Above:The Baha'i House of Worship of Asia. Below:Life and times of your fellow World Citizen, Kolya

Awaiting the World After SARS (WAS)

The highlight of my second semester was the amazing (but not unexpected) appearance of my old High School friend, Lev Libeskind. We have, albeit with long periods of silence, managed to stay in touch with each other over the years thanks to that “mechanism of world inter-communication [which has been] devised, embracing the whole planet, freed from national hindrances and restrictions, and functioning with marvelous swiftness and perfect regularity” (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 204)—otherwise known as email and the internet, (which was predicted in the 1930s would appear by Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith). It had been 6 years since Lev and I had last seen each other. And so it truly was amazing to meet up with him again, and in Inner Mongolia, China, of all places! It was amazing to see his talked of visit become reality, in the same way that I find it amazing when my planned trip to India or anywhere becomes reality upon my arrival there. The whole SARS epidemic had only just become public upon his arrival in Taiwan but thankfully (since he didn’t get sick) he decided to go through with his planned trip and didn’t miss out on the opportunity to explore this vast land (and see me). Since he was coming through Hong Kong I asked him to pick up a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring—Special Extended Edition, since HK is just about the only place to pick up a Real DVD (that hasn’t been dubbed into Chinese or is missing some or all of the special features). And then I paid him for it when he got to Baotou. (The price for a real DVD is like three times that of the ones available on the Mainland.) We then spent an enjoyable afternoon watching it at my friend Maria’s house.
We were not able to watch it or stay at my school because by the time of his arrival in Baotou the SARS crises had just come in to full swing and all the schools had been put under quarantine conditions, starting their week long Labor day vacation early and extending it by a few weeks. I was faced with the two options of either staying holed up at the school or staying somewhere in town. Staying at the school was not really an option for different reasons, especially due to Lev’s visit. Luckily, through Maria I was able to work out a deal at a 2 star hotel where Lev and I would be able to stay there for “free” in return for my giving the General Manager’s daughter and nephew 2 hours of English a day for 5 days a week, after Lev left, for as long as I stayed at the hotel, which sure seemed like a good deal to me! (Although the phone line which I use to hook up to the internet is exorbitantly expensive by Chinese standards: ¥7 per hour/€0.72/hr).
I moved in to the hotel the same evening that Lev arrived. Unfortunately the batteries in my camera ran out and my new ones were locked away at the school so I didn’t get any pics of us while he was in Baotou but I'm still hoping that he’ll email me a couple of those that he took! He stayed for 3 days and then took a train to Beijing since things seemed to be getting worse and we were afraid he might get stuck in Baotou or Beijing if he didn’t leave China ASAP. What with SARS we unfortunately didn’t have any opportunity to go anywhere together but then by this stage of his trip he was pretty templed-out anyway. Nevertheless, it was great getting a chance to see him and catch up on things.
By the 2nd week of May the SARS situation slowly seemed to be getting better. Happily it never got too bad in Baotou with the highest tally on infected cases being no more than 13 or 14. Still, it makes you worry a bit when taking a bus or taxi or when you feel a pain or feel a bit of a cold coming on. Luckily for my generation and those younger, the death rate for people under 30 years old is very low (~8%). So I had less to worry about than older generations. But then the worry during such a time is not just about one’s personal health but also the fear of spreading infection to others before finding out that one has it.
Happily those times are now over (by the end of May), at least in Baotou and we have here finally entered the much longed for BAS (Baotou After SARS) soon, hopefully, to be followed by the WAS (World After SARS). Although Baotou has been better off than Hohhot or Beijing, the leaders decided to be safe and the schools won’t start classes until June 9th or 10th. To make up for the SARS induced vacation, furthermore, the school year will go until the end of July/beginning of August (a month later than normal).
This was my last school-year at the Jianghai school. I get the feeling that in general the school is pretty fair and honest compared to the way I’ve heard other schools treat their foreign teachers and so I would still recommend it as a place to work for anyone thinking of working in China for a year. However, since I'm planning to live in China for the long term there are a number of reasons why it makes more sense to start my own little business. For one thing, I’ll be my own boss. Also I’ll be able to arrange my own schedule. And I’ll be able to live in town (the Jianghai school itself is in the suburbs in between the Eastside and the Westside). I’ll be free to help out friends in short term endeavors, should I have the time. Furthermore, I’ll probably be able to make a bit more money. The Jianghai school does have a couple English Teaching centers in town but the positions there are already filled and, besides, I want to be my own boss.
The business is called ONE HUMAN FAMILY Language Consulting Services Co. Ltd. In Chinese One Human Family is to be translated as Tian Xià Yi Jia (Literally “under heaven/sky one family/home”). I started teaching classes in September (middle school and adult English plus very basic conversational German) and also my co. provides Translation services). I’ve already found a lot of interest for a German class and while my German is far from perfect, having me to teach them is still better than not having anybody (with a just about perfect accent)!
I'm hoping I can find or MAKE more time to study Chinese now. Teaching my own classes, it has become that much more important to progress in my PuTongHua (mandarin) so as to be able to some day do without an in-class interpreter and to teach beginners more effectively. My Chinese ability has progressed over the last couple school years but pretty slowly since my free time is limited while teaching and admittedly I haven’t been as diligent as I could have been.
A number of pics can now be viewed on my Yahoo Photo Album @: http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/quddus9n19