ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610250023
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Cynthia Josephenson never got accustomed to the open-air markets where Chinese merchants kill animals, sell meats and peddle vegetables.
Josephenson was also appalled by the poverty and living conditions in some Chinese cities.
Still, she may go back to China soon to teach English to students at Changsha University.
"I miss my students and my Chinese faculty friends," she said. "They believe in family - and they're so friendly and so loyal."
When Josephenson went to China with her husband last year, she never expected to teach. The couple went there through the Brigham Young University International Studies program. Her husband got a job teaching American culture at the university in Changsha, a city of more than 1 million people in Southeast China.
Brigham Young University, in Utah, is affiliated with the Mormon Church. Cynthia is a Mormon.
A nursing assistant who grew up in the Roanoke Valley, Cynthia planned to work part time in a Chinese hospital and help with medical research.
But the university paid her husband less than they had anticipated, so Cynthia took a full-time teaching job to supplement the couple's income.
She was paid $180 a month to teach reading skills to about 150 first-and second-year college students. Most of their living expenses were paid by the university, she said.
She quickly learned ways to hold down expenses and get the most for their money.
Chinese merchants raise the prices of goods for American customers, she said, so she would get her students to make purchases for her. "They would bargain for lower prices."
She discovered she could acquire nice clothes cheaply by buying the materials and getting Chinese seamstresses to make them.
"I got several outfits made for me because labor is so cheap," she said. "I bought some silk and bargained to get clothes made."
Josephenson, 34, said her students did much of her cooking and cleaning because it is a Chinese custom for students to help with chores for their teachers.
She said child labor is widespread in China. "It was depressing. Kids are working for basically nothing."
She said it's also not uncommon to see children as young as 8 or 10 drinking wine and and other alcoholic beverages.
There are shopping areas with stores and tent vendors, but few grocery stores. Most Chinese people buy their food at the open-air markets where the prices are often high, she said. Most people go to the market daily because they don't have refrigerators and can't preserve food, she said. "Only the rich have refrigerators."
The conditions and poverty in some cities are deplorable, Josephenson said. "You'd be walking around and you'd see garbage, rats and mice everywhere."
She also found that the government-operated medical facilities were often dirty. Some clinics had limited equipment such as X-ray machines, she said.
She took pictures of the Roanoke Valley with her to China and showed them to her students. "What amazed them the most was the Mill Mountain Star. They loved the star."
Josephenson, who graduated from William Byrd High School, is now working in a retail store and as a substitute teacher aide for Roanoke schools while she considers an offer to go back to China to teach.
In the meantime, she has been appointed to Roanoke's Sister Cities Committee.
But she won't settle in China even if she goes back to teach.
"I'll never leave Roanoke permanently," she said. "The mountains give you spirit and power."
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Cynthia Josephson returned fromby CNBChina with bargains on tailored clothes, such as the wool suit she
is wearing.