Picture
The snowy winter weather couldn't be much further from our life in tropical Simao. This year is more snowy than usual, making outdor tasks just a little more tricky. As it happens I'm enjoying drifting along with whatever mum needs to do. When we arrived here at the house last night (Ali and the girls are still in Aberdeen) the temperature was well below zero. I went to bed at 7pm with fleece trousers, fleece socks and a fleece jacket. My nose was still cold. By the morning the oil-fuelled Rayburn stove had warmed up the whole house.

We spent much of the day sorting out hay for the horses, as more snow is forecast. This involved getting hay into the field (see below), filling up water, mixing feed. Fortunately the horses have thick winter coats at the moment so they can keep warm a lot better than me outside. With mum's cold and my jet-lag, I don't hold much hope of us staying awake to see in the new year.

Picture
We started off by giving the horses a small bale of hay, carried up the field on my back. By midday it was evident that the weather was taking a turn for the worse, so we headed off to Farmer Jim with the trailer to pick up a large round one. That should keep the horses happy for a week and save us some more heavy labour. 
Picture
We were just about back at the house for our long-awaited coffee when the car skidded off the road. It took us 40 minutes to dig, push and wheelspin our way out of the ditch.
 
Picture
These entries are a little bit muddled as we try to fill you in with the events of the last week. This is the last picture from Simao this year - the farewell party at the airport. Hou Wanxia [red coat] arrived at our house before 8 am to help us carry luggage downstairs - seeing as Freda and Edie can't even manage their own bags this was very much appreciated. Ma Li [in black cap] arrived with his jeep at 8:15 and took all the bags plus me and Ali. Mr Wang [red jacket, at front] drove Hou Wanxia and the children as well as Lao Yang. Lao Yang had joined us for our Christmas meal the night with a few other friends, and stayed for one more sleepover. There was one more surprise in store - Yolanda and Xiaomei [behind the children] came with Clair and Janet [two of the TDC workers] to see us off. Janet presented us with a beautiful papercut she'd done herself. Yolanda said in a later email: "This was my first time to see someone off so I felt sad for the whole day." Knowing that Freda and Edie may not come back in the Spring made it very hard for me to watch them say goodbye to such close friends. Lao Yang didn't take his eyes off us until we disappeared through the security gate. Even then, when I poked my head round the corner, I found he was still looking. It's easier to leave than to be left behind.

Picture
The sub-zero conditions in Beijing were quite a shock for us hot-house flowers from Simao. We had to stop and warm ourselves up on this sunny wall on returning to the hotel from dinner. From what we'd heard from the UK it wouldn't be much warmer there.
 
Picture
Christmas was memorable this year. Santa dropped a few little goodies off in the stockings optimistically laid out by Freda and Edie and the rest of the day passed in a blur of rushing from house to house, office to office, office to house, delivering gifts and saying goodbye to people. I didn't want to eat, didn't want to have my traditional Christmas reflexology, didn't want to open gifts. I wanted to see as many of my colleagues as possible and hand out some gifts. Mr Li moved us with the same gesture, delivering some fresh (one could still smell the ink as he entered the room) calligraphy - a traditional verse with symbolic reference to mountains, rivers and sky, representing enduring friendship. It was a strange day, saying goodbye to people just incase I don't make it back in February, but still intending to return to complete my contract. Even if I make it back, I was aware that Ali and the girls may not. That means it's the end of an era, which left me profoundly sad.

People assume that if and when I get home sick or frustrated with my work, that "it's time to leave", "to go home". In fact, it often means that it's time for a rest or to knuckle down and keep on going, until things get better. I don't want to leave me job and I'm not ready to leave China, though I know that I shall embrace the future whichever way it turns. Nevertheless, that doesn't change how I feel. I love our life in Yunnan, even if I complain about the spitting or being gawked at, even if some days I don't feel like leaving the house or fall asleep in torment over work or personal struggles. Unlike many of the foreigners we know in China, I like living there and I haven't 'had enough'. I love the food, love the diversity and complexity of the
culture and love the Chinese people we live amongst in Yunnan.

I write this on the day authorities confirm the execution of a UK citizen allegedly caught smuggling drugs. This creates a struggle in me. How can I work for a country that commits a fellow Brit to death after a 30-minute hearing with (allegedly) minimal interpretation or legal counsel? How can I work for a country that commits anyone to death (I would ask myself the same question in several US states)? The fact is, I don't in fact feel that I do work for 'them'. I have been brought to help implement the government's educational reform (something I actually agree with) but I am striving to improve the lives of people in marginalised, impoverished communities who are especially vulnerable to the whims and injustices of the authorities. The apparent atrocities carried out by the Chinese government motivate me to work even harder in my work. What this incident confirms is the government's  intransigence and terrifiying imperviousness to the outside world, giving it a freedom to do what it wishes. Perhaps disregard for global opinion is its ultimate power, a reminder that they need the West less than the West needs them. How long can you go without buying (and enjoying the inexpense of) a product made in China? The inability of Gordon Brown, the British Ambassador and a number of human rights organisations to prevent today's execution is a reminder that China's willingness to enter any number of symbiotic trade or cultural relations with the West doesn't make it a push-over. China hasn't gone soft.  I find myself reflecting again on how happy I am to have received the National Friendship Award. Is it really such a great achievement or merely an act of selling out? At the end of the day, the Chinese government gave it to me, a British woman who they know promotes values of equality and empowerment to their people. Perhaps the National Friendship Award represents the humility and conscience  of the nation, while today's (and every other day's) death penalty reflects their unrelenting, unquestionning power.  What I do feel certain of, for now, is that if all those people who disapprove of 'China's' behaviour now choose to give up or leave, what hope is there left for change?

Picture
On Christmas Day we invited some friends to our house for tea and Christmas cake (thank you Charlotte in Hong Kong). [from left to right] Our guests included Zhang Fei, Zhang Lingyu, Hou Wanxia, Liao Xinli and Gan Laoshi.
 
Picture
Our band of part-time workers were put to immediate use following their recruitment, preparing for our TDC Open Day. This was held on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, providing visitors with a wide range of photos, training resources and VSO leaflets to browse through. Vice-President Li was one of the first to attend, showing great approval for our efforts and offering us further support by way of money and resources. As in the early PIE days, it's necessary to demonstrate success before getting the back-up. This of course entails a great deal of personal commitment and effort - to stick one's neck out unsupported, with no guarantee of success - probably why many people don't bother. As we launched the Open Day, and our first official public appearance as a team, I knew that it was important just to show our willingness to cooperate, to serve the College community, to share our work. I'm confident that we achieved this aim. We shall have an open day once a month, to coincide with the publication of each new TDC newsletter.

Picture
Vice-President Xue Jingmei was one of the first visitors to arrive at the Open Day and enjoy the photo gallery and refreshments. The pictures impressed on the leaders the amount of work we have done in the last 4 years, in depth and breadth. We ran out of time to translate all the English captions into Chinese (one of our aims by the next open day) but the pictures spoke for themselves.
Picture
As well as the captions identifying the photos' locatinos and people, they provided an opportunity to explain many of our aims and values. This is an opportunity I haven't had in the past, given that teaches and leaders don't really communicate with me in any depth. What's more, remembering that the camera never lies, it was an opportunity to present a comprehensive and accurate picture of who has been involved in PIE and our other work along the way - the Dean of English, who has willingly swept up cash prizes and awards for her participation, was nowhere to be seen.
Picture
This is the TDC Open Day team, with Liao Xinli [left], who also joined in later on. Fly [third from left] is a Grade 3 student who wanted to learn a hand and spend some time together before we left. She made a great effort to interact with the visiting teachers, explaining our training materials and the merits of student-centred learning. It's very rewarding to see our students in action, demonstrating how much they have learned from the teacher training course and their teaching practice.
 
Picture
The week before Christmas four Grade 1 Twilight Zone workers accompanied Lesley on a book shopping trip, to buy resources for a small, remote middle school in Mojiang. Lesley visited Yutang school last year and was moved by the efforts the teachers had made to set up an English Corner, an English newspaper and generally create a meaningful and fun learning evironment. One year on they are still going strong so Lesley promised them a FISHfund grant. They spent a whole morning selecting, packing and posting the books - a wide range of novels, magazines, text books, listening materials and study guides. They also included some book ends, sticky-backed plastic for covering the books and some reference books donated by Freda and Edie. The four students who helped out seemed to enjoy the chance to do something fun and useful, while also getting to know eachother.

Picture
The final stage - addressing the parcel to Yutang Middle School. The student with the best handwriting was volunteered for this job.

Many thanks to Lesley O for the FISHfund donation that enabled us to support Yutang Middle School.
 
Picture
Lesley was moved when some of her students from No.4 Middle School turned up to present her with a Christmas present. The week before she'd given all 150 students in the 2 classes she taught there a family photo. These are 5 girls from Class 169.

 
Picture
Ali booked four tables at our favourite Muslim restaurant for a Twilight Zone Christmas dinner. There were over forty of us altogether - the workers from Grades 1, 2 and 3, the managers and the foreigner - that's LEAF, Tina and Jayne. We were also joined by Liao Xinlia, the English teacher who is going to take over the supervision of the Twilight Zone. This is a job I've been doing since Alex left in April 2005. It's mostly a back-up role, helping them out of difficulties, managing the accounts and guiding them when necessary. In fact, the team of 21 students does a great job without me - hosting the English film club and recruiting new members. The income from both of these provides our funding for new materials, water and workshops. Apart from the odd grant from the College or VSO, the Twilight Zone is completley self-funding.

After eating we had several speeches, all of which summed up the great value of the TZ to the students. As I said in my own speech, being a member or a worker with in the TZ has nothing to do with guanxi (favour), wealth or politics. It embraces values of equality and respect, as well as freedom of expression. These are not commonplace in a society that very often operates according to power and privilege. In the TZ teachers and students can 'be themselves'. The Student Union and English Department have tried to get their claws into the TZ for some time now, but we don't give up our independence, though we are always happy to cooperate for activities and events. Long live the Twilight Zone, from which the students emerge with new skills, new experiences and a new outlook on life.

Sleepover (by Freda)

Picture
Edie and Freda's best friend, Lao Yang, came for a sleepover last night. More from Freda later....

 
Picture
I've been working round the clock to get the TDC firmly established before I finally end my placement here in Simao (either next week or next term, depending on Freda's health). That's included recruiting part-time workers from Grade 2. We had 22 applicants last week, 11 of whom reach the interview stage. These 5 are now officially TDC part-time employees. [From left to right] Xiao Mei (one of Freda and Edie's homework tutors) and Cindy are Publicity Assistants. They will be responsible for producing the monthly TDC newsletter as well as brochures, posters and noticeboard bulletins. Clair and Jilly are our two Office Assistants. Their main role will be to help with office admin and daily tasks such as copying, typing and preparing materials for training courses or other activities. Janet has a special job - she will help with anything extra that comes up. She particularly likes writing and she is lively, communicative and eager to work. This weekend she will help me prepare a photo gallery with bilingual captions to display at the TDC Open Day/Christmas Party on Christmas Eve. We have a lot of work to get through but it's great to be doing it as a team.

Employing these part-time workers has been possible thanks to a VSO grant, in response to an application I submitted earlier this month. We also have funding to pay a team of 4 data entry assistants. They will contribute to our on-going research by helping enter qualitative and quantitative data from thousands of feedback forms and questionnaires into a database I've set up.  The 5 girls will work 3 hours a week. As well as a small wage they will receive lots of training, which we hope will increase their job opportunities in the future. Many students take the secretarial studies evening class every term, but few have the chance to put the skills into practice. It's a joy to watch them seize this opportunity. Thanks VSO!

Picture
The new workers attended their first TDC meeting today. After introductions and a (rather short) 'tour' of the office, we set to work dividing up the tasks for the coming week. Given the lack of time until the Open Day, we'll all be putting in some hours this weekend. Our work has been eased by some funding from Simao Teachers' College as well, to cover the purchasing of materials, including Flash Drives. Given that we don't have a computer for the workers to use (our lap top is in constant use during the day), they will have to work in the library and transfer materials back to our laptop when complete. Hou Wanxia has spent the day running around between classes to find ways to reimburse our expenses to date. Every time she comes back to the office something new has popped up - an Excel spreadsheet of our accounts, an in/out tray, labels on cupboard doors. We make a good team and spend our time wisely, doing essentials that the other can't.

Picture
Ali has been putting his librarian skills into good use, helping me catalogue the resources in our modest little TDC library. It contains a selection of teaching books donated by VSO in 2008 as well as some left by Paul when he completed his own placement in 2007. I'm also leaving behind many of my own books and audio materials, not to mention hundreds of picture postcards. Some of these even belonged to Alex Williams, the volunteer who was here before me. Last week Xiao Liao came in to find if we had any pictures to help her lead-in to the topic of surrealism. Surprisingly enough we dug out 9 postcards that were perfect. It's great to know that these materials may carry on being of some use. We just need to let people know we're here and what we have to offer. In fact, The main aim of Thursday's Open Day is to let teachers and leaders from other departments find out about our work and services. What I really hope to do now is bring in some materials (in Chinese or English) relevant to other teachers, including Maths, Chinese, Physics, Biology. We are currently developing our training materials to be used by other departments but this will take some time, especially given the shortage of good translators. As Well, I suppose the Great Wall wasn't built in a day.

If your school or organisation has any books or materials (on teaching, learning, education in general) then please send them to us, even if they are well-thumbed. We particularly need materials for science and humanities teachers.
 
Picture
The 2009 Teaching Committee retreat
I was delighted to be the beneficiary of inclusion last weekend, when I was invited to attend the College Teaching Committee weekend meeting in Simao's tea hills. As you know I've been working for years to develop the College curriculum and extra-curricular activities for teaching majors  - authentic teaching practice, teaching clubs, peer teaching, among other things - but have never been included in any meetings or discussions on the subject. Even with the formal establishment of the TDC as a working centre for training and research, there has been no acknowledgement to me of my role in that. I feel like a ghost. I felt like a ghost, until this weekend. We were driven by College bus to a beautiful hotel within the grounds of the Yinpangshan tea estate, East of Simao. I could smell the tea trees from my room and the glass-walled veranda on the second floor allowed one to see for many miles, over the hills towards Laos and Burma.

Picture
Another surprise for me was receiving an "Honour Certificate" for my co-teaching work and research with Hou Wanxia. We put a proposal together over two years ago and prepared an application and reports on the basis of our undergraduate teaching methodology course. A few other people's names are on the certificate (one of them cut out of this photo) who did absolutely nothing to support this work. In fact, one of them tried to sabotage it at every opportunity - criticising our student-centred methodology to other teachers and students, undermining the aims of the course to the students themselves and telling me it was "ridiculous" to teach anything other than oral English - apparently all that foreign teachers are qualified to do. She didn't flinch as she received the award and I wondered if she even saw the hypocracy of her actions, or of her snatching from Hou Wanxia an undeserved cut of the 2,000 yuan prize. This is the way it is. Leaders are respected for their ability to suck up to those that matter, not for their integrity or fairness. We don't matter, not to her anyway. I'll leave here and the injustice won't affect me any more. I am relieved, however, that Hou Wanxia's fabulous efforts are at least being recognised by the College leaders, if not by her colleagues.

Picture
On the evening of our arrival we played ping-pong and posed for photos among the tea bushes before dinner. The meal included several wild plant dishes and an apparently never-ending supply of red wine, olive wine, rice brandy and black rice liquor. The latter was my favourite and I was longing for all the other diners to come and toast me so that I had an excuse to drink. One doesn't really sip here. It's more a toast and down-in-one approach to drinking. Fortunately the Dean of Biology was into the sweet tipple so we just carried on toasting each other.

The alcohol was a good relaxant so everyone was primed for some wa nationality dancing round the campfire with these local girls. The evening was rounded off with me having a bit of a rap/street dancing session under the light of the dying embers with the wa girl in the middle. The other party-goers had left by then, or at least so I thought. Ma Li (art department friend) and Mr Sun (Chinese department, new comrade in arms) accompanied me back in a golf cart. It was a memorable evening and I awoke with the smell of wood smoke in my hair, as did the rest of the Teaching Committee.

 
Picture
At the weekend I organised a card-making workshop in the Twilight Zone for a group of 10 students. One of the managers, Carol, [sitting centre in the pink top] mentioned that Christmas cards were so expensive this year so they wanted to make some. They also thought this might be a chance to generate some funds for the Christmas party, if they can manage to sell some to their classmates. I introduced  the students to monoprinting, which they used to great effect in cherry blossom and butterfly designs. The winning card (judged by Ali according to originality and creativity) won the artist a box of Rowney watercolour paints.It was lovely to have some creative time together to get into a Christmas mood as well as escape packing for a while.