Tuesday 2007/07/31

Dear Parents,

This morning went smoothly. Electricity is back to the classroom and all was well. In addition to learning the regular materials, all classes today were also preparing some rhymes and songs to perform on the day of graduation.

The afternoon was packed with activities. First, Li Laoshi gave a lesson on the painting of Peking Opera face patterns (lian3pu3). After an overview of the various patterns and colors, she had the children draw and then paint on a fan. She had sketched three outlines on each fan prior to class. The children’s job was to fill in the details, either modeling after an existing face pattern (provided by the teacher) or creating a face pattern all by themselves. The work was half done today and will be continued tomorrow.

Then, the organizer of DongDong, an agency that works with YiB during our 4th week in Huairou, came to visit the children. She brought with her four college students (2 female, 2 male) who are volunteers. These four college students will be team leaders during our 4th week when our children will be paired up with one or two local children of similar ages. During the 4th week, our children will be asked to speak Chinese only (or as much as possible) as they will be sharing a room with local Chinese children. After the college students introduced themselves, our children introduced themselves (all of them using Chinese) and made specific requests, if any, as to what kind of local Chinese roommate they would prefer.

After that, Tian Laoshi led the children practice the two Chinese songs that they had learned. Later this week, our children will be singing these songs for the elders in a seniors’ home. We then had self-study. Yan Laoshi, Tian Laoshi and I were with C, B and A respectively. We had some leftover extra reading materials from A Class and I took them to B Class. Several students in B Class (Andre, Jesse, Arnold) welcomed the challenge.

About 5pm, Tian Laoshi took the children to do physical exercise, practicing jian4zi and Chinese yo-yo. During dinner, Bonnie announced the winner from last week’s competition—it is Team Thunder! When the announcement was made, the Bonnie remarked that members of this team tried very hard and made a lot of progress last week. Tian Laoshi and Ruiduan took Team Thunder to go shopping at 7:30.

I’d like to spend some time giving you a fuller picture of some of our local teachers at YiB. Gong Laoshi, the head residence teacher (sheng1huo2 laoshi), is a remarkable woman. At the age of 65, she is warm, exuberant, competent but not imposing, and well liked by all. Her love for her job permeates all that she does. Everyday when we cross the street between dorm and classroom, she stretches her arms wide and blocks traffic for the children. One day she and I were crossing the street, she even held my hand! When a child is sick, she will ask the dining hall to make the child something special and bring it to the child’s room. She escorts the children wherever they go, collects their laundry, checks to see if they have clipped their nails, fixes their personal items when broken, plays chess with them, supervises them during self study, reads to them, uses her own money to buy ice cream for them (when Bonnie allows for ice creams) and advises them to not to drink cold water from the fridge. On the Great Wall, she was a lot faster and a lot more fit than I was. The other day she and I were pedaling a boat together when we took the children to Beihai Park. She began to sing, and what a beautiful voice! In her leisure time, she is a member of Hai2dian4 District Choir, an amateur group which has been invited to perform in a number of countries internationally. She lives with her son and his wife and seems to be having a great relationship with her daughter-in-law. She is one of those kind and lively souls whose presence makes others feel better.

Tian Laoshi, our male residence teacher, is a tall young man of about 25. His regular job is a math teacher of intermediate grades. He told me that a big part of his motivation to work at YiB this summer is to interact with children from other cultures. He does a lot for us. Everyday at 7:20am, I hear him (from 1st floor where my room is) counting heads and shouting “OK, let’s go!” And I’ll know it’s breakfast time. Like Gong Laoshi, he is with the children all the time except when they are in language classes. He teaches them to sing, plays soccer and other sports with them, collects their field trip worksheets, and disciplines them too. He said that his most frequently used words in the last couple of weeks are, in descending order, “Let’s go!” “I’m sorry” and “NO!” He is also aspiring to have more opportunities for career advancement. Serious but not stiff, he is a pleasure to be with. I am glad to hear that he will be joining those of us who are going to Inner Mongolia during YiB’s 5th week.

Our local teachers receive very modest compensation for their work (they are paid by Yanjing, YiB’s cooperating entity in Beijing). In a materialistic society, it would be a tough challenge to retain teachers of high caliber.

With thoughts about the present and the future of YiB,
Agnes (aka He Laoshi)