no guanxi and no worries

The Peace Corps sent us off last Monday with a train ticket and an 8 page “Site Visit Packet” that included a straight forward 16-item “Site Visit Task Checklist.”   The instructions cautioned us to build “guanxi,” a complicated, unspoken system of social networking to obtain favors, open doors, get things done, and move forward. 

Without gunaxi, a simple checklist is nearly impossible, as I found out this week.

     Me: “Do you know my teaching schedule?” (checklist item #12)

     School: “Oh, yes!”

     Me: “Can I have it?”

     School: “I will call someone.”

Did I get it? No. 

And so it went as I proceeded down the checklist.  Whatever I did get done, took a guanxi loan, and I'm now in guanxi debit.  For someone who lives with to-do lists and getting lots of things done fast, I’m used to making my world spin.  I’m not making anything spin yet, and that is a shock.  

My first impressions of Chongqing are all about shock.  At over 100 degrees with humidity and pollution, just breathing was a challenge.  Any movement, like eating, caused a total drenching sweat. 

Another shock was the killing of China’s most wanted criminal, a serial bank robber who has killed many people, as recently as last Friday.  Why the PC didn’t tell us about this in all of our safety and security session will remain a mystery.  This #1 bad guy was shot very close to the apartment building where I was staying, at the bank where I needed to open an account, checklist item #4.  Neither my host or counterpart teacher felt I should know about it, and didn’t tell me.

Maybe the biggest shock is the campus apartment confusion, and I’m still waiting to see how this one will end, checklist item #1: “conduct the initial Housing Assessment Checklist.” This story will come later. 

After day 1 frustrations, my wonderful host, an English teacher at the university, decided that we needed a no checklist day, and we went to a Buddhist Monastery, Huayan Temple.   It was a tranquil morning spent in calm and quiet, and I’m grateful she and her son took me there.  It was just what I needed.   The PC tells us that one of the most difficult things we will do is “become accustomed and comfortable in a Chinese home.”  So far, I think it’s one of the easiest things I’ve been expected to do. 

Now, I'll try to keep that calm and not worry about my apartment.

my host and her 13 yr old son

a monk walks by lotus ponds

fans do nothing when it's over 100

the original, ancient site

wash day

love this, a Winnie the pooh clock!