I went up to Fuhai to see Kieran this weekend. Sadly Xinjiang’s weather scuppered the trains and upon arrival at Karamay station (following a taxi journey with a driver who apparently thought road markings, traffic lights and speed restrictions were purely decorative) I was told that the train was, ‘a bit late, we don’t really know by how much,’ via another passenger who had very good English. It transpired that she’d been taught by a Project Trust volunteer in Changji a decade ago (also a Tom, incidentally).

My first ever night in a station was fairly uneventful; I happened to be taking a pillow up for Kieran so I used that (left behind on his last visit). One minute it was half past three, and the next it was half nine and a nice Uighur man with a soft American accent was telling me that the train was now expected at 11am. He checked that I wasn’t dehydrated before asking, ‘Why didn’t you come sit on the soft seats with us? I thought perhaps you were shy…’. Soft seats? Craning my neck to look, I realised with dawning horror that I’d spent the night on a row of hard seats right next to the row of padded, cushioned ones.

The next five hours were spent on the practically empty train, so my friend found his way to my carriage and we chatted. He invited me and Kieran over for lunch and offered me a lift, too. As the day wore on, we passed miles of snow-drenched desert. In Karamay it’s easy to forget just how much snow there is. Whenever it falls, the dedicated snow-clearing team instantly sweeps aside the snow and breaks up the ice. Very soon the roads and paths are clear.

Fuhai is smaller than Fukang without the density. Kieran met me at his school gate and we slipped back to his on the ice, just across the road. I was given a tour of the apartment (they have a bread-maker!) and school (some classrooms have Smart boards!), then we wandered around Fuhai: the market, the supermarket, the, uh, burnt bit of the market… Kieran had a meeting with the owner of a training school which resulted in dinner at a Western restaurant, and then it was back home for films into the early hours.

The next day one of Kieran’s students took us out for dumplings before accompanying us to the supermarket and buying us both a mug – very awkward; we said we liked them, and suddenly she’d bought two for us. We met my friend and slipped across the ice to his house (not far from Kieran’s, like everything else in Fuhai), and were treated to a feast of samsas, naan (not like Indian naan) and pollo, as well as several other baked delights. Needless to say that I was very happy.

After lunch he showed us a few more places: the sports centre and a triangular park containing what was apparently a swan (must be modern art), but soon we headed back home to prepare for the train. I arrived to a busy but not overcrowded station. Not long after, my friend arrived (sans hair gel, which was confiscated), but was soon whisked off to help Kieran next door in the ticket office. After he got back, one of the security officers brought his hair gel over (apparently they felt bad).

Thankfully the train was on time and we got to Karamay at 1am, giving me just enough sleep before our first Chinese lesson with Josh. I’m thrilled to be learning Chinese properly! We have two lessons a week covering pretty much whatever we want to know. Josh is also showing us the Chinese characters, which means we can start reading too (pinyin is useless here, and English is highly uncommon in Xinjiang).

—TJC

Featured image: A veritable feast cooked by my friend’s mother.