Tuesday 9th December, 2014             1545

Yesterday as I mentioned, the campus and surrounding area was bereft of power and water all day. Good job I wasn’t planning on showing a film to my class. Faced with an afternoon in a cold flat or cold restaurant or emulating those students who didn’t have classes in the afternoon by retiring to bed for the duration I decided to go to town.

To my relief the usual staff faces were back in McDonald’s and the manager (who speaks a bit of English) was informed of the cock-ups over the weekend. After much chatting with his workers it was decided that the reason the daytime menu had been rolled out so early on Sunday was probably because they had run out of muffins. All I can say is that they must only order ten a day then because I don’t recall ever seeing a Chinese customer ordering one! He did assure me that were I to go this morning they would still be doing breakfasts until the usual time, which is about 1020.

Then I went to RT Mart for a few bits and managed to find a black belt long enough to go around my girth - just. It cost 99y which was annoying as I was hoping for a cheap one. After all, the only time it will be worn is when I play Santa, no way do I wear my normal trousers over the gut! At least now I am all set for my appearances.

I did set my alarm to get up early enough to go to town for breakfast today (still haven’t tried the sausage burger and egg muffin yet) but when it woke me I was tired, and still am, and I thought “what exactly am I going to town for?” Given that money is tight until payday on Friday, I don’t need any shopping so the trip would purely have been for breakfast, I decided I will do it tomorrow instead.

I stayed in the warm until midday, at which time I sallied forth to the office for a rendezvous with Mulan, who I hadn’t spoken to since last term. She wanted me to sign her paperwork for Term One because she changed majors after that. She, along with about fifteen others, have been sent to me for signatures and also an exam at the end of this term, without which they can’t graduate.

She wasn’t the confident and cheerful girl I knew last term. In fact, not long after she came to meet me she started silently crying. She is convinced Kevin doesn’t like her and she is not far wrong. It is clear she is a different girl in his class to what she was when she visited mine. I don’t think Kevin knows the full story, which is a pity, and she has been struggling to keep awake in his lessons (I sympathise with that!). He thinks she has opened her own school in town and that is the reason she is always tired.

I think I explained her circumstances before but to recap, her parents deserted her and her younger sister and brother when she was seven years old. Since then a bachelor uncle has brought them up. In my opinion he hasn’t made a bad fist of it either, for Mulan is here, the sister is a freshman at a university in Guangzhou and the boy is at high school. However the uncle is getting old and presumably struggling to support the kids. Mulan being the eldest is working her socks off in order to lessen the burden on the uncle AND is sending money to her siblings as well. She hasn’t opened a school, that was just the summer school she opened in the holidays. What she is doing is teaching private students (two of them) two hours a night for four weeknights and two hours a day at weekends. She often doesn’t finish teaching in town until eleven at night so no wonder she is always tired.

The bursary she gets from this university is not enough to pay for everything and she tells me she is (so far) in debt to the school to the tune of 600y. Not a lot to me but it is to her when she is helping support her brother and sister and trying to pay her own way. Part of the problem is that she needs certification that she is an orphan as such. If she can get that then her bursary would be increased but she has to prove it to the school first. I don’t think I have seen such a change in a person so great or witnessed a body with such a weight on their shoulders and in the depths of such despair.

We chatted for an hour and a half, during which time I bought her lunch - she tried to insist on paying but for 8y I overruled her - and formulated a plan for her. I am happy to report that after she left me, she got on a bus to the station where she was going to take a long-distance coach to her hometown which isn’t too far. I am awaiting her news of what happened when she went to the local government offices to see about getting the documentation she needs for the school. She just needed to know what to do. She left smiling, which was more the girl I knew, and she now knows she has someone to talk to when she has concerns.

2000

I am even happier to report now that Mulan’s visit to her hometown was successful in that the local officials are well aware of her situation and were helpful. Fingers crossed, she will get what she needs. I know at least she will sleep soundly tonight. She is a perfect example of why sometimes a problem shared is a problem halved.

I am just eating my dinner which is baguette with ham and cheese (my latest kilogramme of cheddar arrived today) and considering this latest ham was made using the same cure I used for the last lot, it didn’t turn out too badly. We learn all the time and whilst I will recycle future cures I now know that perhaps I should put more salt in it for subsequent batches. Other than that, I am rather chuffed with myself. I wonder how much a smoker costs……..