Two weeks ago I flew down to Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province in central china, for a work trip. (Some of you might know Sichuan as the home of some of your favourite chinese dishes such as Sichuan beef, or Kung Pao Chicken). As a work trip it was somewhat intimidating. My boss and the other person I work with in the office in Beijing had left China for three weeks to attend a conference in South Africa. They had left me in charge of ensuring the end-of-project evaluation of one of the post-earthquake disaster relief projects in Sichuan provence was done "properly". It was my job, apparently, to "be bossy" and make sure it gets done to my standards. (As if I knew what that meant!) Thankfully, designing and implementing these types of surveys is something I'd studied at uni, however never having actually done one, I felt totally under-qualified to be managing such a project. My supervisor had told me before she left that I would probably have to go down to Chengdu and sit in the office with the regional project manager to design the survey tools and create an implementation plan. So after she left for South Africa, I spoke with my colleagues in Chengdu and organised to fly down there. By myself. For the three days I was there I felt very out of place running meetings with the two health staff in the Chengdu office making all the executive decisions and telling them what to do. Most of my "decisions" were actually just guesses! Informed guesses i keep trying to assure myself, but I'm not exactly sure...
When I wasn't in the office, I managed to see a little bit of Chengdu. On my first evening I took myself for a walk to see some of the historic streets that had been recommended and ended up sitting and watching chinese people congregate in one of the town squares for dancing. Or what it exercise class? I'm never sure. They seemed to have someone leading the group, and a big boom box for the music. The funniest thing about these groups is the outfits they wear. Some people show up in pj's. Some people in cocktail dresses. And everything in between. Actually some people seem not to be able to decide what to wear so end up in strange combinations of outfits such as sparkly high heels with a pink satin pj top and shorts. It is lovely seeing communities coming together in such a way though, it's definitely not something you'd see in Australia. And they all seem to enjoy it so much.
On my second night I went out for dinner with all the staff from the office. We went out for hotpot - a specialty of the region. After selecting a variety of meat and veggies on sticks to be cooked for us, we all sat around a miniature table, on miniature stools on the footpath outside the restaurant. The food was delivered to us after being cooked in big bowls and we just pulled out one stick at a time and dipped the meat/veg in our individual plates of spices and ate. My colleagues were all very impressed that I could handle the spices, they had wanted me to get a plate of oil to dip in rather than spices, but i insisted that i give it a try. It was delicious.
After dinner I was talked into going out to KTV (karaoke) with some of my colleagues. In China karaoke is generally done in private rooms/booths so a room was hired and the karaoke began. Unfortunately for me, being the only foreigner, everyone wanted me to sing some english songs. Reluctantly i chose a couple and waited for them to come on. When they did come up, it was a bit of a disaster. Not a pleasant memory, but I will go on! (Remember, please, that there was no alcohol to be had yet at this stage). The song came on, I was passed the microphone, and to my horror, I found that the background music cuts out as the words start scrolling across the screen! My voice alone filled the room. It was shocking and awful. They were polite and told me I was very good, but of course I wasn't! They, on the other hand, all had wonderful voices.
I flew back to Beijing the next evening and as I climbed the 5 flights of stairs to my apartment I realised that I was thinking how good it was to be home. Home. How quickly our little apartment in this foreign city has been transformed in my mind to being my home. It feels good.
