James to the rescue, again.

October 22, 2007

What’s it like to be in thousands of miles away and know your house may be in the fire zone? We had been watching the news on the internet about the fires in CA and I had a dream that our house was in danger. I emailed James to tell him to keep an eye out for us. James is taking care of us AGAIN.

We had just gotten back from a rough first day with 2^nd, 4^th, and 5^th graders and were catching our breath in the room when we got a call from James. Cowan Heights area was on voluntary evacuation so he, Amy, and Steph were removing the valuables from our home and he wanted to know what else we wanted out. Does that give one pause! We had been to the farm village just on Saturday and were remarking how fortunate we are to live in such a lovely home in Southern California. This was a test of our words. We now stand the chance that our home on the hillside could be wiped out by the time we got home. Did we really mean “they are only things?” Needless to say, our thoughts have been preoccupied and we have been checking on the internet for the latest news. Unfortunately, tonight our internet connection is down.

This morning we encountered classrooms of 30-40 second graders. They have limited vocabulary and could not ask questions. Even if we answered, they would not understand. I sang my way through doing songs with hand motions. I was able to do that for 40 min. Rich meanwhile, struggled with the alphabet and little responses. He felt like a total failure at the end of the day. After lunch, he got more materials from the GV office and met with Annie who is a former primary school principal who gave him strategies and tips on how to keep things going. Now his is ready for tomorrow’s challenge. Fortunately we will have a different group of students. The English teachers stay in the classroom with us so there is supervision and translation available.

The students are crammed into a classroom with three students to a desk which is meant to accommodate only two. They are sitting elbow to elbow on small stools with their backs up against the desk behind them. Our fire department would go nuts if they saw this. Once all the bodies are in place, there is no walkway for students in the back of the room farthest from the door. Somehow they have been taught to scream out answers. Does louder make it correct? I asked our escort teacher why they scream. She says, the teachers always tell them to speak louder so they scream.

Dinner tonight was at a restaurant that specializes in northern Chinese food. They grow potatoes there as their staple. We had potato flour noodles, a mashed potato type dish, boiled lamb, scrambled eggs from free range chickens, Chinese peas, and fried pumpkin. For entertainment, a woman sang for us in our private dining room a couple of songs from the northern area. It sounded very Middle Eastern—high pitched and a little whiney. After dinner we walked back to our hotel through the well lighted park along the city wall. Many people were out in the park just relaxing, doing tai chi, using the outdoor exercise stations, singing, and putting on street dramas. There was lots of activity.