Haikou Day One

I awoke from my hotel in Shanghai. A very pleasant night’s sleep indeed. I showered, packed and headed downstairs, back towards the main lobby area. I was pointed in the direction of the breakfast buffet (a separate building across the alley way).

Ahhh my first meal in China. The buffet was stacked with all kinds of steamed buns, fried rice, yams, tomatoes, savory chicken, pickled everything, and many pastries. It was colorful, exotic, and freakin delicious. There are signs hanging on the walls that say “Cherish food to avoid waste.” Needless to say I cherished every bit of what I had. American breakfast doesn’t even come close.

From there I got on a shuttle and took a short sweet drive back to the airport. The Shanghai International Airport is fantastically different during the day. Before the airport was practically abandon. Today- there were tens of thousands of people in a massive departure area. A sea of Chinese people, many with “duty free store” bags filled to the brim. Checking in was surprisingly easy and so was security. Not all that different from American airports, just way more people.

I walked likely 2 miles to get to my exit and plopped down and rested. Being the only white guy in a terminal of 400 Chinese people… I got a lot of stares. I also experienced younger Chinese women come over to me, smile, and sit down right next to me (despite the variety of seating choices available). I would smile back but usually just return back to whatever I was scrolling through on my phone. After several minutes they would turn away and get up and leave. Weird.

My flight was uninteresting save the last 20 minutes. This was the first time I can remember flying over the ocean. It was breathtaking at first. Seeing the vastness of the ocean, coupled with the ever so slight curve in the horizon. It was my “holy shit I’m on the other side of the world” moment.

Anyway, we landed and I was instantly reminded of Georgia when I got off of the plane. Hot, sticky, humid. Just like home:) The difference being the lack of good air conditioning. Since I stepped off of the plane I don’t know if I’ve ever quite cooled off. Thank god for deodorant.

I was picked up by a volunteer named Helen and two other Chinese volunteers. We drove about a half hour back to the village and got settled in. When I say “village” I want you to imagine what you think a tropical Chinese village would look like. Got it? Okay that’s about what it looks like. The village perfectly met my expectations. Full of farmers with rice hats carrying baskets of vegetation, little kids laughing and running around in flip flops, buildings that were once rather glorious but are now architectural fossils, and a spider web of timid power lines running from lamp to lamp. (More on this later). I was situated up in 3 story building with a room containing 6 beds with barely enough space in between for a suitcase.

I set my stuff down and claimed a bunk (being the first person to arrive). And was told by a coordinator that dinner would be in 20 minutes. I rested for a while, just taking in all the things I’ve seen and experienced in just a few hours. Eventually I went downstairs for dinner. Walking down the final flight of stairs I was met with about 25 eyes staring directly at me.

Everyone was seated and ready to eat. I thought I was the only person in the building! There were 4 European girls seated at another table but they seemed as comfortable and confident as every other Chinese person they sat next to. Great- I’m the outcast yayyy. But need not fear. As soon as I took my seat, some Chinese volunteers in very broken English introduced themselves and made small talk with me about my situation. I explained that this week was only the very beginning of a year-long journey in China. This was another huge thing that set me apart from everyone else. Most of the volunteers were other Chinese people from various parts of China that were spending a week of their summer to help out in a poverty struck village. Everyone at the table was very nice and welcoming but once the food arrived it was a relatively quiet meal.

We all ate, had a group meeting about the teaching for the week and then separated into grade levels to discuss lesson plans for the next day. At this point I learned that the European girls were divided into pairs and each pair was in charge of certain grade levels. Meaning that we (“we” being the fluent English speakers) were not just part of one class but several grades to assist with the English lesson. I was paired with Ida and Julie, two high school girls from Denmark. They were in charge of grades 2, 3, and 4. The other girls, Rebecca and Merriam, were from Sweden and were in charge of grades 1, 5/6.

We spent about an hour or so going over an English lesson and finding ways to break the ice between us and the kids. We decided to teach “Hello, my name is..” for the 3rd graders and then play a game where we go around in a circle and introduce ourselves. What an ignorantly optimistic plan…

Overall, this entire day was very “in the moment” for me. I wasn’t informed about my status as a teacher, I didn’t know anyone around me, where I was, or what I was supposed to be doing. Learn to adapt quickly I guess.