Once Upon a Summer Trek

We traveled along great dry plains and barren mountains. The day was hot and humid but we took comfort from the fact that we were traveling on an  air-conditioned vehicle. Besides, the drive to Datong, Shanxi revealed more interesting land formations to ogle at than taking much notice of the summer heat. We passed through valleys and rolling hills, dried-up rivers and mud-walled villages - all the while wondering how people survive the rugged terrains and harsh weather in these parts of China. We never have known much, I guess, about the co-existence of man and nature around here, because as we traveled inland, life was vibrant amidst the cornfields, among the many varieties of crops propping up from the seemingly dry and infertile soil.

Life was dynamic in its ruggedness and simplicity as lived by the villagers along our path, by the farmers in mud and straw and brick houses and those whose houses built from the same dry earth on which they squat, by the shepherds who could barely find a grazing green patch for their herds, the coal miners on their three-wheeled trucks causing traffic on an otherwise empty freeway, and common folks going about their daily tasks. We reached Guangling by mid-afternoon where we had most of the challenging part of our decision to go off-the-beaten path as trainers for the Amity Summer English Program.

It all started when we learned that we were to teach around three hundred middle school students on top of the forty or so middle school teachers who were registered for the program. The administration had a summer program prepared ahead of us that was totally different from what we expected, that was to train middle school teachers from countryside schools on their oral English and somehow expose them to innovative methodologies in language teaching. Theirs was a summer English program for incoming freshmen and second year students, complete with name tags and dialogue booklets. We were astounded! The fact that there were no middle school teachers from the outlying villages in the registry but mostly active and inactive teachers from the two middle schools in the county made the situation even more suspicious.

At the end, after a week of negotiations and a couple of calls from Amity, the administration started to cooperate with us, grudgingly. We had two classes of middle school teachers in the morning working on 'relationships', 'daily life' and TALLT and in the afternoons, we had an hour of discussions on topics about 'our country' with the teachers and an hour with the students. Saturday afternoons were used for the students' English corners. Since there were less than forty middle school teachers who actually came to our classes, two trainers teamed up for each class. Of course, it was a waste of resources, but we had to drive the idea that the administrators' expectations about the whole program were way too farfetched from the Amity mission and that our flexibility had its limits. The stressed out relationship between the team and the administration eased a little, but day in day out, as we went about our business, implementing our plans was at times difficult because even little things like using the audio-visual room seemed to be an issue. We were glad we never had to make a track on whose turn it was to give and take, although we were caught off handed twice when we were told to do things in exchange of the trips we had earlier.

And trips, they were a respite to both team and administrators. For the administrators, it was a time for them to share the wealth of their culture and show us a glimpse of ancient Chinese civilization. For the team, traveling around and outside the county provided a chance to marvel at the grandeur of God's creation - in the vast arid lands where life seemed to be an impossibility yet possible, in the eerie rocky mountains where temples were perched and Buddhist monks managed their affairs before the eyes of unexpected guests, in the simple abode of a farmer-paper cutting artist who kindly opened his house for us to see his craft, in the ancient temples and numerous caves that showcased man's creativity and the lifestyles of rulers and common folks in ancient times, and in the simple folks we met in our travel into the off-the-beaten path.

Literally and figuratively, treading on the off-the-beaten path had always been a challenge. Sometimes, just being on the track was quite an achievement. The path maybe rugged and winding sometimes but it presented lots of learning experiences, revealing new things and rediscovering the old. And so it was with our brief encounter with the town folks of Guangling and the people in and around the school where we were billeted. While it was true that there was a friction between the team and the administrators, we had a good time with our students, both the middle school teachers and the high school students - from whom we learned that people anywhere have similar aspirations and dreams and that the way we see life and living are universally the same.

As forerunners in a new site, we consider our mission fulfilled, wishing that those who tread the track behind us will walk the path and will not stumble. Sometimes, the path may not be the same path one wants to travel, but knowing that other people are treading the same course somewhere, growing in the love of God - makes one feel comfortable and at home on the off-the-beaten path.