Gula’s Diary (9) When three of us are traveling together, I must be my teacher.

I carefully recalled that growing up, there were many particularly powerful people around me. Because there are many such roles, I don’t really dare to slack off during my long school career and short career. Because my partners are all excellent, I feel out of place if I don’t work hard.

In the summer of 2020, I took a long flight and an even longer car ride to Gula Township, Chayu County, located in the southeast of Tibet. There were six people traveling with me. In the following interactions, I came to understand more deeply that they were the kind of particularly powerful people that I recognized in my heart.

Our encounter was very ordinary. In the waiting room of Shenzhen Baoan International Airport, I had my first formal meeting with Teacher Luo Jie, Teacher Wang Ying, Teacher Fang Nan, Teacher Ye Jiaxing, and Teacher Zhu Yiqi. After arriving at Linzhi via Chengdu, teacher Zhang Wenhua from Longhua District, Shenzhen City, who was the deputy director of the Chayu County Education Bureau at the time, greeted us with a smile on his face at Milin Airport. Over the next few months, these six teachers became my closest companions and closest "comrades" in Tibetan areas.

The six teachers, plus me, are seven very different people. Our hometowns are all from all over the world. However, the same profession and the same belief give us the opportunity to walk together in this short life. I think this fate is really wonderful.

Although we were traveling together, the seven of us actually didn’t spend much time together. After arriving in Chayu County together in August, we all rushed to our respective schools non-stop. Teacher Luo Jie, Teacher Fang Nan, and Teacher Wang Ying (Teacher Wang went to Guyu Township when he first arrived, but later had to be transferred to the county due to extreme physical discomfort) in Chayu County, and Teacher Zhu Yiqi was in Shangchayu Town. Teacher Ye Jiaxing is in the distant Gula Township and Chawalong Township. As for our deputy director Zhang Wenhua, his workplace is in the Chayu County Education Bureau, but he often travels to three townships and three towns to lead teachers to carry out teaching and research activities.

In mid-November, Teacher Wenhua and several other teachers (except Teacher Ye Jiaxing who was far away in Chawalong, it was not easy for him to come out) came to Gula Township to see me. I was really happy . When I went to the countryside for the first time in August, they promised to come and see me. I have been waiting at the entrance of the village for several days. Fortunately, the hard work paid off and everyone came as promised. Sure enough, being a role model is trustworthy! The teachers stayed in Gula for two days. In addition to the regular teaching and research activities, they also gained the enthusiasm of Gula. As a small part of Gula, I also felt that the harvest was quite fruitful.

When three of us travel together, I must be my teacher. During my trip to Tibet in 2020, in addition to the deep friendship I spent day and night with the teachers and students in Gula Township, these six mentors and comrades-in-arms were my greatest gain. I have always wanted to write about my six companions, but I have been unable to do so. Because I cherish it, I am cautious, and I am always afraid that I may not understand it completely and write it accurately. However, when I think about it later, when can I put pen to paper when I am looking forward and backward like this? Now may be the best moment.

There is no doubt that teachers are very good teachers. In addition to their professionalism in teaching, they also gave me real and full touches and inspirations in life.

Teacher Roger

Teacher Roger is our big brother. The first time I met him was in the elevator room of Baoan Airport. Pushing an extra-large black suitcase, he walked towards everyone coolly and greeted us one by one. He was quite graceful and impressive.

Teacher Luo is a biology teacher and a person who loves life. He loved drinking tea. During those few days on the road, he would call us young people when he drank tea. During the two days of teaching and research in Gula, during our free time, we all went to Anba Village not far away. It was sunny and windy along the way. Teacher Luo asked us to take photos of him with great interest. In the evening, a few of us carried equipment to shoot stars. We all sat on the ground to watch the stars. Teacher Fang Nan and I, two photography enthusiasts, were tinkering with the parameters of the equipment. To my surprise, Teacher Luo also joined in and humbly asked me. This young man asked for advice on photography techniques. Yes, Teacher Luo has always been passionate about life and has an optimistic attitude that I admire very much. Sometimes, I feel that Teacher Luo’s mental age is very young, because he is really young in mentality!

Of course, Teacher Luo is still our elder. He is also a very good elder and gives young people a lot of guidance in life. During that trip to Gula, Teacher Luo had a lot of conversations with me - were there any difficulties at work? Are you adaptable to life? Some of his practices in school, including detailed plans, are always shared with us juniors without hesitation, telling us how to operate. In this team, Teacher Luo is like a big parent.

I later found out: Teacher Luo was very uncomfortable all the way from Chayu County to Gula Township. Indeed, the winding mountain road that lasted more than three hours, plus the need to pass through the 4,700-meter Zhela Mountain, was really difficult for him.

I remember that when I was leaving Chayu County and heading to Gula Township in August, Teacher Luo promised to come see me, and I immediately replied: "I will wait for you on the iron gate of the school. Don't forget the village." "My baby!" I thought that Teacher Luo was fulfilling his promise. Be true to your word, this is the demeanor of a teacher, I am very moved.

Teacher Wang Ying

Teacher Wang Ying, I prefer to call her Sister Ying. Sister Ying and I became WeChat friends who talked very happily before we met. Sister Ying is from Xuzhou, my hometown in Jiangsu. I rarely see Jiangsu people in Shenzhen, but when I do meet them occasionally, I feel particularly friendly. Sister Ying is a teacher and a mother of two children. As a mother, you are strong. This sentence is perfect for her. The child is still young, so traveling to Tibet alone was a huge challenge for Sister Ying. At first, missing her child kept her awake at night. Sister Ying was initially assigned to Guyu Township, but she suffered severe altitude sickness in Guyu Township, which is at a higher altitude, and later had to transfer to a county with a lower altitude to start teaching.

Of course, no matter where she is, Sister Ying is the conscientious Teacher Wang. She teaches seriously and loves her students like a mother. When you become a mother, you will know better how to treat your students. This is what I saw in Sister Ying, and it is true.

As a Chinese teacher, Sister Ying has much richer teaching experience than me. She has given me a lot of useful guidance in teaching. After coming to Gula, I warmly invited Sister Ying to come to my class, of course I was eager to learn from her. Sister Ying also showed me a regular lesson without reservation and enthusiastically. Her classes were nothing fancy, but made people feel very comfortable, and I benefited a lot.

In life, Sister Ying is really like my big sister. She often greets me and asks me for help. I stay in her dormitory when I go to the county town. Sister Ying is always afraid that I will be hungry or cold, and always gives me meticulous care and attention. With Sister Ying here, I feel that our group of Chayu comrades is more like a warm home.

Teacher Fang Nan

Teacher Fang Nan is an out-and-out literary young man. Reading and writing were his great pleasures. I, a pseudo-literary young man, really like to communicate with real literary young people like him. We talked about literature and movies... He was also very interested in my major, Chinese folk literature. We would chat together whenever we had the opportunity, and we had a great time.

In Teacher Fang’s own words, he is a happy scholar. And I envy such scholars. Teacher Fang runs a Happy Bookstore in her school in Shenzhen, where she regularly organizes teachers to read a book together and then conduct in-depth discussions. I think Teacher Fang is a person who regards reading as a career. He is diligent and pious, which makes me, a junior, admire me very much.

I asked Teacher Fang for a list of books and chose a few to read. Some were purchased by myself and some were borrowed from Teacher Fang. I find that I read faster with borrowed books. After each reading, I will communicate with Teacher Fang. Of course, I will also generously recommend the good books I read to Teacher Fang. I think ideas need to be collided. Even our shallow reading is probably far from reaching the height of our thoughts. But even basic viewpoints require a lot of communication before we can encounter true knowledge.

Teacher Fang also has his own experience in teaching. His classroom design is novel and unique, and he has many wonderful ideas. I will be very inspired after watching Teacher Fang’s class. I hope that after I teach for several years, I can develop my own teaching style like him. I still need more experience. Therefore, Teacher Fang is a mentor and an motivator to me. I am honored to meet such a good mentor and friend.

Teacher Ye Jiaxing

Teacher Ye Jiaxing went to the distant Chawalong Township, which is very close to Gongshan County, Yunnan Province. The local conditions are still good, but Chawalong Township It is indeed too far from Chayu County, a seven-hour drive, and the road is often snowy and icy in winter. Therefore, Teacher Ye has fewer opportunities to meet everyone than I do. During our trip to Gula in mid-November, he was unable to meet with us.

Teacher Ye and I were born in the same year, and it was quite interesting when we first met. I said: "I am 28 years old." Teacher Ye said: "I am 27 years old." I said: "I was born in 1993." Teacher Ye said: "I was also born in 1993." I said: "Then you lied about your age. Yes!" Everyone laughed. All in all, it was quite interesting and I was impressed.

Teacher Ye also likes to drink tea, which is similar to Teacher Luo. Therefore, they are very good tea drinkers and know how to taste tea much better than me, a "kid" who joins the fun to drink tea. . Teacher Ye also likes to eat meat. In our few dining experiences, we saw his preference. So, everyone put the meat to him with great concern. Once, he saw me sitting across from me eating a large plate of green vegetables with relish, with a look of despair on my face. It was really interesting.

In fact, Teacher Ye and I have not had much chance to see each other since we parted ways in Chayu in August, so I may not know that much about him.

But I am quite sure that although Teacher Ye seems to be a very casual person, he is not careless about teaching. We are far apart, but through the electronic screen and through everyone's daily communication, I can feel: In Tsavalong Township at the junction of Yunnan and Tibet, he has never slacked off, never forgotten his original intention, and is peaceful and quiet. I attended class quietly, carried out teaching and research activities in a down-to-earth manner, and always did what I should do most.

Teacher Zhu Yiqi

Teacher Zhu Yiqi, like Dayao Yao, is also Teacher Zhu. Moreover, Yiqi is still born in the 1990s, just four years younger than me. Although she is young, Yiqi is very good at taking care of others and is a warm-hearted little girl. She is also very cheerful and can chat well with everyone. She is a talkative little girl. Of course, Yiqi is a typical post-1995 girl in life. She loves to drink milk tea and occasionally eat late-night snacks. I said before: Teacher Luo is so young in mentality! Compared with all of us, Yiqi is undoubtedly the youngest, both in terms of age and mentality. As a little sister, we all love and care for her.

We always stayed together on the way here and had many opportunities to talk. Yiqi, like me, has only been working for one year and is a newbie in teaching, so we are very popular in some places. As a new teacher, she has the confusion and pursuit, those confusions, those entanglements, and I will also have them. Therefore, we are also good listeners and communicators for each other.

I think Yiqi is a born teacher. In class, her enthusiasm and vitality are enough to ignite everyone; after class, she can always mingle with the children and is deeply loved by the students. I think it’s because she is the most child-like adult! Therefore, Yiqi is the children's teacher and their closest playmate.

In daily exchanges, I learned that before, Yiqi and his friends had gone to remote places to teach. Her body has the sparkling color of young people born in the 1990s. I believe that Yiqi will become a better educator in the near future. I'm really looking forward to it!

Teacher Zhang Wenhua

Of course, there is also our backbone - Deputy Director Zhang Wenhua. Teacher Zhang Wenhua is a Tibet aid cadre dispatched from Longhua District, Shenzhen City to Zayu County, Linzhi City. He is currently the deputy director of the Chayu County Education Bureau. Maybe it’s because I studied in school for a long time and then returned to school after working, so in my heart, the teacher is the greatest. In addition, during the more than a year that Director Zhang was in Chayu County, he often moved around. Three townships and three towns lead teachers to teach and teach students. Because of the above, I am willing to affectionately call him "Teacher Zhang", which also conveys the greatest respect for a person from the bottom of my heart.

In late August 2020, on the day we arrived in Linzhi, Director Zhang rushed from Zayu County to Milin Airport to greet us. It takes a day's drive from Zayu County to Linzhi City. In order to bring batches of teachers into Zayu and improve Zayu's education, Director Zhang often travels tirelessly back and forth between the two places. The sun was very bright that day, and seeing his friendly smile made us feel like a spring breeze. When the snow-white hada was put on my body from Zhang Ju's hand, I felt a sense of expectation, or more solemnly, a sense of mission.

Later, I gradually learned that he had paid a lot for the teachers to come. In addition to sparing no effort to introduce teachers, Director Zhang also went to the front line of teaching as much as possible to personally guide teachers. Not to mention relatively close places like the county seat and Shangchayu, there are also the remote Gula Township and the even more distant Chawalong Township. Director Zhang has traveled back and forth countless times, mainly to carry out teaching and research work.

Once, Director Zhang came to Gula Township on a motorcycle by himself. He said to Gula's teacher: "I want to feel your life, really feel it." I was really touched. Teacher Zhang didn't just talk, he could do it! You may not be able to imagine what it is like to ride a motorcycle to and from Gula Township from Chayu County. The wind was very strong along the way, with cliffs on one side and countless boulders hanging on the cliffs on the other. The danger was self-evident. The reason Zhang Ju wanted to take this trip is because many people in Gula Township travel by motorcycle in this way. This is their daily life. Zhang Ju lives among them and hopes that he can truly empathize with them. Just like every time he came to Gula Township, he never wanted to eat out. He always asked to eat with everyone in the school cafeteria, and always told him: no need to add extra dishes.

Director Zhang is a doctor, so I also heard others affectionately call him Zhang Bo. He's also really a reader. I asked Teacher Fang Nan to borrow a book. After reading it, I was about to return it, but he might have "intercepted" me halfway. He would say: "Give it to me, and I will turn it over." Even if he is busy at work, he hopes to integrate learning into his life. I think it is precisely because he has read so many books that he has become a very pure person.

Zhang Ju is still a literary young man with more senior qualifications than Mr. Fang Nan. He sings well and plays the guitar even better. During this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, none of us could go home, so several teachers gathered at the Tibet Aid Apartment in the county town. After dinner, we chatted in the atrium. Mr. Zhang took out his guitar and played and sang. A few of us were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of him.

In just four months, Teacher Zhang taught by words and deeds. For students, he is a rare and good teacher; for me, he is a good elder worthy of respect. I am very grateful to Teacher Zhang for giving me the opportunity to meet Gu La and giving me this wonderful journey. I think that Teacher Wenhua and Gula Primary School are both good fortunes that can only be encountered in my life. I cherish it very much and encourage myself by it.

Postscript:

In fact, I have thought carefully many times - why are there always so many outstanding people around me? I thought that of course they did not come to me for no reason. One very possible reason was that I took the initiative to look for them. Although I don’t seem to have the ambition to be the first in everything, I have always attached great importance to the soil I stand on, and I hope that everyone on the platform I am on will be excellent and motivated. In this way, every time I see others, I will take another look at myself and constantly think about what I should do, so that I can talk to the people around me and the world. This is not an easy thing. Therefore, striving for life should become the norm.

Dayao Yao

December 5, 2020

Gula Township Central Primary School, Chayu County, Linzhi City, Tibet Autonomous Region