(明日中华教育基金会捐赠的五一小学，学校建成后十年再回访)
作者： 兰光庭 翻译： 彭博远
12年前，初到五一工作，感觉这里到处一片狼藉。整个村子大约七八十户人家，村寨上的道路泥泥泞泞到处坑坑洼洼，要是在下雨天，脚都不知道往哪儿走。真是担心一不小心摔一跤，来个四脚朝天，来个狗啃泥，那真是活该了。真是有“寨上一刻走，依得半身泥”。 学校更是破烂不堪摇摇欲坠的样子，还被别人美其名曰：“大山中新式的比萨斜塔” 。 这里不仅是一个“世外桃源”，还是一个“三没佳境”(没手机信号、没通公路、没厕所)。尤其是整个村子连一个“厕所”的地方都没有，这点让人无法接受；而想上厕所的人可以在山坡上到处“打游击”。有时候你会看见桃树下机子树下，琵琶树下枝叶轻轻摇摆，那便是人们刚刚从“阵地”刚刚“战斗”出来的。 这还是人呆的地方吗？这对于一个刚师范毕业，踌躇满志激情满怀的我来说，无疑不是个晴天霹雳的打击，这是我工作的地方吗？我能在这里安下心来工作吗？与在学校时候的优厚条件比起来，让我感觉突然从天上掉入了地狱边缘……理想与现实的差距，使我对自己开始怀疑了人生；我就这么轻易地俯首称臣，欣然接受吗？而这还不是最要命的，接下来的教学工作，才让我无从下手无计可施无言以对。 因为这里是个小村子，几十户人家三四百人口，只能办个教学点，是一人一校的那种；我当然是这里唯一的“光杆司令”。报名的第一天只有寥寥无几的几个人，而且都是学校周边几户人家的孩子。让他们扫地，几个孩子也都是拿着扫把跑上跑下你追我赶，有的还把扫把甩向天空……这哪里是在扫地，分明是在做玩，是在向我挑衅。我吆喝不听，我跑下去追赶，哪里追得上他们，真想把他们叫住或者拿他们来狠狠教训一通。可是连人影都不见，哪里还抓得着。你只能在原地嘚瑟……后来我通过了解，问问学校旁边的老人家，他告诉我：“一般这里以前学生报名都要两三天学生才到齐呢”。也难怪，这里孩子有的七岁入学，有的八九岁才入学，有的早上还得去去坡上干活或者帮父母养牛，下午或晚上才到学校登记报名。学生年龄大小不一，学生基础参差不齐。人数又不多，一个教室得两个班，还得进行“复式”教学。一个月下来我把自己弄得筋疲力尽，却毫无效果。我就这样行尸走肉地为了完成教学任务而工作吗？看着学生们一双双天真的和对知识渴望的眼神，我觉得除了教学任务以外，我还应该给他们做点什么。于是我就想，这个教学楼太差了，要想改变现状，必须从改变环境做起。于是就开始酝酿如何设计规划校园，如何布置建设工作。一个机会，让我遇到了“明日中华教育基金会”，他们愿意出资建设新学校，于是就出现了我接下来三年中，在五一组织、带领群众轰轰烈烈挖山办学的场面，和人民群众一起有声有色地演绎了现代版的“愚公”办学建校场景…… 时隔十年过去了 ，再次故地重游来到五一。已经令我眼前一亮，不仅是眼前一亮，更是刮目相看：这还是我十年前初来乍到的五一吗？公路穿寨而过，家家户户之间也全都是步道硬化光亮的水泥路了，整个村子干净整洁，还有环保的太阳能路灯。家家户户也都有了干净的卫生间。十年之间，我们见证了五一的大变样。 而更让我高兴的是，这里三四岁的孩子居然自己高高兴兴地自己跑去学校上幼儿园了。 学校的教师也爆满。这不仅让我看到了五一人的希望，更看到了他们美好的未来。
By Lan Guangting, Translated by Patrick Peng
Wuyi, A place with stories
When I first came to work in Wuyi, 12 years ago, I felt that the whole place was a mess. There were about seventy or eighty households in the whole village. The roads were muddy and full of potholes, and if it was raining, you wouldn’t know where to put your feet. I was really worried that I would accidentally trip and fall face first into the mud. There was a feeling of “take a walk for a bit, and your body will come out half covered in mud.” The school was smashed and wobbly, and it had been named by others as "the new Leaning Tower of Pisa in the mountains."
This place was not only not “paradise,” but was also missing three essential things: cell phone signal, roads, and toilets. There were no toilets in the whole village, which was unbelievable and unacceptable - the people who needed to go to the toilet would have to "play guerrilla" everywhere on the hillside. Sometimes you would see them under the peach trees, the plum trees, or the eucalyptus trees, the results of the “fights” that had just taken place on the “battleground.”
Was this still a place for people to stay? This was undoubtedly not the place for me, a graduate full of passion and enthusiasm who wanted to be a real teacher. Was this a place where I would work? Compared to the conditions in college, I felt like I was falling from the sky to the edge of hell... The gap between ideal conditions and reality made me start to doubt the life I had made for myself. Would I just bow my head so easily and accept it with pleasure? And this wasn’t even the worst part - it was the teaching work that really made me speechless.
Because this was a small village, with dozens of households and a population of three or four hundred, we could only set up a small school that served all the needs of the children. I was the principal, the math teacher, the Chinese teacher, everything. On the first day of registration, there were only a handful of people, and they were children from the several families around the school. I had them sweep the floor, and they ran with the broom and chased after me. Some of them even used the brooms to sweep the sky. How could they call this sweeping when they were clearly just playing around? They didn't listen when I called, and I ran down to catch up, there was no way I could catch them. I really wanted to shout at them or punish them, but even their shadows were gone. I could only stand there and sulk. Later, I asked the old man next to the school about the situation because I wanted to understand what was going on. He told me: "Generally, before the students register, it takes two or three days for the students to arrive." It was no wonder, to be honest, that some of the children here were enrolled at the age of seven, or at the age of eight or nine, because some had to go to work on the slopes or help their parents raise cattle in the morning and register at the school in the afternoon or evening. There weren’t many students, and they varied in age. There were two classes in a classroom, and we had to carry out "duplex" teaching. After a month, I was exhausted and had seen almost no results. Did I work tirelessly like this in order to complete my duties as a teacher? Looking at my students' eyes and their desire for knowledge, I thought I should give them something extra. First, I realized that the current school building was inadequate – we needed a new environment to change the present situation. So I began to think about how to design a campus and how to arrange construction work. An opportunity allowed me to meet the "China Tomorrow Education Foundation", who were willing to donate to the construction of a new school. And so, for the next three years, I organized the villagers in Wuyi in flattening the mountain for the school. Together with the people, we acted out a modern version of the ancient Chinese mythical character, Yugong, who, with his sons, and their sons, dug through a mountain with a hoe and a basket.
After a lapse of ten years, I once again traveled to Wuyi. It already makes my eyes shine, the impressive sight: Is this the Wuyi that I came to see ten years ago? The roads pass through the village, and between every household is a hardened and smooth cement road. The whole village is clean and tidy, and there are environmentally friendly solar street lamps. Every household has a clean bathroom. In the past ten years, we have witnessed a big change in Wuyi, no doubt.
What makes me even more happy is that the three or four-year-old children here happily run to the kindergarten on their own. The school classrooms are all full. This not only made me see the hopes of the Wuyi people, but also let me see their bright future.
On the head of the peach tree, the branches and leaves still sway with the wind; under the tree is a few children's brilliant laughter, which laughs through the branches and floats out of the mountains. . . . . .
