Cheating In China
One of the
challenges of teaching in China is
the cheating, which is endemic. When I landed in China the first time, the first
advice I received from my more experienced American colleagues was to turn a
blind eye to cheating. They said that if I try to prevent and punish cheating in China, it will triple my workload, lead to
bad reviews and eventually to termination. I had replied that teachers who turn a blind
eye to cheating shouldn't be teaching, but they were right about the amount of extra work
that taking a stand against cheating created. But it's a stand that has to be
taken, and my workload increased as the semester progressed.
The medicines that Kristin was trying for the various health issues that she developed in China didn't work and/or made her worse, so I also began to spend more time qualifying online the new medicines that she wanted to try and/or were prescribed to her.
The increasing demands on my time reduced my sleep to about 2-3 hours per night, raised the frequency of all nighters, and compressed the time that I was able to spend ministering to Kristin, who began to spend more and more of her days reading the Bible, singing praise songs and praying by herself. She loved to read the Bible, sing to Jesus and pray, and sometimes did them all day long, but she also missed doing them together. Late one night, she knocked on door to the living room where I was preparing the next day's lectures. When I opened it and asked her why she wasn't sleeping, she replied, "Can I just have a hug?"
I invited her inside, sat back down on my chair, where she curled up on my lap like a baby. I held her for a long time and apologized to her for not being more available. In southeast Asia, I had been with her literally 24/7 on most days, so the transition was tough on her. Once, when we were returning from the Bible study, I fell asleep in the taxi and was awakened by her crying. When I asked her why she was crying, she said I no longer had time for her. I apologized, comforted her, and reminded her that I was working to provide for both of us and that when the semester is over, we will be able to spend more time together as before. But she is someone who needs a lot of personal attention, and it was tough for her.
But she persevered and also helped me. An amazing amount of pollution entered our apartment through the air vents and the closed but unsealed door and windows. Kristin constantly dusted, swept and washed off the soot that kept covering everything in our apartment. She also occasionally took a small suitcase and went downtown to a grocery store that had some imported American food to surprise me with nice meals that she prepared in the kitchen, which was tiny and had just one hot pad, a tiny sink, no hot water, and cold water that was icy in the winter.