One of the pillars of the CEI philosophy is "Have a sense of possibility." We were told many times that throughout training that without this mindset, CEI never would have come to exist.
"That is impossible in China, it will never happen." "They would have to change provincial laws in order for that to work. There's no chance." "It's a great idea, but nobody will ever buy into it."
Well, all of those who uttered the above words have been proven wrong. There's certainly a lot more work to be done, but the sense of possibility and "can do" attitude have already brought CEI a long way.
I'd like to show you a few ways that I've been implementing this philosophy over the past few weeks. Impossible truly is nothing.
"That is impossible in China, it will never happen." "They would have to change provincial laws in order for that to work. There's no chance." "It's a great idea, but nobody will ever buy into it."
Well, all of those who uttered the above words have been proven wrong. There's certainly a lot more work to be done, but the sense of possibility and "can do" attitude have already brought CEI a long way.
I'd like to show you a few ways that I've been implementing this philosophy over the past few weeks. Impossible truly is nothing.
All hail!
I know, I know. The suspense has been killing you. "Tom, what about those ditches that serve as bathrooms? What do you do at night? Have you been attacked by maggots yet?" Let me answer your questions: 1. I only use them when not at school and have never had issues. 2. I stroll the casual 15 steps to my beautiful porcelain palace. 3. No, I am yet to see maggots near ANY toilet.
As you can see, our toilet is gorgeous. Shiny, white, and always down for a good flush. In an earlier post, I mentioned how the possibility of getting a new toilet was very slim. "It drains in to the fields that we use to make food in our cafeteria," said the principal. Damn. River, one of the Chinese fellows in my group, had a chat with the principal the next day. "I'm afraid that Tom and Gareth, because they are foreigners, will never be able to get used to our Chinese-style toilets. I think we should install a new one for them in our shower room." Of course, Gareth and I were prepared to suck it up and use the "authentic" facilities -- River just didn't want to reveal the reality that neither he nor the Chinese fellow wanted to use them either.
That day, we hear the great news that our principal has agreed to buy us a toilet! We even got to choose western style or squat style, as if there was ever a question. What about the waste water "fertilizing" the crops behind our dorm? No big deal, they just built a huge concrete well! I don't know how seep-proof it is, but while we're munching on the cafeteria's corn for the next two years we'll just imagine it's impenetrable.
Other things they said could never happen or felt like they could never happen:
1. "You will not eat lots of Western food." Here's Gareth eating French fries from our trip to Yunxian this weekend:
Please ignore the creepy glove. Designed to 1) keep hands grease free, 2) enable you to cleanly eat French fries without washing hands, 3) start your bootleg Michael Jackson costume Those of you who know me well know that I love all potato products and also ketchup. Both offerings of this particular restaurant were below par, but I'll take what I can get. One note about this restaurant: It's name, Dang Mai Ji (当麦基) is a ripoff of another Chinese fast food restaurant, McKonkeys a.k.a. Mai Ken Ji (麦肯基). It's worth pointing out that McDonald's is Mai Dang Lao (麦当劳) and KFC is Ken De Ji (肯德基). I realize this is confusing to those who don't speak Chinese, but basically the two rip-off stores take the characters for McDonalds/KFC, mix them up, and then name their restaurant! Foolproof. So we were essentially eating doubly-ripped-off (twice removed?) McDonald's/KFC fries.
2. "Your package will never arrive in Dazhai."
Suckers!OK, so nobody ever said this, but we are so far away from anywhere it felt like the truth. Sarah (as profiled in this post) sent us home made cookies from Beijing. She was told it would take one week to send to Dazhai, which quickly turned in to 2.5. We finally got them the same day Gareth's dad's care package arrived. We now have potato chips, cookies (LOTS of cookies), mac & cheese, Cheez-Its, and peanut butter AND Nutella. Many thanks to both of you for ensuring we don't turn into skinny rice eating robots!
I'm told that cookies and mac & cheese are what keep Americans American. Science has proven time and time again that they create tiny "anti-Communist propaganda antibodies" that swim throughout the bloodstream and ensure we are not brainwashed by the party. For a while I inexplicably kept repeating to myself, "Keep to the Correct Orientation and Uphold the Philosophy of Struggle!", but after a few American potato chips, I'm back to my good old self.
In my happy place. I love potato chips, especially kettle cooked ones, and especially especially when they are salt & vinegar. Can you tell?Mail arrives in Dazhai only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The other days of the week, it hangs out in Yunxian with other letters and boxes and becomes accustomed to the rural Chinese life. I guess there's just very little demand for mail services in a rural outpost like Dazhai.
3. "You will never see a pig peeing in the middle of the street."
"And this little piggy went 'WEE WEE WEEEEEE' all down the road..."Nobody told me this either. I just thought it was a funny picture. By the way, kids do this in China, too. See Christine's post here.
Bonus picture:
Here's a picture of wasps. That have been cooked. With their baby larvae. This picture is from the second time we've eaten them. Nothing special (not super gross or super tasty), just kind of weird.
I would not want to eat these alive.
I'm glad you finally got your package too- now you can be like everyone else!
love the wee wee wee!