Helena Kok's diary - Zhangpojiao
These days I realised how electricity can make a difference in our daily life. In the previous month, I stayed in Hongpotou where electricity was not an issue, though water caused me a bit of inconvenience, due to the scarce source of rain. Here in Changpojiao, one has to learn how to cope with lack of electricity and unpurified water. I admire Mr. Gu, who is the only teacher here. He came from the city world just like me, but he has already lived here for 3 years. I can imagine how it was difficult for him to adapt to the poor conditions here at the beginning and the continuous effort to tackle all the problems derived therefrom, like, we can never have our phone working because the battery is always used up after 2 days charged. And to recharge it, one has to walk 3 hours to another village, or, even further, to the city.
On the day of my arrival, Mr. Gu showed me two glasses of water and told me to taste both. One of them is transparent while the other is yellow. I tasted both as he told me to, and found that the yellow one has a disgusting taste. He explained me that the transparent one was taken from the pond situated at the foot of the mountain. It takes around one hour to transport water from that pond by walking, while the yellow one is taken from the well behind the school built some years ago. However, none of them is purified. He assured me that he would take water for me from the pond if I could not put up with the taste of the yellow water. I told him immediately that I could perfectly live with the yellow one taken from the well - ""Don´t worry, God will take care of me. If I am to get sick because of the water, let His will be done."", I said, as I looked at the prayer written on the blackboard of the classroom where we were sitting. He laughed, amazing how we Catholics use our God as the unique and ultimate solution on tackling all issues. He then continued, ""in any case, all water swallowed by you must be boiled to 100 degrees.""
These days I have been using the yellow water for cooking, drinking, washing, and, I am perfectly fine! Every time I look at the plastic bottle filled with the yellow water, I am joyful because I know God is really with me!
Classes start at 8 am and end at 4 pm, as in Hongpotou, only that special adjustment has to be made on the lack of electricity, which means, lunch and dinner time have to be earlier than usual: 10am and 6pm, respectively, and no tutorials can be given at night, unlike in Hongpotou.
As in Hongpotou, I will be teaching English, music, sports and drawing. I feel much more at ease by having obtained some experience from Hongpotou in the previous month. Yesterday, I spent the whole afternoon with the children. I first introduced myself in the English class where I tactfully checked out their English level by asking them some questions. I was happy to conclude that they are all diligent students with solid ground of English. I guess, appraisal should be given to Mr. Gu in this regard since he is the only teacher in the school all these years.
After the class, they wanted to show me around, taking me to the other side of the mountains. I took my camera along with me and stopped to take picture whenever they said, ""Lao Shi, look there."" Along the way, they sing for me. Oh, they really enjoy singing.
At a breath-taking viewpoint on the hilltop, they showed me the river where they use to take bath once a week. It was indeed a stunning view. By the side of the river, there is a small station house where someone is working inside. While we were sitting down at the edge of the mountain taking a rest, we saw someone coming out from the station house. When my students saw this little person-like figure down there, they became so excited and started calling him loud, waiving their arms. At that moment, I thought, ""what makes them so excited? it is just a person...."" Oh, right, they seldom see people outside their village, that´s why anyone who is not from their village is an E.T., thus, capable to incite their curiosity. Somehow, living in Changpojiao is like living in a prison. They are deprived from all the beautiful and interesting things outside. From that moment, I decided to take them to town where I can show them what they are entitled to see. Besides, the most efficient way to teach is to let students see and touch.
When we came back to the school, it was almost five o´clock. It was about time for them to go home and have their dinner, but they would not go because they just wanted to be with me all the time. Even if I went inside my room, they still stayed outside on the playground hoping that I would come out again. I looked at them inside my room through the window. Suddenly, I had an idea by looking at the big ""family pack"" of yogurt milk I brought from town. A family pack contains 24 individual packs. After deducting 2 that I have already drunk, there should be 22, perfect quantity to be distributed to my little ones! I went to the playground with 22 packs of milk, which I distributed to each of them. They all said ""Xie Xie, Lao Shi"". However, instead of inserting the straw, that is attached to the pack box, and drinking it immediately, they examined it front and back, top to the head. They also tried to read the product information printed on the pack, the weight, the ingredient, manufacturer, etc.. I found it so funny but I did not ask them why. Instead, I took one pack from one´s hand slowly and helped him to take out the straw and insert it into the hole. Afterwards, everyone followed what I had just done. Well, I finally realized that they had never seen drinks in pack box with a straw attached to it.
I must say that I am very impressed to see what I am seeing here, not because they do not have clean water and electricity, but their way of being. It is thought that, in the name of survival, limited resources turn people selfish and even wicked, and people with no education are bad. I only see the contrary of these general ideas. People here, regardless of their age, are all so kind, polite, and grateful. They are also very religious. I guess their faith turns them good people. They might not know how to write a word, but they know how to pray; they might not how know to say thank you in your language, but they know how to hold your hand and look at you with sincere eyes.
After the music class, I played 3 collective games with them. These games involve a lot of running, jumping and sun exposure, which are quite ""energy-consuming"" to my age. For this, I can only blame myself who have chosen these games from the children games guide book...
Finally, it was 4 o´clock and my attention was completely used up after coordinating 22 active kids in running games. I told them that class was up and they were free to go home or do whatever they wanted. As they are all obedient students, they all settled down at the doorsteps of the classroom while I went to my room to wash up the sweat spread all over my face and neck. However, when I came out of my room, they were still sitting there, showing no sign to leave. One of them, probably chosen by the others to be their spokesman, said, ""Lao Shi, we would like you to play those games with us again."" There I realized how boring their life is and how they treasure new means of entertainment.
In fact, even if they are always smiling and singing, I can see sorrow and loneliness in their eyes. The particular condition of living without electricity has made their childhood boring and sad. Kids should not be like this. How I wish tomorrow to come, so that I can take them to town.
From yesterday Mr. Gu and I have been planning on taking the students to town. We divided them into several groups, to be taken in consecutive weekends, so that sufficient attention can be given each time. I wrote down our itinerary on the blackboard, as well as my cell phone number, and told them to report to their parents at home. We will set off to the city Kaiyuan on Friday after lunch and will stay 2 nights in the hotel. On Sunday, we will be coming back after lunch. As for transport, the original plan was to walk 2 hours to the village outskirts where we can catch city bus, but today Mr. Gu contacted a person from another village, who may want to take us to Kaiyuan by his van. After some negotiations, this person agreed to take us to town at a reasonable fare. Unluckily, even on this change of plan, we still need to walk 2 hours in order to reach this village where we will meet this driver.
Honestly speaking, I feel a bit nervous to take up this responsibility of bringing so many kids to a crowded town. I am not very sure as how they would react in such a different world where danger is everywhere. Therefore, I seriously warned them to follow me tight since there will be a lot of cars and motorbikes, and, most dangerous of all, are children kidnappers who are hiding behind the bush. I had to stress this last point so that they would not get lost from me. Tonight, I will pray to God for the success of our first trip.
Shower is funny, but not as addictive as television. They stayed up until late and woke up early in the morning, just for watching TV. Mr. Gu told me that they had already watched TV a few times before, in the village of their vicinity, but it was never enough. Right, you have to leave if the host tells you to....and this village is far away from Changpojiao.
Then we went on the street to find clothes, so that they could wear them on the coming two days in Kaiyuan. As the retail shops are all centralized in the walking street (bu xing jie), I took them straight ahead to the shop where I have seen nice kid´s wear. As a female, my aesthetic nature and motherhood made me ""picky"" on every single piece I chose for them. From style, color to fabrics, I just wanted to choose the best. At the same time, they never requested anything from me. On the contrary, any set of sweater and trousers I chose for them, they would show me how they love it, as if anything from me is a treasure.
As for food, I took them to eat a place where they can eat mixian, a famous noodle of Yunnan province. It is rare to have mixian in Changpojiao, only when the mixian hawker travels from the city to there that they can exchange mixian with their rice. Therefore mixian soon became their second ""favorite"" after television.
After each meal, I would always take them to buy ice-cream, but with one condition, which is, pronouncing loud in English the word ""ice-cream"". One of these times when I was about to pay for the ice-cream, a girl took out 10 yuan from her pocket, probably given by her parents for any emergency that could arise, and said, ""lao shi, let me pay for the ice-cream!"" How sweet she is! I smiled to her and told her that going out with lao shi doesn´t need money since lao shi will take care all of you. When I said that, I felt like a mother, who love and is loved by her children.
On the next day I took them to an American style fast food restaurant for lunch, but the service was far too slow to be claimed ""fast"" food. In half an hour, we only had a little part of our order on the table. I decided to leave the place and continue our lunch somewhere else, but my students all said that they had eaten enough. ""Impossible, you almost did not eat anything"", I said. As I insisted, we quickly sat down in a different place where I ordered some more food. As the food came to our table, they started to eat like starving for ages! I was happy that I did not trust their words; otherwise, they would be starving in the whole afternoon. Later, Mr. Gu told me that, in their heads, lao shi would soon use up all her money if she continues to pay for them, that´s why they said they had eaten enough, they don´t want you to spend more money. I turned to them and told them immediately, ""lao shi earns money by working. When lao shi ´s money is used up, she can always earn more by working more, do you understand?"" With such a young age, they are already so caring! Sometimes not even adults would have such a sensibility. They have surprised me one more time.
As part of my plan, I would like to buy some basketballs, footballs and badmintons racquets, so that they would have more choices than just the table tennis in the school. Therefore, after lunch, we went on shopping these things. The rest of the day, we just had a relaxing walk around the city, eating ice-cream, quite a pleasant afternoon. As the night came, we had dinner in the same place of their favorite mixian before going back to the hotel room, where they would play hours in the shower and then stay up late watching TV.
On the last day, we were supposed to meet another driver who would take us back to the village, but Mr. Gu would like to take the chance to buy some veggies in the market, so I stayed with the kids in the van where we waited for Mr. Gu. While we were waiting, they asked me, ""please bring us to buy candies, we want to buy candies for our little brothers and sisters."" Throughout the whole trip, they never speak out for their wishes, but for their beloved ones, they are capable of everything. Once again, they gave me surprise.
Up and down, right to the left, for an instance, I lost the school from my sight. Suddenly, I had the terrible thinking of being attacked by a fierce dog on the way, so I thought I should grab some ""weapon"", like a tree branch or a stone. As I stopped and started to choose a suitable ""weapon"" from the ground, I was so happy to see my boys behind me at a considerable distance! At first, I thought I just ran into them, but when I realize that they did not intend to chase me up, I know that, after all, they were following me all the way from the beginning. The 2 boys who escorted me through the fierce dogs must have told the others that lao shi went uphill and it could be dangerous because of the dogs. And these boys must have been sent by all the others, on the mission to protect lao shi.
They kept ""following"" me at a certain distance, just like bodyguards, not speaking a word to me. Here is the reason: They know that when lao shi puts on her earphone, she wants to have some time alone, no one should disturb her. Such a sensibility is unbelievable, isn´t it?
On the next 2 hours, they kept jogging behind me. They don´t care how tiring it was, they just wanted to make sure that their lao shi was safe. Whenever we heard dog barking from somewhere, they would run ahead of me and surround me. I felt safe and beloved. They are just amazing.
I truly fell in love with these angels. They are my little heroes.
Today, with the view to give them more time to prepare for the dictation, I allocated my English lesson for their revision, so that they could ask me anything that they don´t understand. However, instead of revising as I told them to, they all started doing their Chinese homework. They were keen on finishing their homework as soon as possible because they don't want to lose one minute to play after school before going home for dinner. Confronted by such a situation, for the first time, I got angry with them. I told them that I would not take them to town any more and that I would not buy anything else for them to play if this was the consequence of taking them to town.
I might have been cruel on saying this, but it just worked. They went home right away. God, I did not want to be angry with them, but I am so worried that I haven´t only brought them joy, but also bad consequence. I don´t want to indulge them too much that studies become their second priority.
The results are not bad. In 22, 8 of them didn´t pass. Yet, I am happy that those who had my tutorial showed great progress.
Tomorrow we will go to town again. With the experience I gained last week with the first group of students, now I feel more confident on taking this responsibility.
In the amusement park, my children experienced, for their first time, the funny horse riding and the scary pirate boat. They were all exultant. As I took photos of them with my camera, I felt so satisfied by their happiness and laughter. I think this is the way they should be.