspicious, giving them their food first, making their tea...everything is servility, however to them it is (some might say) arguably just consequential respect/humility. For a European, living within the culture feels pretty much akin to some form of social kidnapping. It is incredibly difficult to perform any simple task or do something for someone else, of your own free will. As a foreign guest, you fall victim to many of these 'acts of kindness', and so are 'respected', but this is merely a formulaic procedure. In the realm of the world within which you work, there is a far more concrete hierarchy, evident in every piece of unwanted but quietly digested advice, every toast, every laborious boozy soliloquy, every laugh of apparent amusement and interest. As Monsieur Orwell commented regarding animal equality...hmm, needless to say, it is still painfully applicable. The standard of living is much higher for people nowadays in many ways, even for the poor, (noone is surviving purely on black flour, insects or tree bark) but at the same time a hell of a lot of things haven't changed in
this region since the cultural revolution. Sadly, VSO have been unable to have much influence at policy level in China. This is no surprise. Still, our work has been effective with the majority of the teachers we've trained and assisted. When you see the way most children are used to studying (it is like extreme military school) and take into account that many children are boarding from the age of 8, you realise how much difference a little participatory learning can make to their everyday lives. I've just had to spend a lot of my working life practicing extreme levels of tolerence beyond tolerence, because the way of doing things is so different!
On a lighter note, a slice of rural life...recently, I've been wandering around the villages, and it's fascinating to see what's happening now that the snow has gone and the farmland is coming to life. It's sowing time here now. The majority of the younger men are migrant workers and leave for much of the year, so many of those working the fields are women or tough leathery old men. They're planting all sorts of veg...corn, spinach and the like. Some have got little modern
tractors, but most people farm with old fashioned 'walking tractors' where they stand on a little plough or other attachments which are strapped onto the back of a very basic tractorish vehicle which is started up with a crank.
The villages all used to rely on a little reservoir for water supply, and they believed that a dragon lived in any pool of water, so there is often a little dragon temple next to the ditch or by the farmland. I expect these temples must also be connected to fertility, as I've seen big coiled dragons where rituals are performed by the farm fields. The farmland is endless. There is no rain here. There hasn't been a single drop of rain since I moved here. The land is irrigated by snow (it finally seems to have stopped snowing, but we had snowfalls up until a week ago) and then by snow-meltwater from the mountains which should come in the next few weeks.
Recently I visited a village where apparently all the families were kung fu masters. We wandered around the village, but were unable to find anyone who was willing to fight me, even though we shared our
crisps with them. Soft as!
We're off to Xian, to finally meet some people from VSO for a few days of workshops/meetings, the day after tomorrow. The prospect of meeting some 'foreigners' is quite exciting! Sarah is winding down in her schedule now, and will be finished within a few weeks of coming back, and my last round of training n observations will be done by the end of May. Oh, the sweet sweet nectar of liberation.
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Elizabeth chweya
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Where can I get the plough from, any details