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September 4, 2017
September 4, 2017
It’s finally here – my inaugural blog post. At least, I am writing the first blog post at this moment, sitting in Wuwei, China, settling in to my home for the next two years; when I actually figure out the logistics of setting up a blog remains to be seen, though I suppose since you are reading this, it has happened, though a little bit later than I had imagined. You see, I hadn’t always anticipated writing this first post from my site. An earlier, more ambitious version of myself had planned on blog posts beginning from even before I stepped on the plane and waved good-bye to family, airport staff, and what, until that moment, had been my life.
But, that didn’t happen, in part due to (at least I tell myself) concerns about internet access, firewall difficulties, blog management, the stress of Pre-Service Training (PST) and primarily, creating a perfect blog. Though, now, I’ve realized no blog is perfect, or ever will be, and my blog – this blog – will be no exception: I’ll be honest in this blog about my experiences in China as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and I ask you, my readers (I’m currently hoping that someday, there will be a few.. Hi, Mom, Dad, Sisters..), to keep me honest, too. When writing my posts, if I end up misrepresenting my experience in the States and China as the only experience, the universal experience that everyone encounters – let me know, let’s share stories, and I’ll make sure to pass your stories, experiences on as well to my students and Chinese community.
I realize now that if you aren’t my family, or haven’t met me in person before stumbling upon this blog, you have no idea who I am – though, in truth, perhaps that’s how it should be, as I hope this blog ends up being less about me, and more about my experiences in China shared with you, and cultural exchange between China and you. A few basics, though, are in order: My name is Isaac Mades, a recent college graduate seemingly destined to perpetually live in places whose names begin with the letter ‘W.’ I grew up in Westfield, Wisconsin, attended the University of Wisconsin, and am now in Wuwei, Gansu Province, People’s Republic of China. I’m blessed to have the best family, and the opportunity to join the Peace Corps and serve as part of the 23rd group of Volunteers sent to China, where I will be teaching English at Wuwei Occupational College.
Why a blog? It might be said that the official, technical reason lies with the Peace Corps Third Goal: to help promote a better understanding of other peoples (in this case Chinese culture) on the part of US citizens. Yet, to truly and fully understand the reason for this blog, we need to expand upon the ideas above. I’ve dedicated this blog to ‘Shared Stories,’ which is completely unrelated to China except in the fundamental way in which it relates to all of us: we all have stories, stories that are ours, are unique, and are different from the stories of even those who live closest to us. So, too, are our stories different from those living across the world, and even in my first few months in China, I have seen the power of sharing stories – not just telling stories, not just listening to stories, but sharing stories with each other, stories that we had no idea even existed until they were shared.
I envision this blog as a tool for sharing those stories that I find with you – but also one for you to share your stories with me and China, and if you read my blog and a single story is shared that makes you think, that changes your ideas about China or the world, or you share a story through me with the Chinese people that helps them better understand U.S. culture, then I consider this blog, and my service, to be a success.
If it does spark questions, or interests in China, I encourage you to take a few moments to explore those questions, to search and discover a little bit more - know that you can always reach out to me and Wuwei through this blog as your first step to hearing about China through not only my voice and experience here in China, but through many different voices from China itself. In this spirit, some of the stories that you will read in this blog will be my stories, my experiences, and I hope that in the future, some will also be the stories and ideas that my students, colleagues, and community wish to share with you.
Let’s begin, shall we?
* * *
My first story isn’t the first that I experienced while in China, and it’s not the most recent, but it is one that influences my life every day – the morning market in Wuwei. What can I say? Food is important.
We’ll see, though, that it isn't really about food.
The morning market in Wuwei goes beyond food: clothes, watches, dish and clothes detergent, tea, tools for the house and kitchen, the market has it all. It’s also been an important change in my life since moving out of my host family in Chengdu, Sichuan, to 28 hours north here in Wuwei: the freedom to cook my own food, particularly since food has an important place in any culture, but particularly here in my China experience thus far.
The market in Wuwei spoils me, though. Check out the video below, and you’ll see why: I’ve never had the privilege and opportunity to buy so many vegetables, fruits, baked good and dry goods at one time, in one place, every single day, and when I view the cost of produce from my US lens, it’s incredibly cheap: vegetables range from 10-25 cents a pound, fruits that are in season (currently, peaches!) cost about 37 cents a pound. Tofu? Also 25 cents a pound. (Don’t wrinkle those noses, meatatarians: prepare tofu correctly, and give it a chance – it’s delicious! Although as a vegetarian, I have yet to ask the price of meat… my apologies for now.) However, when I view the cost of produce from my new lens of living at the same level of the local people, the prices are still incredible – cooking alone, for myself, a single person, costs about 15 RMB ($2.2) for two days, and each day the Peace Corps living stipend for expenses is about 47 RMB ($6.9).
The best part of it all: it is all fresh, as the market sets up each day around 7am, is open around 8 am, and vendors usually stay until it is all sold out, often before 3 pm, before coming back the next day with fresh produce, eggs, tofu and meat.
Oops, I just lied. The best part of the market isn’t really the prices, or the produce, but the people. I’ve learned that being the only foreigner, or perhaps more accurately, the current foreigner, in Wuwei comes with a lot of features: randomly having your picture taken when you’re walking down the street worried about tripping and dropping your eggs, or getting extra assistance picking out items at a grocery store or restaurant by new Chinese friends who are concerned that you don’t know your way, or can’t read the menu. Yet, it also comes with the responsibility of knowing that people will remember you – which is a huge benefit when it comes to getting to know local people and having conversations.
At the market, my unique foreigner nature results in many levels of interactions. One of the most rewarding is that people who may never have seen a foreigner before, or at least what is commonly perceived to be a ‘true’ foreigner (read: white), tend to remember our conversations, my order, and always try to help me out in the market.
Immediately after shooting the video of the market, I went and bought groceries for my next few days, and throughout my trips to the market I’ve tried to find a favorite vendor and stick with them. One such vendor is a woman who sells onions, garlic, ginger, spicy green peppers and green beans – she was the first person I ever bought anything from at the market, and our first conversation (in Chinese) went a little something like this:
Isaac: “Hi! Could you please tell me, this onion costs how much?”
Vendor friend: **local dialect that I don’t yet understand**
Isaac: **confused look** “Uh.. How much?”
Vendor friend: **local dialect** combined with the hand gesture for counting that means one.
Isaac: “Oh, 1 RMB per half-kilogram (1.1 pounds)?”
Vendor friend: “You speak Putonghua [standard Chinese]! You speak Chinese so well! Where are you from?”
At this point, I think we just established I was buying that onion, and that it was about 1 RMB per half-kilo, as it was placed on the scale and I handed over a 1 RMB bill and received two .1 RMB bills as change. Yet, the conversation wasn’t over, as we had now established that we could chat, and most importantly, share stories. We talked that day about how I am from the US, she is from China and has never been to the US, and that I recently arrived in China, and am now in Wuwei shopping for vegetables, namely onions.
A morning's find: 14.7 RMB ($2.16) worth of vegetables
Two days later, I, the onion-shopper, had returned, and I was walking down that aisle to see if she had any more onions. I was about fifteen feet away from her stand when she saw me, smiled, and she proceeded to walk over to check out her stock of onions. I arrived at the stand.
Vendor friend: “You’ve returned!”
Isaac: “Yes, the onion was very delicious, and I need another.”
Vendor friend: “Do you have onions in the US?”
Isaac: “Yes, but they are cooked differently.”
Vendor friend: “Buy another! Choose any.”
I look around at the onions, picking them up, feeling their weight, squeezing them here and there, being that conscientious and informed (or, US style) onion buyer, seeking the onion with the fewest blemishes, and I settle on a medium-sized onion to hand to her.
Her: “No, no, no! That one is too small, you ate the other one in two days. You need a bigger one.”
I laugh, but nod, and thank her for helping me pick the perfect onion, that is the largest one she has and has now been placed on her scale for sale to me. I add in some green beans, garlic, and buy it all, answering a few questions along the way [“Why are you in Wuwei? Why are you not in a larger, more well-known city?”], questions that I have now grown somewhat used to answering, though I have not yet figured out how to ask a question myself before she asks me a few more questions, and waves me away as she helps another customer, telling me to come back again.
This is one type of interaction that I have had at the market, and it always makes each trip rewarding beyond the foodstuffs that I purchase. Yet, I’ve also found that the conversations can take many unexpected turns.
That same morning, I was finishing up my fruit and vegetable purchases and was looking to make my final purchase of the day: chicken eggs. For practical reasons, fragile eggs are last on my shopping list. I was heading to the same vendor I had previously purchased eggs from when another woman smiled from across the aisle, said “Hello!” in English, and then asked in Chinese if I wanted eggs. I decided to buy some eggs from her stand.
I asked the price, agreed, and asked for a half-kilo of eggs (this ranges from 8-10, in my experience). As she is packing up my eggs, and gathering change, I answer the standard questions that define the start of every relationship here for me so far [“Where are you from? Why are you here?”] before we enter another common conversational theme: “Are you used to Chinese food? Do you like Chinese food? Can you make Chinese food?”
I answer all three questions in the affirmative, adding a caveat to the final answer that I do not cook Chinese food very well.
And perhaps this was the impetus for the next conversational turn.
Suddenly, upon hearing that I don’t cook Chinese food very well, her face changes to display mild concern, and she asks: “Is it you cooking the Chinese food? Just one person? Alone? By yourself? Cooking for one person?” And more variations of the same question, until I’ve convinced her that yes, it is just me cooking, but that my host dad in Chengdu taught me a few recipes, and that I don’t make a lot of “US food” because it uses different ingredients.
Then, she asks: “You haven’t found a 美女 [beautiful woman, multiple meanings/usage, but here referring to a girlfriend] to cook for you?”
I wasn’t expecting this question, so I kind of freeze-up, involuntarily release a little nervous laugh, and utter a quiet ‘no.’
“You haven’t found one yet? Why not?” to which I respond that I’m not looking for a girlfriend, and that I myself love to cook food, and that it is more common in the US for men to cook food. “Are you sure you can cook? You should find a 美女to help you cook food..” She looks around, and her eyes alight upon a young man sitting at the stall next door selling live fish from a tank on the ground, and offers to introduce us.
“He has a cousin, she’s very pretty.”
“Oh, that’s great, but I’m not looking for a girlfriend, I just need some eggs today.”
“You sure?”
“I think so.”
“Well, next time..”
“Thanks for the eggs! Byebye!”
And so, I managed to escape the market that day with eggs, and without a girlfriend, and return back to my apartment to cook my lunch.
In my few trips the market so far, I’ve had more encounters and conversations than just these two, but I highlight both of these stories, to show that one experience/conversation is not better or more valuable to me, or you, than the other, and to show the wide range of conversations that occur in perhaps the unlikeliest of places. It also provides an opportunity to discuss and recognize the merits of each conversation and story, in any context during my service here, but perhaps especially when the conversations take unexpected turns and lead into areas of cultural differences that I would likely never have broached or brought up on my own.
I’ll contend that in both cases, and all conversations, we had moments of cultural exchange – onions in the US? Have you heard of Wisconsin? You study Chinese? You cook your own food? What’s the US like, and why would you come here? – that make our stories worth sharing.
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