Dedication to Sally McClintock

Gentle Readers,

I would like to dedicate this blog to a dear friend, Sally McClintock.  If you have read previous postings, you'll remember my mentioning LATTICE, the organization Sally founded several years ago.  I referred to the significant and life-changing conversations that often occur at the LATTICE meeting tables... safe places where we can question and answer and doubt and laugh and learn.  It is truly a place where we could have our eyes opened, our hearts made vulnerable, and even agree to disagree.  All of our names, and the history behind them, were treasures to Sally.  As a result, we became a global community within the Greater Lansing Area, and we developed friendships that cross so many boundries.

I just discovered that Sally had surgery for stage four brain cancer on Sunday.  She is in Maine with her beloved husband Jim, recovering and anticipating physical therapy, chemo, and radiation. 

So, I would like to dedicate this blog to Sally... to her vision, to her inspiration, and to her strength.  Sally is the most open-minded, open-hearted person I know, and her life has been dedicated to helping each of us understand one another.  Without Sally, I probably would never have gone to Nepal with Muari Suvedi in 2003.  It was at LATTICE that I learned of the Fulbright opportunity for the first time.  And it was Sally who gave me numerous opportunities at LATTICE to share multi-cultural activities I engage in with my students.  And it was Sally that encouraged me to spread my wings, always.  And it was Sally who always extended a healing hand.  And it was Sally who encouraged me to become a world citizen...

Thank you, Sally.  I send you light and love as you recover from your surgery.  There are, without a doubt, people all over the world lifting you up at this very moment.  I don't know if you believe in angels, but you are enveloped by a goodness and a radiance that I hope you can feel today and always. 

I know China holds a very special place in you, Sally.  And I remember your telling me about taking some comfort food with me, like a jar of peanut butter, which I did when I taught in China in the summer of 2008.  As I ate those tiny sweet bananas, mangos, and peanut butter for a snack every night in Bieje, I thought of you.  I will think of you each night in China this summer, too.  Know that you are very loved.

Namaste,
Marianne

Portals to Chinese Gardens...

This is a photo taken in China, Summer 2008, in a beautiful Chinese Garden.  The philosophy in Chinese design and art is to reveal a little at a time, never the whole all at once.  The viewer of the art in the garden, or in any artistic creation, is then called upon to put the pieces together, to make sense out of the parts and gradually begin to understand the whole.

This photo was taken just this past weekend, when Scott and I were visiting the Chinese Garden section of the  Botanical Gardens in St. Louis.  Similar portal.  Beauty that literally took my breath away.  Such loveliness...

Photo Memories from China 2008, Beijie

One of my favorite moments teaching in Biejie... when my students taught a traditional Chinese dance to me.  Their grace and musicality were lovely, beautiful, and inspiring.

Accessing my old blogs...

Gentle Reader...

If you'd like to read about past journeys, consult the blogs below.  The first link will take you to my blog from China 2008.  The second link will take you to my Turkey Fulbright Trip, Summer 2009.

mariannechina08.blogspot.com

marianneturkey09.blogspot.com

China 2011

Guizhou Summer Language Institute

Welcome to this journey...

"...Throw your soul through every open door..."

-Adele, singer

"...To make a great dream come true, the first requirement is a great capacity to dream; the second is persistence..."

-Cesar Chavez

June 1, 2011

...And so here I am, beginning a new journey. My learning of the Summer Language Institute in China began back in 2008, with a conversation at a table in LATTICE.  So many stretchings of the imagination and wisdom begin with a conversation at a table in LATTICE, and I am forever grateful to Sally McClintock for having the vision to begin such an adventure. 

Last time I was in China, in the summer of 2008, I shared the teaching assignment in Beije with Nancy Lubinski.  She was the Monkey Queen, and I was dubbed the Monkey Princess.  She kept me hydrated and sane, reminding me that "we are not in Kansas anymore, " and I was her human alarm clock and kept her stocked in Coca-Colas every morning and cold beers at lunch. 

I remember driving into Beije, which was under massive construction, during a thunderous downpour.  People were sloshing around in mud almost up to their knees... and I wondered what in the world I had gotten myself into this time.  We had to find an old Chinese guy in the basement apartment to get some cooking oil to negotiate the stuck lock on my old Peace Corps apartment.  And then when we began to converse once in my new living quarters, a swarm of mosquitos flew into my mouth. I thought the wallpaper was black and white speckled; as it turns out, the walls were completely covered with mosquitos.  Yes, I had begun my regimine of malaria pills, as advised.

We discovered that the water went out every few days, for days at a time.  Same situation with the electricity.  So, when the water was working, I engaged in a frenzy of laundry and water collection in every container I could find.  It's amazing how little water one actually needs to take a shower.  Squat toilets were the norm, even in the apartment, so I developed a fear of rats as well as excrutiatingly strong leg muscles. 

Amidst all the physical living, I met my students.  And I have never been the same.  I was scared to death of a three hour block of classes.  I was accustomed to 55 minutes with my middle schoolers, and then I bid them farewell until the next day.  However, after the first day with my students, who were Chinese Elementary School teachers, I realized that the three hours is a beautiful moment in time and is refreshingly workable and vibrant.  The students didn't even want to take a break at the halfway point, as their engagement was that powerful.  They inspired me every single day with their determination, their willingness to try new approaches to learning, and their contagious sense of humor.  I am certain that I learned more from them than they learned from me.  Mostly, they embraced me, made me truly feel at home.  We became learners and friends together.

And so this summer, three years later, I'm returning with a whole new group of folks... but with Bill and Ledong as the leaders once again.  I cannot thank Bill for his faith and confidence in me, his believing in me when I doubted myself.  This year, I will be working in the capitol city Guiyang.  This is a vast change from my remote placment last time around.  For many years, teachers for this program have worked out of the Number One Middle School in Guiyang; however, we recently learned that this middle school has been razed.  A beautiful new city park will eventully replace the school.  Our teaching site will be in Jinyang, which is the new city center.  The living and working conditions there are reported to be excellent, and there is a new road from old Guiyang to new Guiyang which will allow us to get back and forth in about 15 minutes. 

Truthfully, I was a bit saddened that I was not placed at a remote site again this summer.  Despite the crazy hardships of daily living out in Biejie, I actually ended up enjoying the challenges.  I discovered a great deal about who I was as a person while living in Biejie. 

I will be working with a new teaching partner this time around:  Dr. Scott Vander Ploeg, my significant other.  Scott and I met two summers ago on a Fulbright to Turkey.  Our courtship was largely conducted in a very hot and smelly van, and we spent hours and hours just talking and getting to know one another.  We have presented our Turkish adventures in Turkey to various groups in East Lansing and Madisonville, Kentucky...even to my middle schoolers.  This is the first time we will actually be teaching together, and it is a journey that I am very excited about.  This is a think-on-your-feet kind of teaching, and we will have the wonderful opportunity to process and plan every evening.  Truly, it is the very best and most ideal kind of teaching, as feedback and processing is immediate and meaningful.  I look forward to this kind of cooperative, collaborative venture with Scott. 

Another couple will also be working with us in Guiyang:  Deanna and Clarence.  We've met them three times already, during our planning sessions at Oakland University this past winter and spring.  They are veterans of the Guiyang site, and we plan to pick their brains on a regular basis. 

And so today, I will end with a Chinese Proverb, which embodies much of what we try to do when teaching and learning together in China:

"... I hear, and I forget.  I see, and I remember.  I do, and I understand." 

Namaste,

Marianne/  Bai Ling