A glimspe at rural China

These 3 exquisite 14-yr-olds were my guides when I got to the village.

I had a marvelous time on Friday at some workshops I facilitated at the Liajiamiao village which is east about 3 hours by bus and car from Chengdu.  Since Chengdu sits in a basin, we had to climb through some mountainous passes.  It was weird to see pampas grass, exotic ferns, and asiatic lilies growing in the wild.  I'm used to seeing them as container plants at Lowes.  It is much more subtropical here than I had imagined.  

The teachers and I are playing an introduction game. 

At a Consulate function, I met Professor Zhou who works for the West China School of Public Health in Chengdu.  She has lectured all over the world on the topic of public health policies and has taken a special interest in the village where I went because it is so isolated from the urban area of Chengdu.  Two of Professor Zhou's post graduate students accompanied me on a 2-hour bus ride to the town where the Director of the school picked us up for the hour ride to the village.  I met about 30 teachers for a "theory and practical activities" workshop.  They were outgoing and eagerly participated which was gratifying for me. 

 Everyone is very comfortable squatting.  I'm still getting used to it!

My favorite part of the day was working with the 50 middle school students. I was told this village was full of "left behind" children which means their parents left them in the village with their grandparents because the parents have to live in the city to work.  So, it is a village of very old people and children.  The grad students told me that Professor Zhou is doing a psychological study on these left behind children.  The students said that the School of Public Health was designing some intervention programs to see if the programs would influence the outlook, behavior, and the physical health of the left behind kids.

I took some pictures of the students playing Simon Says and Duck, Duck, Goose with English phrases, and in their chains of introductions.  They seemed to enjoy the outdoor active English games the most.  Kids are kids everywhere, eh?   

Cluck cluck.

I had to use the restroom so my 3 guides jumped up to show me where it was.  They held my hands, and we practically skipped to the outhouse behind the school that had no running water or a complete wall on the back.  I just can't imagine Izzy and her friends holding my hands and skipping to an outhouse where all of us would squat over our respective holes in the ground while at the same time maintaining our conversation.

I gave each student a state quarter from the United States which was a big hit.  As a mother of two middle school children, I wish I could have given more.  Their gift to me was their initial shy smiles that turned into laughter during the games.  I'm not sure they have seen very many foreigners flap their arms and cluck like a chicken.

Afterwards, I had an amazing banquet with all of the teachers in which all of these beautifully prepared dishes kept appearing by magic in this tiny cafe. The food is all placed on a gigantic lazy Susan in the middle of the table that it twirled around at a slow pace for everyone to pluck out of the bowls what they want.  Each teacher stood up and toasted me for bringing honor and new ideas to their classrooms.  So, I had to toss back quite a few beers given that was the only beverage available.  It was very weak, so I managed to maintain my dignity!   I'm proud to say that I can now boast that I have eaten pig ears.  

They didn't taste like chicken.