Reality Check

Today we visited a migrant school about 40 minutes away from our dorm. It’s easy to forget when you’re living in the city that China is in fact a Third World Country. It’s developing rapidly, but it’s not there yet. When you move just 30 minutes outside the bubble, you see a completely different China. The school was rather dirty and in disrepair, but the kids running in and out of the classrooms were excited to see us and happy to play tag with the tall American boys.
Being at the school really put things in perspective. While I’m complaining about the crappy internet service in my dorm, these kids are lucky to have books. There is a small computer lab with old PCs donated from an NGO, but most of them don’t actually work. And the ones that do don’t connect to the Internet; the kids use them to learn to type.

I also think that the kids and the teachers in the school and the migrant family that let us into their house were the Chinese people that I’ve only read about. In the city, I get pushed onto the bus and hit in the head with umbrellas. I have to race for a cab and then pray that the driver will have mercy on me and take me where I need to go. The people living in this migrant village were pleasant, the kids were laughing and they don’t have half of the things that Bejingers take for granted.

So today’s lesson? I’m going to stop and think the next time I get tipped over (Zach’s phrase, but I quite like it) when things don’t go as smoothly as I imagine that they should.

Inside the classrroom.
Out in the neighborhood.
In the house of one of the families.


The principal led us through the neighborhood. Those are bricks holding down the tin roofs.

This is the principal's office.
This little boy is standing outside of the teacher's dorm.
The computer lab.



In the pre-school classroom.
The view from the classroom window.




The recycling center that some of the families work in.