Dandelion Middle School and Chicken Heads

Traffic is bad in Beijing, we spend too much time on the bus. Oh, well...





One cook with three helpers cooks lunch in this area for 500 kids.



The library!!!







Typical of the poor cats I've seen around the city.







Again, the library...





Students from Dandelion Middle School.




This is where the students stay during the school week. They go home Friday evening, but many return on Saturday for English classes.








Chicken head lunch






Sue is the brave one.








This is Clare & Nicole. We are at the Silk Market enjoying a coffee and people watching.


Well,

A very interesting day today...we had chicken with the head still on for lunch (they did, not me) and then went to Dandelion Middle on the outskirts of Beijing. This is a school for migrant worker kids. There is a very strange system in the Chinese schools. When a child is born they are registered in the town or village wheree they were born, they have rights to a free public education in that town. But if they leave or move to another place, they are 'migrants' and are not entitled to the 'compulsory' K-9 education in that area unless they pay a fee, which most of them cannot do because that's why they moved in the first place. Their parents are doing the construction (lots in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics), working in the fields or other menial labor that city people don't want to do.

So today we visited this migrant school that is run on charity & donations. You can see how poor it is, but the students were delighted to see us. The two boys were practicing English and asking me about where I lived, what I did, etc. The teachers and principal are angels. They work in overcrowded, very, very hot conditions, with students who are very low academically ( smart, but little education in their background). They also live at the school and get paid very little. Angels, I tell you!

We ran into the Chinese Language Fulbright group at the school and spent a few minutes talking with them before the lecture and tour. When we left on our bus, we all applauded Prof. Rick and Wei Ming, because Prof. Rick is so much easier and much more democratic when it comes to making decisions..." OK, it's time for a group decision". And he is teaching Wei Ming these elements of participating in group decisions, rather than, 'Count off, one, two, three...Let's Go, hurry, hurry, etc., etc".
We all feel very lucky, though we will see in a few minutes, we have a group meeting....maybe someone will get voted off tonight!!!

So anyway, I skipped another Chinese meal to do this, but must go attend the group meeting. What else? We went to the Olympics Planning Building today & learned about the preparations for next year's games. Tomorrow, we learn about Chinese Art and ...something else... must sign off for now..

Please post comments.....

Steph