Knobcottage in China

The arrival of Sherika After Anna left there was a space in the school for a foreign teacher.   |A few weeks ago I was introduced online to Sherika, the new foreign language teacher for year two: I teach year one.   I was expecting Sherika to arrive in Jiangkou on Friday30th and kept in touch with her via WeChat.   I also asked my FAO to keep me informed of when she would arrive as they were both together.   I finally finished my first week of teaching and decided to go to town to pickup some shopping for Sherika.   She had given me a list, I kept the list on my phone.   After a bout ten minutes in the supermarket, I noticed there was a WeChat notification of a missed call and texts.    It was Jamie, and in true Jamie style, there was the message “GPS” which in Jamie talk means “Where are you?   I told him that I was in the supermarket.   “Get back to base, I am in the Deputy’s office, we are eating together”.   From that I...

Well it was to be expected.  I was not built for 80% plus humidity and thirty plus degrees.  Something had to give.  It was my skin.  First it just looked like it got a bit dry, then it got irritated and then it turned nasty and paper-like.  I'd been to the pharmacies and bought various preparations that had had no effect.  Time to see a doctor.  There is no such thing as a GP in China so it means that to see a doctor you have to go to the hospital.  It is well known that the bigger the city the better the hospital andthe better the doctor.  Guizhou is a small province, Jiangkou is a small town.  I didn't expect much.  The hospital itself is quite a nice looking building set opposite the park.  I had not been i before but as I entered there were two things that struck me.  The first was the payment desk and the ATMs.  The second was the hot water machines.  Hotwater has the folklore ability to cure anything. ...

The lady in the park who had invited me to the  dinner with the literary elite of Jiangkou, is also a very good singer.  Yesterday she invited me to attend a singing group.  This is a serious singing group with an excellent 'conductor'.  It all takes place in the reception area of the stadium near my school.  I feel way out of my depth but everyone is so welcoming!  I try my best but can only hum and the words are Chinese.  Strangely the tune is familiar.  It is vaguely reminiscent of the old music-hall song 'After the show is over' so my humming has a sort of focus!  So far I have managed to go twice.  Last time the director of music and the conductor spoke to me.  We all sang a song each!  This is getting interesting.  The song is, I think, a song about China.  I took a video of the singing, but it is too large to include here.  Below are two links to two videos.  The videos are large and may take wuite a...

School started again.  This term my workload has almost doubled.  Last year it was a very lucky nine lessons a week and a few English clubs.  This term is is 16 lessons and probably a few English clubs It is still within my contractual hours, but it would really have been nice if someone had actually discussed, mentioned or even told me about this.  It is not a problem but doubling the workload is worth mentioning.  But it is China....they don't do things that way.  Anyhow, this year I teach senior year one.  In this school there are three year groups.  senior one, senior two and senior three.  Its kind of equivalent of a three year 'sixth form'.  Pupils are aged approximately 17 -19 yrs old.   Senior one are the young ones.  I enjoy teaching in the school because the pupils are just so nice!  So it was time to get out the pegs and do lesson one! Two of the lower ability 'pegged' students. Me and one of...

One night I went to the park and was watching the singing.  I didn't join in because the it is getting close to the 70th celebrations in China and the 30th celebrations of the 'opening up' of China.  People are getting paatriotic and the songs are getting difficult.  Pepole are really passionate about China, and there is always a queue of those who wish to show their passion and who can also sing.  I was sitting in the midst of this when a young girl sat beside me.  She had found a foreigner and she was so excited!  We talked a bit.  She kept running off to her dad who was sat nearby.  We chatted in a mix of Chinese and English but had to resort to some Google translate.  I remembered I had a euro coin in my pocket.  I gave it to her.  She smiled and refused it, I gave it to her again, she looked so excited.  She ran over to her dad.  I went to sit by them and talked to dad, again in amixture of Chinese and English and Go...

One day when I was in the park, I met a student from my school and her friend Mary.  We got talking.  The student asked for my wechat, but we don't give that out to current students.  However her friend had graduated so I swapped WeChat with her.  The next day I met Mary in the park and she brought me a Chinese book about one of the dynasties and ran off!  The next day we met again and we shared some milk tea and fod at my favourite little diner " Happy Beginnings" and went for a walk.  One of my students and her graduated friend Mary by the river, fire brigade boat in the background. We went to a part of the river I had not yet explored.  We walked and talked a bit and then I saw a few more of my friends and said hello to them.  It seemed that everyone I knew was there.  We were talking about why I was in China and how it was an adventure for me when, we saw the fire brigade doing an exercise.  We watched a while and as they brou...

Whilst I was in the park last night, I'd swapped WeChats with a few of the people, including Park Lady.  In the morning, I got a quick message "Have you had breakfast yet?"  I told her I had not.  She asked where I lived and I told her.  She then told me to go downstairs in five minutes as she was taking me to breakfast.  I am getting used to this 'immediate invite' stuff in China, so I got ready and was downstairs in five minutes.  There she was, and true to the invite she took me to breakfast.  She took me for a walk around the back of the shop and showed me how they make their own noodles We ate, and as soon as I had finshed she got up and said "let's go!" and off we went.  We went to a nearby shopping mall complex.  I say shopping mall complex but really it was like a ghost building half finsihed and quarter occupied.  It is very near my school.  She got out and met her freinds.  They all had umbrellas, or rather paraso...

Town for breakfast As usual I headed into town for breakfast.  I just love the early morning market.  I bought a few breakfasty things and then bumped into a few friends.  They invited me back to their house and I played with their kids for a while.  It was fun and they were fantastic kids. However I had to go to School because the air-conditioning man was due to fix the office air conditioner.  I got to school and all the new year one students were doing military training.  I am not sure why but apparently this is what happens every year.  I watched for a while.  It was hard work for them, marching etc.  It was too hot for me and I was just watching, so I went to the office and met the air conditioning guy.  It was the usual guy.  He fixed it in about five minutes.  I turned it to 20 degrees and hung around until I dried out, and in the meantime got on with some school work!  Just as I had more or less dried out it...

I have discovered, eventually!, that when it is this hot and humid, that I need to change my daily routine.  Up early, to the park, breakfast, home, nap, work a bit, then go to the park in the evening.  That was today's plan, but when I got to the park my back was bad, so I didn't join in the dancing.  As I was sitting down on a sort of plinth, this older guy walks past and says "hello!"  I said "hello!". he walked over to the dancing as if to start and then came back to me.  He said "Chi fan, chi fan" and made the appropriate gesture.  He was inviting me to breakfast.  So off we trotted at a fair pace.  He was called Mu.  He took me to a small street restaurant and asked me what noodles I would like.  I picked my favourite and shortly afterwards had a bowl of them in front of me.  We sat down and ate.  His language was almost impossible for me to understand and vice-versa.  He complimented me on my ability to use chopsti...