After a complaint to Green-thumbed Sammy Dingee about the tiny flies all over the soil and plants in the garden, she offered some comfort by reassuring me that, ‘Oh, they are probably eating some orgasms in the soil’. Hmmm…organisms?
Thanks to a reminder from my perceptive niece, Aislinn, I must correct my last post as this will no longer be my last few months in China…more like my last 12. An epiphany struck me like a dump truck on Sunday afternoon. It had been a gorgeous weekend and we had been to the beach an hour away the day before. I was outside cleaning, pruning and watering my house plants and setting up my little corner for guests to enjoy the sunshine when I realized, ‘I’m going to miss my plants…and my corner, and my family here, and the school, and the trips, and, and, and…” I thought maybe a good sleep would cure these feelings of uncertainty, but Monday just provided more logical reasons to stay put for another year. It was the first time I made a pro-con list that actually helped me make a decision. I still decided to torture everyone around me with desperate pleas for guidance, but the longer the day went on, the more I realized that the decision to stay another year was the right one.
I reported my decision to my principal at 10:30 on Monday night, two hours before the 12am deadline and I am so relieved to have just made a decision that quickly for once in my indecisive life. Another year means the ’big’ increase in salary next year which means more savings and another year of experience under my belt for the next big move. While New Zealand would (and still could) be a great experience, and my God the thought of another year of Chinese men when I could be landing squat in the middle of the Men’s World Rugby Championships is heart wrenching, I am very much looking forward to having stable employment at a job I love and the luxury of many more trips in and around SE Asia for another year. Plus we’ve got a great crew of people here that are very much like a big family and our China parents Ross and Mariya Henderson may also be returning to us !
Back to our garden, today I got to bury a beautiful songbird; yet another victim of our notoriously sky-like glass-lined stairwell. The birds think they’re heading home and BAM – right into the glass. There have been more casualties than I would like to see, but today’s was one of the prettiest birds I have ever seen. We will have to get some sort of posters or stickers on the glass to keep this from happening. It kills my soul.
We have beautiful flowers in bloom in the Grade 8 bed. And the lettuces, carrots, and tomatoes are still going strong. I am apprehensive to feed these greens to anyone except for the cleaners who seem impervious to suggestions that they cease watering the plants with filthy fish water. Obvious reasons for this request include:
o Fish live in water. If you take the water away from the fish, they will die.
o Fish poop in water. Fish poop is gross. Poopy fish water being put on our plants
that we want to eat is also gross.
One bonus for the fish this week is the pump which finally got installed. Fish Group #3 are swimming around with great fervor although they are still quite skiddish of the kids when they lean over to look at them.
Farmer Jamie with his crop:
Two of my grade 8 students trying radish:
Yae Eun does not like:
