meaning of summer

Doctor's garden

Summer means two things at TIP: More students and campus construction.

Our June session is off to a good start as about 140 teachers, mostly from Guizhou, arrived on campus this week for training. It is the largest group we’ve hosted for several months and it is nice have so much activity back on campus. Preparations are underway for the hundreds of students that will be on hand for the July and August sessions. We are also set to welcome the first group of summer volunteers, who will arrive in the next couple of weeks.

As usual, warm weather means construction. A major remodel of the building next to our dorm has meant jackhammers, buzz saws and pounding at 6 a.m. until whenever and building materials strewn everywhere. Our favorite/most convenient little store at the campus gate simply disappeared recently as workers began transforming the building into office space. The community kitchen in our dorm is also getting a facelift, which means chaos in the hall but no cooking.

Fishin' at the "No Fishin'" hole.

A string of showers and thunderstorms have been regularly flushing the skies and keeping the air relatively clean. The rain has also done wonders for the campus greenery. The doctor who runs the campus clinic has grown an assortment of potted plants into a bona fide container garden.  When not tending to patients, the doctor is busy watering, pruning and discussing his flowers, herbs and vegetables. The plants outside our window have also discouraged the smokers that had been congregating there.

Beyond the gate, parents, students and teachers are breathing easier and everything feels a little lighter now that the annual college entrance exam is over. For us it was mostly a matter of scads of frantic parents chauffeuring their kids to nearby testing sites. The road in front of our campus was packed with parked cars and anxious parents camped out with lawn chairs and coolers waiting for their kids.

Commonly known as the gaokao (high test), the exam is the make-or-break event in every student’s life. Everyone involved feels the pressure as the outcome of the two-day exam, which won’t be posted for several weeks, dictates if and where high school students will go on to university. It also determines "what" they get to study. Teachers are also evaluated on how well their students do on the test, which focuses on Chinese, math and English. Every English teacher we meet is torn between training their students to pass the test and teaching them to speak and enjoy learning English.

This year, according to state-run media, more than 9 million test takers are vying for 7 million university slots. In Beijing, more than 70,000 students signed up to take the weekend exam.

Our days are full... with daily walks in the park, work, fellowshipping with our Beijing family and friends and praising the peace and joy that He gives us in every situation.