A Day in the Life of Thad

Posted by Michelle Ross on 06/28/2007

Our term is quickly coming to an end and I was trying to think about what I could write that would be interesting and new and reflect the experiences I’ve had. As I’ve been pondering this predicament, I have also been surfing the internet. I happened to go to Thad’s blog and noticed that he did an entry about how we spend a typical day here in rural China. Instead of recreating it, I think I will just share it with you, because it is a great representation of a-day-in-the-life. So, what follows is Thad’s view of a Monday in Gansu. Enjoy!

7:15am

Alarm goes off. I slowly rolled out of bed and into the shower. I mixed a bottle of Tang (no Mountain Dew here!) and walked two minutes to class, enjoying my commute on a nice cool morning. As I began to teach my first class I was greeted by the Rooster. My classroom faces the outside of campus and the various rattles and clanks that come from the neighborhood on the other side of the campus wall. The most noticeable noise during class 6 is the Rooster. He crows over and over again while I am trying to teach. The room was warm enough that closing the windows would either make my already sleepy students drift off, or start sweating profusely. Neither was an appealing option, so the Rooster and I taught oral English together, just like every Monday morning: I cover the basics and he interjects with complaints now and again.

Today the class had debates. I devised a series of simple issues which the students were told to debate. Topics ranged from dogs v. cats and blue v. red to more complicated issues such as freedom v. safety and art v. science. During their debate I noticed that when Kayla had difficulty with a word or phrase Alisa, her opponent, would help her out. Friends are friends, regardless of setting. Seeing kindness like this isn't a bad start for the day.

Alisa also happened to provide a gem that I jotted down while she expounded during the great boys v. girls debate. The issue of beauty and dating came up within the debate and Alisa informed the class that, in spite of lacking aesthetic appeal, "ugly boys can be smart and charming." There's hope for us yet!

9:50am

Time for a ten-minute break. Rachel and Michelle have been working on the Book Nook, an English language reading room/place to hang out for the students. They finagled a room from the administration at the school and immediately went about girl-ifying it. Step one was moving all of the previous junk in the room out, which Tomas and I were enlisted to do. Now it was being painted. I walked into the room and the painter they hired neglected to use a drop cloth so there was paint *everywhere* and Rachel had a horrified look on her face. She seemed to be taking steps to correct the problem and there wasn't much I could do so I went on to my next class.

10:00am

Class 2 is my biggest class. It is on the same side of the building as class 6. The Rooster's shift ended and he was replaced by the Tofu Man.

The Tofu Man in the village is a microcosm of the larger Cheng Xian culture. If you are a merchant and you have something to sell, you advertise by screaming out what you have at the top of your lungs as you walk around the village and housing complexes. The interested parties then go to the merchant and buy it. Examples of items sold in this manner include tofu, bottled water, potatoes, eggs, tomatoes, onions, propane and candy. This makes for a lot of yelling and we have pretty much learned to tune it out. The Tofu Man is a different story though. He walks right outside of my window and encourages all of us to try his delicious tofu.

Soon we were into the debates and things went fairly well. In the girls v. boys debate Tina informed all of us that girls are much more honest than boys, which met with many nods of approval from the class of roughly 90% girls. While defending art, Carla said, "In our hearts, everyone is an artist." It caught me off guard and I found it to be really quite pleasant to think about. Her thought captured the subjectivity and personal quality that I think people value in art. I wasn't expecting such a profound statement at the time, but I am glad I was there to hear it.

12:00pm

Lunch time! I scarfed down a cheese sandwich. We ration our cheese here as it is very difficult to get.

1:00pm

All 4'10" of my tutor showed up at my door. I didn't study my Chinese very much and she told me I need to work harder. Apparently my cheese sandwich is coming with a side order of guilt today...

At the end of my session I asked her advice about what I should do about the "yellers." Whenever we go out in public we are mockingly greeted with a "HALLLLOOOOOOOOO!" or "LAOWAI!" (foreigner, slightly impolite) several times when we go out. It would be okay if it was meant as a sincere greeting, but instead it is followed by maniacal laughter amongst the greeter's friends. So I asked my tutor what I should say to politely let them know that we didn't like to be teased. She told me to just ignore it and then told me that during the evening, outside of the girls dorms, men will stand around, drink beer, and yell at the girls as they go in and out. My tutor said she was frightened by this and never left the dorm alone at night. It put my problem in perspective. I have the comfort of being much larger than most people here. If I ask someone to stop bothering me, they stop pretty quickly. She doesn't have that advantage. I decided that maybe I didn't have it so bad after all.

2:50pm

Michelle and Rachel decided to tackle the great paint disaster. Tomas and I went to the local high school, where we do some extra volunteering. Every Monday we go and do a dog-and-pony show for the students. For many of them, it is the first time they have had a chance to speak to a foreigner, so I answer questions and tell them about my students in Idaho. Their English is still pretty low, so we have to keep it pretty simple, but they like to use their English in a practical way. Today's most outlandish requests were for me to tell a joke in English (I did) and explain why the sea is blue (I tried.) Every Monday, after teaching, we have a photo shoot with some random school official/teacher/students.

5:00pm

English corner time. On Mondays we meet the students to have some free talk in English with the students. All of the talk today was about the Book Nook because after Michelle and Rachel cleaned up the paint fiasco, they went and bought a sofa for the room. The students, who aren't used to such luxury, were very excited for the Book Nook to open. The other topic for English corner was "What makes you unique?" One student showed me that he was unique by wrapping his right arm around his head and touched his right ear. Everyone there thought that was unique for sure.

6:00pm

Home for the evening and pretty exhausted. I watched a little more Doogie, had some dinner and updated my blog. Thus ends a day in the life of Thad, visionary, intrepid explorer, and Peace Corps Volunteer.

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This webpage expresses the views of Michelle Ross. It does not express the views of the United States Peace Corps.

Last updated Sep 29 2008