July 4 - Meeting Up in Guiyang

Ni Hao!

I am now in a very large Internet cafe, surrounded by teenagers who are playing many video games and wearing headsets to reduce the ambient noise. There is considerable smoke in the air, so I feel like I am in a cocktail lounge - minus the jazz singer. However, I will write some highlights and then elaborate if the Internet is still up and working...

1. I am a failure with chopsticks. I can manage to stab the dumplings with the ends, but the very oily-based cooking here makes eating with chopsticks very slippery.

2. Slurping is everywhere.

3. As we walked out of our hotel in Guiyang, which is the capitol city of Guizhou Province in southwestern China, we saw several teenage boys beating another boy. He is surrounded by yells, kicks, punches. "There's a boy getting beaten up," I tell everyone. They keep walking. "Can't we stop and help him?" They keep walking. Nancy, my teaching partner, pulls me along, telling me I don't want to get involved in this. Everyone is silent. They keep walking. I am heartsick. This is the first moment I have wanted to go home.

Later, Nancy, who was in China on this program 6 years ago, tells me that we really don't want to get involved. They are teen boys fighting - just let them handle it themselves. When I ask if we could have called the police, she says that I would've been taken to the police station, questioned, possibly blamed for the fight in some way, perhaps even arrested - and then would've had to settle the whole thing by paying money to the officials. I am a foreigner. They know I am here with money. Walk away, she tells me. I save my crying for later, when I cannot sleep. I am awake much of the night.

4. I welcome the waking-up sounds of the city. As I look out from the 14th floor of this hotel, I discover how forgiving the night really was. We arrived about 9:30, under dark and rainy skies. Our eyes were mostly on the ground, trying not to slip on the tile and stone walkways, which were organized into colorful non-patterns on the entrance-way and alleys.

We are treated to a lovely dinner by the hosts at our individual sites throughout Ghizhou. Tang Gang will be my contact at Bijie and Pansy is the contact for Pam's site. They are most gracious and pleased that we have taken the long journey from America to be here with them. They negotiate a restaurant for us, as most places are closed for dinner by ten. We move through the very large selected restaurant, whose chairs are all covered in yellow tied fabric, and eventually arrive in a round table private room. Tang orders for all of us, asking if we want tofu, bacon, fish, beef, etc... The food comes one dish at a time. We have vegetable dish, cucumber soup (which Tang's Mama made for him when he was a boy), more vegetables, dumplings stuffed with pork. A very spicy noodle soup comes with a warning challenge from Tang that the red peppers in the broth "take courage to eat - be careful". There is a dish especially designated at each of our place settings for food we do not like. I find this to be very humane.

I shared two stories from my childhood food ordeals with them at this time. My brother and I used to sit for hours sometimes, trying to eat all our red beets, eventually smashing them into our mashed potatoes to cover the taste. Also, I would occasionally give my dog, Happi, my once-a-week liver as she waited patiently next to my place at the table. The whole color-filled meal eventually appears on the glass turntable in the center, and we eat one bite at a time with our chopsticks, spinning the turntable for to sample more of our favorites. Don't worry, dear blog readers. I will not spend much more time on the food, but it is a huge part of interaction with our guests while we are here, and they strive to please us with the very best of their culinary offerings at every meal.

5. Today we went to see the Guiyang Bird and Flower Market. For those of you who know me well, I was in my element at this flea market style place. However, this seems to be a permanent market in the city. The banzai plants are plentiful and lovely. There are many varieties of birds, bunnies, dogs, fish, etc... I am very limited in space until I get to Bijie and unpack my teaching materials, so I am unable to purchase much of anything right now. I did find some balls and two flyswatters, both of which will be used to play icebreaker and vocabulary games when I meet my students later this week.

6. I noticed numerous huge soccer balls atop many of the roofs here in Guiyang. I discovered they are actually water towers. This city, too, is a blend of the old and new, but many of the housing buildings are in disrepair and look as if they could crumble down on themselves at any moment. There is always laundry hanging in windows and out on balconies. There is a huge basketball court right outside my hotel window. It contains about nine courts so that many people can play at one time.

I must end here for now, as I need to renew my Internet time. We have the Opening Banquet this evening. The people involved in this program are wonderfully kind and welcoming. I am very fortunate to be a part of this experience...