Life

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

There were about 11 exchange students and 10 locals from the social work society. There was lily and Vineesha from California, andrea ,Kenneth and lyndsey from Canada, amos from finland, furges from Manchester, takashi from japan, louise from Canberra/Aus and Andy and I from Singapore. The ying de village in Guang dong peninsula was a 5 hour journey from Hong kong and we set out as early as 830am in the morning! Yeah I was so sleepy.. gosh.. and I packed my huge big bag.. in the end.. nothing much was used..why? cos it was 4 degrees and all of us were wrapped like mummies and we couldn’t get out of it for the 2 days which means we didn’t bathe for three days and so, we didn’t use much. The moment we got there..we froze cos most of us were not as prepared and yeah I had a lot of clothes but nothing much that has a warm layering so I was suffocated and frozen. Haha..we got off the bus and saw the hostel we were supposed to live in. we had a shock of our lives.it was a shack really. The beds had one thin layer above the wood that sleeping on the floor would have been better. No lights, just one light bulb hanging.. slippers ard that dun belong to us, chairs and furniture that looks like it has lives for centuries now. And the toilets! Oh I remember, we had toilet stops in between our journey there and I got a shock seeing the toilets. It was just a drain and no doors.. one toilet had soiled pds facing upwards next to the drains.. and it was gross to the max. all the toilets were like that. U’ll see my pictures and understand.the toilet at the hostel was also a hole but there was a door and a tap. A wee bit better eh? And they didn’t have constant hot water.. it’s freezing cold water and so none of us dared to bathe. We couldn’t even wash our faces cos the water was freezing. I kept filling my waterbottle with the hot water from the restaurant nearby to keep myself warm. Anyway, moving on to dinner on the first day, we went to this house that serves food.. with a round table and tea,etc.. so this was our dinner. Three different types of vegetables with pork pieces on top, steamed egg and steamed tofu. Yeah and it was the same thing for dinner the next day. I’ve seen and eaten too much “greens” for a whole year! Yeah and then we had free time cos the village has no lights so we couldn’t do anything but go to our hostels. I bunked in with lily, vin and andrea. I hung out with the locals and we played cards while the rest of them were playing hearts downstairs and cursing all the time so I was glad to be upstairs with the locals. We had to wake up early next morning and set off for breakfast. For breakfast we had 2 congees, one with pork and the other was corn. We were told that the corn congee is what villagers eat and truly, it sucked. It was meaningful so I still ate it after adding a lot of sugar. How could the villagers just eat that.. sigh.. how saddening. I never complained abt food after that. We also had two types of mee. After that we set out to the first primary school. We had prepared materials to conduct classes with them. I made singapore flags so I had to do a short introduction abt Singapore.. so nice..and then the rest did their introductions too.. then we taught them animal names and sounds to facilitate the games we played later..the kids are so shy.. it’s a pity they couldn’t speak English well.. so there was a translater for everything.. it’s a pity.. so we played with the kids.. u know initially, they really looked dirty and I had my doubts whether I should touch. Carry them but my heart melted and I didn’t care, I carried them.. held their hands.. u know, I was holding one girls hand and it was freezing.. their teeth’s shattering.. they had barely one or 2 layers on them and we had 6!can’t believe how hard their life is man. Yeah and we had 2 hours and after that we had to leave to go to the students houses in the villages and we had to walk downhill first for like the longest ever man!it was all rocks and small steps.. I had to hold vineesha cos she was afraid of falling..w e walked so slowly and the kids were running downhill! They are so used to it..they walk the distance , up and down everyday to go to school! Can’t imagine man.. they are probably kept fit that way.. well, the villages were really in bad state but theyw ere happy with what they have.. they have barely anything much to eat and yet they offer their food to us.. they sleep on wood and their living room is a different shack from their sleeping quarters ..there are farms.. full of vegetables where the parents of the students work all day and they rear pigs.. and there are dogs too.. I was kinda scared and the kids laughed at me.. sigh.. how embarrassing. we visited their “toilets” or holes rather and their water well.. I felt like a villager really. And the kids were so fascinated with digital camera’s that the moment one of us took a picture they will hover around u to see themselves in it..so I’m glad we brought some technology to them.. and they’ll come so close to the camera lens that u can’t really take an individual pic without one of the kids trying to cover you with a “peace” sign. well.. its all good..we had “hotpot” at the school with tons of vegetables and pork again! Argh.. looks like I’m abck to consuming pork.. due to the bird flu. They didn’t dare to eat and chicken is expensive.. dunno what happned to the fishes?! And the principle poured rice wine into our cups! Ir was Chinese alcohol.. they said its 29 % but I think it was more cos it was so strong! He tried getting us drunk by filling our glasses. There was a time that he came to me and wanted to “Cheers” and bottoms up with me and I said I didn’t want.. think it’s rude but I really didn’t want. I’m a t –tottler man! And thanks to the Chinese! Rice wine!Anyway, u know when we left on the bus, the kids would chase the van! Argh.. we couldn’t turn back man.. it was too heartbreaking. We left for another school but here we only had an hour so we just played games.. this school was better but there was no authority control so the kids didn’t listen to us and were shy to play with us. So we had problems.. but yeah we played “what’s the time ,mr wolf” and games like that.. at that time, I was still freezing man..and Kenneth and andy had to cover my ears with the gloves cos I was literally shivering. That was the torture. We went for dinner back to the same restaurant with the same food and then the locals had a surprise program for us.. they bought brackers for us.. it’s the fireworks that we all see. This time, we held the fireworks, lot it and saw it shooting up right in front of us! We played sparkles too!so fun! Its legal in China! it was 8pm and it got all dark so we returned to the shack and started playing card games.Gosh, the two boys bought to bottles of rice wine! It was $6 RMB that is like about a dollar in Singapore. And they started playing drinking games. Gosh.. horrible, I stayed out of it.. then I joined in the simpler games.. and yeah was made to drink when I lost.. not much but bad enough.. some had headaches and went to sleep so 5 of us were left and I taught them bridge and we played that till firges got horribly drunk and I couldn’t stand it. He was totally vulgar throughout the night and it scared me. He even thought the girls room was the toilet and wanted to pee there. So we caught hold of him, sent him to the room and he was still behaving stupidly. We locked him up and I went to sleep. It was horrible. Never saw anyone like that before and he was verbally attacking me.. Amos was drunk too but he could contain himself. I couldn’t sleep much.. sigh.. the next day.. we got up late and we had to rush for breakfast and of course the same food and we set off to the last primary school.This one had the best facilities cos it’s a new building. And the children were warmer.. well, one 12 yr old girl had to bring her baby bro to sch and so I caught hold of the baby so she could play the games. He’s cute.. I overcame the fear of carrying it cos it was really dirty..but well.. I’m used to it already. Then we walked to their homes.. and guess what! I made friends with “ammoi”, a 14 yr old girl and carried a conversation with her in cantonese!i was seriously happy man. She was so happy and even told me that she felt it was hard for me to visit their village and I said it wasn’t and I meant it. She was named after me, Elizabeth just before we left.. haha.. anyway.. I liked this..i wish I could speak more fluently and talk to them and hear them out but couldn’t.. lesson learnt. Communication is so impt and learning the language is necessary. We left and got on the bus back to tsing yun for lunch. We had a great lunch as it’s the town.. and yeah.. even sotong! Ahah..cool eh..and then back to Shenzhen. Lily, vineesha ,takashi and I went to the luo hu commercial centre in Shenzhen to shop and yeah.. I bought a pair of levi’s for $S20 and shoes, high cut for like s$10. and “shall we dance” dvd for s$2 and a couple others.. well, this is one of the first times buying so many things at one time.. didn’t wanna waste the trip in china. Everything is soooo cheap . I bought so many biscuits from the village and even one orange and apple that’s so nice! Yummy!then we got back by 12 midnight and was soooo exhausted.. man.. I ahd a super long bathe and slept at 3am only to wake up late for the prison visit! The trip as a whole was fruitful because it made me appreciate the things we have without complaining and extending my heart to them..it’s indeed rewarding and I believe everyone should have the opportunity to be a “villager” at least once in their lifetime.