Letters from Overseas

December 2008

• The Amity Foundation
  Education Division
  71 Hankou Road
  Nanjing, Jiangsu 210008
  CHINA

Hi there!

In recent weeks I had become aware of how much I missed the English Bible study at the church. It was something that I had thought I was doing in order to support my Amity colleague, but lately I realized that it was also something that fed me spiritually. For some reason the church council has decided that it is not an activity they want to encourage. I notice that their focus is much more on evangelism and on increasing the number of baptized Christians in Lanzhou. The English Bible study was serving a small group of people, many of whom were students from other parts of the province.

This week I also met a young blind woman. She has been blind since birth, and was educated at home until the age of 10 then sent to boarding school in Beijing to finish elementary and high school. She then attended a special needs college in Jilin province (northeast) to become a massage doctor. She told me that the deaf students were taught painting; the blind, music or massage; and the physically handicapped, accounting. However, I was happy to hear that some post-secondary education is available for some special needs students. There is a school for the deaf and blind around the corner from here so I asked about that. She said it was only an elementary school when she was growing up and that the needs of deaf and blind students are not compatible and they should not be educated, as children, in the same facility.

In Lanzhou there are special sections of most sidewalks grooved for the benefit of blind walkers. When I asked about this, she laughed, saying that shopkeepers still throw water out their doors (from floor washing) onto all parts of the sidewalk and when the grooved sections break, they are not repaired. She does not go out on the streets alone. She is afraid that she would not be well treated because Lanzhou people are ignorant of the special needs of others. This quite surprised me because I have found Lanzhou people to be very helpful; however, the sheer numbers of people out on the sidewalks might make it difficult for a blind person to manoeuvre. When she asked, I realized that the only other blind people that I have seen in Lanzhou are the children inside the school gate, massage therapists, and the pianist at the church. I have never seen a blind person walking outside with a cane or a dog! Although she is a Christian, she does not get out to attend church—she lives a fair distance away and once again finds the crowds daunting. So we have arranged for me to meet with her in her home weekly, at least during the Advent/Christmas season.

Classes this week have been filled with talk of Christmas customs. We have a nativity scene up, a Christmas tree, and other decorations. We are looking at both sacred and secular traditions. Many questions begin, "I know Jesus' birth is the real reason for Christmas, but could you tell us about..." We did a listening exercise using "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"; it brought tears to my eyes when they all sang along the fourth time through. They love to sing and many have beautiful voices!

This week was also the start of their specialty-related mini-lectures. I was excited to be hearing about such different topics as "post-harvest disease prevention in melons," a subject that is right out of my experience and difficult to understand fully, though I did get some idea of the procedure. My students were less excited. Many listened only superficially, having decided that they could not possibly understand the content. Maybe the second language coupled with the unfamiliar content was too much.

Yesterday I attended the wedding of another student—the girl whose family I visited in Jaiyuguan during the national holiday. It was so nice to see her parents again. They had obviously told many of the guests that I had visited their home. I did learn about another interesting custom. I have mentioned before how the bride and groom go around to each table to be toasted by the guests (each individually). Well, yesterday, one of the groom's helpers carried a two-litre plastic pop bottle about 1/3 filled with sand. He would hit the groom with it until each person toasted the couple with bijou (Chinese alcohol). He took quite a beating at our table because very few of us drank bijou!

Blessings,
Mary

Mary Fraser is a United Church of Canada Overseas Personnel serving with the Amity Foundation in China. The work of this ecumenical partner and the work of overseas personnel are made possible through your gifts to the Mission and Service Fund of The United Church of Canada.