Gentle Reader,
One weekend, on our way back from our journey to ethnic villages surrounding Kaili, we stopped on the outskirts of Qing Zhen to check out the new International School. It was late in the afternoon on Sunday, and all of the workers were very busy. Knowing this school is scheduled to open this September, we wondered how it could possibly be finished by then. However, when work is available, workers can be found.
The labor involved was intense and back breaking, but there was also great coordination of effort. Plumb lines would be laid down, and then the workers would fill in with gleaming outdoor tiles. We have discovered that the beauty of the tile turns rather treacherous when trying to negotiate the tiled surface in the rain.
This new school will be a private, paid-for-by-parents school. They hope to incorporate much more listening and speaking of English in to the curriculum here. This promises to be a place for teachers to risk, to dare, to try new methods with their students. Jack, one of Scott's students, hopes to teach in the middle school section here someday soon.
Here is the school , a work in progress. Workers in progress. Together. Reminding me of Gandhi's words, "All work has dignity."
Namaste,
Marianne/Bailing
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