I am a panda
on Kirsten VSO (China), 22/Jan/2010 11:38, 34 days ago
This week I visited my two placement primary schools for the first time. As of next term, I'll be doing training workshops with all of the teachers in each school, which is different from the middle schools where I only work with the English teachers. Anyway, the two schools could hardly have been more different!children at Wu Guan PrimaryWu Guan is a small school in a remote village with few resources and lots of children that board there during the week as it's too far to go home each day (though on the plus side, the class sizes are small!)Wu Guan school building on a sadly dull and smoky day. Villagers in particular use coal for heating in the winter and so the pollution is at its worst in Jan/Feb.Shang Zhen is also in a village but it's a much bigger one quite close to Danfeng and has the best resources of any school I've seen in China. It has a library, a science lab, a running track and a computer suite.In both schools, the leaders andstaff seemed quite enthusiastic about me coming to work with them and I must admit that it'll be nice to work with primaryage kids again after a term in a middle school.Shang Zhen's beautiful and well resourced school libraryAfter looking round Shang Zhen primary, the school leaders took me out for lunch and after that we took a walk around the village as it was having its monthly market, where all the farmers and craftsmen from round about bring their goods to sell in the street.I asked my colleagues if they thought it would be okay for me to take photos and got the perplexing response, "Of course. You are a panda."After a bit of discussion, I managed to figure out that what they meant was that I was a precious and rare thing and everyone would want to help me and look after me. A wonderfully succinct wayof explainingit, I thought.Buying eggsFarmer selling peanuts and sunflower seeds