School visits

It was friday, I only had one lessoon, but the night before, I was told that we were going on a schol visit to a countryside school.  It sounded good.   I turned up early for school and let my class know that I ouwl not be there.  They seemd to understand.  I then went around the school in teh morning and chatted to teh students as I usually do.  At half past eight (ish) I got my text and went out and met the deputy head.  He led us over to his car.  I took the obligatory photograph!

The deputy is the guy second from the left.  He loaded the car with water and off we went.  I was qute interested to see what the countrydie was like, and what a rural school was like.  I was expecting a kind of wooden hut with soil floor.  I was very wrong!

The school gate

 A quick look around the campus

As you can probably see, this was no small school.  A huge site with tall three-floored buildings and numerous sports 'pitches'. It was a really well equipped place.  Except for the toilets.  I've not yet seen grottier loos.  

Well this certainly turned out to be a special morning.  Once I was spotted that was it.  There a was a foreigner on site and everyone wanted to see 'it'.  They were so friendly and so excited!  It was a pleasure to be there!

I'd been spotted

They were so happy to see a foreigner

In the senior classroom

In the bosses office.

On the way home we stopped in the village for a meal.  Before we got to the 'restaurant' we drove through the local impromptu market.  It was a bout 28 degrees and raw meat was hanging from metal hooks on the market stalls.  Food hygiene?  What's that!? Maybe you can see it in the video.

Dinner on the way home

On the way home, the boss stopped at a restaurant for lunch.  I say restaurant, but it wasn't what you'd expect.  It was an open fronted shop with a few plastic stools along the side walls besides some wall-length benches.  Outside on the pavement was a stainless steel cooker, and alongside that was a woman washing dishes in a big steel bowl with cold water from a hose connected to a tap.  To cut a long story short, I got my food and sat at a bench and ate it.  (my food not the bench)

Afterwards we drove home, stopping briefly a short distance away to stick a poster on a local board. 

 
Finally we got back to the school.  I went back to my office, and in the Chinese tradition, fell asleep at my desk.  I was awoken about forty-five minutes later by a loud 'bing'.  It was my phone, I'd forgotten to switch off the sound.  It was a group message but not for me.  There was another school visit planned later that afternoon.  Did I want to come too!  My clothes were still hanging up in the office, drying fromteacgers this morning's thirty degree heat and high humidity...I was in shorts and tee-shirt.  I told them I'd be down, got changed, and we were off.  Thus was a local school.  Jiangkou Number three.  This visit was quite different.  We were ushered into a conference room and sat behind the front desk.  Kevin, one of 5he Chinese English came over and told us we were on in five minutes.  Talk about short notice.  Anna introduced herself, and I told a story.  Then it was question time, which consisted mainly of simple English questions such as "How old are you?" "What are your hobbies?" and such generic questions.  Then it was time to go.  Handshakes and hugs, but not the same degree of excitement as this morning, probably because most of them had already seen one or both of us in town!  Another job done.