Sunday, September 18, 2011

Visitng some houses

So, I did two house visits this weekend, and the difference between the two places I visited could not have been more pronounced. Both of the girls whose houses I visited are some of the best kids in my class, but one of the girls is apparently the daughter of the richest man in town. I walked into their house and my gast was extremely flabbered. The flat screen sitting in the living room, surrounded by huge leather sofas, was bigger than my wingspan, and the stone staircase went up at least two stories and maybe more. It was the nicest looking house I've ever been in, and I went to the Academy and then to Georgetown so I've been in some nice house. 

In contrast, the other place that I visited (actually the mother's hair cuttery) was in another village about 20 minutes away by car, and was much more poor. The floor was cement, it was small and cramped, and you could just generally tell that they weren't that well off. That said, I've got many students that are much much poorer than this family. It was just startling in contrast to the opulence that I had experienced the previous night. 

I mostly talked with the fathers, and they were both really convinced that education was the route to success for their daughters which made me really happy. They were very welcoming, and it was great to see where my students are coming from. 

And....it's Sunday night, so that means I should be frantically preparing for the coming week so I'm off to do just that. 

3 comments:

  1. not related, but I thought it was interesting. My friend, another teacher here, just posted this on his facebook:

    "so I just found, buried in a stack of spelling quizzes a note from a student here in rural China. here is the translation: "Teaching Wang, since you are our teacher, you should control us. during class, you can harshly control and teach us. We don't respect the rules, please yell and hit us, otherwise, you cannot teach us." - anonymous..."

    I've got kids telling me that I need to be stricter as well. I'm constantly surprised by the students' attitudes towards their teachers, and what they expect in terms of punishment

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  2. Will, Was the rich guy a member of the local minority?

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  3. Fascinating on the discipline.

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