Chinese Fire Drill

We always joke in the U.S. about Chinese fire drills, and them being crazy. Having now lived through one, I can attest that they are even crazier and more intense than running around a car a couple of times!

In case that intro didn't clue you in, we had a fire drill at school today. We were informed yesterday so we wouldn't be nervous, but, I was still taken by surprise! They go all out on these drills, and when I say all out, I mean a fire is actually included in the drill...

Shortly before the drill happened today, I was informed by one of my teachers that Lizzy was missing. She often wanders, sometimes even out of the classroom, so it was a believable if somewhat scary story. It didn't help that today the junior class and Chinese teachers were being evaluated, so I was nervous about how loosing a child might look. I began wandering the halls. In the midst of my wander and search, a teacher runs out of a room with a spoon and pot, and starts banging them together, yelling. I'm not sure what she's saying (not knowing Chinese can be such a hassle sometimes) but it seems imperative to find Lizzy now.

Downstairs I find mostly empty classrooms with children streaming out, racing after teachers towards the front gate. I also find one of the cooks and our dear friend Jerry making a very smoky fire in a trash can. I think this is the fire part of the fire drill... The PreK kids had to bring little cloths along with them so they wouldn't breath in the smoke. Actually, most of the children were holding something up to their noses, or covering their faces with their shirts. And a lot of the kids with siblings at school spent a moment to locate their brother or sister in the crowd and make sure he or she was safe. It was sweet when you would notice older siblings waving or patting an arm to comfort a younger sibling.

But wait! Things got even more outrageous. Remember how I said Lizzy went missing? She was part of the act. They had her hidden in one of the rooms so they could triumphantly carry her out of the gate while everyone was watching. Leona had just forgotten that Lizzy was part of the act when she told me Lizzy was missing...I felt a little foolish by how worried I had gotten, but Leona said the other teachers were laughing at her, so we had worried together.

The funniest part of an overall funny ordeal though, was realizing that at least at our school, they hold an every-man-for-himself point of view towards fires and fire drills. The prek were the last out the gate because they are slowest, and it didn't seem like anyone exited with any order, or took role to see if anyone was missing. Although, knowing that Leona recognized Lizzy was gone may be an indication that they keep better track of the kids than it looks like from our point of view. They start real fires in the school to make it feel more authentic, and our school does not have any built in fire alarms, so we are going to have to rely on people with pots and spoons screaming down the hallway. I think: way cooler than running around a car...