Countdown

This is it. The final stretch. The last few challenges. The Omega of teaching. As I enter the final two days of our time here at the school, I get a strange mixture of the perception of the flow of time: part of me feels like it's been an eternity and a half since I last got here, my time in Beijing a distant relic of the past, the sweet taste of McDonalds and Chipotle only memories long lost to the unyielding flow of the sands of time. But there is also a fragment of me that feels that is has all gone by in an instant, and that I was getting off the plane and meeting my fellow volunteers only yesterday. Regardless , I now experience the bittersweet truth about how soon we will leave. Of course I'm glad I'll soon be back in Portland with my family and friends, but I can't help but feel a bit of sadness over leaving behind this group of wonderful children I have watched grow greatly in the past few weeks. We may have only been teaching them English, but their new found sense of curiosity and confidence shows how much they have improved and advanced through our lessons. I am so very happy to have taught them.

Of course, just because we are near the end, doesn't mean there is nothing to do or talk about. Let me throw out a few details. For example, I'm simply amazed by how quickly Shang, the other duckling that we bought alongside Mulan, was able to grow in the past few weeks. When we got him, he was barely able to stand up straight, and was oh so tiny. Now, he has grown much larger, is capable of living outside on his own most of the time, and has gone from eating moist rice to live insects, hunting them down on his own.. He even managed to eat an entire frog, that was easily half his size. I'm sad that I won't be able to see him grow up any more now, but I'm sure that he will grow up to become a big, strong duck. So I guess I now know how to raise a child, although I'm not exactly sure if you can put a human baby in a bucket with a few bugs at night and that it'll be all right. 

With my stomach pains all but gone, I have been re-energized to participate even more in my classes and with lesson planning. Today was really the final day for true teaching, as we are thinking tomorrow, as the last day of school, of letting them watch a movie. Today we taught them about sports, notably those found in the Olympics, and the students liked the lesson a lot. As for my class, I had been teaching them a wide variety of science courses, going from basic geology to a bit of ecology and finally astronomy. Today however, I decided to do something a bit more personal in nature, and I gave them a small lesson on Spanish. I was surprised by how easily they assimilated my coursework, and I actually had to come up with some stuff to teach them on the spot, as they quickly burned through what I had prepared. A lot of the student were very interested in Mexican culture, and I was able to actually communicate quite well with them in Chinese: usually I have a Chinese volunteer, who are very helpful if a tad bit overzealous in translating everything, and thus rarely get a shot at challenging myself with my Chinese speaking. It was at that moment that I realized how important learning Chinese was for me: here are two groups of people from the opposite side of the entire planet capable of communicating with each other, and sharing important cultural details to each other. Languages really are the bridges between cultures.

As for our day to day live, the heat is still unbearable, the stream is still frigid cold, the smell is still overwhelmingly putrid, and the food is still unfulfilling. Regardless, I have been able to adapt surprisingly well to most of the environment here, and while I'm still very exhausted, I'm mostly content. "Mostly", because I still can't stand the food. It's reached the point where it is less how it affects my tasted buds, and more how it's physically affecting my body. I can feel myself withering away day after day: I regularly go on runs in order to maintain my fitness, but it's not really helping, because without the necessary nutrients I simply cannot build up my muscles, or even maintain them. Once I return to Portland, I'm going on an intense regiment of weights and the food with the most fat and protein I can find. If anyone wants to join me, the greasy foods are on me!

This trip has been a powerful experience for me, and I'm glad I'm able to share of my experiences with all of you. If any of you have a question about anything, just write me a comment, and I'll try to respond!!

Thank you all for your support!

El doctor, profesor, y maestro,

Diego Molina