Some people ask why the school in Shanhai is still so poor after 2000 years, which is a bit unbelievable. I don’t think it’s unbelievable at all, but I went to the mountains to teach in 2013 or so, and the school I met back then was even more bizarre and obviously more realistic than the one in Shan Hai Ai – that trip back then almost turned my head upside down and washed my three views shortly after I entered college.
My world view has collapsed, really.
I remember when we won a prize in an international charity competition and decided to do it with great enthusiasm. We collected a lot of money, clothes, old books, and posted some money from our own pockets to buy things. The big bag went to the ravine.
I never thought that in 2013, I would arrive in Guiyang and take a car to Bijie (I remembered the wrong city before), and then take a car to go over the mountains to Weaving County, and then take a small car to the town of eight, and then in the town of eight take the kind of minibus for 2 yuan a person, around the mountain all the way on the highway suddenly stopped, and himself over the highway railings, walking to the mountains. Luckily, the captain who arrived first brought someone to pick me up, and they dragged the dried meat and snacks I brought for them, and finally saw some adobe houses after walking for almost an hour.
The day I arrived there, I saw the classroom. There was no door, no window, no blackboard, no playground, not even a flagpole. Before I came here, the poor elementary school in my mind was the kind of elementary school on the TV Project Hope, with shiny buildings, rustic children, dirty clothes, but definitely not the look of rolling monkeys in the mud puddle.
Although we were dumbfounded, but also dumbfounded, donated materials are counted, ready to get a small library for the school, buy a few computers, and then go to Liupanshui to buy some tables and chairs and blackboards when the weekend fair, also ready to buy flag poles.
The result of the first day on the silly upgrade, the old principal of the elementary school came. Not yet ventured, the village people carrying hoes, carrying scythes, out to cut him. In the process of vociferous villagers running to the village entrance to pout the old principal, we ate a bad melon – the old principal, before “Huo Huo “had the village elementary school girls. We immediately heard, one surprised – because in our Perception, this person should be in prison rather than still be able to enter the village. I heard that he came because he knew that we city kids came again, there are city girls, rushed to see – also heard from the villagers that earlier a college in Zhejiang also came to teach, there are city girls were this garbage ” Bullying”, the whole missionary team left overnight never to come back.
We decided that we must first protect ourselves, and then complete our goals and arrangements.
There were only three teachers at this school, one who had been hit in the face with a hoe by the villagers, one who had never met, and one who was an aunt. After we arrived, she stood in front of the house where we were staying and said shyly that she saw some “adult” clothes among the donations and asked if she could pick some.
We were worried about what to do with the adult clothes, and when she asked, we hurriedly said come on in and pick them out.
She came in to pick them out, and I was sitting next to her when I saw a hole in the toe of her shoe, revealing her foot with socks inside.
I was very surprised, after all, at that Time in 2013, I rushed to look in the box to see if there are shoes, there, turned out also piled up next to her, she looked very much like, shyly took off their shoes, put on a try. I did not dare to look closely – this situation I always do not know how to react, too much attention seems impolite, I stood up and went on to pound the box box.
Later she carried several pieces of clothing and a pair of shoes to go, I said you take a few more pieces, the children can not wear. She said no, that’s enough. A few days later, she asked her husband to invite us to her house for dinner and stir-fried some dishes for us.
And the kids would show up at our door every day at 4 am to play. I can understand – there was no internet and little electricity, so after watching all the movies downloaded from the computer, all that was left was stargazing. Stargazing was also fun, as we lived in a place where dry toilets were a challenge to humanity, and everyone started fertilizing the corn field in front of the front door. But a few of us who love to see the stars also like to stand at the front door, once I, the captain and another team member stood in a row at the front door, staring at the front and the sky, saying that the stars here are too dense and beautiful. The cornucopia shouted out, “Can you stop looking, let’s not let people pull! “
In fact, he could not be seen, people are such unauthorized embarrassed and shy animals.
Later the children came, we learned that they actually swam from the opposite shore.
We were a dumbfounded mess, observing the turbulent river. One enthusiastic team member slapped his head and said, I’m going to the opposite bank for a Home visit, so he jingled and packed up his things, took one with him, slid down this side of the cliff and jumped into the river with a plunge.
He came back in the afternoon and lost one of his shoes, or the baby brought it back to him. He did not know the way, but he knew the way. He swam faster in the river than he did, and the cliff was more stable. His shoe sank into the mud and he couldn’t pull it out, and it was gone. The eight-year-old doll sent our crew back, and he squatted in the yard and cried. I said he had lost his shoe, why?
He said it wasn’t because of the shoe. It’s because the eight-year-old doll is a sister, there is a five-year-old brother below, a two-year-old sister, the Family has no Parents! Eight-year-old baby stepped on a small stool on the big stove to get rice, a question, Mom and Dad surprisingly will not return until a few more months. In this family, the eight-year-old is the parent. He cried not because his shoes were gone, but because how could this happen? He left two hundred dollars for the doll and didn’t know what to do.
The teacher who had never shown up showed up, and I heard that he was the acting head of the school. He came at seven or eight o’clock in the night and asked us, “You said you were going to buy us a computer, how come you haven’t bought one by now?
It was then that I learned that a person who had previously donated equipment to this school had specifically contacted our captain and said that the computer should not be bought, what you donate, this usually faceless person will run to hold back to his home.
Our captain made it clear that he would not buy a computer, and that director said we were liars. Then we quarreled. The argument went on until about nine o’clock and he left in anger.
The next morning at eight, we found out that the school was closed. The angry agent, surprisingly, had put a seal on every classroom without a door or window yesterday in the dark (or maybe when it was dark in the morning), meaning we couldn’t teach.
We were dumbfounded again, being outrageously dizzy. At night, we had a small meeting and learned that there was some kind of bigger “central principal” in this area, and then the central principal was in charge of some small principals. The former principal of this school could not be found, so we had to find a way to find the central principal. We stopped classes for a few days to call various bureaus, and persistently pestered some of the local people involved, making a head several big before finally dealing with the matter.
Then there were students who disappeared after three days. I asked who was who when I took roll call. The class, from 6 to 16 years old, all howled happily, saying that the father of the who’s who had been taken away by JC the day before yesterday, and that there was no one to herd the cattle, so he had gone home to herd the cattle.
I was already not so dumbfounded, after all, this village, I heard that half of the poor people are in violation of the law. After class I went to home visits, the boy was not found, and on the way back I saw him standing on the hillside with a cow. I said are you still coming to school? He said he wasn’t coming. I said come on, we’ll cook for you. He said what to do with the cow, I said the cow will be placed nearby, I asked the whoever (our team members) to watch you.
He said, “Who is going to keep an eye on me when you guys are gone?
I thought about it, but there was nothing to say, so I repeated the sentence, or come to school.
Then he didn’t come either.
A few days later, a girl was crying in the back corner of the classroom wall, I heard that she was scolded and beaten by older students in the same grade, I was very angry, I went to the older students to question them, only to know that the girl stole their money. I was dumbfounded, and went back to ask the girl, only to know that the girl had no money to eat to starve to death, and dumbfounded, listen to the girl said that the family is her farming, she did housework, do not do well grandma let her brother beat her, let her stand still to be beaten. I listened, dumbfounded and angry at the same time, ran to the second grade to find her brother, her brother said she ran away from home, the grandmother was angry, she stole the family money, steal her brother’s stationery, steal her brother’s pocket money also set up her brother. I listened, and again and dumbfounded, hesitantly went upstairs and asked the girl, why steal the family money to steal her brother’s money also framed her brother. She said she had no pocket money or snacks, nothing, and no stationery, her brother had everything, she also wanted, only to steal.
I was fucking dumbfounded, and at 19 years old I had the feeling that I couldn’t handle this at all.
I think this family is bad from the root, I asked where is your mother?
Her mother went to jail when she was 5 years old.
I said, “Where is your father?
The father was in jail when she was 1.5 years old.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to its customers. I could not say anything except that I hugged her and said that it was a big world out there and other bullshit. Then I sent her a few books, said you look at these books, you can not steal things, you have to study well to test out of this mountain. She also cried and said yes.
The outrageous thing is that the next day, her grandmother came. In her hand, holding the two books I gave the girl doll, said, this is what she found at home, it must be the girl child stole our, she rushed to bring back to us.
I said no, I gave it to her.
Grandmother surprisingly took my hand, said this child is very bad, steal everything, such a good book should not give her, you stay good, do not give this bad child.
I was, my silly eyes value full to overflowing. Take the two books back to my small house. I told my team members, my team members also have their own silly eyes – it turns out that they build a flagpole for the school, take off their coats on the side, some villagers children have come to help.
Then all the cell phones in their pockets were stolen.
A few of us goofy-eyed youths squatted in front of a bush in the village, silently enjoying the goofy-eyed vertigo that didn’t settle down for a long time.
Later classes were incredibly difficult to attend, a class of one grade, but a grade with a large age span, those fifteen years old to read the third grade, you simply can not take them. And because we gave our supplies so easily, within a few weeks we saw workbooks being torn up and stacked on airplanes, and automatic pencil cases being torn up scattered all over the floor. We also used the supplies as rewards before, but then they didn’t want them anymore and wanted something else, asking us if we had anything else besides stationery. They also yelled, “Why don’t you buy a game console? Why not buy a small racing car ah?
I really wanted to lift the kids up and kick them through the front door into the corn field.
But then we actually set up a flagpole. My teammate who lost his cell phone said, “How can I use it if I don’t take the charger when I steal it? Just put the charger on the front door of the courtyard wall. The next morning it was gone. He also worried that it would not be the same person who took it, in case one took the charger and one took the phone, how could they both meet?
I frowned, after so many silly experiences, I still have teammates is 24K pure mother of God. I was thinking, that the 24K in the TV show is not all a lie, I fucking have a live one in front of me.
Later, when we were leaving, we took the kids to do a cultural debriefing party. Even the sixteen-year-old third-grade troublemaker came to participate, and I took a picture with me when I stuffed a lollipop, I hid in my pocket, to a first-grade child.
That grandma does not love her brother does not love her parents in jail girl, hugging me and crying, I think she is the most well-behaved one of all the students, do not understand how everyone thinks she is bad – she also drew a picture to me, drawing a she drew a me, crayon wrote what love teachers love learning. I searched for a long time do not know what to give her, can only stuff some money to her, so that she can no longer steal, “can no longer steal” these words I really want to do everything possible to tattoo her I also wrote her a letter, the theme is never to steal again. She took my letter and the words do not know, I will give her face mark phonetic.
And my soft-hearted teammates, hugging the children cry wildly. When we first arrived we found that the children were bringing their own dry Food to school, all pure dry food, mixed rice, steamed buns, porridge. We opened a large pot, our captain of Sichuan (I also learned to stir-fry in those days) on the students fried vegetables fried meat, we put the children’s lunch boxes up in the morning, noon to everyone hot, put our fried dishes on.
As soon as the food was put on, the children were unrecognizable.
At that time, my teammate and I held two bowls, the bowl was covered with eggplant fried meat on top of mixed rice, I was so impressed that the children were afraid to ask for it, saying, “This is not my rice. “
I said, “This is your rice. “
She said it’s not.
My 24K Virgin Mary teammates began to tear up and said, “This is your rice, we put the vegetables, go eat. “
The day the cultural debriefing ended, my teammate held this “this is not my rice” little girl, crying in the courtyard, he began not to lose a pair of shoes, wearing a pair of slippers bought from the town of eight, kneeling on the ground crying.
Later we had to leave, afraid of the children sad, did not dare to say. As a result, we carry the luggage to go, the children still know, a lot of running on the dirt road, to our arms. I am the hardest heart – I always have the hardest fucking heart, my eyes are not red, I dragged the luggage by the children snotty eyes grabbing clothes, they grabbed our luggage, so we had to drag them along with the march. My 6’5″ captain was silently weeping, the 24Ks were choking up, and I was trying like a witch to put an end to this silly farce as soon as possible–until I heard a voice on the other side of the river.
–Until I heard a doll calling out to us from the other side of the river.
I looked up and saw only a dozen children, six, seven, eight or nine years old, waving and crying frantically at us from across the hill – they didn’t know we were leaving and now they were seeing us. I saw the children’s tiny faces, shouting broken voice, and suddenly my throat rumbled, a little tight.
But suddenly, the children on the opposite hill, they slipped away down the cliff. Fluttering – slipping from the hillside to the river.
I shouted, eh do not come over!
But simply can not stop, seven or eight-year-old children, fluttering – jumped into the river, the rapid river water from the side of the beat them. My teammates collapsed and slid down the mountain from this side, I was red in the eyes, I said crazy you also slip?
My teammates also jumped! Jumped into the water.
The children swam over from the opposite side, they swam over, a hold of the children, and then swim back together. I went down halfway up the slope, hugged the kids and pulled them in – they were soaked, and the soaked kids hugged me, and went up to the road and all fell to the ground. They were soaking wet and hugged me and cried.
I shed tears too, thinking this is so inexplicable and unreasonable!
Then the car came, the children’s fists can no longer clutch us, had to let go of the hand. That we all feel bad on my good girl, standing at the side of the highway and crying, I said hurry back, the highway, here too many cars hurry back.
We sat in the car, feeling as if there was something more and something less. Most of our team are southerners, Shanghai Shenzhen Nanjing people, from the deep mountains, out of the town of eight paces, out of the weaving Jin, out of Bijie, to Guiyang, we stood on the bus, said, crap Guiyang road can be really flat ah.
We stayed in a hotel, we didn’t have to go to the public baths in town on the weekend to take a bath, and we didn’t have to go to the market on Saturday to buy food. I thought it was amazing, amazing that we actually experienced two or three months of having to go to the market. Now that we were back in a place with internet and electricity, we didn’t know what to do and went to bed early at night.
The next year, someone knew about us and organized a mission trip there. We came back with a dumbfounded look, and we experienced many other things in between, and just felt helpless. I wanted to go back year after year, but I was so busy and greedy that it never made the schedule.
Until a few years ago the captain called me and said that the elementary school in the earthen pot village was demolished. The local children could go to school in town, and the broken village household across the river was gone. I just thought, “Ah, demolished ah.
Recently, when I looked at the mountain and the sea, I suddenly realized that the village was gone, it was moved, right?
Alas, at last, at last.
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