connie's space

I just want to remind readers that all my photo albums  and pictures since my start of this website are located at the below site.   

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=82087792aa368e14&sc=photos#!/?cid=82087792AA368E14&sc=photos&group=0&sff=0

Ping An (Peace)!

            In between the packing, end of the school year and visa woes, I’ve been heading off every afternoon to my pool-in-the-middle-of-nowhere.  Banging along country roads, crammed on board with all the Guangxi farm and village folk heading back after a morning in town, is a refreshing get-out-of-town time for me.  Plus the silent, long march to the pool surrounded by banana trees, pineapple fields and rugged mountain ranges, is soothing for the soul.  Rural southern China is really beautiful and something I am definitely going to miss.

            Naturally, all these journeys to the pool have gotten me to know the bus drivers quite well.  As reported before, the buses run every half hour, sometimes every15 minutes, depending on who is at the wheel.  My habit is to bounce on board, give a big smile and “Ni hao! (hi)” to the driver and announce I’m off to the pool.  It’s just something to say and I always say it loud enough so the locals  on board hear.  They’re curious as to why the foreigner is climbing on a bus going so far into the countryside.  Might as well stop them from wondering and let them have something to share with others at the dinner table.

Waiting For The Bus:  Our Sour Driver

            Today, our Road 2 bus driver was late to arrive for the 1 p.m. pick-up route to the countryside. There was a crowd gathering at the stop and it was already going on 1:10 p.m.   Drivers are always on time but this was the sour driver.  I remember him from a few weeks ago.  He is never cheerful and is always rather snarly.  Makes sense that he, the unhappy one, would be the late one to pick us up.  

            It was very hot outside, even under the streetside mango trees.  We were all anxiously looking up the road, waiting for the bus, including all our ancient, wrinkled, stooped country grannies with their town shopping bags. Many were munching on steamed corn-on-the-cob or enjoying a baggie of chou dofu (stinky tufu) they’d gotten from the nearby sellers.  Everyone was very quietly waiting except for one loud, boisterous elderly woman.

 Buddha Granny

            I’ll call her Buddha Granny as she had this huge, round belly and her personality was just that of Buddha:  laughing constantly, chattering away and a very happy, jovial soul.   She was hunkered down in a big plastic lawn chair with arm rests and hanging out with her other large friend. The two women were going on  about who knows what.  It was all Guangxi dialect so I had not a clue what it was about but they were sure having a good time.

          I thought the chair belonged to the shop in front of us but when the bus pulled up, Buddha Granny was picking it up to bring with her. 

            My habit for these bus trips is to hang back and let the elderly and mothers with babies get on first to find a seat.  Everyone scrambles as they don’t want to stand but I really don’t mind, especially when I see such hard-working people in need of a rest.

            Well, Buddha Granny was having a great deal of trouble with that huge chair of hers so I told her to get on the bus and I’d carry it on for her.  It was a big, awkward thing.  Even I had to struggle with it to get it in the door. 

          I bumped and maneuvered the chair around the driver while she laughed and carried on about the foreigner giving her a hand, I assume. 

            The driver, all this time, was just scowling at us.  Everyone else on the bus was into the spirit of my kind efforts, smiling away because Buddha Granny’s happiness was so infectious.

           Eventually, I got the thing into the bus.  Buddha Granny grabbed a reserved seat in the front, for the elderly and handicapped, and I put the chair toward the middle of aisle. She wanted me to sit in it but I thought the nearby mother with her baby should have that honor.  All the seats were taken and our little momma was left standing until she gratefully plopped down into the empty chair.

            The driver wasn’t very pleased about that visiting seat, for some reason. Maybe he thought it was dangerous. I have no idea. He just kept peering at it in his rearview mirror, looking on with  obvious disapproval.

            He finally started up the bus for our departure and pulled away from the stop.  Buddha Granny continued to chatter happily away, even to the driver, until she finally won him over.  He began to join in on her comments and bantering which seemed to lighten his mood somewhat.  No smiles but you could tell he was feeling better and not quite so bad-tempered.

            15 minutes later, I arrived at the pool crossroads where I hopped off before Buddha Granny.  She was heading on to her small village, the very last stop, along with everyone else. 

            Before I left, we exchanged acknowledging nods and I gave her a friendly wave.  She just laughed whole-heartedly, as seemed to be her nature, and that was the last I saw of her.

            I hope someone helped her off the bus with her chair but even if no one did, I have not a doubt she didn’t care. Most likely, she was giggling the entire time while dragging that thing down the bus steps and through the streets while going home.

 What’s Really Important in Life?

          Don’t we all wish we could have that kind of sunny disposition throughout life, a fun-loving spirit so contagious that it makes everyone else happy too?

            Who’d have thought that a bus ride with a little old countryside woman would put all my packing worries and visa woes to rest. 

          At least for today, anyway, that seems to be the case.

          From Longzhou, China, here’s wishing you Ping An (Peace) for your day.

            In the midst of all the mounting, uncompleted tasks and stress came a little bright spot yesterday evening:  My team of volunteers from English Education Class 111 (the freshmen) came to help put my boxes together.

            4 weeks ago, I ordered 90 large boxes from our little post office in Longzhou.  I knew it would take some time for them to arrive since they had to be ordered from Nanning, the capital city. Sure enough, two weeks later, the phone call came from the post office that I could come pick them up. Mr. Luo, my foreign affairs director, kindly drove me over in his van and we loaded them all in.  Of course, they were flattened  for transportation purposes.  Aside from filling them, the biggest task would be to assemble them.

Can one person really have that much stuff?!

            Do I really need 90 boxes?  Well, I came with 92 so I figured I’d just scale down 2 more and have it made.  Naturally, the Chinese here at school think I’m crazy.   They can’t believe one person can own so many things.

            Chinese don’t collect like Americans do, or rather, like this American does. 

            Chinese have no decorations for the home, just the basics and one of everything.  Where I have festive hangings and painted pictures up all over my rooms, they have bare walls.  Where I have numerous different skirts, jackets, pants, shorts, shirts, coats, shoes and what-not, the Chinese just have a few clothes items to choose from.  Where I have tons of books, all topics and all language levels, they have a very limited number if any at all.  Where I have a million DVDs in my collection, they have none.  And where I have teaching materials and props galore, all truly needed to make my classes interesting and exciting, Chinese teachers have only their classroom textbooks.  Teaching in China is still very basic with most instructors sticking to the book.   That’s probably why foreign teachers are such a hit in the classroom.  We really do bring more to lessons than our books, meaning that for me, the holiday boxes take up a lot of space.

            So, yeah, I do have enough stuff to fill 90 boxes!

Students Hard at Work

            At 7 p.m. yesterday evening, my class monitor, Radium, came  with 9 classmates in tow. 

            After their initial shock at the stacks of boxes in their midst, I instructed them how to tape them together, then set them to work.  Pairing off, they got busy with tape and scissors while I was the box stacker after they finished.  My spare bedroom was the place to house the 90 once they were put together.  I figured they’d be up to the ceiling by the time we were through and that certainly was true.

            Working hard, my team of 10 spent the next 50 minutes (non-stop) assembling the piles of cardboard. 

My student team arrives and gets busy with the boxes.

Everyone paired off in two’s for more efficiency.

Radium admires the boxes which he’s just stacked.

By the time they finished at 8 p.m., they really had something to be proud of. Everyone crowded into the spare bedroom to have a look at all their efforts.

           “Wah!” was the surprised and astonished cry when they saw the finished products.  Naturally, a picture was in order.

Yes, they did it! Well-done, everyone.

            After that, it was time for their just rewards.  We sat around drinking coke, eating candy and talking about the end of the school year, their summer plans and the upcoming move to Chongzuo.   For an hour, we had some very special time together which we all enjoyed and everyone will treasure.

            At 9 p.m., it as time for them to go.  They had early morning classes the next day and I was ready to call it quits for the night.

Cheers! Here’s to a very productive evening, helping the foreign teacher, Connie. Thank you,all!

The Packing Begins!

            Today is Wednesday and the packing begins.  Now that the boxes are ready to go, it’s just a matter of filling them.  I’ve been washing clothes for several days, allowing them to dry in this hot weather, and have just about finished with the last load. 

            Today will be clothes-packing day.  After that, I’ll be working my way through all the rooms, one by one, and see what interesting, long-forgotten things I’ll  find to either toss, give away or send off to Sichuan.

            From Longzhou, China, here’s wishing you Ping An (peace) for your day.

             Stress, stress and more stress.

            I certainly don’t like it nor do I need it but ever since Little Flower died, the stress has been through the roof.

             Stress of the air-conditioner being broken for a month now(92 degrees inside–uhg), ending the school year, saying goodbye, collecting-sending-scanning-signing-mailing vital documents for the new work visa in Sichuan, packing up everything, getting the movers’ dates approved, preparing to lead this summer’s orientation for the new teachers, getting plane tickets for home and in-country . . . With Little Flower around, there was always a happy face and wagging tail to come home to.  No matter what happened in my life, my little dog always made me feel better.  

           Not having her around to relieve all that pressure and anxiety has been very difficult and just not fun at all.

The Work Visa Woes: China Cracking Down

            The most annoying has been the new visa application process, which the Luzhou school, my current school and I have been working on for over 3 months.  My current resident permit and work visa will expire July 29. To get a new work visa in another province with another school requires a great deal of paperwork, original documents and tons of official letters from my current school, the Amity Foundation and my future school. 

            Every provincial government Foreign Expert office has a different procedure and different requirements. Guangxi  Province  is quite a straight-forward affair.   For Mr. Luo, our foreign affairs director at this school, it was work but not so difficult because he knew everyone in the government office. In fact, his uncle worked there.  If there was a need for help, his uncle pushed me through for my foreign expert card and work visa.  Thus for the past 3 years, it’s been somewhat of a breeze to be legally teaching in country.

            During these past few years, however, other provinces are becoming more strict about giving out work visas to teachers at colleges.  Many foreigners faked their diplomas or didn’t truly have the qualifications necessary to teach.  Some didn’t have insurance coverage and caused the schools to be burdened with this when they became sick.

            When I was in Sichuan before, it wasn’t quite so complicated or strict to get a work visa.  Now is a different story.

The Current Regulations for Visa Application

            Online application takes place first, which had me scanning tons of materials to email back to Luzhou (passport, current foreign expert card, old foreign expert card, insurance card, health booklet, photo headshots, diploma, signed contracts between me and the new school).  It just seemed to go on forever.

            Last week, everything was finally approved online and the originals of everything could be taken to Chengdu by Yin Ying, my foreign affairs director in Luzhou.  I express mailed my passport to her along with all the originals I had except my diploma, which is in America.  I only had a photo copy.

            Naturally, when Yin Ying went to the government office to formally apply, they wouldn’t accept my paperwork because the diploma wasn’t the original.  They wanted it. I didn’t have it.  I couldn’t get it here in time.  End of story.

            We all have now been frantically putting together documents that vouch that I have graduated.  I have a scanned letter from my university linguistic’s department.  I have a scanned letter from Amity.  I have a scanned letter from GBGM, my sending agency.  And there is a letter from the Luzhou school.  Not the originals (which are in the mail and won’t arrive until a week from the States) but at least it’s something.

            Aside from the questionable diploma, the government official also said the proof of insurance was vague and sketchy.  We need some other documentation that says I am covered.  (What I have no idea.)

            Heavens!  What a fuss!  Scrambling over the past 5 days to do all this stuff is exhausting.  Thank the Lord for computers is all I can say.

            And we are running out of time because I’m leaving July 10 fo the States.  If the processing is not completed before then, I will have to re-apply for a work visa from the Chinese embassy in America ($400) and then we have to start from scratch when I return to China in August.

            So, yes, it’s been very stressful, and, yes, I  really, really miss my dog.

Some Bright News

            Today, Yin Ying has informed me that tomorrow, she will try once again at the Sichuan Foreign Expert Bureau with all the new documents she has along with the old ones.  If all goes well, the 2-week processing will begin and she can send back my passport.  If not, well, . . . guess we start from scratch in August!

               From  Longzhou,  China, here’s Ping An sent your way . . . and whole lot sent mine as well.   

             In a past blog, I explained how our tiny English Center  has proven a haven for misfits.  Students such as strange Isaac, bullied Godfrey or shy Elise found a home in our Center, high above the campus on the 6^th floor of Teaching Building 1.   Others came to quietly browse through U.S. fashion magazines, watch numerous movies from our outstanding DVD collection, play games (Chinese checkers, Scrabble, Uno) or just to talk to one another in English. 

            Cool breezes blew through the open windows, fluttering the curtains about.  Amazing mountain views caught many of us gazing thoughtfully out over the distant landscape.  Our Christmas decorations dazzled and brought festive cheer to everyone who entered in December.

          And now it’s time to close up shop, to begin packing books into boxes, to empty this room and its contents soon to be headed for a new home.

          This is the last week our  English  Center  will be open.  Most likely, not many will be visiting.  Students have other things to do, from sports to part-time jobs to studying  for next months’ final exams. The weather is hot and sticky so climbing the 6 floors to the top is rather tedious.

As predicted, this week has our English Center pretty vacant of visitors.

           The school wants as many students as possible to help with moving so they are scheduling packing early.  Already, the school librarians have begun hustling volunteer students in and out of their doors.  They struggle to carry heavy boxes and stack these in empty ground floor rooms.  Trucks will arrive at some point and off everything will go.

           And for our Center, the volunteers have collected used boxes from nearby shops to get ready for packing up.  They’re starting June 15, I was told.  I’m not involved in that but I might pop over (or rather, up) to lend a hand if I’m free.

Used boxes in our English Center, awaiting to be filled

Two Center volunteers, getting ready for the move

            I can’t help but feel a little sad this week while visiting our Center.   Past foreign teachers have neatly painted the walls with educational quotes and fun figures to brighten the atmosphere. 

Brightening up the room, former teachers helped add a little flavor to the Center with wall decorations.

                We have pictures hanging on the walls and decorations taped to the entrance windows.  It’s a cozy place, worthy of the climb.  Soon it will be deserted with only past photos to remind anyone of our quaint little campus in distant Longzhou.

            I’m so glad that Sky, one of the Center volunteers, has taken on a special remembrance project.  She is putting together a photo album to take to the new school and has asked me to go through all my digital pictures, copying those dealing with our special room onto her USB. 

            So here I sit, reminiscing as I go through all the many photo albums on my computer, the English  Center my top priority at the moment.  There are pictures of my first visit to our 6^th floor Center, group volunteer snapshots with my American friend, Becky, Amity’s sending agency reps (positioned on our low stools) who appeared for Amity’s 25^th anniversary celebrations, and Little Flower, standing near the door, waiting anxiously to leave for our campus walks.  There’s Isaac, grinning behind his hand of Uno cards, and Eric, a 23-year-old young man from outside the school who often came to practice his English with us.

           We certainly made good use of that room over the past 3 years.

           I’m sure the new  English  Center  on the Chongzuo campus will provide just as many meaningful moments as ours has.  There will be 6 foreign teachers at that school starting their teaching careers in  China.  It’s time to turn the Center over into new hands which I’m sure will be just as eager to help out as I have been.

           From Longzhou,  China, here’s wishing you  Ping  An (peace) for your day.

           Our heavy rains over the past few days have cooled us down immensely and caused our usually clear-watered Li River to run a muddy, ugly brown.  Along with the wet and cool come another yearly event to our remote southern  China  region:  Hatchlings.

Waterbabies Ascend

             After a lovely little shower this afternoon, I returned to the campus from my daily pool-in-the-middle-of-nowhere swim and an uptown shopping venture.  Trekking along the wet sidewalk, it was all I could do to keep from stepping on the thousands of tiny jumping creatures at my feet.  The former tadpoles, ascending from the nearby murky riverbanks, had finally made their way into the world . . . and us.

             At first, I thought I was stirring up gnats that had landed on the cement but the more I walked, the more obvious it was that these hopping itty-bitties were, indeed, our baby frog population come to life.  They were everywhere, and on many occasions impossible to sidestep.

              I have a sentimental heart when it comes to struggling things in need and would have loved to scoop them all up, placing them back along the riverbank where they could survive, but there were just too many to help.  Heading out into the street, I did my best to allow those on the sidewalks a fighting chance, at least from my heavy footsteps.

The Winged Hoards

             That same kind-heartedness can’t be said for the winged, termite-bodied insects that have been diving nightly into our air space  from their buried ground homes. Those I swat at constantly, carefully guarding the spaces under my balcony and stairwell doors so as to keep them out. 

            I tried looking up the name of these things on the Net and had no luck.  They are some sort of short-lived Asian insect that arrives like locusts at this time of year.  In the evenings, the swarms flap their way into our night classes, hovering around the lights until they drop to the concrete floors.  Their wings shed immediately and they copulate profusely.  In the grassy outdoors, the females burrow into the ground to lay eggs but inside classrooms, they have no chance of this.   They hook up with no hope of further offspring ever making it into the world, and only a few frantic minutes of getting anything exciting out of life before being squashed underfoot. 

            Sure gives the phrase “a moment of happiness” a whole new meaning. 

             The poor students in our night classes are accosted by these bug antics.  They annoy the boys and terrorize the girls. Discarded wings spiral downward and swirl about from the whirling ceiling fans.  The insects’ wiggling bodies fall into hair, onto textbooks, down shirt fronts or backs and across desks.   Students are distracted and teachers are frustrated.  

           It’s at times like these when I am very grateful I have all my classes during daytime hours.

           In the mornings, piles of wings and other insect parts are found scattered across the campus and throughout dormitories and classroom buildings.  They greet me every morning when I walk out of my apartment. The cleaning ladies sweep the leftovers into neat, tidy piles which can be found at every turn. In other words, there’s just no escaping their presence, alive or dead.

              I have nothing against Mother Nature’s many living beings but these things?   One does wonder.

            Fortunately for us, the worst seems to have passed. Last  weekend was the most taxing on everyone, with this past Monday and Tuesday slowing down a tad.   I don’t remember putting up with anything like this in Sichuan  along the  Yangtze River  so looks like this will be my last experience ever again with these critters, unless for some reason I return.

           It’s very true, I could honestly be tempted to come back some day to teach.  There are many things I love about living in Guangxi’s rural southern China, but these nasty insects?  Not one of them.

           From our Chinese river town, here’s wishing you bugless hassles and lots of pretty butterflies.  Ping An (Peace), everyone!

        Friday had our English Association members scrambling in their prep work to get ready for our school’s last English contest, not only for the school year, but for our small campus as well.

             Heavy rains forced members to move all their decorations inside to the covered sports’ building.  They used school desks to create a stage for everyone to stand on and covered the collective unit in a huge red felt carpet. The backdrop went up using wires strung from the ceiling.  Potted plants that line the school walkways were carried in to make the setting more festive and bright.  The sound system volunteers tested all the microphones and made sure plenty were available for everyone’s use.

Great efforts by the English Association members created a wonderful setting for our contest.

              In other words, it was a lot of work and it was done with diligent care.

              When I showed up at 7:50 p.m. to take my place at the judging table, everything was ready to go.  Just such a shame that our audience was a very small one.  Friday night, everyone is pretty much zonked after a week of classes.  Plus English language contests are not exactly a big draw on campus, especially as most students don’t speak English.

A Bit of a Sad Affair

             The closure of the school, and everyone moving to Chongzuo this summer, made this particular judging experience for me quite special, and a little sad.  No longer would I be seeing these students again next year, nor enjoy watching their efforts to succeed on stage with their many performances.  This would also be my last opportunity to judge with my Chinese colleagues.  I was honored to have young teacher Jeffy and Mr. Lu at my side for a nice mix of male-female viewpoints when it came to choosing the winner.

Our judging panel: (L-R) Mr. Lu, myself and Jeffy

The Contest Itself

Our hosts open the show with English-Chinese greetings and announcements.

              We had 19 contestants, 17 of which were my 1^st and 2^nd year students.  They were to introduce themselves in a 1-minute talk, perform for 3 minutes and then answer 1 or 2 questions from us, the judges.  For their performances, we had a variety of acts:  skits done with the help of other classmates, songs on our US Top 10 charts and poetry readings accompanied with overly dramatic, sentimental taped music.  (A bit much but this is the Chinese style of reading poetry and how most believe English poetry performances should be done.  Not!)

The contestant box: 17 of these are my students.

              For the most part, everyone’s English introduction was good and their ability to answer questions about the themes of their performances was impressive.  They had no idea what we’d ask and we did make it challenging for them:  “Why did you choose this particular song to sing?”, “Can you explain the meaning of the poem and your interpretation of it?”, “In your skit, what was the lesson you wish others to learn from the story?”

Our Winner:  A 9.4 Out of 10 points Takes the Prize

             Our winner far outdid the other participants by having the highest score (9.42), not only for his excellent English language skills and explanation of his chosen talent, but for his creativity in the performance.  He chose to model one of my class lessons (how to perform a puppet show for students) and make it his own.  He wrote a very cute dialogue between a lion, an elephant and a monkey that went for a walk. (The puppets he had borrowed from me the day before.)  He read the dialogue for most of the characters, displayed good pronunciation skills and even did the narrative part as well.  His classmates helped him with the puppeteering and holding up other props, such as the sun, tree and birds flying by.

Godfrey’s winning puppet show

               When asked why he chose this particular performance to do, he explained that as an English Education major, next year he would be required to practice teach.  He wanted to get some experience in doing this by showing all of us his puppet show.  Also, he went on to say the best way to involve students in English class is to do a fun activity.  He felt this particular one was excellent to stir the interest of students in English. 

              “Did you write this yourself?” Judge Jeffy asked when it was his turn to question the contestant.

               My student, Godfrey, had indeed written most of the script himself but as all Chinese students, he wanted to give credit to his teacher.

              “This was written by my foreign teacher, Connie,” he replied, beaming and gesturing to me but I wasn’t going to let him get away with that.

             Grabbing the microphone from Jeffy, I said, “Oh, no, Godfrey.  A lot of that was written by yourself. You added more to the dialogue.  It was very creative.  We all really enjoyed it.”

A Very Satisfying, Happy Ending to the Evening

             At 10 p.m., the contest ended and the scores were announced.  Godfrey will receive a special prize from the English Association as well those who came in 2^nd and 3^rd.  We judges were awarded mugs in appreciation for our time spent helping out, which was a very nice gesture.  A final group picture closed us off for the evening and I made sure to tell Godfrey what a wonderful job he had done.

My Bullied Student Gets the Last Laugh

             And what makes it especially sweet for this particular student is that he has been mentioned before, in a previous blog, but his name was changed to Jeffry.  Does that ring a bell with anyone?  Yes, this is my bullied student who has spent over a year of being harassed, hassled and picked on by the farm boys in his dormitory room.   

           How fitting for our last English contest on our campus to have a bullied student, in the last weeks of school, get the last laugh. You go, Godfrey!

           From Longzhou, here’s wishing you Ping An (peace) for your week.