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through appropriate professional and civil channels, AITECE and the USCCB facilitate the process of application and provide essential orientation to the work. Although different from the old images of 19th century mission activity this placement offers many opportunities to serve. Because the university contract does not permit preaching or direct instruction of any religion, this "mission of Presence" challenges the person to give witness to spiritual and moral values through the example of daily life.
The university assignment I received included three major teaching tasks. As a member of a large English Department whose section title was Language and Culture, I taught English Instructional Methods in the fall to seven groups of fourth year students and offered evening hours in the faculty apartment for tutoring and conversation practice. The second semester the challenge was to teach Cross Cultural Communication to third year men and women. The classes were all 21-23 year old students who were placed in sections by the administration according to the academic rating each student had earned on national examinations. There were no prepared syllabi and no electronic facilities in the classrooms assigned. The third teaching activity involved visiting other sites in the Chongqing and Sichuan regions to work with groups of young teenagers in preparatory schools and to discuss teaching methods with their instructors. These visits, sometimes many miles away from the university, were rewarding and allowed me to meet and talk with people in older, rural China.
Dialogues with students and faculty taught the foreign experts much about the traditions and beliefs of the Chinese people. Their careful attention to the reactions and responses of others was remarkable. They strove to be kind, helpful, and were genuinely interested in learning about the traditions and values of the experts’ countries. Often

questions about family life, human relations, and holiday celebrations were raised more often than topics about commerce, marketing, or political developments. Even without facility in Mandarin, it was possible to share ideas because so many competent students and faculty served as translators. Complete immersion in the culture was itself a challenge to complacent worldviews and provided new understandings.
In the classroom, Chinese students accept authority, support each other and offer to assist the faculty. They struggle to achieve high grades to earn places in graduate programs or to get jobs immediately. They also strive to assist their families. New students on campus can be seen carrying their small radios with the BBC or the Voice of America blaring with news reports. These students constantly approach the foreign language teachers and ask if they may meet in their apartments and practice their speaking skills. These requests certainly impressed this foreign expert.
One of my best memories of the students occurred in December during a gathering at one of the Middle Schools. The teenagers were asking questions about the classes we had just had. After a few minutes talking about the candidates mentioned on the radio news of the presidential candidates in the United States, they wanted to know if I could help them sing "Silent Night". They had heard it the previous year when another foreign teacher was visiting their campus and wanted to be sure they remembered it correctly. They happily joined in the impromptu choral rendition we attempted!
To conclude this brief glimpse of some aspects of life along the Jailing River, I shall encourage any readers of The Seton Way who may be interested in offering their service as teachers in China to write to us at the Seton Shrine office. We shall send your request to the Vincentian contact and to the US Catholic China Bureau.

Sister Patricia Coughlin, D.C.
Northeast Province