培训收获

An Shang,
A Small Village of Great Inspiration

By David Jia

It seemed to me that everything had just happened yesterday. The experience of my first trip to An Shang was still fresh in my mind.

The bus I was taking for An Shang Village delayed for about three hours.But that was not the worst. An hour later, the bus died on the road when we got to Jiangzhang, a small town that was still 15 kilometers away from my destination. I heard the driver calling somebody in An Shang, informing them where we were stranded.

It was 10:30 at night.I was standing on the roadside helplessly with cold and anxiety.It was drizzling at the beginning, but the rain was becoming heavier and heavier. With regret and frustration, I was watching the driver repairing the bus.I kept walking forth and back on the roadside, sighing at my bad luck. It was just at this moment that the driver received a call from An Shang Village, saying that a van had just been sent to pick me up.I heard from the driver that Mr. An Wei requested that "the teacher must be picked up and sent back to An Shang as soon as possible".

On hearing this news, I was overwhelmed by excitement, gratitude and emotion. I could not wait to know who Mr. An Wei was, and what was special about this village. I didn't think An Shang was known in Baoji, let alone in Xianyang or Shaanxi Province.Having arrived in An Shang, I found it a very ordinary farming village in northern China. The village was small in size, and all the streets were muddy and uneven. "Why did Global Volunteers choose to come to such a place?" I asked myself.

A few days later, I came to know that the villagers were very friendly and hospitable. They provided us the best houses to live in, and cooked the most delicious local food for us three meals a day with the menu varying from day to day. To our excitement and surprise, our hosts brought their rain boots for us when it began to rain while we were having our classes at the village school. To enrich our cultural life, they even held evening parties for us once in awhile.They had the modern music equipment and a dance place in the village.To our great surprise, most of the young villagers can dance exceptionally well while many of us teachers who were from different cities and towns of Xianyang area could not dance as well as they did. We did not anticipate that the An Shang villagers were so open ideologically and culturally.Many of our fellow teachers had to learn how to dance from the villagers.Whenever we were strolling with our American teachers on the newly-paved main street in the village, I found the villagers nodding politely to us, and many of them greeting Global Volunteers by saying "Hello" in English.What villagers they are! I have never seen such pictures in other parts of China's countryside!

Yes, An Shang was changing quietly."This is all because of An Wei", one of the villagers told me."After he retired from his official work, An Wei returned to An Shang with Project Peace and accepted the offer to volunteer as the political leader of our village."

It turned out that An Wei was the first college student in the history of An Shang Village.Having been successfully enrolled into college in 1962, he was a hard working student.He was picked up by the Provincial Government to be an English interpreter upon graduation.But there were no visiting groups from overseas at that time due to the Cultural Revolution.Therefore he was sent to a labor farm to receive "re-education" by participating in back-breaking physical labor.However he never gave up on his studies in those days.It was his firm belief that sooner or later he would use what he had learnt to serve his own country and people.

In 1972 An Wei came by chance across the writings by Edgar and Helen Snow when he was picked up to assist the staff at the Yan'an Revolutionary Museum.Ever since then he began his independent study and research work on the life and works of Helen Foster Snow.In 1978 he had an opportunity to meet Helen Snow and worked for her as her interpreter.They became good friends through writing to each other, visiting each other and working together.In 1980's and 1990's, An Wei translated and published a lot of the Snow's books, wrote numerous articles and essays on the Snow's contribution to Sino-American relations.An Wei became a key translator, writer and scholar in China and was invited to lecture both in China and the United States.

"Education changes one's life", An Wei told me."It is education and education alone that can break down the cycle of poverty in the farming village". An Wei was not an educator by profession, but he made an extremely big effort in education.During the construction of Project Peace in An Shang, An Wei became aware of the importance of enhancing the farmers' political awareness by emancipating their mind and updating their ideological concepts.Under his leadership, the villagers were exposed to new ideas, new concepts and new ways of thinking.An Shang Village took the lead in practicing The By-laws of the Villagers Committee of the People's Republic of China.By implementing the guiding idea of Villagers in Charge, they carried out the policy of Democratic Election, Democratic Decision, Democratic Management and Democratic Supervision.The village affairs and financial issues were made open and crystal clear to all the villagers.

Thanks to the democratic politics in the village, people became more enthusiastic, cooperative and creative in their production and political life.They became more concerned about the development of the village and other villagers.They increased their effort to boost their agricultural production and family income.They helped build a brand new school.They built a wonderful high quality road through the center of the village.They built and opened up a modern restaurant.They made their five-year plan for further development, etc.

No matter what they were doing or planning to do, their focus was always on education.Though the village was still short of money, they always gave the first priority to the needs of the school.They tried to provide everything they could to support the school and the education of their students.Since 2002 Global Volunteers has kept coming to this village on a regular basis.Everyone in the village became fully aware of the importance studying English and learning to use the computer.The presence of American volunteers and their noble service greatly inspired and encouraged the school teachers, students and their parents.Thanks to their hard work, An Shang School made three big steps forward in two years.At the beginning of 2004, the school was evaluated well and increased its rank to 3rd place among 16 schools in the entire township.The An Shang students were subsequently very well received by all middle and high schools in the county.

"Once our kids have a good foundation in English and computer, they are able to compete with any students in the urban schools", An Wei pointed out. He told us that Global Volunteers would continue to send teams to An Shang after the completion of the school construction.The American volunteers will teach their kids conversational English and computers from Grade One to Grade Six.American teachers will also offer a Training Program for English teachers in Baoji area as well as other parts of Shaanxi Province.

This is An Shang, a farming village that all teachers of English from various areas of Shaanxi province could get such a rare opportunity to improve our English and enjoy ourselves in a complete English atmosphere nearly 18 hours a day over a 3 week period. We were all deeply touched by our American volunteer teachers, our hospitable An Shang hosts and our respected Mr. An Wei who was so dedicated to education, his childhood home village and his own people. It is no wonder that so many of our fellow English teachers couldn’t help themselves from bursting into tears when we had to say goodbye to our beloved Global Volunteer teachers on the final day.

This is An Shang, a farming village I got to know.It is an ordinary but great village. It is a remote but inspiring village.Such is the An Shang that I understand. Three weeks is a very short time in one's life.But my brief stay in An Shang has become a never-to-be-forgotten experience in my life.

Sitting in our bus home, we were all silent but full of appreciation and inspiration.I was wondering "if I was leaving for home, or leaving home?”

（乾县二中贾振华）2004年12月22日