Day 6

Two Things I have learned:

1. Not all Chinese food is good to eat. We just got back from the market and I bought some interesting-looking ice cream to try. However, I began to notice my ice cream had a strange texture, kind of crunchy, and under further inspection, there were sharp plastic things in my ice cream. I checked the package for an explanation and noticed that to make things worse, the ice cream had expired last August....

2. The Taxis don't like to stop. I have no idea why! I am used to cabs fighting over me in Africa, but here cab after empty cab drives by! It sometimes takes half an hour to flag one down, especially if there are white people in the group.

This was our last day at the school, and it was very touching.

My luggage is completely stuffed with notes in Chinese, drawings of me, and paper pineapples and pencil holders from my students. The paper creations are really cool! They take the pages from their old work books and rip and fold them to create amazing structures.

However, the most touching thing was a little girl named Lily. She is the one in the middle waving. She speaks no English and of course I speak no Chinese. She is not even in my group for English, but I taught her class with a Chinese speaker, and he would translate for me. While Yi was talking she would just look up, and our eyes would meet and I would smile and she would smile, and she has the sweetest smile. It just made my day everyday, and I would look forward to that class and to our smile moments. The theme of the week was about the student's future, and when students had a chance to talk about their lives, Yi helped translate wheat she said. She was a powerful speaker and she talked about how much this school meant to her. She said the teachers here believed in her when nobody else did. She wants to be a movie director an actress and she wants to help her community and her family and she wants to make a movie about dandelion so that everyone would know how life-changing this school is and would help. When the class did dramas, her skit was all about giving back, and it was my favorite. And yet, we never said a word to each other. All we did was share smiles from across the room, blocked by language.

However, today she wrote me a long and beautiful letter in Chinese that

Yi helped to translate. She said I was the only thing that has ever made her want to learn English. She said she was really inspired by me and she wanted to thank me so much for this week. Then, when we had our goodbye party and ceremony, with the whole seventh grade gathered, and we took a last bow I looked over the crowd and my eyes met hers and I saw she was crying, tears streaming down her face, and it was so sad, that my eyes began to water too. I gave her a hug and we just stood there on the playground, her arms wrapped around me, crying, grasping onto me until she had to go. On Fridays they go home to their families, so she stood in line and when it was her line's turn she looked back and me, dried her tears, and we shared one last smile. I have never felt such a strong connection from such simple interaction. So such was said in those smiles, so much understood that transcended what could not be said. I want her so much to succeed. I want to get her a camera. I want her to be able to make her movie. I want to see her again so much. I gave her my email, but you cannot share a smile through email.