AUGUST 20, 2007
Randy writes ...
Last week one of my Chinese Engineers (Stephen) came into the office, shut the door and said in a hushed voice, “I need a personal favor”. It seemed his sister-in-law is a teacher at one of the local primary schools and was organizing a photo-shoot publicity event for the upcoming “Special Olympics”. She needed a ‘Westerner’ for the event as the German fellow they had lined up backed out at the last minute stating he was too busy. He asked if I would be willing to take part, to have my picture taken along with the group of people. He said maybe only 15 minutes on our lunch hour would be enough time. The theme of the event was “Walking into the Light”.
The school sent a driver over to pick the two of us up and we were on our way. The event was being held at a facility for the mentally challenged. Along with about 20 residents of the facility there were another 12 girls from the primary school, many newspaper photographers and at least one TV camera crew providing coverage. We walked in, we were handed a bottle of water and asked to sit down on one of the chairs lined up along the wall. Looking around me there appeared to be a classroom set up with small chairs in a semi-circle and a chalkboard on wheels with various English words and phrases along with the corresponding Chinese phrases.
Stephen and the sister-in-law were in discussion with the camera people for a few minutes then Stephen came back to me and said they wanted me to act the part of the teacher. I needed to say the English phrases, wait for the group response and then pronounce the next phrase. So much for me quietly blending in for the group photo shoot. Anyway, we finally got around to doing the stunt and we had to run through the blackboard scene 3 different times. Then cue cards were passed around to all the students and I was asked to point to each card, say the word and wait for the group response and then move on to the next card. Again we ran through this routine 3 times as I was standing and again 3 times as I sat amongst the students.
Afterwards all of the photogs came up to me and thanked me for attending, Stephen and I were both given ‘debit cards’ to a local grocer for 200 rmb by the school officials. We were then whisked back to work by the driver and lunch hour was over. I’ve asked Stephen to make sure I get a copy of the newspaper if photos are indeed published.
Last week one of my Chinese Engineers (Stephen) came into the office, shut the door and said in a hushed voice, “I need a personal favor”. It seemed his sister-in-law is a teacher at one of the local primary schools and was organizing a photo-shoot publicity event for the upcoming “Special Olympics”. She needed a ‘Westerner’ for the event as the German fellow they had lined up backed out at the last minute stating he was too busy. He asked if I would be willing to take part, to have my picture taken along with the group of people. He said maybe only 15 minutes on our lunch hour would be enough time. The theme of the event was “Walking into the Light”.
The school sent a driver over to pick the two of us up and we were on our way. The event was being held at a facility for the mentally challenged. Along with about 20 residents of the facility there were another 12 girls from the primary school, many newspaper photographers and at least one TV camera crew providing coverage. We walked in, we were handed a bottle of water and asked to sit down on one of the chairs lined up along the wall. Looking around me there appeared to be a classroom set up with small chairs in a semi-circle and a chalkboard on wheels with various English words and phrases along with the corresponding Chinese phrases.
Stephen and the sister-in-law were in discussion with the camera people for a few minutes then Stephen came back to me and said they wanted me to act the part of the teacher. I needed to say the English phrases, wait for the group response and then pronounce the next phrase. So much for me quietly blending in for the group photo shoot. Anyway, we finally got around to doing the stunt and we had to run through the blackboard scene 3 different times. Then cue cards were passed around to all the students and I was asked to point to each card, say the word and wait for the group response and then move on to the next card. Again we ran through this routine 3 times as I was standing and again 3 times as I sat amongst the students.
Afterwards all of the photogs came up to me and thanked me for attending, Stephen and I were both given ‘debit cards’ to a local grocer for 200 rmb by the school officials. We were then whisked back to work by the driver and lunch hour was over. I’ve asked Stephen to make sure I get a copy of the newspaper if photos are indeed published.
posted by Roxanne Gillett at
7:21 PM
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