Chronicle of the Renai School in Hanwangqun New Village, Mianzhu, Sichuan (June 11–July 5)

   
This is a chron­i­cle of a tent school, faith­ful­ly record­ing the sto­ries of a group of vol­un­teers work­ing with chil­dren in Sichuan. There are actu­al­ly many such sto­ries. We record them here sim­ply to com­mem­o­rate these unfor­get­table days, that unfor­get­table place, those unfor­get­table super com­rades, and those incred­i­bly love­ly chil­dren.

   
Life is so beau­ti­ful that even an earth­quake can­not make us unhap­py!

 
【Vol­un­teers at Renai School in Qunx­in Vil­lage】

   
Many vol­un­teers have worked hard for this small school, teach­ing the chil­dren and par­tic­i­pat­ing in activ­i­ties. How­ev­er, I don’t know many of the ear­ly vol­un­teers well, and I don’t even know their names. I’ve only not­ed down the vol­un­teers who have been par­tic­i­pat­ing in school activ­i­ties since June 11th:

Car­rot Inspec­tor, a male from Bei­jing, is a chil­dren’s read­ing pro­mot­er and founder of Red Mud. From June 8th to 14th and June 28th to July 5th, he will teach cul­tur­al read­ing and fun math.

Xiong Liang, male, from Bei­jing, is a renowned chil­dren’s illus­tra­tor and essay­ist. He will teach art from June 8th to 14th.

Qin Ming, male, from Shang­hai, white-col­lar work­er in the IT indus­try. From June 11th to 19th and June 24th to July 5th, he will teach Chi­nese, Eng­lish, and Read­ing.

Zhao Tiezhu, male, from Bei­jing, white-col­lar work­er in real estate. From June 11th to 19th, he taught geog­ra­phy.

Feng Ning, female, from Bei­jing, a sopho­more, will teach Eng­lish and Math from June 11th to 19th.

Yu Xiaowen, male, from Bei­jing, a fresh­man, will teach art from June 11th to 22nd.

Ajia, male, from Bei­jing, is a chil­dren’s read­ing pro­mot­er and founder of Red Mud. From June 14th to 28th, he will teach cul­tur­al read­ing and Chi­nese.

Lin Yiwei, male, from Bei­jing, is a fairy tale writer and stamp col­lec­tor. From June 14th to 28th, he will teach cul­tur­al read­ing and Chi­nese.

Dai Xip­ing, a male from Jiangxi Province, is a Tourism Bureau employ­ee and vet­er­an (lieu­tenant). From June 14th to July 5th, he taught mil­i­tary train­ing and nation­al defense edu­ca­tion.

Zhang Jun, male, from Jiangxi Province, a telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions bureau employ­ee and vet­er­an (non-com­mis­sioned offi­cer), taught mil­i­tary train­ing and nation­al defense edu­ca­tion from June 14th to July 5th.

Li Ran, male, from Bei­jing, a sopho­more. From June 16th to 19th, he will teach sci­ence and Eng­lish.

Chen Chao, male, from Bei­jing, is a renowned musi­cian and free­lance com­pos­er. He will teach music from June 19th to 28th.

Ju Xing, male, from Bei­jing, teacher. From June 24th to July 5th, he taught Chi­nese.

Xue Shan­bing, male, from Chongqing, is a junior. From June 26th to July 5th, he will teach art and phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion.

Gen­er­al Cat­a­logue of the Chron­i­cles of Ren’ai School in Qunx­in Vil­lage, Han­wang Town, Mianzhu City, Sichuan Province (June 11-July 5)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2665/object/1
June 11 (Detec­tive’s Notes)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2668/object/11
June 12 (Detec­tive’s Notes)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2669/object/11
June 13 (Detec­tive’s Notes)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2678/object/0
June 14–15 (A‑League)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2688/object/0
June 16 (A‑League)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2693/object/0
June 17–18 (A‑League)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2695/object/0
June 19th (Lin Yiwei’s Notes)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2696/object/0
June 20 (Lin Yiwei’s Notes)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2697/object/0
June 21 (A‑League)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2699/object/0
June 22 (Aji­a­ji)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2700/object/0
June 23 (A‑League)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2701/object/0
June 24 (Aji­a­ji)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2703/object/0
June 25 (A‑Ji)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2705/object/0
June 26 (A‑League)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2711/object/0
June 27 (A‑League)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2712/object/17
June 28 (Argenti­na First Divi­sion, Detec­tive’s Notes)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2713/object/1
June 29 (Detec­tive’s Notes)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2714/object/8
June 30th — July 1st (Detec­tive’s Notes)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2721/object/0
July 2 (Detec­tive’s Notes)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2696/object/1
July 3rd (Detec­tive’s Notes)

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bbs/resman.aspx?action=download&uri=@@__5/2696/object/1
July 4–5 (Detec­tive’s Notes)

 
[Ori­gin — Sup­ple­men­tary Notes on the A‑League]
   
Qunx­in Vil­lage is a moun­tain vil­lage in Han­wang Town. It is said to be the most pop­u­lous vil­lage in the town, with a total pop­u­la­tion of 2,812. How­ev­er, you may not be able to find it on the map because it was recent­ly called “Quanx­in Vil­lage” and recent­ly merged with anoth­er vil­lage to become “Qunx­in Vil­lage”. Qunx­in Vil­lage belongs to Han­wang Town, in Mianzhu City, which is under the juris­dic­tion of Deyang City. If you want to say it in full, it is:Qunx­in Vil­lage, Han­wang Town, Mianzhu City, Deyang City, Sichuan Province, Chi­na.
   
The vil­lage is locat­ed in the epi­cen­ter of the earth­quake, and even now, after­shocks can still be felt from time to time, and the sound of land­slides in the near­by moun­tains can be heard.
   
Accord­ing to reports, the first group of vol­un­teers to arrive at Qunx­in Vil­lage in Han­wang Town was the “Heart of Chi­na” vol­un­teer ser­vice team, which arrived on May 21st. This team, formed inde­pen­dent­ly dur­ing the earth­quake relief effort, made out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions in pro­vid­ing med­ical assis­tance and coor­di­nat­ing with the mil­i­tary’s assault. At the end of May, at the request of Vil­lage Par­ty Sec­re­tary Zhou, they began orga­niz­ing a tem­po­rary tent school in the vil­lage.This sto­ry is record­ed in anoth­er arti­cle (“Spe­cial Issue on the ‘Heart of Chi­na’ Vol­un­teer Ser­vice Team: Link from the Ren Ai Char­i­ty Foun­da­tion web­site).
   
After sev­er­al days of coor­di­na­tion and joint efforts, the Bei­jing Ren’ai Char­i­ty Foun­da­tion took over the baton from this glo­ri­ous vol­un­teer team and estab­lished the “Ren’ai School” in Qunx­in Vil­lage. After some set­backs, the school final­ly moved into a small for­est. It was land owned by two vil­lagers, who gen­er­ous­ly lent it this pre­cious land. Although the for­est was damp and over­grown with weeds, it was suf­fi­cient­ly cool in the scorch­ing sum­mer heat.This sto­ry is also record­ed in an arti­cle (“Ren Ai School in the Deep Bam­boo For­est”: link from the Ren Ai Char­i­ty Foun­da­tion web­site).
   
As a vol­un­teer for the Ren Ai Foun­da­tion, I vis­it­ed Qunx­in Vil­lage on May 31st and June 1st. On the after­noon of June 1st, I par­tic­i­pat­ed in a chil­dren’s par­ty. I told the younger stu­dents the sto­ry “You Look Deli­cious,” and their clev­er­ness and enthu­si­as­tic reac­tion amazed me. That expe­ri­ence made me deter­mined to return. Per­haps this is what they call fate.
   
Because liv­ing con­di­tions in Qunx­in Vil­lage were still quite dif­fi­cult at the time, the Ren’ai Char­i­ty Foun­da­tion was unable to send long-term vol­un­teers (equiv­a­lent to staff), so we were unsure whether the school could con­tin­ue to oper­ate. I promised the foun­da­tion that we would form a team of vol­un­teer teach­ers to keep the school going.
   
On June 3rd, I returned to Bei­jing from Sichuan. After a detailed dis­cus­sion with Inspec­tor Car­rot, we decid­ed to form teams of two and take turns going.
   
On June 6, the first team — Inspec­tor Luobo and Xiong Liang set off.
   
On June 7, Inspec­tor Car­rot and Xiong Liang fol­lowed the Ren Ai Foun­da­tion to Dujiangyan School to teach.
   
On June 8th, they first arrived at the Ren’ai School at the Mianzhu Sports Cen­ter, then camped at the Qunx­in Vil­lage School in Han­wang Town. The school’s con­di­tions were very basic at the time. On their first night, they were hit by heavy rain, spend­ing the night in a del­uge of water.
   
Ini­tial­ly, there were sev­er­al vol­un­teers from “Heart of Chi­na” and oth­er vol­un­teer teach­ers, but they all left one after anoth­er, and only Xiao Yi, who was respon­si­ble for periph­er­al work, stayed.
   
At noon on June 11th, four vol­un­teers rec­om­mend­ed by the Cheng­du Vol­un­teer Home arrived to take on teach­ing duties. They were Qin Ming, Zhao Tiezhu, Feng Ning, and Yu Xiaowen. With this, the teach­ing work at the Qunx­in Vil­lage Renai School grad­u­al­ly got back on track.
   
On the morn­ing of June 12th, the Niu­bi Vil­lage tent school, spear­head­ed by Xiao Yi, opened for its first day. This tem­po­rary school was pri­mar­i­ly designed for stu­dent safe­ty, divert­ing stu­dents from sev­er­al crowd­ed vil­lages. How­ev­er, the con­di­tions at the Niu­bi Vil­lage school were less than ide­al, pri­mar­i­ly due to con­cerns about safe­ty and the avail­abil­i­ty of vol­un­teers. There­fore, Ren Ai was hes­i­tant to apply to the Edu­ca­tion Bureau for the school’s oper­a­tion, and the vol­un­teer teach­ers were mere­ly over­see­ing the teach­ing.
   
On June 13, the sec­ond team — Ajia and Lin Yiwei set off.
   
At noon on June 14, Ajia and Lin Yiwei came to the Ren’ai School in Qunx­in Vil­lage, while Inspec­tor Luobo and Xiong Liang returned to Bei­jing to rest.
   
At noon on June 28, after a rest, Inspec­tor Luobo came to Qunx­in Vil­lage again to replace Ajia and Lin Yiwei.
   
Since the chil­dren will return to school on August 1st and the school has com­plet­ed its mis­sion at this stage, and respect­ing the arrange­ments of the local edu­ca­tion bureau, we have decid­ed to evac­u­ate the school on July 5th. We will return the school’s sup­plies as they should, but we will strive to leave behind a small pub­lic library, which will be man­aged by Ms. Xiong Ying, a local and tem­po­rary prin­ci­pal.
   
The school diary will be kept until July 5th.