With her permission, here's the text of an e-mail I got this afternoon from my Scottish friend Kate Keir, former Amity volunteer, who teaches in Tianshui, Gansu:

Awake at half past four. Someone is banging on the door and shouting "Shui, Shui, Shui". I crawl out of bed, paddle across my livingroom floor, I notice that what was once today's lesson plan is floating aimlessly about. I open my door. I'm greeted by my downstairs neighbour in his long underwear. When I appear, he rans away. Neighbourly. I investigate the bathroom. The block drain I unblocked last night is no longer unblocked. My hot water pipe is now gushing rather than leaking. The entire bathroom and livingroom floor is under 3 inches of water.

I decide I have a problem with daily living. Phone Calvin the Weiban. Phone off. Phone the head of foreign affairs. Phone off. Phone my teaching contact who lives in the same block. Got a very sleepy Miss Kang. Explain my problem. Get an encouraging "I come soon".

Two minutes later, Miss Kang arrives with her toolbox. She marches into the bathroom, spots the blocked drain, picks a suitably heavy tool from her tool box and to my surprise smashes the drain repeatedly with some force! The component that stops nasty things coming up the drain is now in a thousand bits but the water starts to drain away. She then wraps a poly-bag around the pipe and we start to mop.

The downstairs neighbour pops in again. He now has his suit jacket over his long underwear, Ignores me, but greets Miss Kang with a long spray of very fast Tianshui Hua.

Miss Kang translated "He says he has water coming into his house."

"It'll be from my house. I seem to have a lot of water."

Miss Kang gives me a confused look. "You want me to translate that? You are supposed to say sorry and tell him you fix immediately."

"I don't feel like saying sorry, he didn't help me, he ran away."

Miss Kang is obviously very confused by this. Then an understanding look spreads across her face.

"AAh, cultural difference. He is a MAN, Kate. They DON'T help! They COMPLAIN and WOMANS do WORK."

"Look Miss Kang. Believe me, I should know. The men in Scotland are a pretty useless bunch. But if you have an emergency, they fix things!"

"Really?" Obvoiusly Miss Kang is keen to embrace new cultures. She hands her mop to the neighbour. He looks completely bemused but accepts both the mop and the offered bucket and retreats to the further reaches of the sittingroom where he starts to mop up water into his bucket. Clearly he has given up on these crazy women. He mops and mutters to himself in Chinese " I woke up. Water running down my face. I thought it was raining............." Miss Kang tries to translate "He says...."

"I know what he's saying. Tell him to mop faster! ......... No, No, Miss Kang, that was a joke!!"

We get most of the water off the floor. Miss Kang tells me she will arrange for someone to fix the leak and prepares to leave. The neighbour gives me an appealing look. I nod and he immediately drops his mop and hurries after Miss Kang before I change my mind!

And then............ the alarm clock goes off. Time to get up.

At 8 o'clock, I'm in the classroom. Our topic this week is extreme weather and emergencies. Goodness, do I have a good lesson lead-in this morning......