Saturday, April 28, 2012
Gabriella's views on the Dali Lhama
Nov. 2012 Gabriella will be coming to the USA in January for a month. She will be studying in a special program in Arizona and I am planning on connecting with her. While she is here, I am hoping that I can get her to watch the documentary , Ai WeiWei, the Chinese artist who is in trouble with the Chinese governemtn because of his views on their suppression.
April 2012- I asked Gabreilla to write an article on the Dali Lhama and I am really impressed with what she wrote. I told her that I would publish her thoughts without any editing. But I did ask her to approach her arguements in a scholarly manner rather than an emotinal manner. Her thoughts were publisehd last week in a blog titled "Gabriella". She is eager to receive comments so feel free to read it and make commnets which I will forward on to her. Now, I want to hear her thoughts on Mao. They all love Mao over there. "He saved our country".
On Apr 22, 2012, at 8:50 PM, "空白thinking"< 1367993031@qq.com> wrote:
I finally finished it, as a gift for you cause you love Dalai ,but I said some bad things on him
<dalailama.doc>
空白thinking
Apr 25 (1 day ago)
where are you now? stay with your friends in Canada? I want to skype you now, but pity that this month I did't pay for my Internet acess. I am in Sias library and computers here don't have skype. I have to remind you that here in China is 9 pm. we have already been separeted to different patrs of the world
Much of the world don't like Mao? why? actually he is not a perfect man, some of the Chinese people don't like him either, but he is really a great person.
you are my dear leader and I will take your advice to write an article on him.
In addition, remenber give the remarks on your blog to me, and I am happy to hear that I encouraged some of you to do some research.
Gabriella
主题: Re: dalailama
Ok, so what is the next piece you are going to write for me.
Bridget E. Kelly, DEd
On Apr 25, 2012, at 5:44 AM, "空白thinking"< 1367993031@qq.com> wrote
have you arrived to America? we all cried when you left,but you are you cruel-hearted ,just said goodbye and left us emotionlessly.We miss you so much.When we come back to our class that morning,we have a mid-term text,our teacher saw my crying face just thought I am over pressured ,
You want the next piece? Okay, but I have to find more materials. I t took me about 1 week to finish the rirst part,so it's not a easy work to pursuade Americans who like Dalailama to agree with me, but I promise I will finish the after season as soon as possible. You are my loyal reader now Bridget
主题: Re: 回复： dalailama
I am not home yet. My plane got stuck in Canada so I should get home some time this afternoon. I was able to connect with some friends. They read your blog on the Dali Lhama. You haven't convinced them but you have encouraged them to do some research. Why don't you write about Mao. Much of the world doesn't like him so your comments should be interesting. You are a very good writer.
Love,
Your cruel hearted friend.
Giving Voice to Women- Olivia's Project
For Olivia's project, she made a video recording of all the other projects. it was the first time she ever recorded anything and she loved it. As a matter of fact, i was afraid that she was not going to return my video camera to me. As a going away gift to me, she made me a video but she sent it to me via her Chinese email and I cant open it. As soon as I find a way to get access to it, I will post it.
(from Amy)
Dear Bridget:
I guess you have reach your hometown now, I miss you so much, I will never forget the time we spend with each other, I hope we can connect with each other all the time forever.
Now i am preparing for my graduating papers so maybe i have no much time to send you Email but i will send you email if i am free.
Maryann send me an email that she has reach Arizona and relax a week after the long travall of China, i think you also need to relax ,so you need not reply to me soon, only don't forget to send Email to me. I feel very thankful for you teach me a lot, and the first time i went to the Bar i will never forget it.
Hope all is going well with you. Miss you!
Emily
The Last of the Random Thoughts
1- The longer I am in China, the worse I am getting with my chopsticks. Today I tried to use them and I was so awkward. It felt as if it was the first time I had used chopsticks.
2- I was standing on a corner, watching an old woman collect plastic bottles from pedestrians. I quickly took her picture and in the process, caught her attention. She came over and said something in a loud voice. I thought she was annoyed with me. But she wanted to tell me that I come from “a wonderful country”. A long time ago, she met an American and he was polite to her so she thinks we are all polite. She stared at me a little bit, checked me up and down, laughed to herself and then went back to her task.
3- She gets 1 yuan for every 10 bottles she collects. So she gets 10 Yuan for every 100 bottles and that is about $1.75. She told me she collects about 30 bottles a day. So she makes about 50 cents a day. She is 80 and this is her daily income. The government sends her 10 Yuan a month.
4- Today, one of my students noticed that I had blue eyes so she came right up to me to take a closer look. We were just about nose to nose and I was a little uncomfortable with my lack of personal space. And when she moved away, I saw that a line had formed and the other 8 students wanted to have a look as well.
5- There is a new building going up right next to my dorm. Workers have been working from 630Am to 700PM, seven days a week for the entire time I have been here. They must be behind schedule because last night, around 2:00AM, I heard a car outside. It woke me up and I got up to see what was going on. The car drove right in to the construction site and six adults got out of this small car. Three of them were women and they were holding small children, swaddled in blankets. They placed the children down on the ground in a corner of the exposed building and the six adults went to work, the front lights of the car serving as their only source of light.
6- A student offered me some food from her plastic bag. “It is delicious”, she tells me. When I looked it, it was filled with fried chicken feet. NO THANKS.
7- I had a wool jacket tailor made for me- $40.
8- We were in a hot pot restaurant and food just kept coming to our table. A jelled block of something brick color arrived. I asked what it was. “Goat blood. It is delicious.”
9- Selia met a man from Poland. “Have you ever heard of Poland?” she asked me. I told her a little bit about Poland and she told me, “I think I have to teach myself about the world”.
10- I am at the airport, waiting to go home. Our flight is delayed so tea is served to everyone.
Monday, April 23, 2012
My name is Gabriella and I'm a student from Sias university .Last night the other four members from World Academy and I have a heated debate on Dalailama with our facilitator Bridget .Interestingly ,Bridget call him Dali, but we call him Dalai. Dali sounds a little bit cute ,that make me a little bit unhappy .Cause in Chinese culture, Lai means somebody shamelessly .Most Chinese people will say Dalai instead of Dali.
I'm so surprised that most Americans speak highly of Dalai .Bridget think he is a man who represent peace, which sounds ridiculous to our ears .Of course ,both Americans and Chinese People regard Tibet as a holy, beautiful and mysterious place ,but this unique beauty is badly interfered by Dalai.
Actually, Tibet have a variety of religions, and Dalai is once a leader of Buddhism in Tibet. But when Dalai gets more and more support from some other countries who want China not to be united, he started armed rebellion at March 10th in 1959 as he was afraid of losing his power and democratic reformation carried on Tibet ,but it was failed soon and he left China at 1959 and fled to Indian .Despite his denials ,he wrote some letters to our PLA stationed in Tibet at that time ,he said ,the reactionary groups tried to drive a wedge between our relationships ,I felt so sorry ,and I'm trying to solve this problem .But years later ,he kept giving speeches and advocate his "peace theory" and he said we are not allow him to come back .He defined that riot as the peaceful revolt ,the reactionary groups he referred 50 years ago changed to they are forced to do so at that time. But the interesting thing is , our central authorities kept his occupation for five years after he fled.
Tibet belonged to China since the 13th century(Yuan Dynasty),but I don't deny there was a time Tibet lived dependent relatively cause there was a civil war in China between 1945 to 1949.(But we never lose the sovereign rights from Tibet, that's the reason why most of the countries all over the world don't admit Tibet is a depended country)As its high altitude and its unique location ,before the PLA came in to Tibet and liberated Tibet, Tibet had been in a serf system for a long time .95% of Tibet people were serfs and the people left were slave owners and monks .At that time ,every temple had a large areas of land and piles of serfs. When the slave owners had sacrificial ceremony, they will cut down the slaves' arms and peeled off their skin as offerings. When you come to the museums in Tibet now, you can find the order written by Dalai on peeling the slaves' skin. Our central government carried on land reform during the 1950s , the land owners had to hand over their lands and relief the slaves. Of course, it damaged the slave owners' benefits and they were not happy. Dalai is one of the people who suffered a lot at that time. So they started armed rebellion, then our government repressed, then Dalai fled. So now you know why Dalai is so dying to restore the serf system(Of course, he didn't call it serf system, and he described it as a glorious system) .Don't listen to his words on how happy people's lives are when Tibet was in serf system, I hope you can find somebody neutral on this issue but knew clearly about Chinese history and listen to what he will say about it. Or you can travel to Tibet, but remember do not go with the travel agency ,and do not only go to some temples, I suggest you going to common people's families personally and you will find on their walls are Chairman Mao's picture ,they still hang on chairman Mao's photo cause he gave them freedom and rights. They still kept their grandpas or great grandpas' photos that showed they had no arms. When you walk into the streets in Tibet, you will find those who advocate Tibet should be depended are lamas or the descendants of nobles .You can see lama's comfortable lives and listen to their complaints to our government.
In that time, the Tibet people are so backward in their culture, I will give you an example, when they have a disease, they will not go to the hospital, they will beg some monks who has high level for their excrement, they believe that kind of thing can cure a disease. They will not send the smartest child in their family to go to a college, instead they will send them to be monks. So the common people who lack of culture are easily stirred up by lamas .We respect their culture, but we hope them know modern culture. After PLA liberated Tibet, our central government constructed so many schools in Tibet and we have the policy that if the college graduates go to Tibet to offer education to local children, we can receive further education for free when we come back .So lamas are afraid of this, they are afraid that their common people will not listen to them, when they carried on riots, the target they will ruin are schools and hospitals. Despite of Dalai's words of human rights and freedom, it's actually a conflict between religious authority and modern civilization .
In my opinion, why the reason Dalai is so popular in American is that he always traveling around the western countries and waving the banner of religion and pretend to be peaceful, he said he is the representative of peace ,however on the other hand, just because he and his small group keeps speaking some unreal but negative things about politics and our Party such as Tibet people don't have human rights and they often organize some violent activities that makes Tibet not peaceful. What is the point of those violence? It's because he wants to spill our motherland and want to get back his personal rights when he can get as Tibet is in serf system. I have heard from some American friends that they think maybe the Tibet people probably want to keep the serf system, but the reality is, reactionary, backward schedule serf system, was tremendous tie of society. Just think about the black people live in American, do they want to come back to the slavery system again? Just as the religious court never forgave Copernicus and Galileo, it will be a long struggle accompanied with riots, negotiations and debate.
I also want to mention that before Beijing held the Olympics, Dalai declared he had the best wishes for Beijing Olympic Game, while when we passed the torch at Paris, his supporters want to rob the Olympic torch from a girl who is a disability and want to hurt her. During March 11th to March 13th,his supporters shouted slogans "Tibet is depended" and throw some stones and lime to the security staff, a few Buddhist monks tried to use knifes to hurt themselves and then took pictures by themselves. They want to fake that our staff have hurt them. The result is that tens of police were seriously hurt that day. What's more, your media only said that we controlled too much on Tibet and their supporters merely intend to hold small peaceful demonstrations. That is the first time that Chinese people changed the impression that western media is always objective and fair.
Now Dalai gets support from western counties and he always show that he is the representative of peace. But the violence happened in China these years are connected to him, Buddhism orders the monks' intrinsic quality is mercy to everyone, but he used this feature to do some destructive things to our country. I don't think my essay will change your opinion upon Dalai, all your opinions on him are that he is a good person. But in the end, I want to remind you that to know more about our history instead of listening to him saying his injustice all the time. Get back your sympathy for him first and your prejudice on China, welcome to our country, our Tibet then have a look.
Bridget , do you change your mind on that bad boy a little bit?
Thursday, April 19, 2012
The last few days
Less than one week from today, I will be on the plane and heading home.
I teach my final class tomorrow night.
On Friday, I am off to see the Terra Cotta warriors.
Sunday, my students are having a party for me.
Monday, I pack. And then that's it.
It will be great to see all of you again.
Millennium Goal Service Projects
All of my students need to complete a service project this spring. Here are some of the abstracts of their projects.
Breakfast Project for Very Poor Children
Millennium Goal: End Poverty and Hunger
Susanna Ma, Valerie Wang
Contributing to an NGO with similar goals to end hunger and poverty(E: Feed the Children) is the focus of our project. Poverty and hunger are a basic and critical problem in China and children, who are the future of the country, are the most at-risk segment of the population.
Breakfast provides most of the nutrition for the day. Hungry children in elementary schools in the poorest area of Henan Province (research will show us where the highest poverty level is in Henan Province) will be beneficiaries of our project.
We will raise money during an evening performance or reception during the Women's Symposium in May. The minimum donation we will ask ￥2.00 per audience member and try to raise a total of 2000 yuan. After that we will contribute the money to an NGO (ask help from another group to identify the proper NGO) who shares our goals.
This is not a one time effort. We will repeat this effort in September when the start of the school year comes.
In addition, we will ask the NGO to introduce some hi-technology methods to clean the water in the target communities. The NGO can also begin an education campaign to teach community leaders how to improve the methods to cook in healthier, more efficient and less polluting ways.
Clean Water for Everyone
Millennium Goal(s): Environmental Sustainability
Wendy, Joy, Silvina, Mel
Regretfully over half of people still lack a toilet and other forms of health facilities. And the rural villagers are at the greatest disadvantage to get clean drinking water. Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation are human rights and essential for a full enjoyment of life. This project aims at improving the provision of water and sanitation facilities in poor rural areas in Zhengzhou, China. We plan to implement our clean water campaign during the month of May, 2012.
To start, we will divide our team members into three committees:
(1) Marketing- to find sponsors, NGO’s, private sector, and other organizations that can raise money for this important cause.
(2) Public relations- to give speeches to ensure that the issue of sanitation gets the attention it deserves and to solicit the help of other college students.
(3) Organization- to solicit government agencies to construct infrastructure, such as water filter facilities, waste water recycling, collection of municipal solid waste, more toilets and so on.
Additionally, we will develop an on-line platform to share data on water and sanitation provision and consumer satisfaction in Zhengzhou.
To meet this huge goal, we will solicit the help of many people (students, administration, citizens, government leaders, etc.). We will not be satisfied until more than half of people in rural villages have clean water and functioning sanitation systems. Yes We Can!!! Yes We Will!!!
Connecting with Middle School Dropouts
Millennium Goal(s): Universal Education
Emily (Chairperson), Fullmoon，Vita，Sunny，Joanna，Ryen (Team players）
Basic education for all children is very important. If children are not educated, the entire country suffers. We need to educate children to make our country stronger and stronger. If we do not educate children, they will lose opportunities to grow and enrich their lives. If the children are not educated, they cannot find meaningful work and have little to no quality of life. Education can change one’s entire life. We believe that everyone should have the chance to go to school.
For our project we want to find a middle school in a poor area. Through the help of the school administration, we will find students who have dropped out as early as middle school age. We will persuade these children to go back to school. We will let their parents know the importance of an education. Then we will collect information to determine why they dropped out of school. Maybe we can offer some solutions to change their decisions. And after we have established a relationship with these students, we will leave our academy’s public connections such as our Email address our office address and our telephone number so we can give them support when they meet difficulties. We will also give them advice about their lessons during their study.
We want to take the first step to make sure every child, in every village, has the same chance as the children who live in rich areas to receive education. We will not be satisfied until parents realize and support the significance of education. We believe that we can reconnect children to schools so that they receive education. We do our utmost to achieve this important goal.
ENCOURAGE EVERYONE DO THE BASIC ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Millennium Goal(s): Environmental Sustainability
Leader: Sarah, Note taker: Kelly Zhang, Kelly Zhu, Members: Julia, Honey
We think that environmental sustainability should be everyone’s responsibility. Then, and only then, it will make an obvious difference, so we will appeal to all college students, faculty and staff to protect the environment in SIAS campus.
First, they should notice how serious the problem of pollution is on our campus. So we will take photos about the litter pollution, plastics pollution, and the plants that have been broken by us, the waste of papers, electricity and water. Then we will make a speech on our campus during the Women’s Forum (May 19 and 20, 2012). We will also create a PowerPoint presentation, using the photos. We will also write articles about the reality of our environment. Words are powerful. These articles will be distributed to our school newspaper, the radio station and other campus media. Through this action, it is our hope, people will pay more attention to the environmental protection, and we can lead them to do small things, like save water, put litter in its proper place .Second, we will solicit help from other school organization, then we can organize our schoolmates better to protect our environment. There is an environmental protection academy on our campus. We will contact with them and get help from them. In addition to giving us advice, we plan to ask them give us 50 rubbish cans which we will distribute all over the campus. We will consider this project a success if we can give all students a deeper impression of the urgent need to protect the environmental. And then protecting environment becomes their habits.
We think that the first step can help the students to be determined to protect the environment; the second step can help us solve the difficulties we may meet together. Both two steps will help students to do basic environmental protection, and then we will get a better environment to live in.
Future Stars
Millennium Goal(s): Ending Poverty and Hunger
Chairperson: Amber, Team: Jude, Alice gao, Alice Li. Gabriela, Candice, Jodie, Ada
We support the UN Millennium goal of eradicating poverty and hunger. This goal is meaningful for us because many of us come from a village and have lived a poor life. In the past, we were eager to improve the conditions of our own family. But as time goes on, we discovered that there are so many people like us leading such a life. But we are blessed because we are receiving a university education. So we would like to help others receive a better education. Our group will go to a rural middle school in Xin Zheng as volunteers. We plan to tutor students and to provide them with some information on how to improve them. We will emphasis that the best way to decrease poverty is through education. Eventually, this will lead them to a bright future.
We realize that we will need more than just our group to implement this goal. So we plan to influence other students. We hope to get ten more students to join our efforts. The more students who join us, the more we will achieve.
And finally, we will collect clothing, school supplies and books which we will donate to these children. We hope to give every child a book.
We believe we can achieve our goal! Yes we can, yes we will!
Gender Equity on SIAS Campus
Women in all countries of the world are discriminated solely because of their gender. In China, it is particularly difficult for women because many parents want to have a boy instead of a girl. As an adult, women often receive unfair treatment when they are working, their wages are often less, and hiring opportunities are not the same.
Because gender inequalities are so rampant around the world, we wonder if Sias University is any different from the rest of the world. We would like to investigate how fair gender equality on our campus is. To start, we will interview the SIAS human resource office about SIAS faculty members. Included in our investigation will be questions about the gender ratio of professors, administrators and staff. We will review any policies on gender equity in hiring practices, pay and treatment. We will investigate any differences in pay.
Once we have all of this information, we will find one issue that could make an immediate, positive impact for women. We will visit with Mr. Chen, president of the university, to ask his support to make this change. It would be our goal to announce this change at the Women Symposium on May 19 and 20, 2012.
Additionally, we recognize that we have to change the attitudes of the students. So we will also research facts about gender unequal around the world such women's social status, unfair treatment, family, Violence, sexual abuse, opportunity to be educated.
We will make a video, letting others know gender equality is necessary. We will show the video in Kennedy Hall. Additionally, we will seek some women who live in a society with a more gender equality and we will ask them to make a speech about their lives and experiences after the video.
Our goal: to raise everyone’s awareness that women must have the same opportunities as men.
Illegal Marriages
Millennium Goals: Gender Equality; Eradicating Poverty
Team: Selia
I grew up in a rural village where people are kind, hospitable and honest. I have been very lucky to become the only girl in my big family to enter college, which makes my family suffer much financial burden. But my family and I believe it is worth it. Education is the only way to get out of poverty. But for others who didn’t go to college, they live a different life. My sister is working at a factory far away from her children. My brother quit school at the fourth grade and got married at 19. Now he has to work at a construction site to support his family. This hard job makes him look older than his age. My best friend got married at the age of 18 and his wife was 17. Life should have been going well for her, but it is always full of surprises. My friend started dating another woman and wanted to divorce his 19-year-old wife. So what would you do if you were the wife ？Seek legal help to protect yourself? No, there isn’t any legal protection for her. The legal marriage age in China for men is 22, for women are 20. My friend, my sister and my brother were all married without a marriage certificate. Their marriages are not protected by law. Because of this law, my friend, who is now 20 can leave his wife and marry another woman? But what about this kind woman and her young son? We could say it is unfair for the woman, but it is just what it is. And she is just one of many women in the village who has suffered this kind of heartbreaking pain. All my life, I have witnessed the pain that women who are my age have suffered. It is time to make a difference.
As global leaders, what could we do to help the women who are often the victims of illegal marriages? Part of the reason that young people in the village get married so early is that they quit school very early. They have nothing to do but get married. It has become a custom in the village, Parents and their daughters need to be educated on how harmful it would to get married too early. As educated people, we need to help people understand the importance of education. I can and I will, but I need your help!
One World, One Dream
Millennium Goal(s): Global Partnership
Cindy, June, Selina, Jurny
Our project will focus on developing global partnerships to address the needs of the global economy, technology, medicine, and environment in developing countries. We plan to build a website named One World, One Dream. We will research information about the poor countries all over the world and post this information on our site. Additionally we will make a global appeal to people, around the world, to join our site. We will send our website address and goals to famous people’s blog in hopes that they will tell others about our site. We will let them know about our site. We will invite them to be our spokesman. We hope over 100 people will visit our website each month. We will also ask our foreign teachers to help us contact to communities about the globe. We will also make connections to the others on UCP-Sarnet. We will send letters to the embassies around the world. It is our hope that they can give us some help to find solutions to the Millennium goals. Finally we will organize a club with Chinese students and the foreign students around the world. We are the future of the world. If we all could realize the importance of global partnerships; we could change the world.
Sunshine Angels
Millennium Goal(s): Child health
Leader: Gloria, Note taker: Carina, Members: Melissa, Helen, Jane
We all love children, they are lovely and innocent. We like to see happy and pretty expressions on their faces. Everyone has a desire to protect beautiful things; children are delicate and beautiful, they deserve a healthy and wonderful life, so we need to do something for them.
There are children in special schools in our local area. Even though they are being educated, because of their disability, they live in isolation. However, they are just like us. They need to love and be loved. For our project, we will develop a series of preplanned activities. Specially, we will conduct activities after school that will provide these special students with comradeship, fellowship, friendship and personal success. First, we will call the headmaster to determine a date, the number of students, duration of time, and any expectation that the school administration will have for us. Once we have all the information, we will plan activities within the ability of the students. In addressing children’s health, we will pay attention on the students’ emotional health. When we finish it, we hope to leave these lovely students stronger, more confidence, and with a better sense of belonging to society.
This project will be implemented at weekends during May 2012.
Sunshine Travel
Millennium Goal(s): Universal Education
Cherr , Rachel , Karin
Children are the future of our country. So they must to be educated. However, in many villages, there are still some parents who do not realize the importance of education. There are so many village children who stay at home with their grandparents while their parents go out to earn money. And the children do not seem eager for knowledge. And it seems as if too many parents do not care about their children’s education. Too many parents just don’t know the power of knowledge. They can’t imagine what life would be like if their children just received an education. This is unfair to the children. So we have to do our part to help parents and children realize the importance of education.
For this phenomenon, we have decided to go to the village near our campus during the summer holiday. We will go to the village children’s home, talk with the children and their parents. First, we should ask their opinions about education, then, we will tell their parents about the educational opportunities we gain from going to college. For the children, we will tell them the interesting things about college life and how colorful their life will be after they possess knowledge. We think that through our action, children will become eager for knowledge and their parents will also favor their children to learn more knowledge. Through our efforts, we plan to help parents enroll their children in to schools for the 2012-2013 school year. We deeply believe that, through all of us work hard; the world will become more beautiful for these children and their children as well.
The Healthy Baby Project: Healthy Mothers have Healthy Babies
Millennium Goal: Improving maternal health; Improving childhood health
Leader: Teresa, Team members: Mathilda, Teresa, Amelia
Our project will serve the maternal health needs of women in a local rural village. We plan to implement our project at the end of May 2012. Too many women become pregnant and do not receive adequate health care. The consequence can be devastating to the mother and can cause long term health problems for the children.
To start our project, we will first visit a village and survey the women to determine their needs and options. Once we have that information, we will compile it into a readable summary and sent this summary to a variety of medical health providers. We will interview several health providers to give us some suggestions on how the women’s needs can be met. We will then return to the village and provide these women with some potential solutions to their maternal health concerns.
Our actions will include: We will develop a survey. We will conduct a survey. We will write a summary of our findings. We will send our findings to professional in the medical field. We will interview and review our findings with a doctor and a mid-wife. We will return to the village and share our new information with the village women.
Our goal is help more women deliver health, beautiful babies.
Water the flowers of the Futur.
Millennium Goal(s) : Universal Education
LEADER: Nadia, Members: Linda Zhang, Vivi Liu, Melisa Wang , Jenny , Angella, Linda Wang.
Education is always developing. Education is wealth. Education creates civilizations and culture. For these reasons, everyone should receive an education. Everyone has rights to learn. But our rural areas do not always offer the appropriate conditions to learn. As college students, we should help others who don’t have the proper opportunity to study.
Our group supports universal education. To address this goal, we will make a connection with an elementary school in a rural area. We will tutor these children as a means to support what they are now learning in their schools. We plan to tutor them in English, Math and Chinese. We will also design activities to draw their interests to learn. And we will provide some reading materials to their school’s library.
To support and continue our efforts, we want to motivate others to take action. We want other college students to realize that not everyone has the same opportunity to go to school. We plan to attract college students to be volunteers to teach children. We also want to solicit donations to buy resources for the school. Additionally, we will write letters to the local government, asking them to take measures or allocate funds to help these children. Finally, we will arrange a visit to SIAS University for these children with the hopes of stimulating their interest in learning and knowledge in their inner heart.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Tomb Sweeping Festival
Day One: Monday
April 3 is Tomb Sweeping Day. The university was closed for three days so that students could go home to their families and sweep the tombs of their ancestors. Most of my students did not go home. They stayed here on campus and used this time as an opportunity to study for the big English test that is being given in May.
I went with Selia to visit with her family. She is from a small rural village where her parents are farmers. She told me it would take about 2 to 3 hours to get there. We left on Monday at 8:30AM and had to travel 2 hours to the nearest city. From there we had to find the train station which was packed and for the first time really gave me a sense of just how populated China really is. We had to wait an hour for the train. And fortunate for me, Selia had a sense of how crowded the train was going to be. So she went yesterday and reserved two seats for us. The seats were hard, dirty, filled with litter. But it didn’t matter; the only other option was to stand. Selia said the last time she went home, it was so crowded that she had to stand on one foot.
The train was an hour late. But that didn’t matter. We were entertained. As people noticed me, they came over to Selia and asked the routine questions: “Do you know this foreigner”? “Are you her paid interpreter or her student”? “Is she Russian”? “Where is she from”? “How long will she be here”? “Does she like China”? “Does she know Chinese”? “Can I take my picture with her”? “Can I talk to her”? “Can you ask her something”? “I have never talked to a foreigner before.” Selia said the next time we travel together, she is going to get a name tag that states “She is my teacher; she is from America; she is 56.”
Once they got the OK to speak to me, they would swat down in front of me and look pensively, to the left and then to the right, for a moment. It had to be just the right question. What very important fact did they want to know about me?
“Do you like noodles?” asked one old man.
“Do you celebrate spring festival?” (Chinese New Year), a man around my age wanted to know.
“Is your weather like ours?” is frequently asked.
“Do you like Obama?” is often asked and then followed up with, “Me too. He is a good man.”
“Is this your first visit to China?” is another favorite question.
And after I answered their singular very important question, they seemed proud of themselves. And then the phone camera usually comes out and we pose for a photo and this person wanders off and the next observer sneaks in and the process starts all over again.
After 2 ½ hours on the train, we come to a city and now have to wait for a bus. But it is raining and cold. We are both tired and it’s been six hours since we left campus so I tell Selia that I want to take one of the beat up, old electric taxi carts. I just want to get inside somewhere and get warm. So I pay $4 for a ½ hour ride in this beat up, rickety old vehicle that takes every bump in the road with a dramatic bounce that causes every organ in my body to be rearranged. But it beats waiting in the rain for a bus that is going to be overcrowded, smelly and no available seat.
We arrive at Selia’s village 8 hours after we had set out and it is just as I had imagined. There are little brick homes with no running water, no heat, one electrical outlet, one light bulb, goats, an outhouse, litter everywhere. There was very little commerce. Old men sat outside the one store and talked to each other but mostly they sat in silence.
Her family is waiting for her. She called them on the family cell phone that she insisted that her father get when she went away to college so she could stay in contact with them. He only talks to her on this phone and when she comes home she has to check on the number of remaining minutes and any other maintenance it may need. Her father never went to school so he can’t read or wrote. Neither can her mother.
They don’t embrace each other when we arrive. There is no introduction of me so I go over and extend my hand to both parents and introduce myself. It is awkward for everyone and Selia says something to them in Chinese. There is never any introduction as to their names. A sister in law comes in and I attempt to introduce myself again but again, I have created another awkward moment. She does take my extended right hand with her left hand but she doesn’t know what to do with it. And this puzzles me because I had just had a conversation with my students about how to shake hands and they thought the Chinese were the only people on earth who shake hands. They were surprised to hear that we were that civilized.
The house is part of a two house compound that is enclosed with red brick. The older brother shares the other house. Selia’s house is one room, about 12’ X 20’. On the right wall are piles of their things. In the right had corner is a large bed which Selia and I will share the next two nights. A sheet is hung from the ceiling and in front of the bed as a means to offer some privacy. In the middle of the room are two small tables which serve as the dining room table. There is a chest of drawers and that is where the leftover food is stored. If something isn’t finished at one meal, it is placed in one of these drawers and served at the next meal. There is a small TV, something from the 1970s. And then against the other wall is the mother’s bed table. The father sleeps in the barn because someone in the neighborhood is stealing sheep so he guards the sleep at night. The kitchen is a hut against the house. It has a huge wok and a few water buckets. There is a basin that is used to wash dishes and hands. The outhouse is about 100’ away from the house.
The two goats graze in the dirt yard. There is a vegetable garden and there is a storage shed for the farm equipment. It’s just got a roof and a back side. It also serves as the father’s closet for his five articles of clothing. There is a pickle jar. The hoe is made by hand. And there is litter everywhere.
The father wanders around the compound and keeps himself every busy. The rest of us sit around in this dimly lit room, mostly in silence. Selia will speak but the responses from her family are short and quiet. Someone brings out the 3 ½ year old boy’s school work. It’s a singular piece of paper with Chinese words and English words. He is already learning English and has memorized “Good Morning Teacher” and he can count to ten. So he practices with me and his mother is very proud of him and she has him do it several more times and I make a fuss with every attempt.
I bring gifts for the family. I have pineapples and apples and a large bag of figs that a student gave me. I give the father a small pocket knife, thinking he is going to love this but he doesn’t know what it is and really, this tool is too delicate for the heavy, hard work he does.
Because I am the guest, Selia’s mother sends her to the store to buy meat for tonight’s dinner. She buys a dollar’s worth of slivers of beef which are added to the noodles. We gather in the house and sit on small stools and share our food out of one bowl. The mother pushes the meat to my side of the bowl. The father sits off in a corner and he eats out of his own bowl. Twenty years ago he had tuberculosis and he is afraid that he is still contagious so he eats in solitude.
It’s dark and cold now. It’s raining a little bit. There is no heat in the house so I am wearing all of the clothing that I brought with me: four layers. And I am still cold. The father has retired to the goat house. So it is just Selia, her mother and me. I try to engage us in conversation but that isn’t going to happen. The mother answers my questions but she doesn’t ask any in return. And I wonder what she thinks of me. Does she worry that I am pulling Selia away from her village? Does she worry that Selia has left this lifestyle now that she has been away to college where she has been exposed to showers, hot water and the rest of the world. What does she hope for Selia? Am I viewed as a villain or a friend? Does she think Selia will come home to the farm or she is resigned to losing her to the big city?
Its 9PM and its time for bed. I crawl in and seek refuge under the heavy quits. My eyes are closed when I feel a tap on my nose. I open my eyes and see the mother standing right there, extending the big flashlight to me. She tells Selia to tell me to take it in case I need to use the outhouse in the middle of the night. I show the mother that I brought my own flashlight but that isn’t good enough for her. I have to use hers because it is bigger. So I take it but know that I will not be using it because I stopped drinking anything five hours ago in anticipation of the awful thought of having to go out in to the cold, dark, rainy night to use that dirty, smelly hole in the ground.
Day Two: Tuesday
When I get up, breakfast is waiting for me: a few hard boiled eggs in a bowl of noodles. We drink hot water. The grandchildren are with us and they are watching cartoons on the little TV. Their mother is washing their winter jackets by hand in a small bowl outside.
Selia tells me we are going in to town to the market. The sister-in-law pulls the electronic vehicle out to the road and we all climb up in the back of this little truck and off we go at 10mph through the bumpy streets of this village. All heads are turned as people notice me, the foreigner, in the back. They stare without any shame and I wave to all of them which cause them to laugh uproariously. They have never seen anyone so funny looking.
The town we visit has a Muslim community, one of very few in China. So I see women whose heads are covered in modesty. But that is the only indication of their religion. There is no mosque.
We head to the hospital because one niece needs to have her braces tighten. There is a long line for the dentist and we are given a number. After a half hour wait, we all get a seat right next to the dentist chair. I notice blood drool everywhere. The doctor has plastic bags on his hands and he has a mask covering his mouth. But there is no protection for his patients. I mention this to Selia and suggest that she tell the doctor that he needs to clean up his work area. Then I notice that all of his instruments are not sterilized and they are sitting on a rusty shelf. I tell Selia that I am leaving the room; it is too dirty and bloody. She takes pictures to send to the local authorities.
I go out to the courtyard and there are many people leaving the hospital. They are carried out by family members and placed in the back of their electronic trucks. Their IVs are hooked up to them and they are hanging from a tree branch that someone has stuck inside the truck.
After our visit to the market, we head back to the village where the father is busy planting his summer garden. The farm has been planted and now he waits for the harvest. So he spends his time on his smaller garden. This food will feed his family.
Selia and I go back to the town square and greet the same men we saw yesterday. They are sitting here again today and they will be sitting here again tomorrow and the next day and the next day. Again, we are the only females and Selia tells me that this is the first time she ever sat with these men. They appear to be enjoying my company. But they laugh every time I say something in English and they point at me and say something about me. Selia tells me, “They are talking about you.” But she does not translate what they say. She leaves me for a little bit and I continue to speak with them as if they speak English and they respond in Chinese.
Selia comes back with some posters she has made. She is on a campaign to reduce the number of illegal marriages in China. People married before a certain age are not protected by the law and these marriages tend to end up in divorce which offers no legal protection to the spouses and very little protection to any children. Her posters create a stir and maybe not so much because of the topic but because there is something to discuss. The old men get off the seats on the wall and come over and read the posters. A few men on motorcycles stop and read what is written and young children come over as well.
We then head off to Selia’s primary school and I am not prepared for such awful conditions. I think listening to the 3 ½ year old nephew chant English to me last night really skewed my expectations. The headmaster wanted me to see a classroom and with great pride, handed me a piece of chalk so I could write on the board to see for myself that the board is functional, which it wasn’t. It was so old, it could not hold any of the chalk and nothing I wrote was readable.
The classroom was void of any paper, books, pencils, maps, displays. There is no heat. The students come to school at 8 in the morning and they leave at 430PM and they sit all day in their coats on these narrow, uncomfortable seats.
There is an English textbook in the headmaster’s office. He keeps it there to keep it safe. There is no English teacher so the young, under skilled, underpaid Chinese teachers teach themselves a little bit of English so they can teach their students.
The headmaster asks me if I would read a lesson or two out loud so he can hear English. So I read from the tattered book, “Good morning teacher. How are you? Fine, thank you.” And he is grateful for this opportunity. I notice that he has a DVD player so I tell him that I will get my students to read some books and record them on the DVD player. That way the students can read along as they hear the words. He can’t believe his good fortune and he shakes my hand profusely.
We go off to visit an uncle in a neighboring village. Selia’s mother comes along which is unusual. She doesn’t like to leave her village. The uncle is not home when we arrive but he is called home, “An American has come to visit.” So he hurries home and I am offered apples and hot water. We sit outside and he asks Selia if he can ask me a few questions. His wife and Selia’s mother sit behind us and listen in, never adding to the conversation. He wants to know if we celebrate the Chinese New Year in America. Then he wants to know if my rings are gold. “How much does this one cost? How much does that one costs.” I tell him that one of my rings is the wedding ring that my mother gave to my father. He wants to know about them. And I don’t even know how to begin to describe their lives in comparison to his. So I just talk about their good qualities as parents. And he understands me.
With great pride, he shows me his son’s new house. It is two stories and six rooms, no indoor plumbing and the kitchen is still outside. The rooms on the second floor are empty because they really don’t know what to do with all of this space. They confine themselves to just two rooms in the house. All of this new construction cost $20,000 to build. The father wants to know if houses in America cost as much as his son’s house. Again, I am at a lost as to how to answer this question. Do I laugh at the absurdity of the comparison? I tell him that our younger generation also seems to want more house than they really need. And he agrees with me.
By the time we get back, it’s time for dinner and the mother opens up a drawer in the cabinet and pulls out all the food that has not been finished over the last day. The father eats this food even though nothing has been refrigerated. The mother makes tofu for me. The TV is turned on while we eat and we are listening to Peking opera. The parents listen in silence but intently. Selia tells me that her father loves Chinese opera and dreams of one day seeing a live performance.
I am sitting on the mother’s bed and I look around and see that Selia has gone next door to visit with her nephews. The father has gone out to put the sheep away for the night and the mother is washing the dinner dishes in the dark. And I am sitting alone in this small, one room house, by myself in China, listening to Peking opera and the moment strikes me as hysterical.
Day Three: Wednesday, Tomb Sweeping Day
Selia told me last night that her mother wanted her to get up early to go to the grandmother’s tomb. An invitation was not extended to me and I do not ask to join them for fear of overstepping boundaries. But when I wake up, Selia is still in bed and the mother is gone. Selia wakes up and tells me she is ashamed that she didn’t get up but it was just too cold and she didn’t hear her mother.
The mother returns. She isn’t gone long. Apparently the ceremony just entails taking fake paper money offerings and burning them on the graves for a few minutes. And then the day’s celebration is over.
We have breakfast and then we have to start preparing for our journey back. The mother, sister-in law- nephews and a few neighbors walk us to our bus stop. We wait with the Chinese talking amongst themselves and Selia and I speak just to each other. “What are you thinking?” she asks me. I look around and tell her that I think she has left this village. She has outgrown it. So I ask her, “Where do you belong now.” She does not know but she agrees with me. “You know“, she tells me;” I can’t even talk to my mother anymore. I don’t know how she thinks anymore.”
The bus comes and Selia hugs her nephews. Her neighbors wave to us and say goodbye. Selia’s mother comes up to me and she extends her two arms as if we are going to embrace by arms only. But I take her arms and pull her near to me and I hug her. She pulls away at first but then she comes back to me and rubs her cheek across mine. And then she lets go and walks away from me.
On our way to the train station, we stopped in to see one of Selia’s favorite teachers, her history teacher. He is the one who suggested that she go to Sias University. We met up with him in town. On the side, he runs a liquor store so we are going to stop by the store.
Selia has been asking me some political questions in private but now she has a bit of courage and she asks her teacher what he knows about Tiananmen Square. He lowers his voice and Selia tells me that we (the western world) have the wrong perspective on the situation. The students were wrong and they were not good for the country. Selia drops the conversation.
Next we wander to her high school. Many middle schools and high schools in China are boarding schools. Selia went to school that went for 14 days in a row and then she would have two days off. Twenty-four girls shared a room. There was no cafeteria. Students ate outside in a courtyard, regardless of the temperature. If it was rainy heavily, arrangements were made to eat somewhere inside. There were no showers. Students washed themselves outside in a common area.
I visited her senior classroom and the teacher let me speak to the 100 students seated in front of him. I asked if any of them had any questions and one brave soul raised his hand. “Yes, yes”, he tells me, “I want to know how you spell the name of your high school.” So I write it on the board and he comments, “OK, thank you very much.”
I go out to the courtyard during lunch and cause a commotion. Everyone wants to take a picture with the foreigner. So I pose and they laugh with great excitement. The first couple of pictures were with just one student at a time. But as the interest grew so did the size of the group photo.
Selia wanted to go in to her old dorm room so off we went and lots of students followed us. The room was packed and an administrator came running in to disperse the crowd. She was shocked to see me somewhere in the middle of this unauthorized gathering. We had to leave shortly thereafter. My presence was just too disruptive.
We caught our train and then we had another two hour car ride back to campus and for the first time, as I opened the door to my room, I thought to myself, “It’s good to be home.”
Amber
My College Life
Hello, my name is Amber and my Chinese name is Huo hailian. I am a college student who come from a rural village. My parents are kind-hearted and diligent farmers. My village is quite small, and there are about 300 people .Before 2000, most people are farmers, now, we young people get out of it to have job in the big city.
Rice and cotton are main crops in our countryside. In my memory, we have 7 mu farmland in our family, and we fed about 10 head of sheep and 3 head of crow . in our house .My parents work in the farmland all year around, such as dress a crop, spray insecticide and so on. they want I and my old brother have a bright future by education .The busiest season is June in the college ,we make best of time to mow the wheat and separate the grains from wheat with a threshing machine ,and then dry wheat in a flat immense space .After that ,farmers deposit these wheat in a warehouse. Besides that, we plant cotton in the spring. First we should prepare some seedbeds ,and then we will put cottonseed into cotton bed ,and then cottonseed covered with fresh soil ,finally ,the cotton bed is covered with plastic sheeting in order to ensure the proper temperature. After two weeks ,these cottonseed will sprout through the soil .Farmers will busy to bedding these young plants and take good care of them ,such as dress a crop ,spray insecticide and apply fertilizer to cotton seedling , and that is a long time from seedling to grow up .These are agriculture in our countryside.
These citizen in the village living separate, but inevitably, we help each other when some neighbor in need. For example, when a young people get married, most of village will attend his wedding .Every family will give the newlyweds some money and some bottles of wine as wedding gifts . The parents of the bridegroom will hold a feast to treat the guest. you will find some fun in the same day .In the morning , the bridegroom will hire 8 cars to bring bride from her home .Bride usually have some bridesmaids an these bridesmaids will get some fees from the bridegroom . the new couple will make a kowtow to their parents and other close relatives such as aunts ,uncles and so on .of course , these relatives will give the new couple some money when they accept their kowtow, after that, the new couple will be teased to eat a red apple by hanging over by a string, finally, a celebrate is bridal chamber . Young men in the village will tease the bride .Of course, they do it just for fun .
In village , when the children grow up to 20 year old ,it is a good time for them to look for boyfriend and girlfriend .Generally speaking , the elder worthy aged will introduce young girls to boys .If they have an affinity to each other ,probably they will get married after two years later according to the accustom , the young man’s parent will give the girl’ parents about 30000 RMB as betrothal gifts .of course ,the young man will give her girlfriend ring as a token of their agreement to marriage . generally , as for the bride ,the distance between her new home from her parents home is not very far .
Tremendous changes have take place in the village. The dirt road has become highway, so it is more convenient, especially in the rainy day; farmers do not mow the wheat by hand ,instead of that , machine has take the place of hand-working ,what we need to is take wheat to home . villager become more and more happiness .more children go school to receive education and go to college .Our government give more attention to rural areas , and farmers can receive allowance for their hard-working ；Pupils in the countryside have given milk ,bread in school .
I cannot tell you all things I have experienced owing to the limited time , however ,I welcome you to come here to experience life in china .Chinese people are friendly and kind-hearted .
Through two years’ get along well with each other ，I learn that American are friendly, I have had deeply affection with Bridget, Tara and Elizabeth Carpenter and so on ,so welcome to China!
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