A Short Letter Home

A hard road

I've probably mentioned all the construction going on in this town. I might have even mentioned that some of it has been going on here at the college. Well, that construction has hit a bit closer to home. I'm not talking about the noise. That started last year and we quickly learned to tune that out. (After all, both Yau Neih and I grew up on the flight paths to major airports--McChord AFB and O'Hare Airport, respectively--so we're used to background noise.) No, I'm talking about this brand spanking new classroom building pictured at left. It's "grand opening" is Tuesday, though I suspect no bigwigs will be in attendance.

This classroom building has been called "the freshman building", since all the freshman classes are purported to be held there. So far none have, since the freshmen have been doing their military training. Anyway, we were surprised to see the building looking so nice when we returned from the States and one night a week or so ago the family ventured out to take a peek at it. Foolishly we waited until after sunset and we were gingerly stepping in the darkness, trying not to plant a foot into a mud puddle. The girls and I eventually gave in while Yau Neih stubbornly ventured forward and eventually found a path to the building. It was still very much under construction, she reported, with almost all of the rooms lacking desks or even chalkboards. We figured that the story that we heard about freshman classes being held there must have been in error. Well, no, Yau Neih's boss kept confirming that her classes would indeed be held in that building. Anyway, this Saturday, our neighbor and fellow teacher, Michael, said that he wanted to walk over to the new classroom building. Since it was daylight, we all volunteered to tag along.

Once again we sauntered along a gravel path to the big dirt road out back. The road was a tad muddy, but in the daylight avoiding the puddles was no problem at all. It was a bit of an adventure, walking past all the construction tents and equipment lying about. A handful of workers were up ahead, tending to a new section of bridge that would carry traffic over the river. We stuck to the other side of the bridge and headed across... only to discover the end of the road:

The picture here, looking from the building, shows you the lack of roadway, but it can't really give the feeling of looking out from the end of the bridge and seeing a vista of mud. We took a few tentative steps into the field, but soon stopped, fearing for life and limb... okay, maybe just relatively clean shoes. We were all in various stages of outrage, thinking that the powers that be expected us and the students to traverse such muck in the course of our daily routine. (Okay, the kids and I didn't have to make the trip, but we felt outraged anyway for the sake of solidarity.) We searched about trying to figure out just how people were expected to reach their classrooms. Michael asked a couple of the workers who happened to be nearby and they pointed out a sort of path that snaked along the mudfield. Michael was game to try that, but then he had worn his hiking boots. The rest of us were hesitant to risk our normal shoes. Then we noticed a path through the rice paddy to the left of the building. It would involve backtracking across the river and detouring to the footbridge a bit upstream, but it seemed overall a far cleaner route. So Michael went his way and we went ours. It entailed a walk atop the retaining wall and a nice stroll along the rice fields, which put us in a better mood. Eventually we arrived and met up with Michael, who was watching some farmers winnowing rice. (Michael enjoys watching the farmers at work. I have to admit that they seem to know their craft.) Together we ventured into the new building.

The tale gets (more) boring from this point on. The new building looked nice, though with the telltale signs of still being under construction. We peeked into the assigned classrooms and all of Yau Neih's rooms seemed to have been equipped with desks and chalkboards. We speculated a bit about what was really going to happen come Tuesday morning. Yau Neih suspected that classes would be shuffled over into the new building. I ventured a guess that they might bring in a bulldozer on Monday to level off a makeshift roadway. Both Yau Neih and Michael couldn't believe that the college would let things stand as is and expect people to slog through the mud to get to class. I didn't say anything myself, but I had my doubts. The folks here in this part of China put up with a lot of things that us middle class Americans would find unacceptable. And my doubts seem to be confirmed. We mentioned the lack of roadway to some students today and they told us that the official word was, "bring two pairs of shoes." Maybe that's just a rumor, maybe it's the truth, I don't know. I do know that we have a whole day left before freshman classes start. In China, who knows what can happen in that time?

posted by John @ 6:45 AM