Over dinner tonight, we asked one of the local teachers whether they had guns at the Dazhai police station. Gareth and I thought that there wouldn't be because a) there are relatively few (legal) guns in China and b) Dazhai is such a small place, why would they need guns? Turns out, according to Mr. Feng, the police station does indeed have guns. We lose to Richard and River, again.
(In case you're wondering why we asked, Gareth and River have been busy planning for the zombie apocalypse, and no, I'm not kidding.)
He's somewhere out there...
Mr. Feng went on to tell us that there was a murderer alleged killer in our midst ("Technically speaking, murder is a legal charge that requires some form of planning or intent." - Thanks Mom!). The full story came out slowly through his quick-paced local-dialect-laced Chinese: A man in his 20s drank a beer (though I can't imagine he got drunk) and got mad at his girlfriend. He then hit her on the head and severely injured her. Then, he took some electrical device and shocked her. I'm not 100% clear on the details, but whether she died from the blow to the head or the electric shock, he fled from his town to Dazhai.
That Dazhai is a place to escape from the law speaks volumes about how remote we are. Though it's an area with many people, it's at least a two-hour bus ride down a narrow bumpy road from the closest city (Yunxian, the county seat).
The good news is that the school has just beefed up its security. After a few incidents last semester in which former students returned - once threatening their old teacher and breaking classroom windows - the school has now installed security cameras and a policeman is on guard at all times. He watches the cameras on a monitor and locks the gates at night. At the very beginning of the semester, the entire town was fitted with bright street lights, similar to the kind you'd see on any street in the US. The top of each of our three school buildings was fitted with one, and although I lament not being able to see the stars as clearly as before, I can't say I dislike the additions.
Looking down the stairs up to Dazhai Middle School. It's like that Geico ad - "Somebody's watching me..."
I've never felt in danger here in Dazhai, but I'll say that with wild former students and a murderer an alleged killer on the loose, the new additions have made me feel even more confident about my safety.
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