Flexing

If you don’t like the arrangements, just wait a few hours. They will definitely change. Today we began with our chief administrator, Lao Shi, excited that we had found a way not to move to another campus. One of the Chinese non-English teachers in the program knew of space in the facility near the soccer fields.

Before lunch we, team leaders and Lao Shi, walked across the campus with the physical education teacher and investigated a large room and some smaller ones. Part of our trip was to see classrooms in a laboratory building that might be available. There didn’t seem to be quite enough, but we decided it could be made to work. It was better than our two current alternatives – holding all the classes in one large auditorium (which is supposed to be unavailable starting tomorrow) or driving back and forth to another campus every day.

By the time lunch was done, Lao Shi arrived to tell the students about the changes. Now there were enough classrooms for all the classes. All seemed to be coming up roses.

When classes were done, a group of the non-English teachers and some of the big-guy university students walked over to the new venue with me and in short order cleared out a number of big desks, swept the floor, and set up 80 chairs.

Then things began to unravel. I saw a clump of men walking toward the building, and then conferring with another man who was playing soccer on the field next door. They called over the teacher who was negotiating the change and words flew back and forth. Our program assistant interpreted that the men, one of them head of athletics, didn’t want us to use the building.

When the dust settled, I was told to come to that building in the morning, and Lao Shi would figure it out. I walked back across campus with our program assistant, a nice young woman who just finished an MBA in Great Britain.

“Are you exhausted,” she asked.

“No,” I said, truthfully. “I haven’t had a hard day. YOU have.”

“What would you do if this were in your country?” she asked.

“I might be more direct and forceful,” I said, “but this isn’t my country. I am a guest.”

“You are nice guests,” she said softly. I suspect some of their foreign guests are rather demanding.

“I don’t have a choice,” I said. “I don’t know the system, I don’t speak Chinese, and I don’t know who needs to be paid what money.”

She glanced up at me, and rubbed her fingers together. “Oh, you know about the money?”

“Of course there’s money,” I said. “It’s all about guanxi (who you know and who owes you a favor).”

“You are taking all this well,” she said as she turned to go her way and I mine.

An hour later Lao Shi called. No, we would not be moving tomorrow. Yes, we could stay right where we are. Yes we have real classrooms for the rest of the week. And yes, probably next week we’ll move to the Teachers College.

Maybe. I’m not holding my breath!