Random quotes

Last week, several of my friends and students asked and said some interesting things. Here's a list:

Neighbor A: "I like your hair; how did you make it?"

Friend B: "Can I go to the church if it 's that time of the month for me?"

From some student speeches:

"Tears were on the way. . . "

" I knew having a good soak would be my best option."

"I was weary of myself but then I met him... do you know who? (pause) My friend, reading books."

(photo of me and former student; she's now in Beijing)

If I could write a letter to you....

Dear country of current residency,

I was a little discouraged by living in you this week-end. Tired because a meeting that was supposed to start at 10:30 on a Saturday morning started for me at 9:00 when people started showing up at my apartment and ended at 1:00 after a slightly awkward lunchtime.

Tired because I waited in numerous traffic jams on buses where people stared and talked about us like we were animals.

Tired because some nail people said "We can do all four of your nails at the same time" when their definition of "same time" meant within a 2 hour block of time. Tired because I don't even care about getting my nails done in the first place.

Tired because countless citizens praised my team-mates' Chinese and seem confused by mine.

Tired because a taxi driver took us a long way around when I already felt depressed that I couldn't talk to my parents on Easter and missed an awesome performance at the meeting place.

And finally, tired when I got home at 9:15 this evening only to discover that the key to enter my house did not work.

Yes said country, you won this week-end. You kicked my butt. I hold up the white flag.

Yours truly,

Tired foreigner

P.S. I'm still sad to leave you.

Spring is in the Air...

Yes, it's that time of year when you might see some unusual things...


For example, a flock of goats feeding on your campus.



Team-mates going gaga for Easter candy and Mexican food!

And, some good old-fashioned PDA.


Yes, it's clear; Spring is here!

Egg Drop Photos

This past week in class, I used my team-mate Amber's lesson plan called the "egg drop." The purpose of this lesson is to let students relax a little and work on problem solving skills. The task is for students to develop a contraption to protect an uncooked egg from an 8 story fall. The groups were incredibly creative and most of them worked well together.

Here are some words from one group: "Although we were inefficient at first, we didn't give up."
My favorite invention was called "The Nest." They used wire, covered with straw to create a cushion similar to a nest. Then, they lined the nest with styrofoam and wrapped the whole thing with plastic bags an a shower cap.

TEM-4 and the Cinema

Tomorrow, we are showing an English movie, Cheaper by the Dozen, for our sophomore students to celebrate the completion of their TEM-4 exam. Originally, we had planned to have a big party for all our students, but since together we teach about 800 students, it just wasn't practical.

If you think of it in the next 24 hours or so..lift up our students. This exam is a big deal for them; they get two chances to pass it, this year and next year. If they don't pass it, they can't technically graduate from the University. Most of the students have been sacrificing what little extra time they have to stay in the library and prepare for this test. As I was heading to class today, one student said "the end of the world is tomorrow" (referring to the test). That's how much of an intense reality this test is for students. So, hopefully they will be able to have a right attitude about this test and if things don't go well, we also hope they feel comfortable enough to talk with us.
On an unrelated note, 2 weeks ago, I went to the cinema in Hengyang with my friend. We saw an English movie called "War in Los Angeles" or something like that. It was about aliens attacking the world. I wouldn't actually choose to ever watch this movie on my own volition, but my friend said she heard it was good, and I just went with the flow.

Then, my friend took me to a spa. Sounds nice, huh?
Actually, it was a big awkward. My friend said we should have a shower before the "spa". Okay, no problem except the workers (2 or 3 young girls) were just hanging out in our room as we were supposed to undress and put on a robe to go have a shower. Yeah, I was reminded of shower time after PE class all over again. The shower was nice though and in its own private room. They they massaged our faces for a bit and put some type of mask on us. The mask made our faces whiter...do you notice? I decided I don't love masks...especially when they cover up your eyes. After the "spa" experience, I let my friend put eye make-up on me. It was a bit thick, but I think she enjoyed it. It was about 10:00 when we finished these two activities; then we had dinner.

Snacks

Recently, my friends have given me several snacks. I love it. Here are a couple I received this past week: eggs boiled with special herbs and weed cakes.

(Not sure how to turn this photo so it's right side up.)

The weeds (not sure how to say this vegetable in English) are from my friend's home-town, and the cakes were made by her mother. They added some water, sugar, and flour and fried them up in a wok. Not bad!

Class picnic

Last week Monday, I went on a class picnic with some students. (Number8 on To Do List.) Unlike most of the things on my To Do list which I have really enjoyed, the picnic with students was not one of them. I'm not sure why, but it didn't help when on the walk to the park, one of the more amiable, ambitious students told me that some of the classmates were hesitant to invite me because they just wanted to "relax" and they didn't want to have some pressure. Hmm, awesome. After learning this, I became a bit paranoid about which students I talked to, not wanting to put some "pressure" on the students who just wanted to relax.





Going on a "picnic" in China is quite different than going on one in America. In America, we chose convenient foods that can be prepared ahead of time and easily stored and transported. In China, they basically prepare the same dishes as they would if they were cooking at home, but cooking the food takes twice as long because they don't have the convenience of a kitchen with an electric stove.

We left for the picnic at about 10:30 from the back of the school gate, walked 20 minutes and started setting up. At 12:30, I had to leave to take the bus to the new campus. The food was not ready by then, but I did get to taste one piece of grilled eggplant and one stick of grilled chicken. As I mentioned before, class picnic? A bit low on the list.

Hard Day

“I almost killed a child today,” I thought to myself last Wednesday night. It had started as a normal Wednesday afternoon, and I was doing my “good deed” of volunteering at the orphanage in Hengyang. Since last semester, I have been volunteering on the government side of the center where the conditions are wanting. The mortality rate in the room where we work is still relatively high and many of the babies that come in, don’t make it out alive.

For the older physically able kids in this room, they find ways to sustain their bodies. They steal food from the care-takers, eat random things off the floor, steal bottles of milk meant for the babies, and even pry food out of weaker children’s mouths. For these weak children with handicapped bodies, they often go hungry. Lest this sounds too bleak, let me add that conditions have improved significantly in this room. Now, the foreign workers (at least one foreign worker a day from a non-profit organization) will bring the kids a morning snack of fruit and an afternoon snack of milk.

This past week, I went by myself to the orphanage as my team-mate was busy. An Australian couple (auntie and uncle) from the non-profit organization also came that day to say their good-byes to the kids and the care-takers. They brought 2 Chinese cakes. One for the care-takers and one for the kids. Before the cake was even properly cut, a sneaky boy had slipped into the room and reached from behind to put his hand directly into the cake and make off with a hand-full of fruit and icing. In the process, the Australian uncle accidentally sliced his hand with the knife and the cake was disheveled. From the beginning, I realized that bringing cake to hungry children is a stressful ordeal.

Finally, all the cake was cut and we were administering pieces of cake to the weaker kids while the strong ones finished theirs and then tried to steal cake from the rest of us. It was stressful to say the least. I was feeding three weaker boys with a spoon. I tried to divide up the fruit pieces, cake, and frosting evenly alternating between the three boys. It was at that moment that two things happened. 1. The sneaky boy again had success making off with a hand-full of cake from my bowl. 2. One boy that I was feeding had a pained look on his face and was sucking in air through his bottom teeth. “Is he choking?” the Australian auntie asked me. His mouth remained strained and he had the look of fear in his eyes. The Chinese care-taker, seeing the problem, reached for him and with one motion grabbed his feet and turned him upside down giving him several good shakes. Having taken First Aid, I knew there was probably a better way to dislodge food. I asked if I could try. I couldn’t remember what to do for children when giving the Heimlich maneuver, but I remembered clearly how to give the Heimlich to adults. I held his slight frame between my arms and found the place underneath his breastbone. I gave him 3 good pumps. Nothing happened.

“Take him to the doctor on the first floor” said the Australian auntie. I rushed with the Chinese care-taker and the little boy to the first floor. The doctor and nurse turned the boy on his stomach at a steep incline and hit his back with downward strokes. This went on for what seemed like 10 minutes, but was probably more like 2 minutes. The boy was still not breathing normally. Thankfully though, he still had a little sound through his mouth and was getting some air in through his pipe as he had not turned blue.

Finally, the doctor and nurse could see this method was not working. They started up a kind of machine that has a long, thin suction tube. They weaved the tube down the little boy’s throat. His eyes got big like he was about to gag as the tube went down. Finally, the piece of fruit popped up and the boy heaved a big gasp of air. The awful, little round, whole piece of melon sat mockingly on the floor.

“You gave him this big piece of fruit?” the doctor and nurse said to the care-taker with an air of accusation.

“It was me. I wasn’t careful. It was my wrong.” I say quickly and with down-cast eyes. After putting this boy through hell and back, it’s the least I can do to take the blame for my own carelessness.

“The kids can’t eat that big of bites” they tell me. I know. Now, I know. Before leaving the room, I look down at the piece of fruit one more time in utter disgust.

And I can still see it now, this round piece of melon lying hauntingly on the floor of the doctor’s office. Why didn’t this little boy know enough to chew this piece of fruit? It’s fruit; it’s not a Lego. He’s 5 or 6 six years old. His mental abilities are fine; he can even talk in comprehensible words unlike some of the other, more aggressive children. And here’s where I get stuck in questions and accusations stemming from this incident aimed both at myself and at a broken system. What is the quality of life for children who are so used to being hungry that they won’t even take the time to masticate their food if it means it might get pried out of their mouth from undisciplined bullies or they’ll miss the next round of feeding.

In this place, I feel utterly hopeless; I see darkness and difficulty. I don't know if going there one time a week for a couple of hours can really change anything. I want to believe, I want to have hope. I don't want to let the bad experience scar me from ever trying again.

Sunday afternoon Walk

Good idea--biking along the river-walk on a sunny day.

This man's pose reminded me of a hobbit enjoying a sunny day in the Shire.

Caroline and Jenn were pretty insistent we stop and take some "senior portraits" (wink, wink).


A river shack / boat...I think it might be a gas station.
I like how this photo shows the dichotomy between the old and the modern in China.

This man is wearing some kind of battery pack that has a wire connected to his fishing equipment. When he puts the wand in the water, there is a buzzing, and when the fish touch the wand, they receive an electric shock. (Okay, actually I have no idea how this "wand" works. I'm just making a wild, uneducated guess.)

Sleeping on the job or working in his sleep. . .