Many Peaks to Climb

Valerie MAMARA

Perspectives, Vol. 2, No. 4

My first experience with the Chinese language came in 1987 after I graduated from high school in Denver, Colorado. I had the chance to take a night class in Chinese during the summer. I don't know really why I chose to take this class. I was the youngest among the crowd who for the most part were going to China for travel or for business, at that time I had no thoughts about going to China. I love languages and so I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn a new language. During my first year of college, I unfortunately did not have the chance to enroll in language class so I went a year without learning a language. I transferred to Catholic University in Washington, D.C. My major was Economics and a minor in Politics. I decided to learn Chinese at George Washington University. So for a year I studied Mandarin there with the clear intent to study abroad in China for at least a semester in my junior year. I found the perfect study abroad program which allowed me to combine Economics and Chinese. In the spring of 1989, I applied, was accepted and was preparing myself to attend the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) in Beijing for the Fall of 1989. Due to the tumultuous times in Beijing that spring, my trip to Beijing was for a short time to be diverted to Taiwan. I was disappointed; I wanted to go to the Mainland. Well as it turned out, the study abroad organization decided it was safe for us to go to Beijing.

On August 24, 1989, I was on a plane headed for Beijing via a 3-day orientation in Hong Kong. Of the original group of 10 that were supposed to join the UIBE program, only 2 of us actually did make the trip. The 3½ months that I spent in Beijing that fall changed my life forever. Before I left Beijing in December 1989, I promised myself that I would return. The fall of 1989 is unforgettable. I experienced so much in such a short time. Tensions were still quite high at that time which made my time there that much more interesting. Few foreigners were around, you had to be careful about asking too many questions which I like to do, and bullet holes in buildings were still visible. Tiananmen Square was off limit until a few weeks before we were to leave. I was in Beijing for the 40th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, which was quite a magnificent display but was also under a heavy police and military presence. Although I did not take great care about learning my Chinese language well, as my Chinese friends all spoke English with me, I did come away with a deeper understanding and insight into Chinese culture, history, economic development and politics. On the lighter side, I got to make jiaozi; I took the Chinese bus and train and rode a bike; I learned wushu; I visited most of the historical and cultural sites in Beijing; I got used to taking public showers; I visited many State Owned Enterprises and joint ventures in Beijing; I got to know Beijing before it changed into what it is today. I was really sad to leave but knew I would be back.

It wasn't until 4 years later that I did eventually make it back to Beijing. In February 1993, I returned to UIBE in Beijing to put all my efforts into studying and learning Chinese. I spent one semester (6 months) at UIBE studying Chinese and also teaching/tutoring English to make some extra money. I had only saved enough money to put myself through one semester of study. I was blessed to find a Korean family who allowed me to live with them rent-free in exchange for teaching their children English. During that time I had a tutor and studied on my own and continued to tutor adults and children in English. I made quite good progress in my spoken Chinese during this time. I spent a good bit of time riding my bike around town and mingling with the local people and visiting different places in and around Beijing. I decided to return to the States after 14 months in China to go for a Master's degree in the field of agricultural economics. I believed this degree would help me to find the kind of job in which I could come back to China and work in the countryside with the farmers.

I attended the University of Delaware and received an M.S. in Agricultural Economics . Upon graduation, I took a job with Winrock International, a private, non-profit organization in agricultural development based in Petit Jean, Arkansas. I was hired to work in the China Department, which was preparing to start a new program in China and re-open it's China representative office. In August 1996, I returned to Beijing for the third time. Our project was a Ph.D. training program for agricultural economists from all over China to be based at the Agriculture University in Beijing. I assisted in managing the program. We brought in professors from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Taiwan and mainland China for two-year course work with the students. In addition to managing this program, we also got involved in Women in Development (WID) projects.

Although my time in Beijing this time around only lasted 6 months, it was then that I found my next peak to climb. I returned to the States and waited 5 months before I could return to China to take up my new position. I was accepted to become a UNV (United Nations Volunteer) to work on a GTZ (German Technical Aid Agency) program, the Sino-German Poverty Alleviation Project (SGPAP). I was to be based in Malipo County of Yunnan Province. Yunnan in southwest China is considered among China's poorest areas. It is a mountainous, border area that is rich in plant, animal and people diversity. The natural landscape is spectacular. There are some 26 official ethnic minorities in Yunnan. Yunnan had been an isolated area, with not much access to the outside world and so the peoples of Yunnan are considered by many to be backward and quite poor. The well-preserved traditions of the minority people are a credit to their ingenuity despite the hard lives they live and their poverty in many cases can be attributed to inaccessibility. Many international organizations and governments are very attracted to Yunnan due in large part to the large poverty-stricken population, the beautiful landscape, the great weather, the ethnic minorities, and the open attitude and welcoming policy of provincial leaders.

I finally arrived in Malipo on July 4, 1997. Malipo County is in Wenshan Prefecture in the southeast corner of Yunnan bordering Guangxi Province and Vietnam. It is approximately 30 km from the Vietnam border. During the 1979-1987 border clash between China and Vietnam, Malipo was one of the key Chinese outposts with heavy military presence. It was a closed county until 1992. Malipo is an adopted county of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which means that the Poverty Alleviation Office at MOFA has taken on the responsibility of capturing a number of foreign aid projects to be implemented in Malipo and another chosen county. There were a number of other foreign aid projects going on in different townships in the county along with SGPAP. I was the only foreigner/westerner (there were some Vietnamese) living and working in the whole of Malipo. I spent 2 ½ years in Malipo acting as coordinator between the Chinese and German sides. I worked with the county Foreign Affairs/Aid Office. My closest friend and colleague was the Project Officer for SGPAP, a young Chinese woman. We researched, planned, and implemented such measures as drinking water, terracing, irrigation, planting of protective and economic trees, bio-gas, and household training.

In addition to SGPAP, I took on a personal project that arose from my frequent field visits. Education in the countryside is not the best but a rarity despite the government's attempts to lay down the law of compulsory nine-year education. Most children make it only to grade four, which is just barely enough to qualify as literate. The village schools are usually only to grade four. To continue would mean going farther away and paying higher fees. For most families this is a heavy burden so they keep the children at home to work on the land. With smaller families, the available hands to work the land have dwindled, making the children more valuable at home. In our project sites, the village schools were appalling. The structures were falling down, poorly lit and inadequate for the number of students. The idea really hit me when I walked into a crumbling and dark classroom structure with the teacher's quarters attached and looked into the big brown eyes of the Miao children. I was very moved almost to tears. I had saved up some money, despite still paying off college loans, that I decided I would invest into a new school for the children of Sanjiazhai and Liangjiazhai Villages (both SGPAP project villages). I presented my idea to my colleagues at the Foreign Aid office and I began working with the county Education Bureau to find out how much the construction of a new school would cost. Malipo County has a very strong program for the Hope School Project so I was fortunate to work with the Village School Reconstruction Office. I invested more than 30,000 RMB ($3600) into the school for construction, child sponsorship and a library. The funds for the child sponsorship came from friends around the world. The local government and villagers matched the 30,000 RMB for construction of the school including new desk sets. As it turned out, another village school farther down in the valley was also quite appalling and so it was suggested that the new school be built for all the surrounding villages, including Miao and Zhuang children. The new school can be seen from kilometers away on the mountain slope. It is called the Mamara Hope School. The Mamara Hope School was completed in May 1999 and was dedicated in September 1999. A simple but meaningful ceremony was held. It was a beautiful, clear September day on which we made our way to the new school with the children lined up dressed in their best Miao and Zhuang traditional clothing waiting for us and chanting "huanying", "huanying", "relie huanying". The original two schools each had a combined total of some 40 students, the new school already had more than 60 students attending class. The two teachers, both Zhuang, are local villagers and were just as excited as the children. During the ceremony, there were a few short speeches, a presentation of scholarships to 32 needy students, presentation of gifts to the students, presentation of books and school supplies to the teachers and a presentation of a certificate to me. It was a very happy day. Everyone was full of smiles. I've visited the school a few times after that day and each time I see more children attending the school and the school is kept neat and clean. I am always warmly greeted as Auntie Bai (Chinese name Baileli). The impact of investing a little money for something relatively simple is grand and very visible.

Subsequently, I went on to build another school, Bright Future Hope School, with funds donated by friends and family around the world. This second school, like the first cost approximately the same with matching funds from the local government and people. The village of Chuandong and three other surrounding villages, all of Han ethnicity, are neighboring villages of an SGPAP site. Bright Future Hope School was completed in November 1999 and the dedication ceremony was in December 1999. The two local teachers and more than 30 students were all lined up to greet us on that cold, blustery day of the ceremony. Many of the children were not wearing shoes or had very thin clothing on and you could see them shivering. The dedication ceremony followed the same pattern as the previous one. The most fun is taking group pictures with the children and teachers in front of their new school. Everyone was in a hurry to finish the ceremony so that we could get warm. I left Malipo shortly after this event but visited the school again in May 2000. It was really nice to go back and bring books and candy for the children and to see them studying hard.

I also introduced many friends living and working in Yunnan to Malipo and they were quite moved as well and have subsequently raised funds to build some six schools until now. I decided that I would embark on building a third and final school. It will be a little bit bigger than the first two due to a larger student population (about 100) and a little bit more expensive due to size and inflation. However, I am committed to raising the funds for this school because it is made up of such diverse ethnicities including Zhuang, Dai, Yi and Han, and the school is really in need of reconstruction. The parents in Zhongzhai and the surrounding three villages place a high priority on their children's education and are committed as well to improving the lives of their children. I want to support them in their endeavor.

As a result of my work in Malipo, I was honored by the Provincial government on October 1, 1999, the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, with the "Friendship with Yunnan Award". It indeed was a great honor to receive this award and in doing so I got my 15 minutes of fame. I was interviewed on radio, TV and in print. Yunnan TV "Topics of Today" came down to Malipo for 2 days to follow me to the SGPAP project sites and to some of the Hope Schools. A lot of Chinese people saw this show and read about my work in Malipo. As a result, on the street, at the airport, at meetings, Chinese would say to me they saw me or read about me. I felt this is really what it's all about and why I'm here. I can touch city peoples' lives and impress upon them if a foreigner can come all the way from the U.S. to help the poor of China, why can't Chinese people help their fellow country men and women? This is a very strong feeling of mine that the Chinese people should be the ones to help their own people. It is my love for China, the Chinese people and the Chinese countryside that makes me do what I do. But I will return to my own country one day and so the Chinese should carry on because they love their country and their fellow country men and women, not because they can gain position or wealth. So after 2 ½ years in Malipo, I knew it was time to leave. I had accomplished something that I could leave behind to others. I had reached the peak. It was time to climb to a new peak.

I returned to Yunnan in April 2000, to take on the position of country coordinator for Habitat for Humanity (HFH). I was thrilled to be able to pioneer the start of a great organization that I know will have a major impact on the lives of millions of Chinese so that they can live in decent, healthy homes and communities. More than that though, I will be able to train local Chinese to take over my work and the local organization will be totally Chinese run, Chinese helping Chinese. It's been a dream of mine to work for HFH in China since 1994, I never imagined though that I would be the one to undertake the initial steps to make HFH a reality in China. I have spent the last 8 months researching, discussing, visiting and writing reports in attempts to find a suitable partner with whom to cooperate in our first HFH site in Yunnan. Laying the groundwork, a solid foundation, is no easy task but it is definitely a very worthwhile learning experience and the most important work I can do to insure the success of HFH in China. Until now, we have not yet decided on our first site, which will be a demonstration site. However, the need for simple, decent and affordable housing in the Chinese countryside is great. HFH principles and concepts are something new in China and it will take time for the Chinese to accept and understand them. Once we do start building, people from all walks of life are welcome to join us. HFH relies on volunteers, both local and foreign. Short-term mission teams of students, churches, civic groups, etc. give their time and resources to spend 7-21 days on-site building houses with the homeowners who also do their sweat equity and mutual help.

Next time you are in Yunnan, please look me up.

(The author can be reached at HFH China, 36 Guan Shang Beilu #10-1-501, Yunxi Xiao Qu, Kunming 650200, Yunnan, PRC, 86-871-7156798, vmamara@cs.com.)