Walking back from buying some tasty chow mein across the road from my school SilverMay and I see a guy on his knees crying outside a shop, screaming something in Chinese with a crowd of 5-6 people looking at him. As soon as he lays eyes on us he instantly cheers up and walks over to us.
"Welcome to China" he shouts out proudly and then grabs my arm. Back home on the streets of South East London this alone would have been enough to land the guy a slap or two, anyhow, he then starts demanding (in fairly good English) "give me 10 kwai, I am very hungry" - I try to tell him I don't have 10 kwai on me, I spent the last of my money on the meal in my hands "Give me your food then, I am very hungry" I told him I couldn’t do this as I too was hungry. All the time this is going on the guy still has quite a tight grip on my arm, which is starting to wind me up more and more, I end up having to literally drag the guy down the road to my school, hoping someone there could shout at the guy in Chinese and he would f*** off!
Well, this is not what happens at all, everyone in the school just looks if they are about to
their pants, so I soon realise it's just down to me to get this guy away. By this point he's managed to get his finger inside my bracelet and is trying to pull it off (good luck with that buddy, it's pretty think, like you) so I hand SilverMay our lunch so I now have a free hand to prize the little schmuk off my arm. Once this is done he drops to his knees, the water works start again along with the cries of "Money, please give me money" still nobody in the school moves an inch, leaving me to literally drag the guy through the doors. Once he's out everyone starts laughing "Hahahaa what a crazy guy" Hmmmmmm, yeah, crazy he might be but thanks for the helping hand and he was literally clinging onto my arm blatantly trying to steal my jewelry.
Up to this point I'd figured myself to be quite a well liked member of staff here, guess that doesn't count for much with regards to helping someone. Oh well, live and learn I guess.
What really shocked me the most was 1) the fact this guy spoke OK English (certainly better than some of my students
) 2) The guy was sporting some pretty nice clothes, decent trousers and a leather jacket. Some people eh!
After all that roll on home time could I could really do with some serious
. I am quite pleased with myself that I managed not to clobber the guy though, I have to assume that would have only made the situation a whole lot worse.