A letter to children in the west

Six years later, I went out of the west, and as a returned scholar, I went into the west again to visit the life and study of the children there. I want to say that rice is too spicy.

It has been six years since I left my home in the west, but the poverty and backwardness there are still vivid. What is the land like now? 65438+ 10 18 to 27, I was born in the west. I went to Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, Sichuan and Guizhou with the China Children and Teenagers' Fund, the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Armed Police Headquarters, the All-China Women's Federation and other units. I traveled more than 9,000 kilometers and visited poor schools and colleges in the west. My feelings are different from those of other overseas scholars. In my eyes, the life of some poor children is my past, but in Jiaba National Primary School in Guizhou, I saw an unforgettable scene that made my son in the west cry. Being out of school because of embarrassment and injury deeply haunts western children, who are looking forward to more attention.

When the children in the city threw away the whole Big Mac without regret, the children in Jiaba Ethnic Primary School deceived their taste buds with white rice and pepper enough to make people vomit their tongues three times a day or carefully put a little tasteless soy sauce in the rice for fear of falling. Now, I still have the bitterness of that spoonful of rice on my tongue. I think this smell may be involuntarily strong when I think of my home in the west.

When I opened the big wooden box of Wang Xian, a fourth-grade student of Jiaba National Primary School in Baibang Township, Huishui County, Guizhou Province, my hands felt weak. The first impression I got was that there was no need to lock the things stored in the big wooden box opened with the key hanging around her neck. Half a bowl is hardly enough for the weak little girl to eat a meal. A little Chili sauce and five Chinese cabbage leaves stored in a small tin bottle are all the contents in the big wooden box. Li Jiaming, a teacher standing by, told me that a little more rice is all the food in a market in Wang Xian (every Sunday, neighbors go to the market to buy things, and their week is calculated according to the market).

Every time he catches up with the holiday, Wang Xian has to walk 40 miles of mountain road and carry a week's rations from home. Open Wang Xian's lunch box, which contains Chili sauce besides cold rice. With Wang Xian's permission, I tasted her chili pepper rice with a small spoon. Once in, the spicy taste quickly began to spread from the tip of the tongue to the root of the tongue. When I got to my throat, I couldn't take care of anything, so I kept sticking out my tongue and fanning the wind with my hand. I don't know if it's too spicy or excited, but I feel liquid in my eyes. I have eaten hot pot in Chengdu and spicy fish in Hunan, but I dare say that the spicy taste of this meal is unforgettable, and I am afraid I will stay on the tip of my tongue all my life.

Pepper rice is not Chinese food in Wang Xian, nor is it dinner. 5 16 students in Jiaba National Primary School eat these every day, every month and every meal. In order to change the mode, sometimes Chili sauce is replaced by soy sauce or rice and steamed in a pot, while some potatoes and cabbages without oily taste are cooked in white water. I continued to open the big wooden box of Yang, Yang and Chen Yingfen, who lived in the same room, but the contents didn't change at all.

When the children in the city are enjoying the classroom with constant temperature in all seasons, they still have to pick them up early and send them late. However, three or five children of Jiaba National Primary School huddled in a roll of old cotton wool, without a deep nursery rhyme, only the stars shining through the roof. I'm thinking that every child lying in bed may have different dreams, but in the interview, they said that everyone's common wish is not to curl up in the corner with a quilt when it rains, because they will doze off in class the next day.

And, and Yang can't sleep except having class and eating together, because the school dormitory is too limited, so three people have to squeeze into a wooden bed. The old house with a history of more than 20 years has long been exposed to the wind and rain. The average elevation of Baibang Township is 1408 meters, and the average annual rainfall is1100 mm. I opened their wooden boxes and found that the wooden boxes soaked in rain for a long time were somewhat rotten. There is also a dormitory for boys of less than 20 square meters, and they are facing the same troubles as Wang Xian. When I walked in, it took me a little time to get used to it, but the little head sticking out of the bed scared me for the first time. Those who drag their noses, turn their faces shyly, squeeze their indecisive eyes together and turn over from the bed when they go out. Finally, I counted three or four boys sleeping in each bunk, eating white rice, covered with old cotton wool and counting stars at night. Teacher Li told me that there are 62 boys from grade two to grade three here. If there is a leak, they are more difficult to deal with than Wang Xian. Sometimes, everyone has to hold the quilt and spend the night in the corner. The annual average temperature is 13, 6 degrees Celsius, and there is no fire in the houses in Baibang Township. Another advantage of covering three or five children with a black quilt is that everyone can use their body temperature to keep warm.

I found another m-girls under the stairs of the only teaching building in the school. Lee Seo-Jin, He Guiju, Thaung Myint and Tang Qun can clearly see their malnutrition from their faces. They are obviously much shorter than the children in the third grade city, but that's it. They still kept their heads low when they came in and out of this so-called hut, but they still showed a satisfied smile when they told me about it. Lee Seo-Jin told me quietly that compared with other students. At this time, they are frying rice with Chili sauce without pouring oil. Seeing this, I really can't bear to watch any more, but I'm afraid of hurting their self-esteem. I just said to let them buy school supplies, hastily took out the only 100 yuan from them and quickly left this staircase dormitory. Wang Yue, an overseas economist of CCTV, couldn't bear to shoot again. He took off his warm cotton-padded coat and handed it over.

When the children in the city are addicted to exciting video games on the computer and their parents have a headache, the children in Jiaba National Primary School have to copy the blackboard quickly, because the fog will completely engulf it in a moment. Only seven children have been admitted to the high school of this school this year, but in fact only three have signed up. The rest of the children can't afford tuition at home. Like other backward students, they either farm and herd cattle or go to work. Although I have never met them, I can deeply feel that they have chosen something called hopelessness without any choice.

I am puzzled that there is no trace of the teacher writing on the blackboard in Jiaba National Primary School. Teacher Li Jiaming's explanation helped me solve the mystery. The cold and rainy weather in Jiaba has made them confused for many years, so teachers must pay close attention to the limited sunny days for classes. In foggy days, one of the main tasks of students is to copy the blackboard quickly, otherwise the chalk words will be blurred after the fog drops condense, and teachers have to wipe the words tightly, otherwise it will be extremely difficult to write on the wet blackboard.

No matter how difficult the learning conditions are, teachers and children can overcome them with their own will, but what makes teachers sad is that children are out of school. Teacher Li told me that children usually arrive in the first semester and people disappear in the second semester. What saddens them even more is that seven of the more than 80 students were admitted to high school this year, but only three of them signed up, and the other four gave up because their families could not afford it. Like many children here, they. According to the statistics of Baibang Township, there are currently 4 15 school-age children aged 7 to 12 who drop out of school due to financial difficulties. In the past 50 years, only 5 people in the township have received university education and 39 people have received secondary school (high school) education (accounting for 0.05% and 0.4% of the total population respectively). All the way to the west, listening to the introduction of local leaders, this situation is by no means listed by a township. While the mother in the city is worried about whether to wear bikini or jumpsuit to decide how to give birth, the mother in the poor western region is unable to pick up a rusty pair of scissors and reach for the umbilical cord connecting her and the baby. Although the baby may die of tetanus before seeing the world clearly, the living baby will grow up with the pigs and calves in the circle. I was deeply hurt by those big pure eyes. At this time, I can't judge whether Xiao Jiaqing is lucky or unlucky.

The purity of a pair of big eyes can also make people feel scared and uneasy. I came to this conclusion outside Dongzhou Chunlei Primary School in Qiaohu Zhulingou, Zhangxi 'an County, Longxi County, Gansu Province. In the crowd, a little boy crawling on his father's back just looked at the people coming and going without blinking. I kept teasing him with my camera, but he didn't respond. My mother told me timidly that the official name of this child with pure big eyes is Hu Jiaqing. He has cerebral palsy and can't talk or walk at the age of three. Maybe he will spend his life with his father. How can a child with eyes shake hands with cerebral palsy? I grew up in the west, but in my memory, there are few such children around me. After consulting the leader of the local health bureau, I know that the reason of cerebral palsy is that his poor mother gave birth at home. My old aunt from the Health Bureau told me that a candle or kerosene lamp, a pair of rusty scissors and a worn-out cotton wool are all the utensils of mothers in poor areas in the west. After the baby was born, the exhausted mother trembled and cut the umbilical cord with scissors. In this case, if the baby is killed, nine cases of mother and child will die. Under such sanitary conditions, the mortality rate of neonatal tetanus is also surprisingly high. After life and death, children will continue to suffer, and some will continue to suffer. According to the survey results of the health department and China Children and Teenagers' Fund, the neonatal mortality rate in western poverty-stricken areas is generally 160/ 10,000, even as high as 2.5/10,000. The fundamental reason for this amazing figure is that about 73% mothers in poor areas in the west give birth by themselves without a professional doctor at home. Faced with such a set of numbers, I can no longer judge whether Xiao Wenchao with cerebral palsy is unfortunate or lucky.

Before Ankang planned to travel to the west, Secretary-General Cheng Shuqin of China Children's and Teenagers' Fund told me affectionately that she still remembered the experience of moist eyes when she visited the west. When she faced a class of 30 students with a pencil that could not be cut, she was still buried in the dark classroom, listening carefully and drawing pictures, and she couldn't bear to watch any more. She turned and ran to the only canteen in the village. It was estimated that 300 yuan could cover all the goods, bought a large bundle of new pencils and solemnly distributed them to every classmate. But later, she was surprised to find that no one in the whole classroom threw away their miniature pencils, and they all quietly put new pencils into the depths of their schoolbags. Now, the Secretary-General still treasures one of the pen tips. When she is tired of raising money for children in the west, she will take out the pencil tip that she can't grasp. When she thinks about that, she will start running around.

Although I was born and raised in the west, and I was once the protagonist in "The Story of Pencil Head", I deeply realized the significance of poverty to a child, and I was psychologically prepared after listening to the story of the Secretary-General, but I still couldn't calm down during the whole process of the trip to the west planned by Ankang. I observe everything around me from the perspective of a purely overseas scholar, and sometimes I can't help being involved in events. At the same time, I also saw that every overseas scholar who accompanied me was not completely calm when touching this news event, but was more or less mixed with personal feelings. In Chengdu, because of the low temperature in the western region before leaving, overseas scholars only had one down jacket to wear. At that time, the temperature was 20 degrees Celsius. Li Jianying, editor of Qianlong News Network, spent 100 yuan on a T-shirt, watching the children study hard all the way and quietly told me, "It feels like a crime to spend so much money on clothes." At the trip summary meeting, Yu Zhaohui of CCTV said that the emotional department cried in front of more than 30 people. I believe that not only I, but also any overseas scholar, can't face and interview calmly in front of those pure eyes like the western sky. At this time, I was wondering whether the description of an overseas scholar who went out from the west could be transformed into a force, even a small force, to change the fate of even a child or mother.