Welcome to Yunnan

It’s Friday morning here in Lincang City, Yunnan, China, and the only reason I can type this right now is that I’m on my laptop. Yesterday, we got an email saying that from 7:30 AM- 6 PM today there would be no electricity. No reason was given, but then, I’m learning not to expect such things here.

I arrived in Yunnan two weeks ago and spent the first half of that time in Kunming, the province capital. My days were filled with a teaching crash course, courtesy of Teach for All. At some point I will write a blog post detailing exactly how I feel about this organization and its methods; for now, suffice it to say that, while I appreciate being exposed to different sorts of pedagogy, after a full year filled with classroom observations I do not appreciate being informed that one particular pedagogy is better than all others. Just sayin’. My evenings were booked by social events of various sorts. It’s been fantastic getting to know the 29 other American and 27 Chinese fellows, as well as the very young and incredibly motivated staff. While some of the full-time staff members are probably around thirty, and the summer training staff range from late twenties to retirees, our CEO is 24 and clearly a genius of some sort. He started this organization four years ago and has the best Chinese I’ve ever heard from a non-native Mandarin speaker. Ever. Pretty inspiring.

But really, nearly everybody involved with this organization is inspiring in some way. All of the fellows graduated within the last three years and are putting a whole lot of faith into an ideal—the thought that, by spending two years in some of China’s neediest schools, by committing to cross-cultural teams, by leaving behind the comforts of American and Chinese middle class life, we can affect truly positive change within the educational system here.

A week ago, the fellows and I spent our last night in Kunming and celebrated our departure with a “Last Western Supper” at Salvador’s Café, an expat-run restaurant (Thanks, Steph!). Then it was off to Lincang city, the capital of a prefecture in the extreme southwest of the province, not far from the Myanmar border. Lincang is beautiful, a city graced by mountains on all sides. Clouds gather on the peaks overnight and rise in the mornings. It rains and shines in unpredictable intervals, and I’ve found myself carrying my raincoat everywhere. Although a relatively poor place, there’s very little pollution here compared to the larger Chinese cities I’ve spent time in. I have a lot of pictures and will try to upload some soon.

For the next month (three weeks, now), we’ll live on the campus of Lincang’s top middle school, continuing our training and teaching at an English summer camp organized specifically to give us practical experience. After a year of working in a Minneapolis Title I school, I know my way around a classroom, but working with these children is, unsurprisingly, quite different from my time with urban American kids. I’m quickly learning to deal with an almost entirely new set of behavior issues, classroom expectations, and languages. From 7:30 AM-10 PM daily I’ve been occupied with teaching, observing, lesson planning, attending training sessions, and studying Chinese. My Ma, ndarin is still a lot less handy than I’d like it to be, but I know that will change quickly. Even in two weeks I’ve started to feel more comfortable with my abilities.

After the conclusion of the Summer Training Program, I’ll be moving to Pengtun Middle School, along with one American and two Chinese fellows. It’s about 6-7 hours north of here, and I don’t know exactly what to expect, but I’m so excited to see it.

Anyway, I’m sure now that I’ve started this blog I’ll update fairly frequently. There’s so much about my first two weeks here that I haven’t even started to get into. I’ve actually written as much in journal since my arrival here as I wrote in my last seven months stateside. For now, happy Friday, and enjoy the weekend. I know I will.