Yesterday morning I had just risen and was sat naked in the chair awaiting my laptop booting up, preparatory to going in the bathroom. There came a single knock on the door and almost immediately the door flew open and there stood a chambermaid. What do you do when you are sitting there in your birthday suit? The woman plainly hadn’t seen me, so all I could think to say was “What are you doing?” (With hindsight, good morning would have been more comical!) and then her eyes rested on me, I could see my state of complete undress register in her brain, she emitted an “oooh” and rapidly beat a retreat, slamming the door behind her. My room wasn’t cleaned at all that day.
If the headmaster hadn’t actually mentioned his planned trip to visit a friend long before I said I was leaving for home, I would have thought I had been turned over! He never went yesterday - turns out the friend also owns a school and has been developing a new programme, which our man was keen to see and perhaps, copy. The programme is not yet ready.
I said fine, I will get my own taxi. Easier said than done. Taxis won’t come here as it’s so remote, so in order to hail one it is a twenty minute walk to the main gate (probably a forty minute limp for me) and then pray one happens to be passing. With the promise that we could look at the menu and order something different, I opted for the path of least resistance. I was quite happy to pay for a la carte food, I simply needed to eat before I became unwell.
Somehow I managed to walk to the activities area (no mean feat) both in the morning and afternoon. Utterly boring as I don’t understand a word being said but I put in appearances, although in the afternoon the mercury got up to over thirty and with oppressive humidity, I decamped for the refuge of my air-conditioned room to dry off.
I wish I had known from the outset that the place had a menu with pictures. Pre-dinner I picked steamed dumplings, sweet(ish) pork and a herby pancake. Far too much food came so the kids had a bonanza but the food was not only edible but pretty tasty apart from finding a dead fly in the dumplings - that got me two free beers from the manageress. If there is nothing for me at lunch it matters not, I will be fine until we get back this evening.
Last night was the (what seems to be) traditional campfire party. The kids got to sing or dance or act for their peers, the instructors sang and of course the children wanted me to sing an English song. For some reason the organisers decided my song would close the party, by which time it was approaching ten o’clock.
Setting my alarm for eight this morning was a defeat of hope against reality. After yesterday I had at least taken the precaution of deadlocking the door in case any over-zealous women tried a repeat (I did get some rather knowing smiles from the staff all day, I am guessing the intruder took five minutes flat to inform all and sundry of what happened) but nonetheless was awoken shortly after six with the cleaners shouting at each other in close proximity to me, followed by the kids bellowing to each other. I will be glad to get back to the relative peace of cats fighting in the next room at night.
The group (there are 34 children this time) are up at the activity centre. I intended to follow them up even though my legs are killing me but when I went outside it was as hot and humid as yesterday. It meant I would be soaked before I got there so I told the headmaster I would be in my room - it’s not as if I am contributing anything to the activities anyway.
Our coach will arrive to take us away from this exile immediately after lunch and I am informed we will visit a museum in Hefei on the way back. I have already arranged to be dropped off at McDonald’s when we get back to Chizhou!
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