一个美国人眼中的回乡之旅（续）

内森（图左的那位）是我们这次回乡之旅唯一的美国人，我对他的印象是很坚强。为什么呢？因为我们到了河南周口后的第一天一早，当我看到他的时候，只见他鼻子里塞了团纸，还在渗着血。听他的同伴说，已经流了快要半小时了。尽管这样，他还是跟我说没关系。下午的排练和演出，他都一丝不苟。不仅如此，接下去的几天，他几乎天天要流鼻血，直到快结束的时候，他才终于适应了河南的气候。但他总是坚持自己照顾自己，不希望麻烦任何人。所以，我很欣赏这个志愿者。

前面我贴出了他拍的视频，下面是他的感想，希望与各位分享：

My experience in China was an amazing journey that I will remember for my entire life. During my time spent in China I made friends whom I will be close and connected to for a very long time and I had experiences that I could never have had without this opportunity created by the Jiuqian school.

Last year, I studied at an international boarding school in British Columbia Canada, where I heard about the project from my Chinese classmate and friend Moon Wang. She told me that she was part of a group of students in Shanghai that traveled into rural China every summer to do service with schools that were struggling economically, and that had a lack of supplies and support. So, this past July, I boarded a plane and 35 hours later I was on a bus pulling into a village in rural Henan China.

As the 40 volunteers shuffled off the bus and walked down a little dirt road in-between two rows of children clapping and singing to greet us. We walked through the entry of the school and right away we were greeted with the sight of an open area surrounded by classrooms full of broken tables and chairs, as well as the ever-present brood of chickens that seem to be everywhere one goes in the Chinese countryside. After we had placed our luggage, something that the three foreign volunteers had brought too much of in one of the class rooms we proceeded to prepare for the days events which included a two hour session of playing games with the children from the school and then a musical performance. During the games I did a lot of smiling and following of everyone else trying to guess what the goal of each activity was, but it was still amusing for the local children who had never seen a foreigner before much less one running around whose grasp of Chinese started and ended with Ni Hao. Next was the performance, a performance that I thought would be in front of the children from the school but instead was for all 300 villagers. As they crammed into the street in front of the stage I realized how surreal it was that I was about to perform a folk song while playing the ukulele in front of this many people in the middle of rural China. I then said “what the heck” and as I approached the stage a very quick hush went over the crowd and for the first time in the performance there was silence. I started playing and about half way through as I was singing the line “rock me mama like a wagon wheel” I looked up and saw that people were actually enjoying the performance. As I ended, the crown erupted in applause, and while I’m sure it was mostly out of respect and not to acclaim my pitchy singing or average musical talent on the ukulele, it was still a powerful moment of generosity and sharing for me.

That was the first of four shows that we did in four different villages and in every single one I was met with the same hospitality and greetings from everyone I met and talked to, or mostly smiled and nodded to. It struck me about the project that, although you are there to help you are in a completely new environment where you are in need of as much help as you are giving. So, in the end you end up trading services back and forth where one minute you might be teaching English and the next you are being showed how to keep bugs away or something as simple as how to use chopsticks.

The Jiuqain project is a way to experience China behind all the tall buildings and the waves of people with Justin Bieber ring tones and street carts selling Mickey Mouse backpacks. The China you will see will be one that not many people get to see and that is a shame because it is a beautiful place.