All Over But The Shouting

The classes have ended. The speeches given in a formal closing ceremony. The certificates of completion awarded. The performances of both student and teacher classes accomplished with much laughter and merriment. The big luncheon party attended, food consumed in great quantities, pictures taken, cards and gifts exchanged, hugs and tears and well wishes.

The team has worked through a debrief together, looking back at the weeks to examine the high points, the low points, and what they have learned.

A mere four weeks but it seems like we’ve been here for years.

Yesterday the first two team members flew back to the USA. This afternoon another team member flew to western China to teach three more weeks. Tomorrow six more leave for the states and another one flies on to a different province in China to work in a coffee house for a month.

That leaves just a handful of us still in Beijing. One more very full day of visiting with former students and then more of us fly home. Two stay on – one to visit with friends for a few more days, and the other to go to a second English teaching project further west.

There’s lots of commotion in the hotel hallway tonight. Doors are open, conversations echoing down the dingy corridor. Bags are on the beds with most of the stuff stowed away. Team member keep dropping by the common room with left over supplies that will go to teachers here at the university. Even small items like scotch tape and pipe cleaners are looked on as valuable.

Hugs exchanged. Conversations about next year and the possibilities of returning. “I wish we were neighbors at home,” says one woman to another, “It’s been great living across the hall from you this month.”

The relationships built with students are vital, but the relationships built among team members are life changing. There’s something about living side by side in less than ideal conditions that builds deep friendships. If the people community is warm and encouraging, it doesn’t matter how hard the circumstances, how bad the weather, how hard the challenges.

We’re already talking about next year.