At Pingmin Primary School, there is an older man in his late 70’s known only as Huang Yeye (Grandpa Huang). He is the school’s handyman, and can fix and make anything. He is always working, whether it be making brooms, plowing the fields, trimming bamboo, or shoveling dirt.
Huang Yeye is the type of person that just by looking at him, you know how wise and experienced he is. His face is overly wrinkled from sweating and working in the sun too much. His droopy eyes are a glossy brownish blue. His hands are big and long, accented by his wrinkly skin and long veins and bones. His fingers are long, tough, and strong, and you can imagine how much they have weathered through his whole life of using his hands everyday - pulling, tugging, scraping, lifting, prying, knotting, raking, shoveling, etc... His back is a bit bent humped over, probably from laboring in the fields every day. Huang Yeye doesn’t say much. But just looking at him and being around him, I feel a sense of comfort. He has a certain peace to him too. He doesn’t take much from this world and is content with simple comforts. He will never complain about anything or have any gripes. He can work all day in the fields or scrape bamboo for the rest of his life and he would still be the very same happy Huang Yeye.
On the occasions we do talk, it’s a little bit hard to communicate. Huang Yeye does not speak very standard Mandarin (as he lived is whole life in his village speaking his own dialect) and stutters when he speaks. I wish I could understand and communicate with him better because he is just so full of knowledge and experiences. Recently, he helped me make a fork using bamboo. With a quick carve here and a shave there with a bamboo blade, he transformed a block of bamboo into an elegant mold of a fork. To bend the head of the fork, he first rolled up some bamboo shavings together and lit it on fire. He then put the head over the fire and used his bare hands to rekindle the fire. After 20 seconds or so of roasting, he used a bench to push against the head, and as he pushed, it slowly took on a bent shape finally locking in place as soon as he dipped it in water. He then took a saw to create the four picks on the fork. It really looked like a fork and I hadn’t even started carving out the handle yet. It only took him a few minutes to create this. Every move and procedure was precise and efficient, all stemming from his vast knowledge and experiences.
Yesterday, he even made his own rope! That’s right, he took two long narrow strips of plastic sheet and after mounting a power drill on a chair, he took iron wire and made a hook to attach to the drill bit. He then took the plastic strips and tied them together on the hook. As I turned and held the drill on, Huang Yeye took the rope in his hands as he slowly walked away from me towards the end of the rope. After he got to the end and after the two strands of plastic were thoroughly intertwined and twisted, he tied both ends and slowly started wrapping the rope up so that he can manageably use it later to make his brooms, which are also 100% hand-made. For his brooms, he uses dried out shrubs that have long thin branches and fastens them together with the string. He then takes a 
wooden handle (that he already shaved and whittled) and fastens it to the shrubs. Huang Yeye has already made 80 of these brooms and they are all look identical and perfectly assembled as if it came out of a factory. He is also the one who made all the bamboo hats that we use whenever it’s raining or snowing. These hats (斗笠) are very laborious because it takes the right materials of bamboo and a lot of weaving. He has also passed this craft to two 6 graders and they currently are learning how to make them under Huang Yeye’s guidance.
It’s not just the knowledge and wisdom that makes me admire Huang Yeye, it’s the whole vibe that I get from him. He is just so at peace with his life, his environment, and the people around him. Huang Yeye is a gentle soul and a simple man. You don’t have to know Chinese to understand this, just stand next to him.
Today I woke up and thought it was raining outside, except it wasn’t quite rain because it looked as if it was falling a bit slower. As the morning progressed, sure enough it wasn’t raining, it was snowing! And it didn’t stop, it snowed the whole day. Trees became outlined with white, the ground became blanketed with powder, and the mountainsides started to blend in with the white/grayish sky. The students were particularly cheery today, and it was clear from teaching class that they’re mind wasn’t 100% focused on learning today, but on the powdery snow outside. After class, snowballs were thrown and playful laughter filled the air. But today’s weather also had its inconveniences. For one, it was the coldest I’ve felt here and my double socks were not getting the job done. Luckily, Principal Zhang brought a foot heater for me to use at my desk and her mom bought me some comfy warm slipper shoes. The students also had to take extra precautions, and when stepping outside or lining up to go into the cafeteria, they all had to carry umbrellas or they’re bamboo hats. There’s something about the sight of sixty 7-8 year olds lining up outside and all carrying big umbrellas or wearing bamboo hats as big as their bodies that makes being here so special.
The day afterward stopped snowing but snow still covered everything. So naturally, a big snow ball fight broke out after lunch on the field. Unfortunately, it was me vs. 100 plus students and I got pummeled left and right. These students were merciless and some found the hardest snow and stood right next to me and threw it directly at my head. These students ended up being tackled and forced to eat snow. USA! USA!
My visa ends December 15th, so I must travel outside the mainland and re-enter to activate my double-entry visa, thus enabling me to stay another 3 months. So I decided to take the train for half the day and enter and stay in Hong Kong for a week which is technically China but still considered "outside the country". After spending 3 months in rural China, coming to a modern and big city like Hong Kong feels like I time traveled 50 years into the future. From motorbikes to sports cars, from farms to skyscrapers, from being the only person in a 100 foot radius to being packed in a subway, it's honestly a little bit overwhelming. Everybody has the newest fanciest phones, people are wearing clothes and fashions I've never seen before, there are people that do not have yellow skin, and people are driving on the opposite side of the road! It's definitely interesting how two places of the same country can be so radically different. Not just the appearances and the technology, but the lifestyles, mindsets and culture.
This big city is also a lot different than the big cities in China, notably Beijing and Shanghai. Hong Kong seems to be more like its Western counterparts, with more Western norms and manners. People actually wait for those getting off the subway before they get on. Lines are straight and orderly for the most part. People don’t clear their throat and spit on the streets. Waitresses are more outwardly friendly and smile. Today, when I was eating dinner, the owner even insisted on giving me more rice for free when she didn’t even have to bother. I also went to the Hong Kong Museum of History today. I spent 3 hours there and wish I could have spent more time there. It was fascinating to learn about the whole history of Hong Kong, from old British trading ports, to the Opium War, to the Japanese occupation, to the handing back of power to China. I had these bits and pieces of history in my head before, but today it finally came together and made me realize how truly unique Hong Kong is and how different it is from Mainland China. Spending a week here has also made me appreciate how lucky I am to experience simplicity in a rural area in a world where technology and modernization is quickly dominating every aspect of life. I think that rural areas of China even though may be a little more backwards and less "civilized," life there offers a chance to build friendships on a more genuine basis, to see how strong the human heart and spirit are, and to understand how truly important our environment is to mankind.
During this time of year, all the leafy veggies are looking really good. Maybe part of it is due to the everyday care and work the students put into it. They plow and soften the soil, take out bugs by hand, burn old shrubs and add its ash to the soil, and constantly water and fertilize (with our very own fermented poop!). The agriculture methods may be more primitive here but they all grow healthy, big, and no one gets sick.
I still love watching how much the kids eat here. After washing their hands and lining up orderly, they
get big amounts of food and eat it all! I can't believe how much they are able to eat. They sometimes even get up to get seconds if there is enough food. They also eat everything that is served to them and are not picky whatsoever. When I was a kid, I know a lot of American kids like me that didn’t touch anything that was green unless forced to by parents. But they eat everything including all the delicious vegetables we grow.
Today, we harvested a type of Chinese long stem green leaf vegetable, which will later be processed into what they call here Yan Cai. This vegetable is not eaten fresh, but preserved through drying and salting. After using an actual cleaver from the kitchen to cut the roots off, we gathered them in baskets and then laid all of them out on flat concrete to dry over night. The students then transferred all of them to some railings and will hang them there until they are dry enough. After a few days, they can begin cutting the vegetables up and adding salt and other spices to begin preserving. It takes about a month before you can start cooking with it, during which the flavor will intensify. According to the lovely cooks here, it's supposedly especially tasty stir fried with some pork. Too bad I have to wait another month until I can try it though!
Thanksgiving or Ganen Jie has been celebrated every year here. Principal Zhang is a firm believer in giving thanks and wants the students to also understand this. In fact, everyday in each grade before school ends, one student has to stand up and share with the class something that he/she is thankful for (everything from teachers, doctors, rain, to sometimes even ants and windows) and the rest of the students repeat. So this year's Thanksgiving Day meaning was very familiar for all the students. After gathering on the field and listening to various thanksgiving performances, the school bought a whole basket of fresh sugar cane and gave it to every student to their extreme excitement. Then it was time for gift giving. During the week leading up to this holiday, the students used classroom materials (paper, cardboard tubes, paper clips) and made hand-made gifts and wrote letters. 
I was very moved when suddenly some my students came one by one and handed me they’re hand-made gifts. I received over 50 gifts and opened them one by one that night. I was really impressed by the amount of effort and creativity they put into their simple gifts. They were able to scrap things they were able to find in the classroom and make really cool looking gifts out of them. I was also really moved by some of the things they wrote and will always remember how much more priceless these small, hand-made gifts are than any iPod can ever be.
Instead of turkey and pumpkin pie, we had pumpkin porridge and corn for lunch, and made dumplings for dinner. All the older kids helped with the dumpling making process. Although it was chaotic, loud, and the dumplings weren’t the best looking, it was fun seeing the students really into it and even I learned how to make dumplings.
Sports Day opened up with an opening march and ceremony the morning of Thanksgiving and then all the competition took place the day after. Sports Day is like a mini-Olympics or track and field event that every school in China has at least once a year. Yesterday and today all the students dressed up in donated athletic gear, and the running track was chalked and split into 4 lanes. Events included various sprints, long jump, sit-ups, ball relay races, mini-shock put toss, jumping jacks and at the end, tug-a-war. During this whole day event, every student participated at least once in something. The most entertaining parts were watching the first, second graders compete. Their little bodies and uncoordinated movements made for many adorable videos. All in all, a relaxing and fun day. I wish we had a Sports Day when I was a kid.
At Pingmin Primary School, there is an older man in his late 70’s known only as Huang Yeye (Grandpa Huang). He is the school’s handyman, and can fix and make anything. He is always working, whether it be making brooms, plowing the fields, trimming bamboo, or shoveling dirt.
wooden handle (that he already shaved and whittled) and fastens it to the shrubs. Huang Yeye has already made 80 of these brooms and they are all look identical and perfectly assembled as if it came out of a factory. He is also the one who made all the bamboo hats that we use whenever it’s raining or snowing. These hats (斗笠) are very laborious because it takes the right materials of bamboo and a lot of weaving. He has also passed this craft to two 6 graders and they currently are learning how to make them under Huang Yeye’s guidance.
