TheBanyanTree: Transition 25

[Pat M]

I'm finally able to settle down and write again so am continuing with my
stories from China.

***
February 2008


Alone and friendless in Sanya, China, I coped better than many would have.
I've always been a 'thinker', often preferring my own company to group
situations or parties; time alone is essential to my well-being. I worked on
my writing, overlooking the many frustrations of using the Chinese version
of Word, and I spent hours surfing the net for interesting lesson plan
ideas. I was excited at the prospect of teaching at a new school and
wondered how Successful English Training School would compare with the
school in Lintong.

The koi in the aquarium in the living room were my only company. I enjoyed
the ritual of feeding them every morning and decided that one day I'd have
an outdoor pond with fish--one day when I settled down and put traveling
behind me.

The dust and grime throughout the apartment was a constant minor
irritation. The kitchen, too, was dirty but I obstinately refused to clean
it up; it wasn't my mess. It was equipped with a one-burner propane stove
and a microwave that made an alarming buzzing sound when turned on. The
Chinese don't have ovens in their homes so baking was impossible. There was
a scarcity of cookware and dishes, and after five months of having my meals
prepared for me, I was no longer in the habit of cooking for myself.

For breakfast, I ate yogurt and imported muesli supplemented by red papaya;
I couldn't seem to get enough of the delicious fruit. And I enjoyed a cup of
real drip coffee. In Dadonghai, in a store stocked for the tourist trade,
I'd found some coffee beans and had them ground.  In a hole-in-the-wall shop
downtown, I'd bought a tiny teapot with a fine mesh filter meant for tea but
it worked for coffee too. Usually I ate lunch and dinner out at one of a
half dozen restaurants I visited regularly.

Some days I explored the city by traveling on the local buses. Always there
were people staring at me, but most days I was in good humor and could
ignore it. It was a challenge to find my way around though because no one
spoke English. One day I became completely lost while on the #4 bus. With a
map in my hand I used gestures to ask the Chinese passengers around me where
we were. No one was able to help. The bus trip went on and on. I sat at the
front looking out the window for something, anything that looked
familiar.  Finally
we arrived at a very remote place which turned out to be the end/beginning
of the route. I was obligated to get off the bus and then climb onto the
empty #4 bus behind it and pay again. From there I was able to get back to
where I started but the whole 'adventure' had taken more than an hour. Never
mind, I had nothing but time.

During my comings and goings from the apartment, I befriended some of the
children in the apartment complex. This was city living and there was no
backyard where they could make forts in the forest or play hide-n-seek. They
played on the asphalt courtyard and the volleyball court, when the teenagers
weren't playing basketball. Three little boys in particular greeted me
warmly every time they saw me. Their smiles brightened my days. I told them
in limited Chinese that I was an English teacher and they told me they knew.
One boy of about ten always said, "Beautiful, (likely one of the few English
words he knew) when he saw me, which was good for the ego of this
fifty-something-year-old woman.  Fair skin is considered a sign of beauty
and is highly valued in China. Chinese women carry sun umbrellas and those
that can afford them use skin creams such as Oil of Olay with bleach in them
to whiten their complexions.

The weather remained overcast which was a disappointment, but at least I was
warm. The purple blotches on my hands (I assumed they were caused by the
bone-chilling cold in Lintong) faded and disappeared but I came out with a
strange rash (tiny red dots surrounded by white circles) on my lower legs. I
speculated that they were some sort of insect bites. And I now had some kind
of foul-smelling foot fungus that I'd probably picked up at the youth
hostel. I've always enjoyed excellent health and it was a shock to me to
have so many strange symptoms. The tingling and numbness in my arms and legs
was less frequent now but would need further investigation when I returned
to Canada. I vowed I would never again put myself in a situation where
simple basic necessities (such as adequate heat in sub-zero temperatures)
were unavailable.

But I missed my friends Amy and Zhang Hong and sent them text messages
telling them so. They responded with loving words that made me realize the
huge impact I'd had on their lives. I'd bolstered their self-esteem and told
them they deserved to be treated better, and then left them, knowing that
without my intervention their lives at the college would again become
unbearable. I wondered if I'd done them a disservice. Is it better to have
known kindness and then lose it than never having experienced it? Who can
say? But I'd left them with tangible things too such as electric blankets,
warm sweaters and cash to buy them selves a down coat. We'd become so close
because of the many hardships we'd suffered together and I know that if I
hadn't left my Chinese sisters when I did, it would have become nearly
impossible to do so. I'd had to remind myself that my goal was to find a
warm place to live and work six months of the year while it was cold in
Canada. Lintong didn't qualify!

Some days, I visited the sandy beaches of Dadonghai and sat beneath the palm
trees breathing in the salt air (Sanya claims the cleanest air in all of
China) and watching the swimmers, most of whom were Chinese. A few Russians
from the cruise ships, large-boned and heavy-set, were also on the beach.
Beside the short, slim Chinese they looked like mountains of pale flesh.

One day, I decided to find 'Number One' market (there are three main markets
in Sanya), famous for its low prices. Pauline and I had unsuccessfully
hunted for it one day before she'd left. After locating it on a
Chinese/English map, I'd hopped a bus to the right area and then gone
hunting for it on foot. It wasn't easy to find and I became lost. Luckily I
had a map with me and was able to communicate with the locals using it and
gestures.

Eventually I found what I was looking for, a huge three-story building, and
stepped inside.  Rows and rows of tables with fruit, vegetables, meat, fish,
shellfish and dry goods packed the ground floor. Vendors shouted out their
wares. Hundreds of shoppers pushed and shoved their way through the aisles
jabbering in Chinese. In China, people often shout when conversing and it
has nothing to do with anger; it's part of the culture. The noise inside the
building was deafening.

I'd been told I could buy prawns there at rock-bottom prices and I saw
dozens of vendors selling them. Most of the seafood was alive as were the
prawns. They'd been sorted by size into basins of varying prices. I saw
enormous live lobsters and dozens of unfamiliar species of fish and
shellfish. Eel is a very popular dish in China and I saw a tank of the
black, snake-like creatures.

The racket, the crowds and the smell of freshly butchered meat overwhelmed
me; my confidence evaporated. I left without buying anything and made for
the stairway that took me to the clothing shops on the second and third
floors.

Shopping for clothes wasn't much fun either. In China I'm an XXL (a medium
in Canada) and it's nearly impossible to find any clothing that large. On
the rare occasion I found something that would fit, it was decked out with
beads, sequins or rhinestones—very much in fashion in China but considered
tacky in Canada. I left the market without making a purchase.

Another day I went for another $3.00/hour massage but I didn't enjoy it
anymore than I had the first time. It wasn't at all relaxing and I worried
that I was going to be injured when my masseuse again climbed onto the table
and used her own limbs to pull me into contortions. She didn't speak any
English and I was at her mercy.

Soon, my employers would be returning from their holiday, and my life of
leisure would come to an end. School was scheduled to start in two weeks.


-- 
My Blog: http://mysouldancesinchina.blogspot.com/

If you don't use Picasa, China photos can be viewed at
http://picasaweb.google.com/home?tab=mq

If you use Picasa, you must access the albums individually:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/MuShuixia
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/ZhangRuntao
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/China3ZhangKang
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/WangYani
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/Sanya
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/January2008To
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/China2
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ms.Pat.Martin/China