My teaching experience in Lijiang

The artistic rooftops of the houses in Lijiang. Now picture this scene from the "Crouching tiger and Hidden Dragon" where the kung fu masters were springing like flying-lemars from rooftop to rooftop....

And of course, here's the streets in Lijiang old town.....somewhat like "Dragon-door Inn"

I am indeed very fortunate and well-blessed to be given such an opportunity to be able to serve the people here in China. Remembering at that time when I first arrived, I wasn't too sure what to expect. After all, its going to be a long trip for me as I have resigned from my previous job in order to have time on my side. I really wanted to do something I've always desired, that is, to get off from the hustles and bustles of a typical Singaporean life and take some time to breath and enjoy what is around me.

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Thus I took this BIG step of faith to step out of my own circle and take a look at the world outside where my eyes can bring me. I first set off to teach in schools during December last year, however, the timing wasn't that right as they were all having their winter breaks. So, I set off to travel around China instead.

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Thank God, by April this year, I managed to get a contact of a village school near Lijiang city in Yunnan province. This village is called Ming Ying and its about 2 hours ride away from the Lijiang city. I am indeed, honored and it was indeed a humbling experience to be able to teach in that village school and interacting with the students in the school. Such experience, I think, would mould anyone to be grateful of where we were born and what we have back in Singapore. This is because I just cannot imagine I am going to living such conditions after enjoying what I have back in Singapore.

THE SCHOOL

This school known as "The Ming Yin Third Secondary School" and was located up in the mountains, near to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain ranges at Lijiang city. I would need to take a 3 hours of bumpy bus ride up into the mountains from the city. The school was constructed with hard-beaten clay floors and mud walls with zinc roofs. The small classrooms were crampy with about 60 students in one class. They were all packed like sardines, with 3 to a table and a bench. With my size, I can occupy the entire bench all by myself. That explained how small size these kids were (could be due to malnutrition) or how big I am!

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Now, the toilet weren't any better, without doors, no flush available and these shitting pits were to be cleared once a week by the students on duty. As there were only about 16 toilets for the entire school of students and teachers, one can really imagine the conditions when it comes to Fridays. I really had problem enjoying my time releasing wastes from my body and this is not good!

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Almost all the students stayed in the dormitories as their homes were really far from the school. This school is the only secondary school within the range and it housed many students from adjacent villages as well. Some of these kids stayed many kilometers away from school and they will need to hike for 8 hours before they can reach the school. However, almost 90 percent of these kids really came from very poor villages and their parents cannot support them financially for their meals. Therefore, it is beyond their means to have a decent dish of meat regularly. A lot of them ended up having only a dish of meat every week. The rest of the days, they just had plain rice and vegetables (which is already a luxury for them!)

The state of their classrooms

I will usually sleep in the village from Monday to Friday every week and went down to Lijiang city for "top-ups". I treasured my "top-ups" sessions a lot because this is will the time that I will indulged with "happy food" like the "Ba-Ba" (Yunnan fried bread) and bakeries. I will also get myself a lot of fruits to improve my bowels. Honestly, I sometimes would enjoy my 2 days of stay in the city so much that I would have problem psyching myself to go back to the village. One of the reasons could be the ride up to the village.

RIDE UP TO THE SCHOOL

Our small mini-bus bounced its way up the mountains, with the driver trying to avoid potholes and swerving at every bends with the edge of the tires scrapping along the edges of the winding mud tracks. I usually have to share this mini bus with many villagers and their favourite possessions like live chickens and sacks of rice, corn and fresh vegetables. As I heard the chickens croaked and flatters their wings, and the vomiting noise made by the lady behind me every time when the bus turned, I am thankful of not suffering from motion sickness that easily.

Although the journey can be tough, the scenery is definitely breath-taking! I can seethe entire range of the snow-covered Jade dragon mountains in front of me. Mountains with lovely rice terraces filling up every bit of the ground. All the homes along the way were made with careful hands, piling up the granites rocks that fitted nicely into their places. I soon began to forget the bus conditions which I was in and smile at the wonderful creations of God.

Every morning, I was welcomed with many little curious faces. They will just look at me shyly and giggled when I look back at them. I was quite uncomfortable initially because I do not like attention at all. Soon, after talking to the teachers, I came to realise that they were just very curious about me and my country. Almost all of them had never been to their city (Lijiang) even though it is only 3 hours bus ride away from where they stayed, let alone my country-Singapore. To almost all of them, "Singapore" is a long, yet unfamiliar word that will never appear in their dictionary if I wasn't there to let them know that such country exits.

Only then, I realised how small their world is and even with such a small world that they are living in, they are very appreciative of what they have. My job there was to teach simple English, help the teachers to conduct PE lessons and taught the students to sing English songs during their music lessons. Although it seemed a lot, I did have a lot of free time still. I will always walk up to a little open field somewhere near the school, lie down on the soft grass and let the breeze caress me. The innocent faces of these kids when they handed me a bouquet of wild flowers never fails to brighten up my days. Even though I felt that I didn't managed to help them much, due to my limited time and my abilities, they are really appreciative about every little single thing that I gave to them, even just a simple greeting like, "Good morning, Hello, how are you today?"

Actually, we don't need any hard skills or flamboyant words. All we need is just sincerity and people would be able to see. I enjoy my time, interacting with the students and playing basketball with them! These students were motivated by nature, despite their tedious studying and living conditions. All of them know since young, that education is important to them because they will need that to get out of their poverty cycle. Or if not, they will have to remain in poverty for the rest of their lives, with their farming parents. They need to work hard to graduate from the secondary school and to get to a higher grade school in the city in order to pave their road towards a better life.

Assembly for the morning session, teachers' briefing.

These small little lives, although been through tremendous hardships and had no choice in where they would like to be born, still remained cheerful and appreciative of ever little things in life. Being a Singaporean with so much on hands, I am, on the other hand, guilty of complaining too much about my life.

I think beside the point of me opening them up to the world (which I dun think I have done that much), I thank them for opening myself up to my inner world too. I have seen more within myself and I really thank God for such opportunity for me to see myself better. I have also learned from them, that it is possible to smile with eyes.