She Smiled
by Humphrey Wou
August 27, 2005
Is it luck, is it chance or is it destiny? We were following a volunteer Yanli to deliver a doll to a family. We didn’t expect to meet Zhao Chunli since the doll wasn’t for her. It was for her youngest sister who is HIV-positive. But it was Chunli’s melancholy that drew our attention.
Chunli is the second of five sisters. The eldest sister left home a couple months ago to work in a shoe factory. Chunli just graduated from middle school. Although her grades were good enough for her to continue with her education, her family’s financial situation would only permit her one choice—to become a migrant worker. Most rural teenagers in China grow up to meet the same fate, a hard labor job that pays less than 65 dollars a month.
Chunli always followed the adults’ advice: study hard, get good grades, one day you will get ahead. One exam after another, one year after another, now she has graduated and even been accepted by the Runan Teaching College, but so what? She read it over and over. The admission notice clearly stated the registration dates, August 16th to the 18th. The notice also stated that the college would place its graduates in positions paying eight hundred to twelve hundred a month, but so what? Printed clearly on the back, tuition was twenty one hundred a year, and dorm and other fees sixteen eighty. With both parents and a little sister being HIV-positive, and all the others so young, where would they find the money to send her to school?
It rained in Henan for days. August 16th, August 17th, August 18th passed. The dark sky allowed not a ray of hope to penetrate.
On August 22nd, a cold day, the rain-soaked earth had begun to soften. When Yanli took us to see some rural AIDS families, we never thought that we would meet Zhao Chunli. Within half an hour, we fully understood why she was the girl who never smiled. We stared at her admission notice over and over. No one said much, but our minds were turning rapidly. This family has to have at least one child who will break out of the cycle of poverty. They could not all be sent to factories. There was a foundation considering a scholarship for her. But the decision would not be made until mid September. By then, Chunli would have missed her chance.
As soon as we stepped out of her door, we talked strategies under four umbrellas. What if the school would give permission for late enrollment…what if we would call our friends from outside to help…what if Chunli’s willing, and we would leave for Runan in the next two days… was all this possible? It didn’t matter. We had to give it a try. Our time in Henan was short. To change Chunli’s future, we had only 48 hours to pull it off.
Yanli works for the Education Department of Shangcai County. She did all the negotiating, first with the local Education Department and admissions office, and then with the dean of the College. Finally she grabbed Chunli’s hand and marched into the unmarked office of the headmaster. Not only did she ask the principal to take Chunli in, but also pleaded for a reduced tuition. “This school has been around for more than a hundred years,” and the principal said, “I am breaking all precedent.” He took pity on Chunli and agreed to reduce the three-year tuition from eight thousand yuan to six, if the amount was fully paid at once. Yanli was grateful but she only had four thousand with her. So she pleaded with him again. “The school has been around for more than a hundred years, and I am breaking all precedent, twice,” the principal said. He agreed to take the four thousand as a down payment.
Never having been away from home before, Chunli had no idea what to pack. Zhang Nan, being a student from Beijing, knows dormitories very well. With his help, she tied three pairs of pants, a few shirts, blankets and bedding into a bundle. That was all she brought to her new life. Her mother, meanwhile, was out borrowing from her neighbors so Chunli could have money for food. After waiting for a long time for her to come back, they had to set off to Runan which was more than one hour away. The new campus was much better than her old high school. Chunli even got a new washing basin, new sheets, a new hot water bottle and many other things. Yanli helped put away her stuff and gave her a hundred yuan for meal credits. Zhang Nan taught her how to make her bed and stuffed ten yuan in her hand for buying stationary and daily items. Hu Jia’s money had long disappeared into the hands of other villagers. He was busy writing Zhao Chunli’s name on all the school issued items.
I was the most useless. At the key moment, I fell ill. Instead of going to Runan, I hid myself under the cover in bed. In my half-conscious state, I received constant messages from Hu Jia: we soon will arrive at the school; she is beginning to smile; ten minutes ago, she started her lesson; may she have a good life from now on. I exhaled. I couldn’t describe the joy of that moment. Is it luck, is it chance, or is it destiny? We thought we were delivering a doll. We delivered a girl to school. We thought we were just taking a trip to a village, but we were taking the journey of our lives.
Afterward we realized what we did was very different from what we have done to help rural children in the past. We didn’t do a careful background check and evaluation. We used our intuition and conscience. We didn’t wait for a foundation to come to the rescue. A decision was made within minutes. And within 48 hours, we saw the result. Chunli smiled. We were all a part of a group effort. I asked my friends in the United States to pay for the tuition. Yanli has an office job. She pitched in 100 yuan. Zhang Nan is a student. He contributed 10 yuan. We are all equal in helping Chunli. Lastly, we didn’t stop. Although Chunli is in school, her meal card is only enough to last for two weeks. Although we accidentally discovered one child, there are many more who cannot cross the threshold of higher education due to financial hardship. We cannot stop.
On our way back from Henan, the topic of kids in transition was recurring in our conversations. This year we helped one Zhao Chunli. Would it be possible to help ten next year? Yanli said yes. She can find ten teenagers who are in similar situations. I said yes. The tuition for one year averages around $250 (USD). I believe it is very affordable for my friends in the US to pay for a teenager’s schooling. Hu Jia and his wife said yes. Once the preparatory work is done, the program can be rolled out next July. Zhang Nan said yes. When he told his schoolmates about Chunli and asked them to contribute 10 yuan a month for food cost, they told him no. They would contribute twenty. And they wanted to get more people involved in helping more kids.
Next year, we won’t be relying on luck or chance anymore.