The RCEF Blog 博客

A week ago I arrived back in Beijing after a too-short trip to the Guan Ai school. It was my first chance to visit one of the schools that RCEF is partnered with. The warmheartedness of the teachers and volunteers that I meet there stays with me just as the sound of dozens of small voices singing in unison during the schools music class still rings wonderfully in my ears.

The title of this piece comes from the ending of the song they were singing. I had a great chance to memorize the melody and a few of the words because they sang it again and again for close to an hour. The energy that they gave to the song time and time again was the determination that they gave to their schoolwork when they recited their lessons outside of class until it was too dark to read their books. They sang that song with the same rambunctious energy that helped them wear me out in the playground when we played a crazy mixture of freeze-tag, red-rover, and kill-the-carrier after a full day of school. It’s the students and the raw energy of learning and excitement that filled the country-air and classrooms that I won’t soon forget.

It was my first time in the Chinese countryside, which I guess would make sense since I grew up in semi-urban America, so I had no idea what to expect. When I arrived with JP and Principle Yang at Guan Ai’s front gate after a short ride from Yongji, I did a short check of my surroundings and didn’t find anything too out of place, though I was wondering why the farmers would leave perfectly good wheat on the road for the cars to run over. I put my bags in the principal’s office and slowly gravitated to the library, getting a few curious looks from students as I wandered around.

I met Merrybelle and Gary, the school’s great English teacher, in the library and a few minutes later was greeted by Diane. She took me on a quick tour of the facilities and then settled down in the library to chat for a bit. The school bell rang soon after and a group of students flooded the room, surrounding Merrybelle and Diane. I got a few polite hellos or nods, many then asked Merrybelle if I could speak Chinese. I said ‘我会说’ and did my best to introduce myself.

The students left to clean the school grounds and Merrybelle, Diane and I were left once again in the quiet library. We started talking about RCEF, village life, the American public and charter school system, some recent ideas for classes that I was having… Diane seeing that I kept looking out of the window at the students playing in the field in the back of the campus said, “You can go out and play with them if you want.” I happily went out and tried my best to teach them a version of freeze tag but to no avail. I did eventually get them to do a few races though. I learned I definitely need to brushup on my schoolyard games, or learn some Chinese ones.

Chatting in the library as the sun went down after dinner, I started to hear all sorts of noises coming from the upstairs classrooms. I went outside to see students studying their literature homework. They were reviewing their vocab and memorizing new 汉字 by drawing the figure in the air with their finger and counting out the strokes at the top of their lungs! I was taken aback by how committed they were to their studies. I asked their teacher to look at their textbook and was then quickly tutored by some of the students as I tried to read their lessons aloud…

The next few days that I stayed there, I started to get a little of a feel for the rhythm of the school and the surrounding area. The day started just about at the same time that the roosters crowed, then there were exercises, sweeping, then school started, usually veggies,粥 and all the 馒头 you could eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the school grounds were swept again, and then the students soon went back to bed.

Though there was a lot I missed because everything was so new. I feel that I was able to witness some of the most important things, the things that I joined RCEF for. I saw the caring that the teachers and RCEF volunteers had for the students, the excitement and hard-work that the students gave to their studies, and got to experience a glimpse of country life. One that I’m sure has equal parts of hard-work, sacrifice, peace and clean-air. Oh… and those beautiful star-filled nights.