Edited excerpts of emails written in January 2008 when working at a non-profit in Beijing.
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Every month we go to Linfen, a coal mining capital of sorts in the mainland, to visit a vocational school just outside the city.
In Linfen, the students live in old army barracks without heat in the winter. When you come to observe a class, they rush to get a stool and dust it off for you, breathlessly telling you you’re wonderful and thank you for coming and talking to them.
The sky on a normal day, view from our taxi
They live with little to no access to computers, but some of them will spend hours searching for books in English just to get ahead, books like Pride and Prejudice, which they devour. But at the end of the day, it’s still sometimes impossible to understand them in conversation. They’re gorgeous souls who persevere.
We interviewed a few about to graduate, looking for a secretary. These were their first job interviews, and it showed. When we asked what they wanted to do in life, we got answers like, ”Something eye opening.” Open ended indeed.
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