作者：Raymond Stander Helene Stander 　　 来源：本站原创 　　　文章点击数：

Dear Owen

Helene and I can’t believe that it is almost time to go back home. How this year has flown. We came to China with mixed feelings of uncertainty and angst for the unknown, but also excitement at the prospect of doing something new and different with our lives. Looking back, the few days spent in Yangshuo to acclimatise was nice, but nothing could prepare us for the culture shock that awaited us.

Yang Shuo is a rural county in the heart of Gulin and here we experienced the “real” China. We saw how the bulk of the Chinese people live, coping with their daily grind with a ready smile and an inquisitive eye. we felt like we were a sideshow.

We would have lunch in the school canteen , There are no Western style groceries or dairy products available here and the local bread is sweet. To overcome this we had to take a 1-hour bus trip to Guilin once a month to do our shopping.

We would fill up 2 suitcases with bread, margarine, cheese, sliced ham and beef, bacon, jam, mayonnaise, yogurt and Lipton tea. We still can’t figure out why the Chinese don’t like sweet chocolate but add sugar to their bread and milk. This sounds like a terrible drag but it was fun to get away and indulge in Big Macs, Kentucky Chicken and Pizza. We would sometimes extend our overnight stay and do some sightseeing.

The school however was the counter balance for all the inconvenience. Everybody, from the headmaster Mr. Li, down to the handyman, was most courteous, friendly and helpful. On the few occasions that we were ill the doctor treated us with empathy and concern. She would hook us up to the obligatory drip and dispense high quality western medication and drugs. Like rural communities everywhere, the people of Yangshuo are extremely hospitable and we felt very welcome. Owen College is a private boarding school that has only been operating for 5 years. It is, by Chinese standards, a small school with about 50 students. They have just started adding a new wing to accommodate, This will be used to expand the school and to eventually cater for grades 15 to 40 as well.

Ah, the students. They made it worth our while. We have come to love them dearly. When we got here we found that they have very competent English teachers and the standard of English is high. Their reading and writing ability is good. Their oral English however was relatively poor. We could not understand the students, nor they us. Now it’s a different kettle of fish. We can have long conversations with many of the better students. At this stage the little ones are limited to identifying colours, numbers, the alphabet and parts of the body. They know how to greet you, can tell you their name and have quite a big repertoire of nursery rhymes and songs. The beauty however, is that because they could start their English education with the help of Helene, their pronunciation and accent is better than most of the older student’s. On a cold and blustery Christmas Eve the students held an English concert (or as they say a party) in our honour. They realized that we would feel lonely and melancholy at this time and wanted to cheer us up and showered us with Christmas cards, birthday cards, wedding cards and homemade cards. They succeeded admirably and for the first time in our lives we also experienced a white Christmas.

You have been most supportive and we want to thank you for giving us this opportunity. This past year is etched in our memory forever. Some of our friends and family would wish that they could have experienced what we have and some will say that we were crazy. Kind regards.

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