Jun 2006

3rd Aug., Langmu Si

I taught Grade 5 and Grade 3 Chinese this morning. And because it was close to the midday, I felt so dizzy during the whole class, but I tried to hide it with supporting by their desks.

After these two Chinese classes, I had to say “goodbye” to all of them, the kids and the monks, and that almost drove me to cry. Nobody likes to say goodbye and to be apart, however, sometimes, no, most of time, we have to face it without any choice. Luckily, I had had no time to let tears down. And then I was asked to have one more class for the kids in Grade 3.

The boys were more than the ones in Grade 5 and they were much more naughty, and so I needed much longer time to try to understand what they were talking in Tibetan and do more drawing on the blackboards. I need to learn more skills to draw pictures well.

I went to the Giant Gorge this afternoon with my monk friends, one I met yesterday and the one who was his friend. Picnic again, cool!

Got up at 6.00am and then went to Langmu Si located in Gansu province. I planned to teach the kids in elementary school some Chinese or English, but then I thought all of them should be on summer vacation during this time.

In the gompa I met some kids with their bags who seemed to go to school and then I went to ask. They told me "yes" and I was so surprisingly happy to know it. I followed them to the elementary school, which belonged to the gompa.

I was standing there watching them doing morning praying for about half an hour. Very nice to hear that kind of song, so beautiful! But too cold, so I went into the teachers' office for warming up.

After my brief introduction, the lama thought that was not a bad idea to give me the chance to be a teacher who could teach Chinese.

When I entered the classroom of Grade 5, I was too nervous and even trembling, anyway that was my first time to be a teacher. But thanks god, the boys were very kind and friendly, and the class went smoothly and time went too fast.

Most of the kids, they could understand me, speak good Chinese and even write well. But there were still some problems for me to understand Tibetan, so I had to ask who would like to be a Chinese-Tibetan and Tibetan-Chinese translator for me!

They were very cute and very polite to a teacher. If I did not leave the classroom, all of them would not sit down or go outside. After the first class, they asked me to write down my name onto the blackboard. That was so cool for me to see all of them writing my name onto their textbooks. Amazing!!!

I would go there again to teach Grade 3 Chinese tomorrow and I was expecting it very much!

In the afternoon, I went to the gompa in Sichuan. It was bigger than the one in Gansu. It was so surprising to see the lama's village and the monks were all in black red. They were wandering around and some of them were playing with each other. Amazing!

So cool to see the monks to tidy up their clothes. Standing on the higher position from the opposite hill, I was watching many floating red clouds, gorgeous!

I was invited to some monk's house, who became my friend later. The house was clean and tidy. We changed the contact addresses and said we would meet again on tomorrow afternoon, and then he would invite me for a lunch, and he would cook.

And the monk and me, we would go to Hezuo together.

1st Aug From Zöige to Langmu Si, stopped at Hua Hu, flower lake

Left 8.20 am to Hua Hu and then to Langmu Si. It changed my itinerary after I met my friends who were from Chongqing in the bus to Zöige. I was writing now sitting down the wooden floor on the lake, the front view was peaceful lake. My friends, they were cooking lunch with their cute and tiny stove. And then I got one warm rice with soup, that was so cool! And tasty!

31st July Chengdu to Zöige

The bus left Chadianzi Bus Station at 7.15 am. Rain in Dujiang Yan, so the bus stopped before Xuankou as expected. The stones and mud were sliding down along the hillside to the road which the bus had to pass. No choice, even sawing the bigger stones rolling down. The serious one happened around 4 pm. Very dangerous and the road was blocked by scared buses and cars. The one truck just ahead of our bus was hit by the stones. And one of our drivers rushed to the other end of the road to make sure there were not any more stones rolling down, but just for one short time. Fortunately, we passed. [if !supportEmptyParas] The bus arrived at Zöige at 8 pm, such a long time. The local guy sitting beside me just told me that this driver was always the last one coming to Zöige. The friends I met on the bus taught the boss of the restaurant in Zöige how to cook cucumber soup with preserved egg, Pidan in Chinese. Ruoliang Binggan asked one bed for 30 yuan, quite higher than it mentioned in LP 2003. So after some bargaining without any concession from the strong-minded Fuwuyuan, we changed to another hostel, opened by the Tibetan, who went to Nepal and India for ten of years. The hostel was clean, but the bathroom was really far away from the rooms, and it was on the other side of the big yard.

I am leaving tomorrow morning for the south of Gansu. Very early and have to get up around 5.30am, and because of rain, maybe the bus to Zoige, which is located at the north of Sichuan, will be stopped for at least 2 or 3 hours on the way. It sounds terrible, but maybe there is still something nice or surprise to see or know! I bought some little gifts, such as pencils, notebooks and some candy, for the local people there. Not too much, feel a little sorry about this. I think my backpack is already heavier for me. Really sorry for this, wish I could find some possibilities to give them some tips to learn Chinese. I think my friend, Lucia and her family will arrive Xinjiang soon. Bon voyage!