Diary from the construction of Daoming n.2 (Zhangpojiao)

 

It was a fluke . A Catholic priest gave me an old photograph , and the photo content made ​​me feel ashamed and unease: a few children of different ages were attending class on the outside of a semi - ruined house . The legs of the table were some tree roots . The flat side of the table was a board uneven. The wax was on the floor. And the teacher was the only person who could read and write, although he only studied up to primary 3.

This impressed me so much that I decided to see it for myself . I communicated this decision to a small group of friends and was surprised that they had the same thought. So the next day we went to go visit that place. It was the morning of a clear day. We were 4 people from different professions . Some did not know each other and got to know because of us.

As we wanted to go all together, we asked our friend Chen take us in the jeep we just bought . Our target was the village that had impressed everyone of us - Zhangpojiao . But none of us knew how to get there. 

The only reliable thing at our disposal was a map and the phone number of someone from a nearby town, so we had no other choice than to ask as we go . It was already dusk, around 6 pm, when we met a villager in a crossroads . According to this person, from the junction to Zhanpojiao, there was only about 20 minutes walk, and he even offered to guide us confidently. Quick, he said, after the curve ... after climbing that hill the town is on the downhill. We were so happy that we began to sing, but after singing many songs, after turning many curves, after going up and down I do not know how many slopes, the only thing that we saw was that the road was getting more difficult, so that, unable to endure more, we asked our guide if the path we were following was correct.

But our guide was confident and said we should move forward. Gradually there was already dark and we had reached a place where there was not even a road. It was at that moment when our guide told us that he had traveled that road for seven years and that he did not know where we were now . But our car was already in a place where we could not backup by the narrowness of the road. We could only get down the car and to walk and fix the road, so our car could follow us. On several occasions the car got stuck in the roots of trees and we had no choice but to use knives to slowly get it back . In slippery places, we had to extend branches so that the car could pass. Every hour we could only move a few tens of meters. It was already night and, if we spread our hands, we were unable to see our own fingers .

Finally, we took the decision to ask our guide to walk to the nearest town and ask for help. Our guide said that the village was very close, as he remembered from seven years ago, so we settled. But to avoid getting another mistake, we thought it was best that I accompany the guide, and, at the crossroads where we got lost the first time, one of us should stary and try to ask someone else : thus we could keep in touch and increase our options out of it.

So , I set off with our guide again. Back to turning curves, climbing up and down hills, until the guide told me that it was dark and late and that I should forgive him, but he also didn't know where the village was. It was like I was hit with a big stick. My legs began to waver and I felt that my head was boiling. And if I wanted to go back, I could not because I was already far away. At that time, all I could do was start praying in silence and try to find someone who could help us . It was the only way out of there.

There I was with a person I never met before, in the middle of a moonless night where we could not see anything, not knowing where to walk for more than two hours. Just when both the guide and I had lost all hope, I could hear the sound of a barking dog. In a moment we forgot all our tiredness and literally flew in the direction of the dog barking sound we heard . At one point we reached a very dimly lit . Gradually I could see that there were more dogs barking and geting closer to us. Immediately we were surrounded by more than 20 dogs and our joy turned into real fear not knowing what to do.

After several long minutes , we saw a head appear through a door. Only after explaining that we were outsiders who were coming in peace, he came out with other inhabitants of the house. In about 10 minutes, all the village men had come out. Together they took the car out of danger, pushing away stones, etc.

After all of us got into the village, we extended some mats on the floor and prepared to sleep and rest, but all the villagers surrounded us and did not leave us alone even for a moment.

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