Corrupt Headmaster Gets Out-corrupted?

July 10, 2008 10:15pm
(LAST OLD ONE!)

I sweat so much when I'm in the classroom (third floor, not air conditioned). My skin feels really moist, like I've just gotten out of the shower. Attractive, huh? I thought so. I'm showering at night because any movement outside of any air conditioned space causes immediate drippage.

Yesterday the TV talk show people came into my classroom to do a follow up. They filmed me stretching to American songs with the students, playing hang man, and quizzing the students. It was really fun. Everyone was on their best behavior. Some students jumped at the chance to be showcased on TV and others looked like they were going to be sick. It was really enjoyable, though. I mean, obviously. My mad American teaching style is a big deal here.

So, today. At around 11:15am, I was working with the students on some pronunciation. I glanced out the door and saw a man dressed in a police uniform taking pictures of me in the classroom. It was a bit weird—my classroom is on the third floor, on top of the student dormitories, so it isn't like the cop was just strolling along and happened to see a western person in Anyang. (For the record, we have seen no other westerners since leaving Shanghai.) But then, once I dismissed my class for the afternoon, I went down to the staff office and two police officers confronted me and demanded my passport. Apparently someone had reported that there were two foreigners teaching at the school. I handed them my passport to look at. They examined it, but had no plans to give it back. Helen said they were going to take it back with them and would return it to me tomorrow, and my stomach did a little flip. Orbis had warned us to never, ever give your passport away no matter how professional the people seemed or how many badges they showed you. And then here was this man not saying much, but holding my passport and turning to leave. I literally grabbed it out of his hand... I was kind of freaking out. I told Helen to tell them that I had been told to never leave my passport, and if they needed it for something, I would have to go, too. Identity theft here is apparently not all that uncommon.

As it turned out, the police were legit, and we went to meet with them after class at 5pm. Helen said that they told the headmaster that he broke laws and that he had to notify them. They said that everything is very strict because of the Olympics. Apparently there are no laws that the headmaster broke, but the police just made up some stuff to give us a rough time. We lied and said we were university graduates to prevent any further trouble (Orbis said sometimes they try to say that students cannot be legally teaching other students, even though, again, there is no law that technically says that).

In all, the police was a huge waste of time and really annoying. It felt like they were trying to pick at us to find something that they could decide was illegal (without any law agreeing with them) so they could give us trouble.

Corrupt, corrupt, corrupt.

Helen took us to the main park in Anyang yesterday. There was a lake that was made to look like the Ying Yang. Apparently it originated here. Pretty nifty. I'm being taken back to 10th grade, Asian Civ... Anyway, we rented a paddle boat to take out. It was a lot of fun. After, we went to see the local government building. It is enormous, modern, and really impressive, but kind of nauseating, too. Rob kept saying it's absurd that they have such a glorious government building, but drive a mile (if that) away and people don't have running water. It's just a really different way of running a country (obviously), but the people also have a much different outlook. I think self-image is really important, and they think China needs landmarks, so for them having big, beautiful buildings is something to be proud of. Being proud of the place that represents you seems to be considered more important than your personal living standard.

Then again, personal hygiene generally is very, very low. No washing machines, ever. No dish washers. Shower if you're lucky. People here wear the same outfit for 2 days in a row. I don't mean the poorer people wear the same outfit—it is totally common for everyone, the headmaster included, to wear the exact same thing 2-3 times in a row. Rob and I have started doing that, too. When you're living off a small amount of clothes and sweating through clothing, it's really convenient...

There's one little girl in my class who I named Jill because when she quietly said her Chinese name to me, it sounded something like Jill. She's 7 and very quiet and shy. She never really participates—she's just too young—but she sits there and stares at me adoringly. All I have to do is smile at her or make a face and her eyes light up and her face breaks into a huge smile before looking away and acting shy again. Every day her smile gets bigger and bigger when I smile at her. I'm not bonding with her the normal way teachers bond with students, but it's still bonding. All it takes is a smile. (There are also the twelve-year-old boys who think that "high fiving" is the coolest thing under the sun. That's right. I'm a cool teacher.)

Teaching is hard. Draining, repetitive, and challenging. I think I need a morning to sleep in, rather than controlling 25 hyperactive kids who don't speak my language.