February 27 was the first day of the new term at the Zhanhe Middle
School in Ninglang Yi Autonomous County, on the outskirts of
Lijiang City in
Yunnan.
Feng Ai had been filled with anxiety for several days, worried
about the students who couldn't afford the education expenses and
had to drop out of school.
On February 18, Feng Ai had gone to the home of one student.
Jingutigu's family is the only one in the village without
electricity. Jingutigu's father died young and her mother supports
the entire family. They can only eke enough food out of their poor
land to keep them going for half a year: the rest of the time, they
must rely on help from their neighbors. Jingutigu dropped out of
the school half a year ago. Feng Ai and the other teachers have
visited the family eight times in the past few months, and finally
persuaded the mother to sell their only cow to support the girl's
studies. Later, with Feng Ai's help, Jingutigu received some
financial assistance from Beijing.
Yunnan Province is home to more than 3 million people of the Yi
ethnic group, most of whom are concentrated in an area hemmed
in by the Jinsha and Yuanjiang rivers, and the Ailao and Wuliang
mountains. Huaping, Ninglang and Yongsheng in western Yunnan form
what is known as the Yunnan Lesser Liangshan Mountain area. Zhanhe
Village is 3,200 meters above sea level.
Before the new semester began, Feng Ai and the other teachers
visited all the poor families in the village, preventing them from
stopping their children's studies.
Feng Ai, a Beijing native, is a postgraduate in sociology at
Shanghai Fudan
University. In August 2003, she joined the Graduate Volunteers
Servicing the West Program and was appointed head of the
Shanghai-Yunnan volunteer team, in part because of her substantial
experience. From August 2000 to August 2001, Feng had been in the
China Youth Volunteer Alleviating Poverty Relay Plan Postgraduate
Teaching Group, and taught for a year at the Baiya Village Middle
School in Xiji County, Ningxia
Hui Autonomous Region.
Although Ninglang and Xiji are both impoverished areas, Feng
feels the Yunnan village is far more comfortable than the windswept
county in Ningxia.
"The students have neither hot water nor clothes nor quilts. In
contrast, I feel I'm very lucky. Living here, one's goals and
focuses gradually change. Forget salary, house and car: the only
thing on your mind will be the students." Feng adds, "It's a very
simple life."
Nevertheless, Feng's heart broke when she saw one student in the
first grade of junior high school misspell his name, and another
asked whether the Internet was for fishing or capturing birds.
Feng had had similar experiences when she taught in Xiji, so she
told herself and the other teachers to be patient with the
students' ignorance. She teaches them using methods designed for
primary school students. To get them interested in studying Pinyin,
the phonetic system for transcribing Chinese characters, she showed
them her mobile phone. "If you learn Pinyin well, you can send
messages on the cellphone," she said. In class, Feng uses many
innovative methods, such as imitating a guessing game that is
popular on TV.
In the past half year, Feng Ai has taught four courses,
including music, Chinese, history and geography, with 30 classes a
week. She works on weekends, too, only getting three days off each
month. Feng usually works until midnight correcting students'
papers and preparing the next day's lessons, and then is back up
and preparing for work by 6:00 AM. The morning session ends at
12:15 and afternoon classes start at 1:00; evening classes continue
until 9:15 PM. On many days she has no time to eat a proper meal,
just gulping down a bowl of instant noodles after class.
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Feng is campaigning to improve the students' hygiene. She does not
permit them to spit or to lick a finger to turn a page in a book.
She asked them to wash their hands frequently, but learned that the
kids didn't have any soap. So when she was staying in a hotel to
attend a meeting, she seized the opportunity to stock up on soap
and toothbrushes for the students.
Feng's dedication earned her a promotion to deputy headmaster of
the school. Since then, in addition to her other duties, she has
been focusing on the children's nutrition. Every day before she has
her own meal, she goes to the dining hall and checks whether the
food for the students is warm. She says that when she is on duty,
her students will be assured of having a hot meal.
The students, delighted with Feng's optimistic and cheerful
character, have rewarded her with a pet name: Xiao Yanzi, or
"Little Swallow."
"At first, I thought the teacher from Shanghai would be really
mean to us. But I changed my mind when Ms. Feng came into the
classroom and bowed with a smile on her face."
The students all love Feng and vie with each other to carry
water and wash clothes for her. One of the students, remembering a
line from the TV drama, wrote in a composition: "On behalf of all
the people in China, I want to say to Ms. Feng: I love you."
At the end of 2003, Feng Ai won the National Youth Volunteer
Service Gold Medal. At the last class before she went to Beijing to
take the prize, Feng found many beautiful wildflowers on the
lecture platform. Inside the flowers was a little board on which
the students wrote with a chalk, "Bon voyage!"
"Feng and other volunteers narrow the distance between this
remote school and the big cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai,"
says Lu Feng, the school's headmaster.
"Before, we didn't know what to expect from the volunteers.
After they came to our school, their deeds and precious volunteer
spirit really touched me. Their arrival not only eased the school's
staff shortage, but also brought new ideas and teaching methods as
well as the concept of 'study 'til the end' that influenced both
the students and the teachers here."
Since Feng Ai came to Zhanhe Village, she has devoted herself to
helping the students and the teachers. In order to find assistance
for the students, Feng learned about bargaining and canvassing.
When she was invited to give a speech at Northern Jiaotong
University, she submitted a list of six poor students and asked
the school to provide help for them in return. The university
quickly agreed.
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During her first half-year teaching at Zhanhe Village, Feng Ai
raised 6,000 yuan (US$725) and helped 10 dropouts return to
school.
Every month Feng receives 600 yuan (US$72.50) in living
expenses. She says her biggest expense is the recharging fee for
her mobile phone. As the head of the volunteers, she talks with
every member of the team and endeavors to help them. She usually
goes visit volunteers in other villages during the three days off
work within a month.
Says one Ninglang County official, "There are some places
without roads that we haven't visited. But Feng has been
there."
Feng grew up in Beijing with parents who are journalists and an
older sister living abroad. Fond of ballet, she spent years
studying dance.
Feng Ai has been a warm-hearted person who loves helping others
since childhood. At university, she was one of the organizers of
the Love Fund, which collected nearly 1 million yuan (US$121,000)
to help over 120 poor students to finish their studies. Feng also
served as the office director of Huaguang Co., which supports poor
students. Thanks to her excellent organizational skills, more than
50 poor students from Yingshang County, Anhui Province, received
help from the fund.
Many people think Feng has done enough for society, but Feng
herself feels that she has barely started. Several years ago, when
she first read the news about volunteer recruiting in China
Youth Daily, she clipped the article. Later, her tutor
encouraged her, saying, "You're a sociology major. You will never
understand the countryside if you don't stay there for a half year;
and you will never understand China if you don't understand the
countryside."
When Feng told her mother she was going to Ningxia Province to
be a volunteer, her mom answered simply, "Go ahead, no one starves
there these days."
That first year as a volunteer changed Feng's life.
"It was the first time I had come from a metropolis to an
extremely barren mountain area. Also, it was the first time I lived
together with the local villagers and felt the toughness of the
land and the people."
When she read the news about recruitment of volunteers in June
2003, she signed up again and came to Zhanhe to start her second
life in teaching service. "Isn't it a good thing the government
pays for us to go to the country and bear a little hardship?" she
smiles.
Feng has learned through her experiences things that no
professor or parent could ever teach. "In a big city, it doesn't
matter whether you exist or not. You can win everything except a
virtuous character. Teaching in the mountains, you realize that
these children's lives will probably be different simply because
you exist. Here, I get a happy feeling I never had before: someone
needs me."
Says Feng Ai, "Everyone's energy is limited. I am not the sun,
but a bulb. It's enough for one bulb to light just one room. When
we pass down the plan year after year, we may influence the
students and local people generation by generation. We hope their
fate will be changed, and that is the greatest happiness of us
volunteers."
(China.org.cn by Li Xiao,? March 26, 2004)
