12 Nov 06
It was another slow week here. Zeneta is still in Ankong visiting Debra. I have spoken to the both a couple of times, this week, on the phone. Things are settling into a bit of a routine. Colin purchased a study guide for the grade four, English major, graduation exams. With that we have been reviewing our curriculum. It appears that what we are doing is very close to what we need to be providing the students.
There is a definite lack of leadership from the administration here in the capacity of telling us what we need to be doing for the students. There is no good reason that we, people who do not have a firm understanding of what is required of the students, should be working on a curriculum goals guide. However, it is something that has never been done here.
Michelle has been trying since she got here to get a now couch, and she has still not succeeded. However, she mentioned a problem with the building; in this case, the shade over the window, and there were a couple of maintenance men there that afternoon.
Now, what is funny in this picture is that they are doing outside work on a fifth story window that has no rail. Tell me, do you see a harness? That is because he is not wearing one. At various points, both of there guys were outside with no safety gear at all.
What I missed a picture of was how they plugged the drill that they wee using in to the socket. As you can see, there are a number of different styles of plugs. This dual plug socket is the most common seen. In order to insure that the drill would fit whatever they came up on they had nothing but bare wires on the end of the cord and they shoved the bare wires into the socket. The whole operation looked like one of those posters that one sees in a shop with the caption, "can you spot all of the safety violations in this picture."
On Friday we had a couple of visitors from Australia. They were here on college business and the school arranged for several of the teachers to have lunch with them. It turned out that Colin was a friend of the visitor's father and had known him for years. They had worked on several large projects, in Australia, together. Colin had known our visitor since he (the visitor) had been a small boy.
As our visitor sped off in a chauffeured Honda we returned to class. I ended up forgetting to go by the payroll office and will have to on Monday.
That evening we were invited to an activity being out on by one of the schools English clubs. The event consisted of several skits, some songs, and other musical numbers. Of course, we all ended up speaking for a few moments. Even though it was a bit cold by the time it ended we had a good time and each got a small gift from the event.
On Saturday I was invited to go to dinner by the other English teachers. It was a day before my birthday; however, it fit everyone's schedule better. I was given a cap with Australia and a national logo on it. We had a pretty good evening. I have now turned forty, in China.
Last week we had all been invited to an event in town, although the invitation came to each of us through different means. The even was the opening and dedication of a new building for the Xinyang Christian Church. It is across the street from the cities only Masjid (the picture of the Masjid [proper name for Mosque] is at the top and was taken from the steps of the church that I was visiting).
The first thing we did was to get approval for our attendance through the proper authorities. After it was made clear that this was not a regular service, but an event, we were given the permission. As it turned out, one of the people speaking was the leader of the regional Communist Party. We were picked up on Sunday morning and taken to the church in cabs. At the church we were, of course, escorted to the front pews where space had been reserved. I was somewhat surprised to find that the person next to me was from Congo; the amount of chatting we were able to do was limited because he spoke little English and I speak even less French (if a person plans on much traveling, English and French are the languages to learn). The only language we had in common was Chinese and I am not able to hold any sort of a conversation in it.
He was able to help me find the toilet. One of the first things I learned to do, when I came to China, was learning how to ask for the men's room. I cannot say it well; however, I can write it (yes, in character, not pinyin). His name was Rock and he is studying Chinese. When he is done will remain at the air force school and study engineering. That was about the limit of our conversation that we conducted in three languages, none of them shared.
After the services we first were hustled up the many flights of stairs to wait, and have tea, while the rest of the congregation had time to leave. Many of the visiting Americans were clearly surprised to find that the buildings in China are not heated and clearly enjoyed the hot water and tea. We then went out to a waiting bus that took us to a hotel where we had lunch with the head missionary.
His name is Paul Martinson and is with a group called,
"China Service Ventures." We were given several pins and other souvenirs from the opening of the church. It turned out that he was born in Xinyang and has since returned to the U.S. However, he visits Xinyang and the Henan province regularly. I was given a small book on the history of the church in Xinyang. The church is an, approved, non-denominational church. However, the sponsoring churches are Lutheran.
After lunch I took a cab back to the University and later had dinner with Colin and Brawnie. That was pretty much my week.
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