TheBanyanTree: Transition 12

[Pat M]

Transition 12

Mid-November

Winter had returned with a vengeance and the temperatures inside Buckland
Lintong English College were colder than outside. The cement walls and
marble floors felt like slabs of ice.

Alice had not followed through with her promise to install coal heaters, and
the two air conditioners in the three-storey building were inadequate to
heat the rooms they were located in, let alone the rest of the building. I
could see my breath in the air and if I spent more than five minutes in my
office my hands turned purple and ached. I could hardly bear it.

One person is supposed to man the college's front desk at all times, but
Amy, Mrs. Zhang (Zhangho}and I began to rebel. Sometimes in the late
afternoon we locked up and went out onto the busy sidewalks where a fast
walk warmed and cheered us. Zhangho liked to link arms with me, and she
proudly answered the curious shopkeepers' questions about 'the foreigner'
she had in tow. Even though I am older than she is, she treats me like a
baby and tries to anticipate my every need. She bargains on my behalf and
insists on carrying my shopping bags.

In good conscience, I still hadn't been able to turn on the heat in my
apartment and wore my full-length goose down coat from morning to night. It
was the first thing I put on when I got out of bed every morning and I
dreaded removing it to get into my 'long johns' at night. Getting into bed
was unpleasant; the sheets were ice cold and the mattress never seemed to
warm up even when the top of my body was comfortable. Every morning, I awoke
with aches, pains and stiffness in my bones, something I'd never experienced
before.

Amy and Zhangho did not have warm winter coats; they couldn't afford them so
I took some of my micro fleece clothing to the college and left it there for
them to use. Seeing them shiver every day upset and angered me. I wondered
how Alice could be so heartless.

"It isn't right," I groused. "Alice said she'd buy you stoves and electric
blankets. Why hasn't she?"

I'd planned to speak with Alice again myself but her visits to the college
had dwindled to once every ten to fourteen days (it was too cold for her at
the college--you can imagine how I felt about that!) To address the issue on
the telephone with her was impossible because her English wasn't good
enough. I'd had enough.

"Please phone Alice for me, Amy. Tell her how cold it is. Ask when the
heaters and electric blankets she told Pat about are coming."

"Now?"

"Yes."

Amy pulled out her mobile phone. A rapid spew of Chinese followed. When she
hung up, she said, ""Alice said she's going to buy one stove for
downstairs."

I frowned. "One stove? What about Zhangho?"

"She says one stove is enough."

"What about the electric blankets?"

"She said we can buy our own."

"Yeah, right," I muttered, knowing Amy and Zhangho weren't paid enough to
afford them.
A few days later, a small coal stove and several lengths of aluminum pipe
sat in the college's foyer, but we froze for another week before Alice had
it installed. I'd thought it was going to be situated near the front
reception desk but when I arrived for lunch one day I was surprised to
discover it set up in Amy's bedroom.
"Well, you're going to be warm at night," I said to Amy but what about
Zhangho?"

We ate lunch huddled around the coffee table in Alice's office but our
spirits were high; soon we'd have heat. Afterwards, Amy, Zhangho and I went
shopping together, not to elude the cold at the college but to find fuel. We
did some errands first, and then walked the streets until we found a coal
yard where a tractor with a small box sat next to a mountain of black
nuggets. Zhangho and Amy entered the office and I heard a flurry of hard
bargaining in loud voices. Many times in the past, I'd thought people were
quarreling because they were shouting at each other but had now been in
China long enough to realize that speaking loudly is the norm. A man in
dirty coveralls with a coal-smudged face accompanied them outside and filled
three large sacks, weighed them on a stand-on scale and hefted them into the
tractor's box.

There was room enough for us so we climbed aboard. My companions insisted I
needed a cushion to sit on so the man called to his wife. She gave me an old
piece of foam cushion and a clean, ragged towel to cover it with, and Amy
and I sat down on it. Zhangho sat on her haunches. We were in high spirits
as our driver wove through the chaotic traffic and blaring horns to the
college. I felt like a kid on a hayride. Amy and I giggled and joked around
while Zhangho hid her head in mock embarrassment.
Zhangho's husband waited at the college and he helped the man drag the bags
of coal into the foyer and under the steps. Then, he set about making a fire
in the stove. We waited in anticipation and were thrilled when the little
stove warmed the room. It was a small step in improving Amy's and Zhangho's
living conditions, and we were very grateful.
When I returned to my apartment later that evening, I turned on the air
conditioner/heater in the living room. Things were definitely looking up.


****

-- 
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