编者按：潘南希（Nancy Pine）是美国环球志愿者第108队队员，2004年9月18日至10月8日在安上村服务。本文叙述了她在安上村的所见、所闻、所想。

My Lessons from An Shang Village
By Nancy Pine 

(Copyrighted 2005)

Our small bus left the four-lane expressway and headed northwest through rural Shaanxi Province toward An Shang village. My nerves were jangling as I tried to view China from a new perspective. I had been coming to China regularly for 15 years and had traveled many Chinese by-ways, but this time I was no longer a city sightseer being driven through the countryside by my urban friends. Two other Global Volunteers and I were headed for An Shang for three weeks. We were accompanied by our U.S. leader, Jim, and two Chinese assistant directors, Baoli and Hu Di. Our Chinese host, An Wei, would meet us in the village. We volunteers appreciated the willingness of villagers to host our visit, and we hoped we would be able to contribute a little to advancing their goals.

I had decided to spend three weeks with the Global Volunteers Project Peace in An Shang village in order to get to know rural China. In the United States I teach teachers and work toward helping U.S. citizens understand more about China, a country they know little about. Getting acquainted with Chinese village life was therefore essential for me, and coming to An Shang was a golden opportunity for me to both learn and be helpful. Every minute of this rural experience taught me more. As we drove toward An Shang I was newly alert to the terraced plantings that use almost every inch of arable land, the sweep of large cornfields, the widely spaced trees, and occasional hand-pulled wooden field carts. I wondered about how many hours of work were required to grow the corn and to keep the carts in good repair. Before I could think more, however, we jolted off the pavement and headed down the dirt road to An Shang village. We bounced along the ruts left from two days of heavy rain, past fields of head-high corn, and onto the wide, smooth pavement of the new main street. Within seconds we heard the deep thumping of welcoming drums and cymbals, passed a few brick buildings, and pulled up beside two dozen village women in white shirts and dark pants and vests giving us a traditional welcome.

I was nervous as we clambered out onto the new concrete road, because I had no idea what was expected of us. The drums continued as we snapped appreciative photos, and about 25 people clustered to greet us--village hosts, village leaders, and English teachers from the nearby townships and counties. We said hello to each other in turn, shook hands, all enthusiastic, all friendly. We volunteers were unsure of how we should act and of what impolite things we were probably doing, but we felt very welcomed by everyone who greeted us in An Shang. We were also very appreciative of the villagers' willingness to host 7 Project Peace visitors and 18 teachers in their homes.

Our Work
Our major job was to teach oral English to the 18 junior and senior high school English teachers from nearby townships and counties as well as others. We worked hard at it daily-breakfast team meetings at our place; then a brisk walk through the village to the school; four hours of teaching; back to a team lunch; back to school to teach; evening gatherings at various places; and then back to prepare for the next day. Time rushed by.
Our goal was to help the English teachers recognize how much English they really knew and that all they had to do was become comfortable speaking it without fear.  In addition, we three volunteers along with our Chinese leader, An Wei, and Jim took turns teaching English to junior high school students in near-by towns, to students and their teachers who came to An Shang because we were there, and also to the enthusiastic village elementary school classes.

The Dedicated Teachers
The teachers stayed in villagers' homes and ate their meals together at Feng Jiedong's home in the large courtyard where community celebrations were also held. They came from many different counties and towns and many different teaching experiences, and they gave up their golden National Holiday week vacation with their families plus two more weeks to come to An Shang and improve their oral English. We met them for classes at 8 a.m. seven days a week for four hours and provided as many opportunities as possible for each to talk spontaneously and develop confidence and proficiency in spoken English. We sang songs, had impromptu dialogues, and played silly games that all required talking. This was a new kind of learning for the teachers, but they adapted good-naturedly even though it must have seemed strange to them. We took every opportunity to have informal discussions and talks in the classes.

The mid-morning breaks and other informal times provided us all a chance to get to know each other better. During the afternoons we planned more light-hearted activities, but they still all required speaking English spontaneously. And occasionally, to add some interest, we walked (and talked) together to sites near the village and took two trips to neighboring towns, temples and museums. By the end of the three weeks, each teacher gave two five to ten minute talks and I think they surprised themselves by how much they had learned.

We, the volunteers, learned as much from the teachers as they learned from us. We learned about their families and the various chores they had done as they grew up, about the regimens of teaching and the demands on their time. We learned where our cultures are similar, and we began to understand a little bit about where they are different. Most important, perhaps, we shared our hopes and dreams for our children and our students, and learned about each others' countries. When we parted we carried a part of each other with us- of our intense, caring time together that was filled with hard work and good-natured friendships.

Learning from the Villagers
I was mightily impressed by the new road in the village, the new electric power poles, and the number of splendid two- and three-story brick homes. As we walked around the village and became familiar with its roads and paths, we saw the cave dwellings and the remains of the old mud and straw houses where villagers had lived a couple of decades ago. We were impressed by the substantial changes that the villagers had accomplished. The older villagers spoke of the difficult times when there was not enough food and when water was far away. They pointed to the building of a reservoir and of young people going out to work in towns as two milestones that began improving village life. They also spoke of education being essential for their children and grandchildren, and said that as life improved more children have completed elementary school. Most of the village men 45 and older have an elementary or at most junior high school education; older women have at most a primary grade education. Now, however, the fifth grade class in the village school has 32 children-a major accomplishment, and an ever increasing number go on to middle school which is in the next town. Also, each year a few more students enter college.

At home, in Brother #5's house where I lived and the project team met; I slowly learned the routine of our hosts and had a glimpse of their responsibilities and daily rhythm. An Kejiang was attentive to our every need. The plumbing was kept working perfectly; light bulbs were replaced instantly when needed. We learned how to use the very efficient washing machine, and a steady supply of hot boiled water was on a table in the courtyard. An Kejiang's wife, Li Qinggui, and two other women prepared delicious and varied meals for the whole team, kept the beautiful tile floors spotless, and, to my embarrassment, cleaned my muddy shoes every morning before sunrise until I remembered to do it at night.

Vast expanses of cornfields surrounding the village were being harvested by our hosts and neighbors. After tending to our needs, An Kejiang and Li Qinggui went daily to their 2 mu of land [about 1/3 acre] to harvest and gather vegetables. By our second week they began returning to the courtyard with their efficient wooden field cart laden with dried corn. And every night under a bright light bulb outside our splendid room, they husked corn until 10 or 11 p.m. By 5 a.m. Li Qinggui was preparing meals for us and any family relatives who came and went from their home. By our third week harvesting the corn had intensified and as soon as it was cut and cleared from the fields, plowing and the seeding of winter wheat was done as quickly as possible before rains came.

During all this I watched and learned from our hosts and neighbors….about the efficiency of the carts, of the complex knowledge needed to harvest the corn quickly and plant the winter wheat, the pressure to keep working before the weather changed. I learned that husking the mountains of corn and hanging them to dry is a long and tedious task. A few afternoons during my teaching breaks, I wandered the roads and paths near the village learning about the tools being used so skillfully, watching the raised rows being made to create dams for irrigation water, learning that standing on the attachment dragged behind the tractor helped pack the seeds into the soil. I noticed An Kejiang tending his tractor to keep it running smoothly and learned how the seeding apparatus works.  I learned how to husk corn slowly and inefficiently, but long enough to understand how much effort it requires. But most of all I learned the rhythm of the villagers' work and the intense work required to have successful crops.

And then when we went to one of the many community parties held for us and for the Autumn Festival, I learned of the many other talents of our village hosts. The courtyard where the teachers had their meals became a dance hall or community hall; the women who cooked for us and tended their family crops also danced beautifully and sang opera. Our host played the Erhu and several other instruments. I watched with admiration as players kept exchanging instruments each time a villager or teacher got up to sing a favorite local opera piece. And I began to sense the passion and soul that is felt in the local opera which we Westerners have so much trouble understanding.

China on the Move
What I saw in An Shang was a steady move toward modernization, toward improving life, toward more schooling and better housing. Chinese people are known the world over for their ability to work hard and accomplish much, and what I saw in An Shang emphasized this. As one family gate said:  Geng Du Chuan Jia (The family values farming and gaining knowledge through reading, from generation to generation).

So much of what we learn in the West about China is related to urban life. The drive and change, the glitz and glass-covered skyscrapers. Articles and information about rural China are often about poverty and about how far behind the rural communities are compared to the rest of China. But the opportunity to stay in An Shang Village, if only for a brief three weeks, helped me touch the soul of the countryside a little bit-the hard work, the quiet of the country, the dust and mud, the mountains of golden corn, and the local opera which seems connected to the roots of rural living.

At the end of our three weeks as we left the village and drove past the newly planted fields I thought about what I had learned. Although the urban dynamic of China is full of bright lights and expensive cars, the rural villages are changing too, becoming stronger and gaining a more comfortable and healthier life. As our hosts said, there is still much to be accomplished to improve life in the village and move toward people's dreams, but much has already been accomplished and more is in the process of being done. I appreciate the generosity of the people of An Shang and of the English teachers to share a part of themselves and their lives with us, and I hope I was able to give them a little in return.