A couple of weeks ago I went to Chengdu for a meeting about a group called PPS (professional peer support). We are a small group of volunteers that are seeking to make the job of teaching easier in China for volunteers. Some volunteers don’t have a strong background, or much experience teaching, especially English as a foreign language. And in reality, regardless of your teaching experience, the experience of teaching in China is far different than teaching in America or even in many other countries. So we work identifying ways to make it easier and better to teach in China.
We are working towards providing resources for volunteers, including games, activities, lesson plans, tests, syllabi, and full curriculums. These are provided by any volunteer, and the group works to standardize them, and putting them online for easy access. The second objective is developing a newsletter that has practical advice for volunteers. The third is to connect the volunteers and their Chinese colleagues; to provide an opportunity for dialogue about the different teaching methodologies, and to learn from each other. There are many things that we are working on and trying to get the kinks out. Our purpose of meeting in Chengdu was to gain staff support (check!), work out our objectives (check!) and make it sustainable (1/2 check). Individual members also have a few objectives of their own that they are working towards. Lindsay and Dina in Gansu are working on no technology activities. Hunter and Chelsea in Sichuan are working on a teacher training video. And my far reaching goal is to develop an oral English video curriculum. Each video would cover vocabulary and idioms for a particular topic with a short listening quiz at the end. I will enlist the help of my students in creating this video. Time will tell if this gets developed or not, now it is just a goal.
But while I was in Chengdu, I happened to have the chance to help audit Peace Corps China. The inspector general for the Peace Corps organization is in China for 4 weeks to audit PC China. One part is individual interviews with volunteers. The interview takes about 2 hours for each volunteer. Mine took 1.5 hours because my answers were very succinct. The purpose is to see the efficiency of the program and where staff and leaders can make changes. He will also visit some sites to see how they are operating and to see about the safety and living conditions of the volunteers. The Inspector General said that each PC country should be audited every 7 years, but due to the lack of budget, their office is getting to China after 11 years of being away. There is a lot of statistics and precise measurement done with this kind of auditing, and he said that around February the final report will be posted online (I am guessing the PC website) for anyone to see. It was an interesting interview and what’s more, he brought candy from America! So nice. I think he knows what we like, since he said he served from ‘96-‘98 in the Ivory Coast. Anyways, keep an eye out for the report, and I hope the report will be able educate that Congressman who is trying to get the PC China program shut down.
This is completely irrelevant to this post, but I didn’t want to start another post to describe last week. Last week we had no gas. Okay, what does this mean? It means: no cooking and no hot showers. One day I took a cold shower, but the weather is colder now so I thought I would never stop shivering after that. The cooking I didn’t mind as much, except that the vegetables in my fridge were going to waste. But the showering was the problem. It wasn’t just my apartment, it was the whole school. SO throughout the week we saw more and more pimpled faces, more and more smelly students. Thankfully the gas leak was fixed and we are back to having gas. But Mary and I were worried for a bit. Nobody had any idea when the gas was going to be fixed. Awful. Oh and thankfully, the gas came back on the day Mary and I were having Kerry and Eliam over for dinner (I made pizza and she made roasted veggies and a pear bread). Okay, that’s all. Really.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Starting a Women's Group
As I think I have mentioned previously, this semester is turning out to be much more interesting, exciting, and overall better than last year. I feel more comfortable, relaxed, and willing to try new things. This year I made three plans for secondary projects. One has started, the second is on its way, and the third, I hope, is around the corner but meeting some road blocks.
The one that has started is my women’s club. Many young female volunteers choose to start women’s clubs. In China, we have found that many of our young college students lack confidence in themselves, are confused about their future, want to learn and seek more independence from their parents, and most of all, want to learn about boys. Volunteers approach their women’s groups in many different ways. There is no right way to start a women’s group and no good number of women to join. One volunteer does activities with her group to foster confidence building, such as learning self-defense, how-to-volunteer, meditation, and more. A previous volunteer did small group discussions. I plan to combine the two ideas.
The last week in September I had an interest meeting, to explain my ideas for the group and to ask the girls to fill out an application. About 15-17 girls showed up for the meeting and about 12 applications were returned to me. In the application I asked the girls several questions, but I will just highlight two. 1. What are some issues facing women today? 2. What are some topics you would like to discuss?
Their answers:
1. Inequality between men and women; freedom (not depending on men; supporting themselves, independence); achieving the top position in the government, companies, and in the family; looks, beauty; political status; balance of family and career; pressures to have a boyfriend; job pressures
2. How to get along well with others; beauty; successful women; building confidence; how to have a happy life; boys, sex; the female body; health;
I had my first meeting a week ago. About 30 girls showed up! I was shocked. They all piled into my apartment. There weren’t enough chairs! So I put out a blanket and some of us sat on the floor. At the first meeting, we did 3 icebreaker activities
• Candy introductions (each color represents something they should talk about; i.e. white-hobbies, green-dream vacation, red-your best memory, etc.)
• Never have I ever (everyone has up 5 fingers. Each girl says something they have never done. If you have done this, you should put down one finger. The girl with the most fingers up (you can say she is the winner or some people say the loser because they haven’t done much. But I always choose to say winner since it is more positive).
• This reminds me of… (I had a bag of ordinary things and the girls took one out and said what it reminded her of)
Next I reintroduced the idea of the group, saying that we can make it what we want, and this is about them and not me, so I will choose topics and activities that interest them most. Then we made apple bread together and spent the rest of the evening chatting. I also asked the girls which day is best for them. ½ said Mondays and ½ said Thursdays. So from now on I will have 2 meetings a week, and occasionally the whole group will get together for activities on the weekend, such as shopping, hiking, travelling, etc.
This upcoming week the topic I chose is fear. I will wait to see how it goes before I write about it. But if you have any advice about a women’s group (activities, topics, games, etc.) please email and let me know. I would welcome any advice since this is my first time to do this.
The one that has started is my women’s club. Many young female volunteers choose to start women’s clubs. In China, we have found that many of our young college students lack confidence in themselves, are confused about their future, want to learn and seek more independence from their parents, and most of all, want to learn about boys. Volunteers approach their women’s groups in many different ways. There is no right way to start a women’s group and no good number of women to join. One volunteer does activities with her group to foster confidence building, such as learning self-defense, how-to-volunteer, meditation, and more. A previous volunteer did small group discussions. I plan to combine the two ideas.
The last week in September I had an interest meeting, to explain my ideas for the group and to ask the girls to fill out an application. About 15-17 girls showed up for the meeting and about 12 applications were returned to me. In the application I asked the girls several questions, but I will just highlight two. 1. What are some issues facing women today? 2. What are some topics you would like to discuss?
Their answers:
1. Inequality between men and women; freedom (not depending on men; supporting themselves, independence); achieving the top position in the government, companies, and in the family; looks, beauty; political status; balance of family and career; pressures to have a boyfriend; job pressures
2. How to get along well with others; beauty; successful women; building confidence; how to have a happy life; boys, sex; the female body; health;
I had my first meeting a week ago. About 30 girls showed up! I was shocked. They all piled into my apartment. There weren’t enough chairs! So I put out a blanket and some of us sat on the floor. At the first meeting, we did 3 icebreaker activities
• Candy introductions (each color represents something they should talk about; i.e. white-hobbies, green-dream vacation, red-your best memory, etc.)
• Never have I ever (everyone has up 5 fingers. Each girl says something they have never done. If you have done this, you should put down one finger. The girl with the most fingers up (you can say she is the winner or some people say the loser because they haven’t done much. But I always choose to say winner since it is more positive).
• This reminds me of… (I had a bag of ordinary things and the girls took one out and said what it reminded her of)
Next I reintroduced the idea of the group, saying that we can make it what we want, and this is about them and not me, so I will choose topics and activities that interest them most. Then we made apple bread together and spent the rest of the evening chatting. I also asked the girls which day is best for them. ½ said Mondays and ½ said Thursdays. So from now on I will have 2 meetings a week, and occasionally the whole group will get together for activities on the weekend, such as shopping, hiking, travelling, etc.
This upcoming week the topic I chose is fear. I will wait to see how it goes before I write about it. But if you have any advice about a women’s group (activities, topics, games, etc.) please email and let me know. I would welcome any advice since this is my first time to do this.
My traumatic trip to the hospital
This semester has brought with it a few challenges. The first and most traumatic was the removal of one of my wisdom teeth. Before I joined Peace Corps I was required to have a dental screening. During that the dentist could not or could barely see my wisdom teeth on the X-ray. One year later, one of them is pushing up against the adjacent tooth causing a pocket of bacteria to form and terrible pain to follow. After an assessment at the dentist, in which they (without any oral numbing gel) cut open my gum and poured saline in to clean the bacteria out we took x-rays and it was decided that the tooth needed to be removed (and the sooner the better). Luckily, the first week of October there is a holiday in China, the perfect time to have the surgery. I had to cancel my Friday classes to come into Chengdu to go to the dental hospital. This was my first experience, ever, to have any surgery, let alone in a foreign, developing country…so I was nervous, to say the least. Then, everyone seemed uninformed about my condition. I sit down in the dental chair and the dentist starts pointing to the upper left corner of my mouth. I point to the lower left corner. He points to the upper left corner. Then the Peace Corps doctor (a Chinese doctor that works for Peace Corps) tells me that the dentist is saying the upper left should be removed. Now the upper left has breached the surface but it isn’t necessary to remove. I told her that the lower left is causing the problems. I understand enough of the dentist’s Chinese to know that he is saying the he can’t see anything. I then explain that the tooth is under my gum, thus you cannot see it. Then they say they need to have an x-ray. I said we already had x-rays (I assumed the PC doctor had a copy from the dentist, but no).
So I am waiting for the results of my x-rays and I hear the PC doctor talking about me on the phone. When she hangs up, she said she just called the dentist and confirmed what I had said about my tooth. The x-ray was further confirmation. The words the PC doctor say after that really hone in on the moment “it’s a lot more serious than I thought.”
You can start to imagine my feelings at this point. Utter terror. Nobody seemed to have a clue what was the matter with me, I am having surgery in a developing country where I can barely speak the language, and then…”you should sign this waiver (that’s all in Chinese and I cannot read) that says in case you have nerve damage or something like this, the hospital is not liable.” Well this waiver, that I indeed signed, had a lot more written on it than just nerve damage (by the way, I didn’t realize nerve damage was a potential hazard for wisdom tooth removal). So now all these horribly frightening scenarios are going through my mind.
Then, the chair they put me on has spots of blood, and the sink next to the chair is covered in blood from the previous patient. I am mortified by this. But my attention is quickly turned away by the arrival of a 12 year old giving me a shot. Okay she wasn’t actually 12 but she looked young to me, fresh out of medical school I assume or possibly even a student (since this school was affiliated with the medical university). Nobody bothers putting oral numbing cream in my mouth before jabbing this 3 inch long needle into my gum and cheek. But it seems she was new to this because after the 3rd jab the actual doctor comes and takes it out of her hand and shoves it down hard 2xs into my mouth. Ouch!
So I am waiting for the results of my x-rays and I hear the PC doctor talking about me on the phone. When she hangs up, she said she just called the dentist and confirmed what I had said about my tooth. The x-ray was further confirmation. The words the PC doctor say after that really hone in on the moment “it’s a lot more serious than I thought.”
You can start to imagine my feelings at this point. Utter terror. Nobody seemed to have a clue what was the matter with me, I am having surgery in a developing country where I can barely speak the language, and then…”you should sign this waiver (that’s all in Chinese and I cannot read) that says in case you have nerve damage or something like this, the hospital is not liable.” Well this waiver, that I indeed signed, had a lot more written on it than just nerve damage (by the way, I didn’t realize nerve damage was a potential hazard for wisdom tooth removal). So now all these horribly frightening scenarios are going through my mind.
Then, the chair they put me on has spots of blood, and the sink next to the chair is covered in blood from the previous patient. I am mortified by this. But my attention is quickly turned away by the arrival of a 12 year old giving me a shot. Okay she wasn’t actually 12 but she looked young to me, fresh out of medical school I assume or possibly even a student (since this school was affiliated with the medical university). Nobody bothers putting oral numbing cream in my mouth before jabbing this 3 inch long needle into my gum and cheek. But it seems she was new to this because after the 3rd jab the actual doctor comes and takes it out of her hand and shoves it down hard 2xs into my mouth. Ouch!
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