February 27 was the first day of the new term at the Zhanhe Middle School in Ninglang Yi Autonomous County, on the outskirts of Lijiang City in Yunnan. Feng Ai had been filled with anxiety for several days, worried about the students who couldn't afford the education expenses and had to drop out of school.

On February 18, Feng Ai had gone to the home of one student. Jingutigu's family is the only one in the village without electricity. Jingutigu's father died young and her mother supports the entire family. They can only eke enough food out of their poor land to keep them going for half a year: the rest of the time, they must rely on help from their neighbors. Jingutigu dropped out of the school half a year ago. Feng Ai and the other teachers have visited the family eight times in the past few months, and finally persuaded the mother to sell their only cow to support the girl's studies. Later, with Feng Ai's help, Jingutigu received some financial assistance from Beijing.

Yunnan Province is home to more than 3 million people of the Yi ethnic group, most of whom are concentrated in an area hemmed in by the Jinsha and Yuanjiang rivers, and the Ailao and Wuliang mountains. Huaping, Ninglang and Yongsheng in western Yunnan form what is known as the Yunnan Lesser Liangshan Mountain area. Zhanhe Village is 3,200 meters above sea level.

Before the new semester began, Feng Ai and the other teachers visited all the poor families in the village, preventing them from stopping their children's studies.

Feng Ai, a Beijing native, is a postgraduate in sociology at Shanghai Fudan University. In August 2003, she joined the Graduate Volunteers Servicing the West Program and was appointed head of the Shanghai-Yunnan volunteer team, in part because of her substantial experience. From August 2000 to August 2001, Feng had been in the China Youth Volunteer Alleviating Poverty Relay Plan Postgraduate Teaching Group, and taught for a year at the Baiya Village Middle School in Xiji County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Although Ninglang and Xiji are both impoverished areas, Feng feels the Yunnan village is far more comfortable than the windswept county in Ningxia.

"The students have neither hot water nor clothes nor quilts. In contrast, I feel I'm very lucky. Living here, one's goals and focuses gradually change. Forget salary, house and car: the only thing on your mind will be the students." Feng adds, "It's a very simple life."

Nevertheless, Feng's heart broke when she saw one student in the first grade of junior high school misspell his name, and another asked whether the Internet was for fishing or capturing birds.

Feng had had similar experiences when she taught in Xiji, so she told herself and the other teachers to be patient with the students' ignorance. She teaches them using methods designed for primary school students. To get them interested in studying Pinyin, the phonetic system for transcribing Chinese characters, she showed them her mobile phone. "If you learn Pinyin well, you can send messages on the cellphone," she said. In class, Feng uses many innovative methods, such as imitating a guessing game that is popular on TV.

In the past half year, Feng Ai has taught four courses, including music, Chinese, history and geography, with 30 classes a week. She works on weekends, too, only getting three days off each month. Feng usually works until midnight correcting students' papers and preparing the next day's lessons, and then is back up and preparing for work by 6:00 AM. The morning session ends at 12:15 and afternoon classes start at 1:00; evening classes continue until 9:15 PM. On many days she has no time to eat a proper meal, just gulping down a bowl of instant noodles after class.
 
Feng is campaigning to improve the students' hygiene. She does not permit them to spit or to lick a finger to turn a page in a book. She asked them to wash their hands frequently, but learned that the kids didn't have any soap. So when she was staying in a hotel to attend a meeting, she seized the opportunity to stock up on soap and toothbrushes for the students.

Feng's dedication earned her a promotion to deputy headmaster of the school. Since then, in addition to her other duties, she has been focusing on the children's nutrition. Every day before she has her own meal, she goes to the dining hall and checks whether the food for the students is warm. She says that when she is on duty, her students will be assured of having a hot meal.

The students, delighted with Feng's optimistic and cheerful character, have rewarded her with a pet name: Xiao Yanzi, or "Little Swallow."

"At first, I thought the teacher from Shanghai would be really mean to us. But I changed my mind when Ms. Feng came into the classroom and bowed with a smile on her face."

The students all love Feng and vie with each other to carry water and wash clothes for her. One of the students, remembering a line from the TV drama, wrote in a composition: "On behalf of all the people in China, I want to say to Ms. Feng: I love you."

At the end of 2003, Feng Ai won the National Youth Volunteer Service Gold Medal. At the last class before she went to Beijing to take the prize, Feng found many beautiful wildflowers on the lecture platform. Inside the flowers was a little board on which the students wrote with a chalk, "Bon voyage!"

"Feng and other volunteers narrow the distance between this remote school and the big cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai," says Lu Feng, the school's headmaster.

"Before, we didn't know what to expect from the volunteers. After they came to our school, their deeds and precious volunteer spirit really touched me. Their arrival not only eased the school's staff shortage, but also brought new ideas and teaching methods as well as the concept of 'study 'til the end' that influenced both the students and the teachers here."

Since Feng Ai came to Zhanhe Village, she has devoted herself to helping the students and the teachers. In order to find assistance for the students, Feng learned about bargaining and canvassing. When she was invited to give a speech at Northern Jiaotong University, she submitted a list of six poor students and asked the school to provide help for them in return. The university quickly agreed.
 
During her first half-year teaching at Zhanhe Village, Feng Ai raised 6,000 yuan (US$725) and helped 10 dropouts return to school.

Every month Feng receives 600 yuan (US$72.50) in living expenses. She says her biggest expense is the recharging fee for her mobile phone. As the head of the volunteers, she talks with every member of the team and endeavors to help them. She usually goes visit volunteers in other villages during the three days off work within a month.

Says one Ninglang County official, "There are some places without roads that we haven't visited. But Feng has been there."

Feng grew up in Beijing with parents who are journalists and an older sister living abroad. Fond of ballet, she spent years studying dance.

Feng Ai has been a warm-hearted person who loves helping others since childhood. At university, she was one of the organizers of the Love Fund, which collected nearly 1 million yuan (US$121,000) to help over 120 poor students to finish their studies. Feng also served as the office director of Huaguang Co., which supports poor students. Thanks to her excellent organizational skills, more than 50 poor students from Yingshang County, Anhui Province, received help from the fund.

Many people think Feng has done enough for society, but Feng herself feels that she has barely started. Several years ago, when she first read the news about volunteer recruiting in China Youth Daily, she clipped the article. Later, her tutor encouraged her, saying, "You're a sociology major. You will never understand the countryside if you don't stay there for a half year; and you will never understand China if you don't understand the countryside."

When Feng told her mother she was going to Ningxia to be a volunteer, her mom answered simply, "Go ahead, no one starves there these days."

That first year as a volunteer changed Feng's life.

"It was the first time I had come from a metropolis to an extremely barren mountain area. Also, it was the first time I lived together with the local villagers and felt the toughness of the land and the people."

When she read the news about recruitment of volunteers in June 2003, she signed up again and came to Zhanhe to start her second life in teaching service. "Isn't it a good thing the government pays for us to go to the country and bear a little hardship?" she smiles.

Feng has learned through her experiences things that no professor or parent could ever teach. "In a big city, it doesn't matter whether you exist or not. You can win everything except a virtuous character. Teaching in the mountains, you realize that these children's lives will probably be different simply because you exist. Here, I get a happy feeling I never had before: someone needs me."

Says Feng Ai, "Everyone's energy is limited. I am not the sun, but a bulb. It's enough for one bulb to light just one room. When we pass down the plan year after year, we may influence the students and local people generation by generation. We hope their fate will be changed, and that is the greatest happiness of us volunteers."

(China.org.cn by Li Xiao,  March 26, 2004)