Today they took the trees away

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Or at least, thats what it sounds like. The kids.

Yesterday I volunteered to teach at a school for "migrant" children.

I showed up with 8 other college students. They split us up into three groups of 3 at the gates of the school, I followed a teacher to her class room, and without a moment to think, one of the most amazing hours of my life followed.

I walked in with a friend and a near stranger. The class of 60 fifth graders stood up at attention, music came over an invisible PA system and played a grandiose almost military-like marching song. They burst out into a round of applause - and the class was ours.

This was SHOCKING. I had no idea that this would happen, and I was rather stunned about what to do with a class of students, no concept of their expectations, my ability, or even what the intended goal was. I had signed up to teach English, but they didn't speak English, so "teaching" it, would be an interesting proposition.

As we briefly introduced ourselves (the three of us) in Chinese, I took the spare minute I had and raced after the girl who coordinated the program to learn our objective -- Ice-breaking.

This I know how to do. I'm a kid in a 20 year old's body, so Ice-breakers, are right up my alley. I quickly explained the idea of "The Human knot" to my two friends and the teacher. Basically a group of people gather in a circle and each person uses each of their two hands and pairs them up with other random hands in the pile. The result is a big mess. The objective is to untangle without breaking a link. We demonstrated for the class and they thought we were HYSTERICAL.

That lightened up the mood in a flash. If there is one thing to change 60 twelve year olds from obedient students to playful kids, its seeing three funny strangers and their authoritarian teacher wiggling around trying to untangle themselves from each other in front of an audience of children.

I couldn't help but smile wider than a piano as I explained in Chinese that they were next, taught them how to play, and asked for volunteers. I called on six of them, and set them lose. If the class had been raucous before, now they were simply falling over themselves in laughter -- seeing their classmates twist around in circles was even better.

I set it loose on the whole class. I divided the room into four corners, each with a "monitor", and waited to see what would happen. Apparently my demeanor attracted the more outgoing boys, and about 15 of them came over to twist themselves in a knot.

Their first attempt was one of the funniest moments of my life. The purpose of the game is to raise the highest pair of hands over the heads of the group and slowly untangle piece-by-piece. All subtly was lost on them, and in one giant "pop!" they tried to untangle everything while holding on. The result was rather disastrous and they all heaved inward and then outward before rubber-banding back in and collapsing on the floor.

I made smaller groups and re-taught the general principle, and they had things under control, so I went to check on the other small groups, before running down the hall to see if the other classrooms were faring any better.

I picked up the idea of "Simon says" from the other class room - and added a flair of my own competitive style. Again I divided the class into teams, and each team stood up in turn to play. The winner of each group (a 2-person tie in group 2) advanced to the "finals" held in the front of the classroom. This was a game that let us teach some English - using the hand signs for numbers as we said them, and pointing at body parts asking them to be repeated aloud to us.

The final was hysterical, the last two kids, a guy and a girl were REALLY good. They would do each command exactly in time, and then if we said "Raise your hand" -- their hands would shoot-down-to-their-side in a split second.

We let them both win (I'll have to bring some sort of prize when I go back), and then I was mostly out of ideas.

The teacher suggested that we separate into three groups and let them ask us questions about us. This too - was endless sources of amusement. They wanted to know why I was so tall, whether I put vinegar on my beef, why I grow facial hair, why my nose is big, and why I came to China. I told them and asked them if they want to go to America, if they like basketball, and what they want to be when they grow up.

We broke some major ice. I really was in a blissful state of happy. The kids were so trusting, so energetic, so pleased at the experience - I was too.

Today on my back street, more inexplicableness broke out. Today they took the trees away. They filled the street with huge trucks that chop trees into little bits. Then the thick tree branches lined the road. The wider and thinner branches covered the sidewalk, and as always, chaos ensued.

The hierarchy of vehicles is one of the most important laws of the land. Traffic rules are only suggestions in China, and the only rule that does hold is Trucks>Cars>Motorcycles>Bikes>Pedestrians. This determines who has the right of way, how fast you can go, and anything else of significance (it was fun not being on the bottom of the ladder when i had a bike). At any rate, now the cars only had one lane so the motorcycles (2-directions) crammed into the bike lane, the bikes zoomed over branches on the sidewalk, and the people sort of just tried to avoid getting hit.

God knows why they cut down all the trees? God know why anything happens here.

Goodnight.








*I'm planning on writing my "Capstone project" which is something of a mini-thesis on the effects that the Hukou system has on education in China. In short, the government monitors where people are born, and issues residency permits. Years ago one could only find a job where they were born, so those born in rural China were essentially barred from the city. Now, an underground market for physical labor and a government-supported market for intellectuals to find jobs in cities have emerged.

The problem for both groups, is that without a Hukou (the residency permit), the next generation is a set of skill-less "migrants" who aren't technically allowed to live in the city.

And so - the kids are forbidden from being schooled in the cities. Some schools that allow migrant children are shut down, and on the outskirts of towns, special "migrant schools" crop up to help provide primary education for those with out access to the regular system".

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