From Puberty to Goat Teats -Nina

As usual, this post is coming much later than I would have hoped. This time, I am happy to report that I think it is because I have finally adjusted to life here, and not every little disturbance and hiccup seems blog-worthy anymore. I never would have considered writing a blog when I was living my usual life in America, and now that Yongfeng has become my normal, my stories don't seem as crazy to me anymore.  But, I did promise some updates on the recovery of my phone and 6th grade puberty class.



It turns out that the Xi'an police force was incredibly dedicated to finding my stolen iPhone. They put officers outside of our local Starbucks everyday for a week, until the same woman came in. They arrested her, and she led them to the market where she had sold my phone. Luckily, mine was the only one in English, so they were able to find it. Whenever I tell this story to someone here, they usually say something along the lines of, "Oh, you're a foreigner, so that's the only reason why the police helped you." Their photo-ops and great service make me completely believe this.

In more interesting news, I became the health teacher at Yongfeng this semester, since the 6th grade science textbook included a lovely unit on human development. I was sort of looking forward to teaching puberty--I thought it would be my only chance to make the 6th grade boys lose their snarky edge and be embarrassed. Boy was I wrong. They LOVE talking about puberty. They thought it was the funniest thing whenever I said a particularly provocative vocab word, and they laughed especially loudly at anything relating to the female anatomy. The poor girls were just sitting there, trying to pick up whatever facts they could, while also turning bright red. I decided that the best plan of action was to have a separate class with just the girls later, so that they could actually learn something, without their peers harassing them.

Speaking of health class, this month, the county health inspection vans came out to our school, canceling classes for an afternoon so that our kids could get weighed, measured, and needle-pricked by a team of nurses (maybe not actual nurses?).

Lincoln, going through some sort of hazing ritual to join the Yongfeng fraternity? Nope, just a lung capacity testing machine. 

The past month has really been wonderful (and I say that even though there was a week-long water outage and the electricity is getting pretty spotty). Spring out at Yongfeng is gorgeous. In March, the mountains were covered in yellow rapeseed plants, and our village was full of pink peach blossoms.

What a lovely view this chicken has!

Peach blossoms, as seen from the terrace at school where Abby and I eat lunch everyday

Everything is green now, and the cherries are ripe this week, which is exciting! I did not realize how many different types of fruit are grown at Yongfeng. There are apples, cherries, peaches, pears, kiwis, grapes, tomatoes, and of course, my (least) favorite, persimmons.

A mystery student left this cute bowl of cherry tomatoes on my windowsill. My favorite part is that the bowl was made from a "civilization monitor" armband. Abby and I made a delicious olive oil, vinegar, and basil salad that weekend with these tomatoes. 

I finally feel like I have some semblance of an organized life this semester, so in the late afternoons, I've been finding time to go on hikes in the mountains behind our school, as well as visiting a lot of my students in their homes. Most of our students live within walking distance of our school (and all of them within biking distance), and going to visit them at home is a great way to get insight into their family dynamics and home life. All of my student's families (most of them live with their grandparents, so I'm primarily meeting them) have been incredibly welcoming and grateful that I bothered visiting, and I always go back to school with bags full of walnuts, kiwis, berries, greens, or edible flowers that the families grow on their plots of land.

Heading down the mountain on the path back to school (it's the yellow building on the right). It seems like every inch of land up and down the mountains is used for farming here. Everything is so neatly plotted and maintained. And, since there are farmers working almost everywhere on the mountainsides, that means that there are also great paths taking you wherever you'd like to go.

I usually don't take any pictures on home visits, since it seems intrusive, but I couldn't resist taking this picture of Xena and her baby sister. They are such an adorable and close pair of siblings. Xena told me that her sister cries a little bit every time Xena leaves the house. 

On my most recent home visit, Belle took me on a hike up to where her family's plot of farmland is. It's pretty far up in the mountains. We spent most of the time foraging for edible berries, flowers and leaves. I ate some crazy stuff and put my life in the hands of a 6th grader. She, of course, knows what she's talking about, and it was all quite tasty.

Belle, the budding naturalist

Perhaps the weirdest thing we picked--Goat Teat berries. That's their official name (or at least everyone at Yongfeng calls them that). As you can see, they look like goat teats? The 6th grade boys can't get over the hilarity of these, of course. 

 Time is going by so quickly this semester. It's almost May! Ah!