Lucas' blog, April 3

Baskets and Junior High

Yesterday, the entire group went to go see a master bamboo craftsman at work. We referred to him as shifu or master in Chinese. We toured his inventory before sitting down to watch him work and it was impressive. There was a multitude of different projects, from simple chicken cages to actual chairs, all made out of bamboo. He told us (albeit translated from Zhang Laoshi) that sometimes, in the case of chairs or structures that need to support weight, the bamboo needs to be hard and dry, so they will cut the bamboo and wait before using it for any projects. When the process requires intricate woven patterns, like the basket we saw and helped him make, the bamboo needed to be fresh and supple, so the bamboo we used had been cut down just the day before. During the process, he taught us how to weave the bamboo fronds so they made a strong shape that could hold rice in order to stir fry it.  We went in pairs of two and started helping him craft it. Earlier that morning, Zhang Laoshi had taught us some Chinese songs called Laoshu Ai Dami (The Mouse loves the Rice) and Tongnian (Childhood), so while we worked, we sang these songs as a group.

After we were finished, we got invited to go to the local junior high and meet the kids who studied there. Daniel, Oliver, Owen, and I were invited by the deputy mayor of the town to play basketball with him and his team. They had uniforms and numbers and everything so we assumed that they must have their own basketball team. Whatever the case, they were a lot better than we were, but they were kind enough to let us play with them despite our clear lack of skill. There was also a badminton net that had been set up, so the rest of the group went to play with the locals, whom we joined after we were done. While we were waiting for our turns on the court, everyone got swarmed by the local kids asking for autographs. They would come, one shy kid would ask, and then as soon as we gave them an autograph, 10 more would show up. I lowkey liked the attention, because they were all super friendly and wanted to practice the English they were learning at school. We are the first waiguoren (foreigner) most of these kids had ever seen, so we knew we had to give them a good image to take with them for the rest of their lives.

The school system was very interesting for me, as every kid and teacher lived on campus. They also have schooling very late. We left at about 7 pm and there were kids who were still in their classrooms, heads down, focused on their paper or textbook, only looking up every once in a while, to pay attention to their teachers’ instructions, not quite like at Lakeside where we focus more on partner and group projects in most classes. I hope that the next time we visit we get to learn more about the school system, and the students’ opinions on the matter.