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August 2001
Dear Friends:
As we walked down the concrete center aisle of the Nantong Christian
Church, all eyes were on us. A group of 35 black-, gray-, red-,
yellow-, and brown-haired foreigners, we were hardly unobtrusive.
We proceeded directly to the first four rows of pews, which had
been reserved for us. The congregation had been rehearsing the
hymns for fifteen minutes prior to our arrival. They paused during
our entrance and directed their eyes toward us. As soon as we
were situated, the worship leader resumed his directing and we
joined the rest of the congregation in fifteen more minutes of
rehearsing the hymns for the day’s worship service.
I have been in China for almost a week and a half now. Every
day brings new experiences. Whether attending a local church service,
riding two buses to reach downtown Nantong, or figuring out what
food to order at every meal (and trying to remember how to pronounce
it properly!), there are many opportunities for me to learn and
grow. I learned a phrase at Peking University last fall that describes
what I’m doing here succinctly: "da kai yan jing."
This
phrase literally means "open eyes," yet the essence
of the word is more related to one’s eyes being figuratively
opened by the many experiences one endures in the world. Although
this is my fourth time in China, I still have plenty to learn
about this vast nation, its people and culture.
Presently I am in the city of Nantong, which is along the eastern
coast, in Jiangsu Province, just north of the Yangtze River. I
am staying at Nantong Teacher’s College with about 30 other
incoming English teachers here under the authority of the Amity
Foundation, a non-governmental organization run by Chinese Christians.
(For more information concerning Amity, see www.amityfoundation.org.)
I am going through my third orientation. In the mornings I have
classes about the work of the Amity Foundation, the Chinese church,
teaching English in China, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese cooking,
and current Chinese events. I also have a personal tutor with
whom I meet daily to improve my Chinese. My afternoons and evenings
are spent in a variety of ways: observing experienced foreign
teachers in Chinese classrooms, venturing into the city, spending
time with other foreign teachers, playing basketball, watching
movies, and attending the "English Corner" (where Chinese
people can practice speaking English with foreigners). I have
enjoyed my experience at this orientation, but am looking forward
to actually reaching my placement site at the end of this month.
Prior to coming to China I had the privilege of attending a
six-week "intensive" training program in teaching English
to non-native speakers at St. Michael’s College in Burlington,
Vermont. I attended the program with nine other Amity teachers
from the U.S. and 20 people from Greece, Morocco, Trinidad, Japan
and the U.S. For six to eight hours a day we learned teaching
methodology, integrated skills, lesson planning, practicum and
grammar. My favorite was the practicum section, where I was able
to teach real live students! Although it was just for two and
a half weeks, I was very thankful for the experience of being
able to plan for and apply many of the new skills I had been taught
in teaching an English conversation class. The practicum section
also helped give me confidence in my teaching abilities and my
aptitude for planning two-hour lessons (the length of classes
in China).
Back tracking once more brings us to Stony Point, New York,
where I attended an Amity Orientation for all 15 incoming Amity
teachers from the U.S. Besides the teaching pointers and lessons
in Chinese history, language, and culture, the most important
part of that orientation was friendship-building. I was amazed
at the number of young people going to teach in China and how
quickly I made friends with total strangers. The names you’ll
probably be hearing more about in the future are Ilse Friberg
and Julia Granath. Ilse is my
future teaching partner. She, too, just graduated from college
and has a heart for prayer. Julia is my roommate here in Nantong
and, besides sharing many similar interests with each other, is
a fellow PC(USA) pastor’s kid.
Back in the church sanctuary, the worship service continued.
We sang the first two hymns, with the aid of our pin yin (pronunciation
of Chinese characters) hymnals, the choir sang their anthem, the
Scripture was read, and then the pastor gave his 45-minute sermon.
I find it ironic that the title of his sermon was "Hardship
Benefits Us." How many sermons in the U.S., where the standard
of living is far higher than that of the average Chinese person,
focus on the good in hardship? I am embarrassed to admit that
I have even thought about my coming to China as being a "hardship,"
for I have to leave my family and friends for two years, I may
not always have access to a Western toilet, and I am not earning
a six-figure salary that will easily pay off my college debt.
How does that compare to the hardships of the children who stand
outside McDonald’s begging for money? Or the skinny man who
tries to bargain with me about pedaling my friends and me back
to campus in his rickshaw for a fare of 6 kuai (75 cents)? What
do I really know about suffering? However, I do
know about a man who suffered on a cross 2,000 years ago so that
I might gain eternal life. And I know that that man is the son
of the same God that I worshiped with the Chinese people at church.
Finally, I know that this God has placed me here in China to grow
and learn, whether it is through experiencing hardships of my
own or observing those of others. It is my prayer that I will
be able to recognize these experiences for what they are and to
grow and learn from them.
Blessings,
Caroline Sunquist
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