Nov.5, 2008

I went to the school today. First I went to the Executing Office (I didn’t know what it was at the beginning) to meet the teachers. When we met, they usually touched my right hand with theirs and the younger or persons in lower status bowed lower. Some use both of their hands and nearly kissed the seniors’ hands. After touching hands, the persons in lower status would put their right hands on their breast. Chen Qiang took me to the desk of KeMao ,the local teacher of Chinese. Some other teachers came to greet me, some didn’t. Wang Daming was there, too. The atmosphere was lively whenever he was there. Wang Daming took me to see the students. First we went to see the boy students of Senior One, Senior Two and Senior Three. The students were not many, especially in Senior Three, as if there were only 20. And then Wang Daming took me to the girl students’ department on his motorcycle. There were also three grades, Senior One, Senior Two and Senior Three. The students felt excited with my arrival, the girls reacted more strongly and livelier. I introduced myself to them and asked their names. In many classes, they asked me many personal questions. The girls asked me about my wife and my child. The Senior Three girls sang a Chinese song. I knew the original singer was Pang Long but I forgot its title. The famous words in it were: you are my love, you are my blossoms…

Back to the boys’ department, I went to the executing office to log onto the Internet and received my emails. The former volunteer teacher Niu Shiwei to this school replied to my email. He said his advice was that I should go to Kraksaan to find the couples of Tang Muxing and Lin Dean. Especially the wife of Tang Muxing (he called her Aunt) was very friendly to people. The things you asked her to do would be settled. Niu Shiwei told me to buy a second hand motorcycle. I asked Wang Daming and the Indonesian teachers present about the price of a motorcycle. The answers disappointed me. As if a second-hand motorcycle would cost 7,000,000RP, I couldn’t afford that much at present. And these days Chen Qiang drove me in the streets on his motorcycle, the streets were narrow, many motorcycles, cars and trucks ran very fast and he drove very fast, too. This worried me.

WKR sent a message, “I’m sorry. I have just seen your message. I am now still living in a hotel and may move to another place tomorrow. And there I can log onto the Internet. These two days they took me to have meals and I haven’t got my salary. I went to the school and meet the teachers and the students. They were very enthusiastic. And by now I still don’t know when I will start my teaching. They said all the teachers of Chinese in Lamongan would come to learn from me. So I felt pressed. ”

ZWY sent his message, ‘good, the environment here is not bad, near to the school and the shops. I have got the money.’

The volunteers in Yogajakarta sent their message, “we were looking for our favorite dormitory. After all is settled, we’ll send you another message. All in Yogajakarta is the same. Shu Yuli, Shu Shaoqiong, Xiao Jiayu. ”

In the evening, ZWY sent a message to teach me how to ask subsidies from the school, “Saya sekarang tidak punya uang.I don’t have any money now. Kapan barbkberisaya uang yang transpot,horor, makan dan internet .whendo you give me subsidies of transportation, grants, food, and Internet? di hari ini atau besok?Today or tomorrow? I thought of these sentences for half a day. May it be helpful to you. Yes, you can let him see the contract, using a pencil to write notes in Indonesian.”

The two days at the service center was unforgettable. I used the water in the pool to brush my teeth and the pool was near the sit-down toilet. On the second day, the water was low to the bottom. I had no way but to use it for brushing my teeth and washing my face.