Rain and Electricity Cut - 20th Mar

I experienced my first torrential downpour last night in Shaoguan city. Technically, I wasn't in the city, so the effects of the extreme weather really hit me. I had a restless sleep (as usual - I rarely get good sleep here. Maybe it's the bed...) and woke up at 5:00am to the sounds of thunder and rain, pattering on my windows. Lightning flashed constantly, brightening the room. It was flooding down in the muddy streets and roads were blocked with water rushing downstream. Eventually, after trying hard to forget the cold, sounds and misery, I fell asleep again. I had class the next morning anyhow.

Morning came. Being the impulsive person that I am, I went and got my umbrella, put on some trainers and went for a walk. By this time, I was indeed brave enough to venture out into the "village" alone, although it is hard to ignore the stares from the local people as I walk by. Hong Kong people are conspicuous, stand out and different....exotic to them.

The school was littered with trash, as was the roads. Muddy water puddles filled the streets. Children flocked to school, and boys swept the playground desperately, as if it was a move to restore their precious playground from the rampages and terrible powers of the storm. I didn't bring my camera or phone, for fear of theft. I just had a few dollars in my pocket, and bought a few steamed buns for breakfast.

I had been restrained to my little dorm room for so long, afraid to venture out, that I took great satisfaction in walking outside alone. Yes, I hid under my umbrella, but hey, it was definitely a first move. Maybe I should go for more morning walks instead of brooding alone in my bed, feeling listless, tired and awake.

I ate what the kids ate for breakfast - a warm, salty red bean bun, and a salty preserved vegetable bun. They tasted strange to my Hong Kong tongue, but it was also strangely satisfying. It filled up something in me that was missing for the past few weeks, my first taste of substantial food! I've been living on mostly cereal, oatmeal and sweetened things lately, eating way too much candy and sweets. 

Well - healthy living begins somewhere doesn't it ?

The stress of teaching

Whoever invented the 7-day calendar is an idiot. He or she should have added an extra day or two for the weekends, so stressful teachers like me can get a few more days of rest and quiet.

It's been an extremely hectic few days - my classes are getting noisier and noisier, and it's really hard to manage! I had to call in the form tutor a few times, and I just can't control the classes. The boys at the back are very troublesome. I'm so tired, but I want to exercise tonight because I've been eating too much and not moving enough for the last few weeks. But what happened was that I slept at 6:00pm and woke up at 10:30pm... and felt TERRIBLE. Oh no.... the worse week ever?

Anyways, I don't know how I can last for another few months teaching. I will try though, but I don't really see the point of stressing over a volunteer service scheme. Getting gray over nothing?

News March 14th- Hong Kongers vote to return to British Rule

According to a poll by the SCMP, 97% of Hong Kong citizens would vote for the city to return back to British territorial rule.

Hang on a minute - are we saying that we'd rather return back to the "good old" colonial days of our parents' parents', where exploitation was prevalent, common and often extremely violent ? Could it be that people have forgotten that colonialism instills legacies, both physical and ideological, amongst the people involved?

Just a few related incidents off the top of my head:

1. National education policy - C.Y. Leung's quashed policy of compulsory national Chinese education in all Hong Kong schools perhaps first started the spark of anti-Chinese feelings. Paraphrasing the arguments of many against the policy: who wants their children to be brainwashed into believing Chinese nationalistic jargon? 
2. Housing crisis- after C.Y. Leung's policy address of 2013, the public has paid much attention to the new houses being built around our little city. Especially the ones near the border of Hong Kong and China - the ones in New Territories and the upper areas of countryside - the new towns and new private houses for sale. Apparently, the houses are being built to cater for high-spending Mainland Chinese tourists who want to climb the property ladder and are rich enough to buy houses from Hong Kong. Concern: where are the houses made in Hong Kong for Hong Kong people? 
3. Mainland girl eats on the MTR - a young girl ate cup noodles aboard the MTR. A local HK man told her off, and sparked off a heated argument about "irresponsible Mainlanders" and "decent Hong Kong heroes" in online forums. Translation: We don't want you here, you dirty mainlanders who pollute our public transport systems. 
4. Milk Powder crisis- There has been a baby formula shortage in the city due to an influx of Mainland tourists buying up all the powder from local shops. Hong Kong people felt that they were being robbed of their goods, and that the tourists are taking advantage of the city's good reputation and quality products guarantee. 

And my opinions?

1. National education is good to a certain degree - it fosters a pride in the motherland and Hong Kong is an inseparable part of China. HK and China have had a complicated and deep relationship, and even if Hong Kong is now independent, the historical ties should be taught to our future generation. Otherwise, children would grow up not knowing anything about China at all. Furthermore, America has been doing it for many years. Who's opposing? They love it. Healthy patriotism can bind societies together. 
2. Hong Kong houses for Hong Kong people is a ridiculous concept anyways. How about all the "Made in China" labels of products all across the world? Does it mean that everything made in China belongs in China? Property should be made available for all, even Mainlanders who spend money to help fuel the thriving HK economy. 
3. Eating on the MTR? I've done it. No one seemed to care - go figure. I think this episode highlights deeper emotional issues that HK people have with Mainland visitors. Disrespect, mostly. Looking down on them. I guess Hong Kong has much pride over it's colonial past because Britain brought the city upwards, and raised it much above other Chinese cities like Shanghai or Beijing. It's the initial advantage. 
4. Milk powder is a complex issue - I read yesterday that the HK government has fined several Mainlanders for violating the rule of not more than 2 cans per person. I also read that China is unhappy about the policy, and there are talks as to whether the policy should continue on indefinitely.  

Continuing on the milk powder issue, I want to ask - why don't we tackle the fundamental issue instead of all the causes/ effective problems relating to one single cause: the lack of confidence in Mainland milk powder (and other goods, eg housing) ? Mainlanders buy from Hong Kong because they can afford higher quality formula to care for hungry children. They believe the milk powder inside China is tainted with dangerous chemicals like Melamine, or isn't as high quality as the ones from Hong Kong. Hong Kong has quality guarantee - should officials actually tackle the root of the problem, pack up their bags, head to China and implement higher health / safety checks for milk powder?

Tackle the root of the problem, government! (though it's hard, the HK and China gov probably wants to maintain distant ties... too close would again cause conflict and disapproval).

China and Hong Kong are inseparable. The latter depend on the former for water, tourists, workforce, labour, goods and services; the former depends on the latter because Hong Kong serves as a shining example of thriving capitalism, good British systems, transport links, tourists, strong legal and judicial system, and a better administration that runs smoothly. Come to think of it, I'm only in China serving for 6 months because of the HK/ China relationship.

I'm here to live for 6 months, and China isn't really as exotic, negative, troublesome and rural as one would think. China is plentiful in resources, labour and brains; a nation with huge potential, and huge desires for improvements. Everyone wants to climb up the social ladder and everyone works hard to raise their quality of life. The ones who can come to HK and shop are the few who have made it. Why should we deem them as intruders? What's the big deal? Our city and China cannot live without the other. Twinned compasses joined at the top.

The sinophobia, resentment towards Mainlanders and general anti-Chinese sentiment of the recent Hong Kong populous has got to stop.

Teaching Inspection

I was told yesterday that my English class would be inspected by people from the Shaoguan Education bureau. A teacher inspection - and apparently they only wanted to watch the "English teacher". I think it was more of a "check-up-on-the-volunteer" event than a regular school check. Why else would they pick this week to do it? But of course, I will never really know the answer; in China, many things are unseen, unheard and pass by undetected.

Like my water heater, for example, in which I was supposed to pay $900 + RMB for! No bill for me? Which reminds me of my window security issue. I have to install metal bars to keep thieves out.

Anyways, the P.3 teachers in the staff room told me to prepare for the inspection. I swapped classes with the Math teacher for this period on Wednesday, and she told me hurriedly that the inspectors would be coming for my class. She also tried to sneakily get my phone number. You'd think this was a normal move, but apparently in China this is a cunning trick to get other teachers to substitute classes for teachers who wanted to slack off. I was forewarned by Sarah about this, so I told a little white lie -

"My phone number is a Hong Kong one... I don't have a China mobile, and my HK number costs a lot".

Ha -

Not to be outwitted, I hurried back into my dorm and started to think. There's an hour to go before my first class at 10:00am - what do I do? Should I prepare a little test for the children? Yesterday, I set a test for Class 3 and they were extremely quiet. Many of them listened hard to my instructions and surprisingly, many scored 100. It's probably because my test was too easy, but nonetheless that worked to keep them quiet!

So - I wrote till my arms hurt... I wrote 40 pages of tests for the class I was going to be inspected for, in the same format as Class 3's yesterday. In the class, the kids were REALLY quiet because they knew 3 people were coming in to watch. They sat at the back and scribbled notes... I felt strange, as if I was really a teacher being inspected and not a mere volunteer and a student that was ... not much older than the kids I was teaching (although no one knew that!).

It was funny- I ignored the inspectors ... the children were exceptionally well-behaved. Ha! I hope we got good marks from them after the end. I wonder if I can read their reviews or comments ....

Life update: I've been sleeping quite poorly these days. I woke up at 4:30am, 2:30am and 5:00am for 3 consecutive days... Very tired and feeling generally POOR. I hope it gets better. I'm also having issues with water shortage ... for the toilet. I can't flush! On a second note, I love taking pictures of children! They're adorable and I can spend hours editing their pictures.

Rural China and Education

Time for some geographical reflections and thoughts I've had in the past day or two ...

• China and English education - Children start learning English at Primary 3 level, which means that by the time they start most of them are aged 9-10. Sometimes, children skip grades or are placed into the class without prior knowledge of any English at all. This makes teaching English quite challenging in China because although the children aren't that young, their English standards are equivalent to those of kindergarten level from Hong Kong.
• It was interesting because the English teachers had a short meeting the other day, and a lot of them voiced out their stress and inability to teach the children English. One even said she would rather teach Math or Chinese than English, because "the kids are so naughty" and "she can't cope" with their lack of interest in the subject. I think that this kind of attitude in teachers is dangerous - how are you supposed to teach when you don't want to teach? Can't you think of ways to engage your students, rather than to give up and let them go? 
• It seems that much more emphasis is placed on subjects like Math or Chinese here in Lishi school... 

• China and attitudes - reputation, reputation, reputation! Everyone wants to save 'face', and connections are everything when it comes to China. Just an example off the top of my head - I had requested the school to install an electric water heater in my room and offered to pay, but it turned out that one of the teacher's husband owns a heater shop downtown. We had it installed for free, and I didn't have to pay a cent. The matter sort of... disappeared after the man came and hooked up the electric supply. 
• It's also seen as a huge privilege to be coming from Hong Kong. Our city is exotic, foreign and deemed as a rich man's city by all in Shaoguan. Many teachers come up to me and start talking about buying milk powder in Hong Kong. Of all things, they bring up such a controversial topic! However, many of them has visited HK before (since it's only 4 hours away), so I guess it's not an unreachable golden land. My students also correct my traditional Chinese handwriting. That's rather cute. 

• School life - Nap time in the afternoon - my school has an amazing 3 hour lunch break from 11:30am to 2:30pm, whereby common activities partaken during these long, hot afternoons include: sleeping, taking long naps, drinking tea, lounging around, students travelling home for lunch and generally being unproductive and dormant. This, however, isn't unusual for me as I also take naps in Hong Kong (yes, I get constant strange stares) but for many Hong Kong workers this is an entirely new concept. 
• It is also normal for students to invite their teachers over to dinner or lunch! I have had several girls invite me over to their homes and one even suggested we play by the river. So far, I have kindly declined their offer, but I plan to join in someday when the other volunteer comes back. Two is always better than one in terms of safety and backup. 

• Class and being a teacher - hard work, sore throats, my mic's indeed my best friend when it comes to teaching. It's not easy leading a class of 50 naughty children, neither infants nor young adults. I have to spark their interest in English whilst keeping control of the class, which is the hardest thing. I have to bang sticks and rulers on the table to keep them quiet, though usually they get even noisier. I have three classes, and two are alright. One is usually harder to manage. Kids have so much energy! 
• They also hit children in China! A very harsh thing to do, especially when sticks and rulers are involved. I do not support capital punishment, but I will start being more fierce next week. I will ask the troublemakers to stand in the back of the class. 

After a week of teaching, I feel tired. It's an entirely new experience for me to be a teacher - I didn't expect to be teaching a main subject like English. I also didn't expect to be the only teacher in front of a huge class, even though the previous volunteers did warn me. Art and music involves much less teaching and more "interaction", but you get what you're given.

March 7th Shaoguan Diary - Toilet and Dance

I did two new things today:

• 1) Cleaned out my blocked squat toilet - squat toilets are a plumber's worse nightmare. They are mine too. Mine was blocked for the second time yesterday, due to a rather large poop (I ate a lot of vegetables since coming here, which is awesome). So what do I do ?
• Firstly I tried the detergent / hot water method - wait 15 minutes after pouring a generous amount of dishwashing liquid into the hole. That didn't work. 
• Secondly, I consulted my dear Google and thought of buying a "snake", aka a Toilet Auger, which turned out to be a long wire fishing pole for fishing out toilet paper. It worked by winding up and down, and I went back to fish all the poo out of my toilet after lunch. It cost me $8 RMB to buy one, but it worked like a charm, and taught me how to ... clear my squat toilet out. It took me an hour to clean up my toilet, but I have to admit - cleaning everything does bring it's satisfactions! Wow! 
• Maybe next time I should bring some liquid toilet dissolver from Hong Kong. That way I don't have to... erm... clean up the mess after using the auger. Anyways, I can officially deem myself a certified plumber! 

2) Dance with housewifes / teachers-

• Sarah and I were skipping rope (that girl skips like crazy!) when a group of female teachers asked us to join them for dance class. Dance class ? It turned out that the group of women gather in the dance room each night and practise their funky dance moves for an hour.
• Being the very skilled dancer that I was (not) I stood at the back and had a go at following their moves. Dancing doesn't come naturally to me, unlike other things, so it was very hard work. Everyone was sweating by the end of the third song. 
• I was so surprised because all the teachers danced popular dance moves REALLY well. I'm not kidding - it really was a surprise to watch them move and swing their hips, as well as do some hip hop / tango moves. We're in a village school by the way, not some high class studio in downtown London or Hong Kong...
• It turns out that the leading teacher was the vice-principal's wife. She's also the number one dancer in the school - it was funny watching her dance because she really can MOVE! 
• I want to keep fit and work out at least 2-3 times a week, so it would be great if I can keep joining the dance classes and improve my dancing skills. Dancing is great exercise, and combined with skipping, I think I'll end up with thunder calves / thighs after these 5 months of service. 

Geography News - March 7th

• Polar Bear hunting ban proposed - this ban on polar bear hunting was proposed to be included in CITES ( Convention of International Treaty of Endangered Species) and debated by countries like Russia, Canada, USA and also the indigenous Inuit. 
• The Inuit people rely on polar bear hunting for much of their economic revenues, and make a living selling polar bear fur and paws. However, Russia is in favour of the ban as they want to stop Canadian illegal smugglers from faking IDs to sell polar bear products. 
• This is geopolitics in action - Russia has a vested interest in the passing of the ban, as it may want to increase social control and reduce cross-border conflicts such as illegal Canadian passports. Of course, the local people also have a need for this special trade, and have a vested interest in the mammal.
• Shockingly, scientists have said that a ban on polar bear hunting will not do much to save the species. The breeding numbers are already very low and most countries who take part in CITES have a vested interest in the matter. 
• Perhaps we should ask ourselves - why protect polar bears? Aren't they useless in our food chains as top predators? Who is in charge here - USA or Russia ? How about the locals - will they be adversely affected by the ban ?

• Premier Wen Jia Bao of China made a policy speech in parliament, and set some new goals and identified areas for improvement in the next year for the world's growing superpower.
• China set a target of 7.5% for economic growth, unchanged from 2012, with an inflation target of 3.5%. Question: Can China's economic growth keep increasing ?
• He also promised to create more than 9 million new urban jobs. China's urbanisation is rapid, growing and increasingly prevalent across the nation (As you can see from Shaoguan city, an industrial town with mining factories, coal mines and towns full of trucks and trains). 
• Xi Jin Ping also promised to tackle corruption in China. China's bureaucracy is famous for being corrupted but it's leaders not malicious, hence the economic growth and improvements over the years (unlike Africa, for example). 
• Much criticism has been said about this policy address - it has too much praise and too little nitty-gritty problems identified. Wen spent 50 minutes praising China on it's achievements, and only the last 10 minutes on identifying some problems the nation faces, e.g. pollution, corruption, wealth gap etc. 
• Chinese citizen's growing online presence means that nowadays it's hard to censor much things. Online forum users said that they're unhappy with the speech and it's lack of policy changes, and formed their own thread which got 7 million hits. 
• Key points: China's growing online generation - a powerful tool for mobilising people! 
• China's corruption - is corruption inevitable and always bad ? What about "positive corruption" whereby the money taken out by the individual is spent back into the country internally rather than deposited in Swiss banks (Mugabe) ? 
• Compare it to HK's CY Leung Policy Address, Feb 2013 - issues are similar (e.g. poor getting poorer, lack of jobs etc). 

Diary - Hong Kong Service Corps

March 6th - Teaching

Today marks the second day of teaching as part of the HK Service Corps Shaoguan Scheme. I had   to teach two classes today, a relatively light schedule compared to yesterday's three jam-packed classes. The classroom is an interesting place - a blur of noise, faces, little eyes, noses and brains, all waiting to be filled with new information that may not be digested until years later on in life. It  still an unfamiliar place to me, as I am not born a teacher nor am training to be one for the future. I have never taught any child longer than a few weeks as part of a group of people. Now I have to lead a class of 45-50 children for formal English classes. 

English in Lishi School is a formal subject, meaning it isn't anything music, manners or fun. It's meant to be for teachers who have had strict training in education or have completed a degree in English. The culture here is like that - you teach what you did at undergraduate level. Everyone is in charge of their own subject and there is no asking around in other departments. 

As to the teachers, they are quite nice contrary to what the girls at Fa Ping School told me. I think that they might have exaggerated how mean the elderly teachers were, because there are some terribly nice people in my school. The PE teacher with a buzz cut, for example, helped me plumb my blocked toilet and helped me in other various problems early on. The school even gave me an electric water heater that I could use for hot showers (albeit my dad's warning that it could burst eventually. Thanks Dad).

The teachers, however, do think that Hong Kong was a much better place than Shaoguan. Sometimes, the female teachers would talk about the things they buy in HK to me, telling me that they bought milk powder and other "high order" goods because those in China were low quality. How true is this! I have actually experienced a little of the controversial milk powder scandal of Hong Kong in Shaoguan, within my first day of teaching. 

I have three classes in total, each having three lessons of English a week. I teach a total of 9 lessons a week, each lasting 40 minutes. At first I was very nervous and afraid - what would the children think of me? How do I teach them English ? I was given a book by the shy, introverted male English teacher Mr. Zhu, who was responsible for teaching the third grade classes prior to my arrival. He wasn't much help - all he did was shuffle away in his usual, quiet way and left me alone with my textbook. 

Since my first day was tremendously stressful, I had a sore throat by the end of the first class. I made the mistake of not using a microphone for my first class, and a second by asking them to introduce themselves. That was a terrible mistake - by doing so, it meant those students who were not introducing themselves would play, throw balls and fight whilst I struggled to listen to the student who were talking. I learned via trial and error, and launched straight into teaching for the second class. 

Banging sticks and rulers on the table helped quiet them down. Slightly. I saw the form tutor come in and beat the children who were naughty. They actually hit children in the Mainland! No wonder children turned out to be so disciplined in the future, and the friends I met in HKU were all rather quiet and demure. Also, girls were much more eager to learn and quiet than boys. Why ? Hormones maybe... the naughty boys all sat at the back of class. That was very unproductive. 

It was of course, helpful to have some textbooks to guide my teaching. I read from the books in class and I found it easier to teach the children today. Perhaps I have already acclimatised - that quickly and due to my amazing powers of settling down - but I have doubts. Will my classes tomorrow be more troublesome ? Can I manage ? 

Class wise - Class 1 is the naughtiest. Class 2 and 3 are manageable and I need to get the children's attentions. Today, I made them draw on paper. They don't have exercise books because I set them a few key words like "Student" , "Clever" or "Read" to write. These were taken directly from the textbook, so at least this part was easy. As for today's tasks - I tried to integrate art and English by making them draw their family, and using the English words I taught in class ("Man", "Woman", "Mother", "Father") to label their drawing. Let's see how that turns out tomorrow.

My mic's my best friend! Can't live without it. Good thing I brought one in the town centre before I arrived in the school. 

Just some final reflections... It's shocking how the things I teach them now can impact them further on in life. I remember as a Primary 3 child, sitting in KJS in front of Ms Stroka (yes I still remember her name! A powerful reminder of how one never forgets their primary three teacher) and thinking how nice she was. Not that I remember what I learned exactly, but I remember feeling like I was part of the class. Maybe that's what I should do - work on getting everyone happy and interested instead of chatting and fighting. 

March 6th - Living

I love my room - I set up a little cozy corner (labelled and decorated) in my room and that was a space where I can relax. It has my trusty ukulele, my christmas lights and my water kettle, to keep me company on the lonely nights. My room is still a mess right now. I vow to clean it up tomorrow!

My internet is great. I have Facebook and Twitter, so can keep my online job up. No complaints here. Actually life in rural China is much better than I expected. Perhaps that's because I am living in a school, a school where education is valued and teachers are respected. Chinese culture definitely places more emphasis on education and discipline than their Western counterparts, which is why children are much ahead in Math and Science than anywhere else. I saw a class recite the 8 times-table this morning - alone without a teacher!

I will never again leave home without a rice cooker. These things are so versatile, it's not even amusing. I cook eggs, vegetables and beans in them as part of meals. I want to eat more vegetables and protein instead of all the noodles outside the school. I usually order vegetables (no oil, no soy sauce, just salt) when I eat outside with the other two girls Sarah and Ying Ying. I can't stomach the oil and carbs!

Going into town is a rare treat, but it's fortunate that some teammates need to go to church every Sunday. I take the same bus as them and we travel together. Maybe I can get some cheap lights for my dark room in the town centre next week. The team and I get along well, and I also get along with the girls from Lishi School. Sarah's also a Geography girl, so we chat about music, musings and people a lot.

Surprisingly, I don't miss Hong Kong life much. Perhaps it's because of all the hardships I have endured in the past few years (though most of these are self-inflicted) but I like the simple life. It's peaceful. The village dogs are beautiful and very charming... one looks like it has eyeliner and a black eye, while one looks sleepy all the time. I miss my dog - to be honest, who wouldn't miss their dog once in a while instead of parents?

I just hope my electric water heater doesn't burst. Please don't burst! I want to live for Cambridge University! I also hope my squat toilet doesn't clog more, but it doesn't seem to be listening to my requests. Toilet - I want you to swallow all the toilet paper I put in you, please!

Day 3

Learned to use a rice cooker - I cooked delicious mushrooms inside the cooker and it was as easy as pie! I mixed it with instant noodles (kimchee flavoured) and had a great lunch. The girls from Fa Ping are coming over - yikes!