Home Sweet Home

Saying goodbye to the teachers I had worked with and my colleaugues was sad. On the last day, my students and I went to the most beautiful tea house so far and celebrated. While we were there, the spot on the local news appeared on the t.v. (many of the rooms in the tea houses have big screen t.v,'s). My students were SO excited that I was wearing the green dress that I bought when shopping in Fuyang with Shirley and Carol, as well as my Shanghai jade. Christine gave a great interview and Mr. Jiang from the Education Bureau was all praise for the work we had done. Of course everyone screamed every time one of our classmates appeared on the screen. I'm so proud of how far the group came in three weeks. The first day, the deer in the headlights looks were intense and the fear palpable. By the end, students were more concerned with communicating their feelings than parroting correct answers. The lessons that they taught the class were a combination of the things they knew and the strategies that they had learned. Tough to leave. The decision to follow up the training by sending Jane, Ben, and six of the teachers to Canada is exciting. I look forward to the reunion and the continuation of our work together.

The departure from China continued to be just one more adventure in a long sequence of adventures. Two students accompanied us on the three hour trek to the Pu Dong airport in Shanghai. They brought with them their English language skills along with the need for a second vehicle. I was first down the stairs of the apartment and anxious to depart, so my student Julia and I loaded into the car that Song Bing regularly drives. The others got into the Education Bureau van. An hour into the drive, our car started to gut out and was clearly not going to get us to the airport. Song Bing put forth a valiant effort to get us to a station and try to remedy the problem to no avail. At one point, Julia and I were standing out in the heat at the service station beside a truck load of pigs that were stacked on top of one another and headed for imminent death. Things can always be worse! Then we went inside the rest stop where I started taking pictures to kill time. The guard came up and curtly informed Julia that there were no pictures allowed in the rest area. My first thought was that he knew the neon sign had a spelling error and embarassment was being avoided at all costs! That was scarier than the car breakdown and possibly missing the plane. The van ended up with a 1 1/2 hour detour to come and pick us up and we were all delighted in the decision to depart early "just in case".

I sat beside a Chinese man who immigrated to Edmonton with his family in 2000 on the plane. He cringed when he saw my Chinese school notebook given to me by one of my students. He told me that he hated school in China. Although he fulfilled his parents wishes by being a top student, he remembers the teachers were very serious and made fun of students if they got incorrect answers. I told him about one of the first classes with the Primary School teachers that I was working with in Fuyang and how we brainstormed ways to encourage students in their learning through praise, encouragement, and positive reinforcement for targeted behaviour. He was amazed with stories of Chinese teachers giving high 5's and thanked me very much for what I had done. As I reminded him, we wouldn't be there if we weren't invited and that it was people like him who wanted to bring changes to improve the Chinese Education system. This conversation, as well as my students thanking me for joyful classes and lavishing me with gifts of appreciation, have made me very proud of our efforts this summer. I think we did make a difference in both the teachers' lives, in the lessons they will deliver to their students this fall, and their work as instructional leaders in their schools. I'm so thankful to Steve for organizing this trip and ensuring that we were well taken care of. I'm also particularly thankful to Marion, Nancy, Jane (Hong bo), and Ben for their ideas, and thoughts, and support along the way.

It was sad arriving home with Brad and the kids already off to Ventura and my Mom not here to listen to my adventures with rapt attention and welcome me home. However there was red wine in the pantry, butter chicken & rice in the fridge compliments of Rowena , Peter & my trusty Oreo to welcome me home, and Starbucks beckoning with the promise of jazz, good coffee with pasturized milk, and newspapers to peruse!

Full page spread about China in the Globe & Mail today. The article was talking about the increased Chinese preoccupation with security during the Olympics that has resulted in increased surveillance of its own people, and the failure to move the country forward with positive change for its population. The article left me with the sense that the journalist needed to perhaps visit China and try to grasp the complexity of the change that is happening in the country right now in order to do justice to the Chinese reality. Although a simplistic statement of fact, regardless of truth, seems to be the way to sell newspapers. The sheer size of China's population is mind boggling. The pride that the Chinese people have in their home and their generosity of spirit is inspiring. Not too long ago, someone asked me how I could stand the rain in Vancouver. In her mind, it was unbearable. In my mind, one of the things that is part of my life but not the defining factor in my perception of my home. It may not be the perfect place in everyone's mind, but it couldn't feel more right being back here! Home, sweet home.