The Mercy Corps Blog

Blog Post Posted July 30, 2008, 10:03 pm by Roger Burks

Turnabout

Photo: Norman Ng for Mercy Corps

I interviewed them for a half-hour, and then they interviewed me for an hour. And I think they asked the tougher questions.

I'd come to Xiaode Middle School, a conglomeration of temporary classrooms set amidst the damaged buildings of a small township, to talk with students about a recent Mercy Corps distribution of relief supplies to their families. Mostly, however, I found myself involved in a cross-cultural question-and-answer session with five inquiring middle school girls.

These students' old school, which sits nearby, was rendered unstable by May's earthquake. Each of the girls has her own story about how she felt, what she did and how she escaped when the tremor struck. Today, they're all living in tents pitched near their uninhabitable homes and attending classes in these prefabricated buildings, put in place here by Mercy Corps' local partner China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation.

But, on this hot and humid day in Sichuan Province, these five young women preferred to talk about the future rather than the past. They were here in this classroom in the late afternoon to study for school tests, set to begin this Sunday in order to make up for time lost in the weeks following the earthquake.

I asked each in turn what their favorite subjects were, and why. Two said Chinese language. One told me she liked English, and "Olympics" is her favorite word. Another said preferred politics. And, when the fifth girl admitted that she likes history best because her teacher was cute, all of them giggled.

They all have great ambitions: to become a news broadcaster. A doctor. An actress. An English teacher. A poet.

After a few more questions, I thanked them for their time and asked if they had any questions for me. They talked hurriedly among themselves and then, all of a sudden, 16-year-old Yang Mengxue took out a notebook and pen. The questioning began simply enough with requests for my name and where I was from. They asked if I am a journalist. They asked my age. They asked if I was married.

And then came the in-depth interview. They asked me, among other things, about the advantages of capitalism, the range of environmental activities in the United States, the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and the differences between the American and Chinese educational systems. I found myself hoping that I could answer the questions correctly and honestly while being culturally sensitive.

The interview continued: have you met any barbarians during your travels? How about cannibals? I responded "no" to the latter, but indicated that some of my best friends in school were somewhat of barbarians.

We all laughed a lot. Everyone learned quite a lot about each other. And, by the time our time together was finished, I swear I'd forgotten that I was sitting in the middle of the damaged houses and makeshift tent dwellings of an earthquake zone.