Yu Shuqian（second from left）, Cohort year 2014-2016, who taught in Liandong Mingde Primary School, Binchuan,Dali, Yunnan
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My return visit to Liandong
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Like many other fellows, I began planning my return visit to my placement school, Liandong Mingde Primary School, the day I left.
I looked forward to this trip for more than half a year before returning. Instead of traveling back to Liandong alone, I actually traveled with current colleagues and students. When teachers and students at the school at which I currently work learned of my Teach For China experience and my trip back to Yunnan, they spontaneously organized their travel with me and purchased some stationery and gifts.
Soon enough, during summer vacation we left for that familiar place.
1
Everything seemed to remain unchanged.
The children were around me, chatting and laughing.The local teachers enthusiastically asked me to drink grape juice in the local dialect. The headmaster shared his view education with us all. Vendors in the village sent me warm greetings. I still went to school early to help distributemixed sauce for the students’ breakfast.
We stayed in the village for three days and during this time I became concerned about a child who I expected to see but did not.
He was the boy who I spent the longest time talking with during my two years inYunnan.
He used to be the monitor of the class and dreamed of becoming a policeman, but, due to family matters, he regularly found himself in the principal’s office for fighting, breaking tires, and even stealing. Again and again I tried to talk to him, but failed again and again to stop him from making new mistakes. Repeated disappointment triggered my doubt on the meaning of my two years.
However,one afternoon before I left school, he came to me and said in a hollow voice,"Why didn't my mom come back to see me?" I knew it was not all hisfault. In his heart, he was still the same good boy that I had met at the beginning of my two years.
I waited at the school gate on Sunday evening when my students came back to school to see me. Nearly all my former students came to talk with me and I tried to learn about more about him from them. However, what I heard was still so disappointing.
2
A few moments later, I did see him from afar, and I thought he knew I was there.
Though I saw him hesitate for a moment, he then went straight into the school.At that time, I felt confused. I was no longer sure whether he still valued those memories with me, and I did not know what I could do for him nor where he would go in the future. I dared not to continue thinking about the answers.
Totally beyond my expectation, one month later, I received his messages from him on QQ.
"I recently got into a fight which woke me up.”
"I suddenly felt that many teachers were so good to me, and I wasted their kindness.”
"I completely realize my faults and I won't do anything stupid anymore."
"I knew you were there, but I felt too ashamed to see you. I could only look atyou from the opposite building.”
"I will be a man who can fight with fate, and I won't be bound here."
Reading his messages on the screen, I couldn’t help my tears.
（Lunch time）
Even at this moment, when I am typing these words down on the computer, I still can't restrain my inner excitement.
"Believe in possibility." Suddenly, one slogan of Teach For China occurs to me.
Indeed,education needs to "believe in possibility." Like sowing a seed, you never know when it can sprout and bear fruit, but that day will eventually arrive and we should never give up hope.
I have always had faith in what we are doing. Influences and inspirations we bring tothe local children, teachers, and other people around are all sparks, which can definitely inspire a better future from generation to generation.
（Their class!）