Experiencing China

Day 7- Student Life
Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

She goes by the English name Susan. She knows where most major American flight companies have their hubs - who's in Chicago, Atlanta, and so on. And yet I'm unsure now if she's ever flown herself; not much if she has. Quite a dreamer. Tony holds a common interest in travel and airlines, so while the three of us spoke over lunch today, they touched on this some. She's a local college student, studying education; seems tender yet opinionated, maybe even bold. She did take the initiative to meet me last night. Disembarking together from a bus just in front of Tony's school, Susan stopped me and asked me if I taught English; wasn't hard to tell I was a foreigner, I guess. She's looking for someone to "practice English" with her, she said.

The three of us ate at a restaurant conveniently located across the street from school that Tony and the other foreign teachers call "Brother's," the home of much delectable Cantonese eats. We ate cashew chicken, heavy on the ginger, fried rice with eggs and ham, and a hot fruit soup called Zua Ba Xian that, according to Susan, isn't typically made much except for us foreigners. Apples, pears, dates, some tiny orange colored items that looked like deflated dates, and then gooey, sweet dumplings, in a thick, tangy soup served steaming hot. And of course, as an appetizer with most every meal, peanuts.

Susan is twenty-one and upon graduating as an education major, will probably return to her home 70 kilometers east of here where she will surely have an elementary teaching job, unlike Guangzhou where she has less opportunity for employment. We spoke about what we were each doing, where we were from, but we also delved into more thoughtful subjects.

In response to the question from Susan, "What about your country do you take pride in?" I mentioned various things, not the least of which were America's Constitutional provisions for certain freedoms, including our freedom of speech and religion. This led us into discussion about the Civil Rights Movement in America. When I mentioned Martin Luther King, Jr. as one of my personal heroes, Susan told of her own knowledge of him and a shared admiration. For her part, Susan most took pride in The Great Wall which, she's heard, is one of only two man-made structures that can be seen from the moon, the other being the pyramids in Egypt; not sure if this is true. The second thing she takes pride in is Deng Xiaoping, the former Chinese Communist leader.

Susan has been to Beijing but she feels she'd never like to live there; too much politics for her taste. Regarding the 1989 student uprising in Beijing at Tiananmen Square, Susan sides with the government and fears the students were manipulated by people much smarter than themselves, used as puppets of a sort to further someone else's agenda.
"I believe my government cannot be wrong," she said to us as she sipped her tea.
"Never wrong?" I said.
"Well, in some ways, yes, but not really."

Tony hopes to get together with Susan again so that they can learn one another's language. He doesn't always take up such offers, of which he has many, but Susan seems particularly open to discussing most anything and nurturing a friendship. Before we left one another, with cordial farewells and thank yous, Susan made the comment that she thinks most all Americans look alike; found this interesting as I've been told this before about whites but not about Americans in general.

Tony's school serves about two-thousand students from Kindergarten on up through the twelfth grade. It's a residential school; the students, including the kindergartners, go home on the weekends and then stay here during the week in dormitories. Their days start at 7:30am and run until around 9pm though there are breaks within that time and the evening activities are usually just scheduled study time. The school is actually only a few years old, utilizing the old facilities, from what I've heard, of a now defunct culinary arts school. So there's still much under renovation and construction. They do have a gym and sports fields. This being a private school, the students whom Tony teaches come from relatively affluent families. I've seen many BMWs and Mercedes at the school's gate.

There's quite a military presence here. For me to enter the campus grounds, I have to be checked in, leave a proof of identity (my American driver's license). Guards came knocking on Tony's door the other night to make sure I was leaving the grounds to spend the night at the guesthouse. I'm not allowed to stay with Tony. None of this is all that out of the ordinary, I suppose, but there's certainly a high level of regulation. In town, in shopping centers, on the streets, there seem to be many green-uniformed officials, usually in pairs or groups, without any seeming intention of getting somewhere. See this especially around larger crowds.

Looks like I wont be seeing Echo (the taxi driver from a few days ago) or helping him with his class. We misunderstood. Though he's looking for someone to lecture, and though I would have been a fine substitute he says, Echo's looking for someone who can be there for a series of four lectures. I wont be in town long enough. I'm fairly disappointed as I was excited about meeting more college students.

Speaking with Susan was intriguing; am also enjoying hearing from Tony about what he's learned from students, from his fifth-graders. I love being in an environment of learning, searching. And Tony and I have been able to pray together here and there.

Thanks Lord for granting me the chance to meet Susan, other students, and for spending time with Tony. It's already been a learning experience seeing into their worlds here in Guangzhou. I pray I'm sensitive to what I can learn from all this. My desire to serve students grows.

Mark

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