China dream comes true

An Indian-Australian teacher spends a year volunteering at a Chinese university

Acursory look at an indi screet ad in the daily newspaper one lazy afternoon, cook an Adelaide woman away from her home to China where she did voluntary work fo r a year

"At an age whe n many are probably thinking abour retirement, I was looking for a dream job tha t would g ive m e personal and professional satisfaction," R ajni Madan, an Adelaide -based teacher, says. "With my Chin a sojourn organised by the Australian Volunteers lnternational (AVI), I ,vas able to do JUSt that".

Placed as a n ESL teac he r for Life-Science students at Nor thWest Univer sity for r ationalities in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province ad joining Tibet, Rajni claims she has had an amazing year.

"]'ve always had an .inherent pull towa rd s China and wanted to vis i t," Rajni reveals. "So to go t he re, and fo r a year, doing what I love best, was a dream come true".

A keen traveller and one who is always looking for new challenges, she was o n the looko u t fo r projects that would suit he r qualifications and skills, wbe n s he chanced upon two returned AV! volunteers from Fiji and fodonesia speaking about their experie nces

Her mind was made up.

Not long after, she found he r self in a classroom in China, surround ed by students eager to learn.

"Ir was a pleasure teaching .in Lanzhou," Rajni tells fndi,111 Link. "The students are hardworking and po lite an d ver y respectful of their teachers All the othe r volun teers thought so coo: many felt chat they had n ever experienced such respect in their careers! The students had only o n e ob jective - co learn Since t here were n o behaviour pro blem s to deal with, all m y foc us was on my goal, that is, to teach I fell I h ad made an impact on a mm1 ber o f students who initially thought E nglis h was too di fficulr a language to learn, bur became enthusiastic learners during the co urse At times my cla ss had 168 students, che l argest 1 have ever handled. Some students are still in touch".

Rajn.i Madan is a multi - faceted

With students in traditional dress personality in the true sense of the word. Arr iving in Austr alia in 1993, armed with a Bachelor of Education and Masters in Life Sciences degrees, she went on to obtain a PhD in Bio logy. Finding opportunities limi ted in that fie ld , she used her B.Ed to take up relief tea ching at schoo ls a n d, at the same time, run a small bus in ess besides managing a fanuly of three school children a n d a husband whose job often took him to t he bush. fo terv.iew after inte rview assessed not o nly her skills but also her capacity to survive i n a fo re ign land and level of family support, besides medical and psychological evaluations. It cook more than six months to get that final nod

Today she i s all for organsations like the A\Tl that help people realise their dream of working to make a difference in the lives of people. But it was no walk in the park, she soon found om.

"When I landed in China, I was received by an AVI sup port officer and a university staff m ember. 1 felt I was with friends".

Her accommodation, however, was a bi t daunting, but s h e claims all the concerns disappeared when she opened her fonrtb floor windows out co a beautiful hillsid e view.

"Th e university paid me loca l wages, a nd though this was not comparable to my Aussie wages, it was e nough co Live comfortably. Volunteer colleagues stayed in the same building as me and before I knew it, I was on my way to becoming a 'Foreign Expert', a terminolog y used to describe us a U".

Outside tbe classroom , the students became friends and loca l gu id es.

"Tbey in formed u s regularly on issues such as when the power or water supply would be cur, si nce such instructions were always in Chinese. The entire city had an ef6cienr heating system with oil heaters for the biting cold weat her Some stud ents ac companied us co d1e market help ing us trans lating to th e scaU ho ld ers and even bargaining. Invitations ro dinner at their homes were numer ous, in line w ith Oriental hosp italic/'

China i tself was a revelation

''AlthoLJg h the population is larger than drnt o f India, I never saw crowded streets or rail stations because of its large land mass. Generally the streets are c lean and safe to walk at any time of the day. I tcied co learn Chinese too, in weekly lessons I tried my Chinese oo so m e students with limited success Writing the Chinese sc ript however, proved to be a kind of meditation. A n d when my family visi t ed, we saw the sights, such as the Grear Wall".

How did she cope with food?

"Food was a major feat, yes Being a vegetat:iao how would 1 cope in a land where they say, anything chat creeps or craw ls is eaten. But chat fear was soon overcome: the markers were full of fresh produce, vegetab les, fr uits and varieties of bread Ir was a delight for a h ome cook like me. However the re were problems when l went o u t w id.1 colleagues or to students' homes. They had no concept of bow anyone could Live \vithouc eating meat has Buddhism failed i n this regard, one is tempted to think".

And finally, an y regrets?

"Probably that 1 ended up teaching ESL rather than life sc iences!" R aj ni laughs "B u t overall, ir was an amazing experien ce. I will avidly support anyo ne d1.inking of taking tbjs plunge!"