Just back from the trip out to Xiping town, an hours drive away from Santai, on winding semi-paved roads through some beautiful countryside, the verdant hills of Sichuan rising on either side as we wended our way past terraced slopes with fields of rice and all sorts of vegetables. It reminded me of India in many ways, the smell of woodsmoke drifting on the air, and chickens and dogs in the road, but even more so passing through the villages. Though the older, more traditional homes here are have roofs of black tile instead of thatch, they also nestle among the hillsides as though they’d grown up from the very earth, in contrast with the more “modern” block-style houses of cement and cinder block.
As the others in the car chattered away in Chinese (one good thing about not speaking a language is that you can tune out and noone is offended, or expects you to keep up the conversation, which is always nice on trips when I’d far rather be looking out the window!), I was at liberty to look out the window. It’d would be wonderful to bring an easel and paints out into the villages, and try to catch the mist-wreathed old houses with their mud bricks and tiled roofs half hidden by stands of bamboo, with ropes of yellow corn cobs hung to dry under the eaves, woven baskets standing along the wall, and bright green patches of garden vegetables beside the front door. Of course, one would have to bring an invisibility cloak a la JK Rowling as well, in order to get any actual painting done, as foreigners are scarce in these parts, and most villagers have never seen a foreigner before.
I was invited to Xiping by the headmaster of a private English tutorial school there. She had contacted me through the teachers at the junior school I teach at on Saturdays in Santai, and talked me into giving an “exhibition” class to young kids. I agreed rather reluctantly, I have to admit, teaching little kids is still not my best thing in the world, and I grew more concerned as time went on before this event was to occur, and each time I asked how many kids, the number went up, until it ended up I was to teach 200. And I was never terribly clear about exactly how long or what I was to do: was told it was outside…it sounded worse and worse, but as it happened, I was pleasantly surprised.
After my morning classes on Saturday, we drove out to Xiping, and arrived to a crowd of kids who swarmed the car to greet me, bless them! They are all village kids, who’d never seen someone from another country, and were extremely cute and friendly, more than happy to practise what English they knew! I had multiple kids hanging off each arm, chattering away the questions they had learnt. Met the other teachers of the school, all young-ish girls in their twenties: Laurie, Sissy and Michelle. Most Chinese kids are given English names in their junior schools, and it does make it easier to remember at least some of them!
After an hour or so, I was taken to have a walk through the old part of the town, with its ancient cobbled streets, and traditional wooden houses with front walls that dismantled! They are made up of boards that slot into a rack at top and bottom of the wall, so open into shop fronts during the day, and can be closed up at night. You can see it in the photo I’ve put up, with the old people sitting out in the street watching the world – and a foreigner!- go by.
We stopped by an old man selling what looked like wicker-work baskets, he had such a contagious grin, I wanted to stop and have a look at his baskets. They turned out to be traditional coal-burners to warm your hands and feet. One of the teachers, Laurie had gone with us to act as translator, and she told me that only older people use them nowadays, but the craft of making them continues. Have a look at the photo on the side!
I also stopped and talked to a woman making brooms, rakes and ladders out of bamboo.
We walked down the uneven cobbled street, the wooden houses pretty much unchanged from hundreds of years ago, and the photographer with us, Oscar, who works for Santai TV and was filming “A foreigner’s view of Xiping!!!” pointed out the eaves, built entirely out of interlocking wood pieces, and no nails. Through Laurie’s translation, he told me that such houses could withstand even earthquakes, and were much stronger than the more modern buildings of concrete.
We all went out for dinner that night, the ubiquitous hotpot of course, but this time of freshly caught and killed fish. Very fresh…there was a big tank out front, with a chef balancing precariously on a board over the water wielding a large net. I have to admit to being too squeamish to watch the catching and killing…oh the days of vegetarianism…!
There is a certain knack to eating a fish hotpot, which I have yet to master. Chunks of fish are thrown into the bubbling spices and oil, complete with bones, and the Chinese seem able to put the entire piece into their mouth, move it around a bit, and spit out a pile of bones. It took me much longer…spitting out bone by bone, and trying really hard not to swallow any. This is, as you can perhaps imagine, really difficult to do gracefully! Fortunately, the Chinese are also very good at allowing one too keep face, and carried on their conversation regardless of my facial contortions! After dinner, I was to spend the night in the teachers’ flat. The three girls had a room each, but it was not nearly as nice as my “foreigner” flat, with its tiled floor and posh furniture. They had bare cement floors, a rudimentary kitchen with water-stained walls, and it was cold!!! But they were really friendly, set up an electric blanket for me, and made me very much at home. They were up in the wee hours, getting ready for the pageant, and left for school early. I and Laurie left at the more sensible hour or 7am, and went off to the school office, she to dash about madly like the others getting everything ready, me to sit nursing my hot soy milk and watching the kids getting made up assembly-line style. Two teachers had a pile of make up on the table, and were liberally be-daubing the kids one after the other with lipstick on mouth and cheeks. A few of the girls who were dancers had their ponytails bound with red ribbons to stick out from either side of their head, Pippi Longstocking style. Looked a bit like Christmas TV antennas to me, but they seemed quite pleased with the result!
Part 2…
So once all the kids were bedecked and bejeweled to everyone’s satisfaction, they were all herded into a long procession, at the head of which was unfurled a large red banner with all kinds of Chinese writing on it, and my name emblazoned in white letters! Have absolutely no idea what it said, but assume optimistically it was something good! It would have been funny if I was marching happily off to my doom surrounded by smiling kids and a sign proclaiming my imminent demise…! At any rate, we proceeded with great aplomb down the road in the drizzle of rain which had, typically of any such event, begun the moment we set off. Crowds gathered to watch our progress, traffic was halted as we sauntered gaily across the street, to the stage set up near the market place…the aroma of singed feathers wafting over us as we passed a group of women roasting chickens in large clay ovens.
The programme started late, as all events tend to, as the sound system acted up, the large helium banner collapsed, and various child actors took some time to locate. All crises were eventually overcome, and those of us in the shivering, slightly damp audience were treated to a progamme extraordinaire of songs, dances and short drama. The kids sang “It’s a small world” with great enthusiasm to even greater applause, and performed an extremely unique rendition of Snow White, which seemed to include some elements of Goldilocks (“someone’s been sleeping in MY bed..”), and the three musketeers ( the “prince” was garbed in a flowing cape (a red curtain) and was wielding a sword which he flourished with abandon, so dramatically in fact, that it was nearly impossible to make out what he was saying!
Then I was sent up on stage, the token foreigner,( like shops in India who hire elephants or dancing bears to perform and attract custom) to sing an English song with the other English teachers. Honestly, I don’t think I have ever sung publicly so much in my life since I began teaching ESL. There is a very good reason for this, of course, as all of you who know what my voice is like are well aware! Ah well, it seemed to amuse the crowd, at any rate. Later on, I was sent up again to “teach” about 200 kids. It was more entertainment than anything else, my job was to “attract interest” so I played a rousing game of Simon says, sang “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes” at great volume and danced the Hokey Pokey. Made a complete fool of myself in general, but it seemed to do the trick.
Afterwards, I was interviewed live for Santai television…pretty much an advertisement for the schools, you know, “how do you like the students?” “What do you think of our school?” with the standard glowing responses pre-set.
Then the teachers, school leaders and I headed off for lunch, a veritable feast, with the usual assortment of odd meat bits… dogs ears, duck tongues, pickled chicken feet and turtle soup, complete with an actual broiled turtle sitting in it, shell cracked so one could dig out the meat….I have to admit, that though some was put in my dish, I did actually cover it up with bits of cabbage and not eat it…!
After lunch, it was back to Santai, another beautiful drive, which since I have already described it once, will refrain from inflicting another description on you. Back in time to meet up with one of my students, a boy who calls himself J. Really nice kid, is helping me to learn Chinese, with great enthusiasm for all my badly-pronounced responses. After two hours chatting with him in a tea-shop, returned to school for a few more hours of prepping for my Christmas-themed classes this week. Am telling the kids a bit about Christmas, complete with stories of Sinterklaas and Black Piet, mistletoe and Christmas crackers…By the end of this year, these kids will know more about the world and its customs than most other Chinese kids their age, I suspect. After that, am showing them a 10 minute video clip of Mr Bean’s Christmas…they love the humour….and then a slide show of Christmas pictures from my last Christmas home, lots of pictures of my family and Christmas decorations, also pictures from Christmas round the world, St Lucia in Sweden, The Sphinx wearing a Santa hat, that sort of thing. They really love the pictures, especially of family and our house in Canada. Lots of work to prepare all that, but it has
been a resounding success. Several of the kids have told me they have laughed more since I arrived than in all their previous school years. Don’t know if that’s a good thing?!!!
A few more bits and pieces of note…went with a friend of mine, Jing Rong, for a wander
round town, and visited a school for deaf kids. They were really cute, and it was great to communicate with them through chalk drawings on the pavement! Lots of smiles all round! Am planning to go back again, once the teacher’s conference is over, and I have free time to call my own once more…
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