We ate breakfast at 8am. I had a good nights sleep in the warm beds and enjoyed the big breakfast we had with porkbuns, egg, pai, porridge and salty and bitter vegetables to have in the porridge. The classes then started at 8.30am. We divided into two groups. Arnout, Bonnie and me functioned as one teacher group for the less well speaking students. They were between 16 and 18 years and were in total 30 people. Most of them seemed interested in what we had to say, but many acted like teenagers most and were too cool to pay attention to the teacher. Still, I think we managed to keep their attention through the whole three hours to a more or less high degree. We taught them about our countries, what Europe was, their hobbies, we played my ship contains, hang-man and strayed through many other topics when they started being impatient.
Afterwards though, they came up to us and wanted to be taken a picture of together with us! So we spent ten fifteen minutes being taken a picture of, which was sort of cute and we got the chance to talk a little bit with them. We had lunch for two hours and went to see the garden that was lying next to the school. Newly built Buddhist garden with trees and lakes and bushes and small houses and pagodas created a small oasis in the middle of the half dry grass and dirt roads that surrounded us.
Coming back to the classes at 2pm was allright, but tiring. We took over the class of the better speaking English class consisting of 10 girls. No surprise huh? Guess it works like in our own classes in Norway? Anyway, they were more interested in our countries (Holland, England and Norway respectively) and asked frequent questions about our nature, animals, people and such. It was a giving experience, but drained us from energy. We had to wait until six to have dinner, and I wanted to have a nap before that. The others decided to visit the local nearby market and were followed there by the same girl who took us to the garden - Joy. Only thing was that when the clock turned six, they had not returned yet. I was awaken by two Chinese speaking girls in their Pjs, telling me that my friends were late and told me to wait in the kitchen/restaurant. I went with them and sat down and waited for the rest of my group to return.
As time passed by and became 7pm I was more hungry than an hour ago and a little more annoyed at the others for not showing up in time. People around me were starting to be worried as if to whether I was hungry and talked to me in Putonghua without me understanding anything of course. Luckily a guy called Hau helped me communicating with the chef and his wife and their son and the rest of the people surrounding me. Before he came along I had been sitting there on my stool, drinking numerous cups of the traditional tea, just looking and smiling to these people who kept talking and laughing and looking at me. It felt strange and I made an effort to try to speak slowly in English with some of the students who were sitting next to me, but I don´t know if they were quiet because someone told them to keep me company. See, they all knew why my friends were being late and that is why they kept asking me about food. I though it would be rude to eat without them so I waited, but no one could explain to me that they were actually being interrogated by the marines in the base next to the school for taking a photo of a guarding soldier…
They came back at 10pm. By that time I had got to know Hau and his future plans and wishes, about China and my country, family and life. He even gave me a Chinese name. We talked a lot and played basketball, taught each other card games and watched the gatekeeper shooting birds in a tree for fun! Nothing is impossible for a willing heart. That was our shared motto. I learned a lot that evening and was grateful for my experience with the people at the school even though I couldn´t talk directly with them, they treated me as one of them.
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