I worked on Rosh Hashanah. I had one class, and I felt that as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I had a duty to attend class. When you sign up to be a Peace Corps Volunteer, there are a lot of things you give up. You give up the right to total privacy. You give up the right to total anonymity. You give up the right to choose your own schedule, where you go, and who you see or say "yes," to. You also may have to give up ties to your religion and religious practices. Service is 24/7 for 24 months. It's something I signed up for, so on Rosh Hashanah, one of the High Holidays of my heritage, I worked. It was a Thursday.
Ten days separate Rosh hashanah and Yom Kippur. This means that if Rosh Hashanah is on a Thursday, Yom Kippur is on the next Saturday. So...I knew I could fast and attend services in peace with no guilt. There would be no class! Alas, in China, weekends are not sacred. In fact, because National holiday is next week and they wish to give students and staff an entire week off, that means they make up Thursday classes on the Saturday before...which happens to this year fall on Yom Kippur.
At first, I thought, 'well, I will just go to class, I did sign up for the unknown aspects of Peace Corps service,' but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this was a teachable moment. I am a religion and cultural background that most of my students have no real idea about. They think Jews are smart and like to read books. I have had more than one student ask me, "did your prents paint honey on the pages of your books so you would learn to love to read?" (I have no idea where this stereotype came from, btw.) My response being, "wouldn't that make the pages stick together?" They then look at me with wide saucer-like eyes and sigh, "ooooooooh! Yes, teacher, it would!" So I felt that exposing my school to my religious practices (not pushing it, but opening their minds to a new way of faith and thought) may be a positive experience.
I decided not to go through Peace Corps, but to handle this with my school directly. Over the past year I have established myself as a responsible, outgoing, and strict teacher, and I have quite a lot of respect on campus. I have also NEVER missed class or asked for a day off other than for Peace Corps training or the one day I was so sick I passed out in class. I did not use this in my request, but I knew it would be considered when making the decision. I explained to them that I had plans to attend a cultural service on one of the High Holidays of my people, that it was very important to me, but that if my class could not be rearranged, I would attend and teach. I was respectful. I was amenable. I got a response, "we must go higher, this is not a low level decision." So I waited for two days before approaching my Associate Dean again, and his response was? "We got approval for you to reschedule your one class. The department heads had a meeting and did Internet research. They see this is one of the most important of your people's festivals, and so we will be happy to reschedule your class."
I find this to be a small victory here in China, both personal and cultural. My religion is not recognized here. Most religion is considered taboo or simply unacceptable. The willingness of my very party-centric school to both research, acquiesce, and so respectfully comply with my request goes to show that hard work, respect, and simply asking for what you want can have a very positive impact on the environment one finds oneself in. I came here to teach, both inside and outside of the classroom, and I consider tolerance and acceptance of others one of my most important lessons. It really felt special to be allowed this special privilege, and I hope the school administrators learned just a little bit more about me in the process.
A sincere thank you to my school for allowing me this holiest of days to fast, reflect, and atone.
