This summer, going to the moutains

HUANG Guilan

   Origin: if not the little princess joined in the Tai Bei Service Team          

If not EDEN had the Tibetan Service team first time            

If not Yongxiang and Yang said age wasn’t a problem           

If not my family gave me the encouragement and support         

If not I wanted to open my “happy heart”         

If not all the things above

I wouldn’t not be able to come to the beautiful mountains and meet those beautiful people.  

    “the beautiful prairie is my home where there are colorful flowers, green grass, and nice breeze.”

    This euphonious folk song opened my wonderful memory about the beautiful village where the Xi Da Tan Middle School was located.    

    Tibetan Service Team – what a special journey with responsibility and pressure. EDEN prepared the volunteers well before we started this journey. However, when the time came, I still became nervous. We took a flight to Hong Kong, got on a bus to Guangzhou, and took the train to Lanzhou. This long and noval train journey gave us an opportunity to really see those places which we only read in our textbooks. As the train went, all those beautiful scenery were just like the horse-racing lantern! We pasted Yellow Crane Tower which was in Cui Hao’s brilliant poem. We pasted Zhengzhou and Tianshui, entered Longxi Plateau, and arrived at Lanzhou. It took us three days to get to our destination.  

    Tianzhu County means the county with God blessing and is located on the only pass to He Xi Four County in Han Dynasty. The local noodle and soup bun are very delicious. We bought more supplies. Our destination was only about a hundred kilometers away. Everyone in my group knew that a hundred kilometers was seen as a short distance considering that China is such a big country (a few days later, when Tibetan people said “we would arrive in a little while”, it meant about two hours later). However, my tiredness was taken place by the amazing landscape and a gamboling heart. Our car passed by the Wuqiao Ridge which had a altitude of 3030 meters and was the start point of Hosi Corridor of the Ancient Silk Road. There were the same scenery after thousands years, but the merchants on the Silk Road were gone! Later, we arrived at Xi Da Tan which was a little village surrounded by branch ranges of Qilian Mountain. There were about a hundred households and mainly were Tibetan people. It was a tiny but beautiful village. The mountains were not high but there were plenty grass and forests. The breeze also brought the wonderful smell of scattered flowers. There were goats, yaks, and horses. The villagers had dark red skins and starred at us with curiosity and friendly smiles.

If innocence, purity, kindness, and shyness are beautiful nature of human being, kids in Xi Da Tan Middle School deserve those words. At our first meeting, I felt their sincerity; in the one-week interactive teaching, I learned their brilliancy which was so different from urban kids. They were diligent, economical, strong, respectful, and friendly. In this poor land, a bun, a bowl of noodle or rice, a potato, with a glass of water would be their dinner. In the cold night, we couldn’t fall asleep, but they read their English textbooks with two thin shirts on. How to describe the sympathy and touching feelings at that moment？  

Mingyan， Zhang Feng, Zhuoma … sweet and smart girls; Yongbiao, Yugang, Wucheng … handsome and enthusiastic boys: now the teachers in EDEN 16^th group all came home safely. Your love and tears are unforgettable. Though we didn’t have more time to know you better, but you were all deeply in our hearts. In poor environment, you should live for hopes. We hope you can go out of the mountain to gain your achievements in life and helped your hometown to become a better place. Kids, we love you! In the near future, Da Xi Tan would be proud of you. We will pray for you even though we are far away from you.