There is an old saying that cities, no matter where in the world, always give a more favorable impression when you enter them accompanied by sunshine. If that is indeed the case, we had most unfavorable conditions upon entering Bijie yesterday. It was nearing dark and raining quite heavily. The road coming into the University was under construction and a muddy quagmire. Carrying our luggage made us nearly sink up to our ankles in the mud.
We had been told that Bijie was under quite a bit of construction, and that it rained a lot up in these mountains. However, the bleakness we saw upon our arrival is really impossible to describe in words. Imagine a plummeting feeling in your stomach, accompanied by a feeling of being overwhelmed by mud, and perhaps you will have a notion of what I was feeling. Nancy and I had the good sense to be able to laugh it off and keep up our spirits about the conditions, but there has been so much that has been disheartening over the last two days.
We are about 4 hours north west of Guiyang, the capital city of the province. We are in a most remote site of the teaching program. Our facillitator here, who is in Foreign Affairs, told us that the Bijie prefecture is very much third world... and that this is the third world of any other place in China. The poverty here is breathable and very sad. This is a small area (about the size of 2 Michigan counties combined) that most of you have probably never even heard of, and yet it is home to over 7 million people.
The Bijie city downtown and marketplace areas are very utilitarian, focusing on basic food and living needs. We stayed in a hotel last night , as our apartment was not ready. We were going a bit stir crazy in our hotel room, so we ventured downtown for a little exploration . We wandered into the market, which is a series of twisty streets filled with colors and sounds. The vegetables are just beautiful...
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...
I have not viewed any television here in China yet, so I am getting news from the China Daily News, which is printed in English. The face of China is changing dramatically in many ways. Here are some highlights of recent news articles I read...
1. Li Fengzhi, a 60 year old resident of Kunming, was released from a local drug rehab center. Li first tried opium in 1968 when she visited a relative. Over the next four decades, her drug habit grew more costly and dangerous. Now that she has fully broken her addiction, she has no home to go to. So, Sun Jianhua, a local police officer, will help Li register for a living allowance and begin working again.
2. A boy previously sentenced as a "juvenile delinquent" took the entrance exam for a vocational school in Jiutan. The 15 year old boy is currently residing in a local correctional facility. Last November, he got into a fight with a classmate, and the classmate died. He said he had not intended to kill him. The boy was sentenced to three years of re-education through physical labor. To help him prepare for his life after he is released, prison authorities allowed him to take the exam, accompanied by a plainclothes police officer.
3. A group of students at a university in Guangzhou are upset about a ban on dogs on campus. The ban on dogs was imposed last week because of all the barking. Some students complained to the officials that this was an infringement of their rights. All students who have licensed dogs must send them home or put them in the care of relatives. Unlicensed dogs will be sent to the police station. Dogs without owners will be considered strays, and the security department will be allowed to put them down.
4. A woman in the Chaoyang district has been detained, and is the first person to be accused of endangering public security by trying to commit suicide. The woman tried to commit suicide after quarreling with her boyfriend. She turned on a gas stove in her home last Tuesday. Police were notified and took the woman to a hospital.
5. A new Ethical Code for Teachers is being drafted by the Ministry of Education. During the quake in Sichuan, a teacher ran away from the classroom, unmindful of his students during the quake. His running away triggered a public concern about the responsibility and rights of a teacher, the morality of a teacher, and the social values, offering insights for the building of morality and the rule of law.
In Japan, it has been ruled that when a quake takes place, teachers cannot abandon their students. If a teacher like the one in Sichuan Province is found out, he would be sacked immediately and can never gain a foothold in the society. The article also stresses that during the quake a good many teachers put the safety of students at the forefront. The man who ran from his students is said to "tarnish the overall moral image of teachers."
6. In Weng'an, Guizhou, 30,000 people too part in a mass protest action, torching government buildings and smashing burning cars. People were protesting the authenticity of a police report on a 17 year old girl's death. The girl's body was found floating in a river. Based on her reputation as a quiet, nice child who didn't hang out or play around, the community doesn't believe that the death was a suicide.
7. A Shanghai man stabbed five policeman to death and wounded five others at a police station in the district. He then started a fire at the gate. It was not clear how Yang, an unemployed Beijing resident, managed to fatally attack so many policemen inside a police station. Later... Yang told police that he went on the killing spree because he was angry with police for interrogating him last October over bicycle thefts.
My Internet time is again running out... I send my love to all of you in the U.S. and wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July (a day earlier on this side of the International Date Line)! I do miss the ease we have of using the same native language when we speak. However, many people here in China speak English very well, and communication is accompanied by signs and gestures, until we understand one another. I am learning a few new Chinese words each day. I am told I have a good ear for the inflections in the language. This is good...
They tell me the Chinese don't show everything at once. This would be obscene. The Chinese, masters of luring curiosity... showing the head of the dragon, but not the tail.
Here the four elements of a Chinese Garden surround you carry you envelop you in one small alcove at a time. Greenery, rocks, architecture, and water flowing in a ying yang harmony, balancing space and time.
I slow down here, move my feet carefully, grace my Western self through this balanced space. I keep my voice close inside like a whisper, not wanting to startle this space where even the limestone rocks seem to breathe.
There is one tiger lily plant amidst this canvas. A small fire between earth and sky.
Two mandarin ducks mated for life move among the goldfish.
The lattice work sculptures offer small visions into the next tableau of green plants, gray rocks, and flowing water. They are said to lick the scenery beyond this space.
The portals offer larger visions into the next alcove. They are said to frame the scenery beyond this space.
One sculpture invites me to massage my eyes, my imagining. An inkblot test fashioned in limestone instead of ink. There is a woman hidden within this rock, and she is turning away from me, yet still offering her hand, luring me back into Yu Gardens.
There is no hurry here, ever, and I take her hand and seek one more tiger lily, one more fire for my eyes...
Adventures in Shanghai yesterday are a vivid palette of color, sound , and movement. It is hard for me not to just share the most immediate experience with all of you, but I will do my best to keep things chronological. For those of you who know me well, speaking in a linear fashion, or even thinking in a linear fashion, is often a challenge for me. I tend to lean toward the tangential, and my thinking and writing are sometimes sprinkled with non sequiturs. Hang in there with me, and I will try to take you on this journey, with words, as best I can.
Here are some observations and adventures from yesterday - a very full day exploring Shanghai...
1. Streets are shared by cars, buses, trucks, vans, people on bicycles and motor scooters, and motorized wheel chairs. Cars and people in vehicles drive within inches of one another, providing a constant flow of what appears to be dangerous movement. However, there is absolutely no "road rage" visible, and people seem to lobby for their motion space in a relatively cooperative way. Janice, our tour guide, tells us anyone who rides in the front seat "must have a strong heart."
At one point, someone cuts off our driver and the back of his car collided slightly with the front of our van. Actually, as passengers, we didn't even notice this bumping had occurred, but our driver got out into the heavy traffic, as did the man driving the car. They assessed the damage, which seemed to be little to none, and the man handed our driver 100 yuan (about fifteen US dollars). We had been told that this was done so our driver would not make any trouble. In China, we're told that if a problem can be settled with money exchange, that it works well for everyone.
2. At the Silk Museum, we discover that the silk worms need the tender mulberry leaves produced by the hot, humid climate in Shanghai. We shared the "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush... so early in the morning" song with Janice. Her response was, "Why do you get up so early in the morning to pick mulberry leaves in America?" In translation, literal meanings take on greater weight when people are trying to communicate. We loved her question and her concern for our sleep.
3. At the Silk Museum, we learned that silk worm feces are placed inside sleeping pillows to give the person a more restful night of sleep. Expect several sachets of silk worm waste as presents from Shanghai when I return... just think of them as lavender sachets that you can place inside your sleep pillow.
4. The first Starbucks in China was the one here in Shanghai. They carry green tea frappacinos here. Lesson: always count one's change when making a transaction. I paid with a 100 yuan bill for a 31 yuan drink. I was given 29 Yuan in return. On the third try inquiring about the change, which should have been 61, the cashier said "my bad" and gave me the correct change. We think perhaps they count on foreigners to be a bit confused by the currency... and they are very right!
5. Met an absolutely delightful, animated man selling bamboo saxophones on the street in Old Town Shanghai. He made this recorder-looking instrument sound just like a soprano saxophone, ala Kenny G. He drew us into his musical space, luring us with American melodies on his reeded instrument. He had tenor and soprano saxes, one in the key of F and one in G. Yes, of course I purchased one... He used me as a model, talking about how I have good chin and mouth for playing this saxophone. He was alive with tunes and personality and even gave me a box of reeds for free.
6. Men are not allowed to handle the delicate silk worms. Their voices are simply too loud (I imagine Americans would be instantly disqualified from working with the silk worms, too!), as the men are often loud and filled with alcohol out on the farms.
7. Umbrellas are used to protect from the very loud sun here. Chi, the woman I met on the plane, told me she was embarrassed to be returning home with something of an American tan. Women in China, she says, value their smooth light skin and keep out of the sun to preserve their delicate and beautiful skin.
I will write more later... By the way, we are walking a great deal, and my recently operated on knees are handling all of this with grace and perseverance.
When I ask the young woman about her family, there is no mention of siblings. I've heard that the terms aunt and uncle are disappearing from the Chinese language due to the one child government policy. She tells me that her father is a retired engineer and that her mother has always stayed at home.
She tells me she will see her "friend" when she arrives in Beijing. When I ask if this friend is a "boyfriend, " she giggles and giggles, saying she has recently broken up with a boyfriend in Ohio. She continues to smile easily, as she eats the Oreo cookies she likes very much. After talking for a couple hours,we finally get around to exchanging names. She is Chi Hu. The all-politeness that breeds on airplane aisles has transformed into an exchange where our faces are only inches apart. The personal space bubble seems much smaller here, and I immediately adopt this closeness, savoring the intimacy this provides, even between strangers that have become new friends.
Everything transformed once we spoke our names. Chi is the last child in her family and she begins to talk about her siblings. She has 4 elder sisters and one elder brother, as the government's one-child policy began just after she was born. She feels sad for single children in China for they are lonely, spoiled by their parents, and don't learn cooperation in sharing.
When I ask her is she plans to have a child (I almost said children), she tells me, "Of course." many couples to to America to have a second child, she says. Chi has just left her boyfriend in Ohio because he wanted to stay in America and she wanted to return to China. She's lost weight and has had no appetite for food -- and her mother worries about her, long-distance, in her own way. Chi says her friendsat home find it very unusual that she has lost weight in America. "Everyone who goes to America gets fat, " she says -- and she puts her hands to her cheeks and puffs them outward, creating a bloated face from all the fats and sugars in American food.
Chi tells me that she is searching for her "Mr. Right", that she wants to marry at 27 and have a child at 29. She seems confident that she will be able to accomplish this time table. I show Chi my photo album, which I have compiled for my students in China. She asks to hold several pictures individually, holding them closer to her eyes. The black and white photo of Alicia, Audrey, Annelise, and Allegra draped on the couch, like dreaming angels, reminds her of a painting. She also likes the colorful picture of Annelise and Allegra running in the sunflower field. She tells me that they look like "little princesses - all in white".
We part company for different connecting flights from Tokyo. Mine is a two hour layover. I expected Narita to be crowded with fleet-footed humanity, but I was surprised by the subdued quiet of the place. The laughter and talking volume of me and my traveling companions seemed, as a result, rather loud and out of place. We three teachers who are on the Detroit-Tokyo flight together (Pam, LouAnn, and I ) find a specialty store filled with origami art. A few of my 8th graders last year would occasionally make origami flowers for me out of their candy wrappers from lunch. This store, however, had whole villages made of origami designs -- from the flowers to the people to the fireworks. There was even a dinosaur scene, which my daughter Allegra would have loved. The toilets are especially fascinating to me and offer several options -- from those with bidets to squatters. All were immaculately clean, as my mother would say. There were buttons attached to the toilets that play music or flushing sounds. Not sure if these were meant to conceal bodily sounds, but the opportunities for potential bathroom entertainment seemed limited only by one's imagination.The waste receptacles are divided neatly into aluminum, plastics, paper, etc... Recycling seems to be a very natural and enforced part of life here.
It is very warm in the airport, as the air-conditioning is not kept at the indoor chill we are accustomed to in the States. We need refreshment to cool down, so we settle on mango juice on ice. I even stretch out the crunching on the ice to help maintain the coolness. The juice, however, soon makes my stomach cramp and rumble, and I am off to another bathroom adventure. Nancy, my teaching partner, who we have met up with at Narita, reminds me that we should avoid unbottled juices and water - as well as avoiding ice. Apparently the juice dispensers aren't necessarily cleaned daily and sometimes the bacteria builds up. Ice is sometimes made from untreated water.
And so it goes...
I've had my contact lenses in for over 24 hours now so my eyes are dry and in need of rest. More later from Shanghai...
The flight from Detroit is in its 12th hour - cabin service time it is somewhere between midnight snack and breakfast -- and I think we are about four hours from Tokyo.
My first event on this China adventure was to open the envelopes given to me by my younger daughters, Annelise and Allegra. I think their original intent was to have me wait until I arrived in Bijie, my teaching site - where I am fully certain that I will learn far more than I will teach.
Annelise's letter was filled with questions and drawings, wanting to know how I like the food and what new animals I'll see in China. The questions are surrounded by the "I'll miss you declarations" that come from a place inside her that is completely pure. Allegra's letter was a colorful panda surrounded by x's and o's - a border full of hugs and kisses. Each one sent a love letter, really, in her own voice and own hand.
The 2nd film on this long flight was The Bucket List, my second time viewing this very poignant film starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. I could listen to Freeman's voice forever. As these two men attempt to check off desires on their "bucket list" once they discover they have cancer, they take in something "truly majestic" - the pyramids in Egypt. Freeman's character, Carter, is faith-filled and is moved over and over again by the creator behind the stars in the sky. He talks of the two questions the ancient Egyptians believed they would be asked along their journey to "Egypt Heaven":
1. Have you found joy in your life? 2. Has your life given joy to others?
I believe, as Carter does, that the answers to these questions are profoundly important - to ourselves as individual entities in this world, and to ourselves as a part of humanity that connects us. I've never created a bucket list, but I know my dear friend Therese has -and I hope she will share the contents with me someday. As always, she inspires me to live my life in a "carpediem" spirit, the essence of which is the reality of how each of us answers those two questions about joy.
In some ways, facing these questions with an honest heart is very much like the traditional "examination of conscience" which is an integral part of many faith traditions. But the "joy" questions are simpler somehow, scratching at the essence of who we are and how we live our days. To "find" joy is it necessary to "seek" it out, or are we wiser to patiently wait for joy to find us - like an unexpected butterfly landing gently on our shoulder? I am much more of a "seeker" than a patient wait-er. This is why I find myself, at this moment, on a plane to Shanghai. The journey entices me more than the actual destination.
The two young women sitting next to me on the plane are from China, returning home after studying linguistics in the States as part of an exchange program. They find it wonderful that the U.S. and China have developed so many cooperative programs.
They tell me how Shanghai is China's New York -and how "prosperous" the city is. They tell me, too, that I will enjoy the many ethnic minority groups in Guizhou Province -- and that I must see the famous waterfall when I am there.
There is an old saying that cities, no matter where in the world, always give a more favorable impression when you enter them accompanied by sunshine. If that is indeed the case, we had most unfavorable conditions upon entering Bijie yesterday. It was nearing dark and raining quite heavily. The road coming into the University was under construction and a muddy quagmire. Carrying our luggage made us nearly sink up to our ankles in the mud.
