“愛”的接力棒

The Baton of Love

我所任職的ILBORU中學在阿魯沙乃至整個坦桑尼亞都是比較出名的重點中學。

還記得第一天去這所中學的路上我內心的那份忐忑。ILBORU中學離阿魯沙市區大約有10公里遠，通往學校的道路不是柏油路，不是水泥路，而是坑坑洼洼的土路，有時候如果你稍不留神，感覺整個人都能被甩出車外;透過車窗看到的大都是低矮的房子，光著腳嬉戲打鬧的孩童們，各種陳舊的小商店風景倒是沒的說，綠樹蔥蔥，鳥語花香。

此外，校長告訴我ILBORU中學是一所寄宿男校，聽到這個我第一反應是吃驚地反問校長，男校？那是不是很難管理？校長笑著回答我說，你以后就知道。我當時心里已經打起了退堂鼓，心想那么多男孩調皮搗蛋打打鬧鬧，管理起來一定讓人焦頭爛額。

但是接觸之后，我的忐忑之情逐漸退去。我發現ILBORU的學生們在課堂上認真聽講，不吵不鬧，更不會隨意走動，就算去洗手間都會請求老師的批準。他們在課下對老師也是禮貌有加，看到我都會打招呼，有些是“您好，張老師！”有些是“Good morning，Madam！” 同時，家庭作業也會按時完成，小部分學習比較慢的學牛回答不上課堂提問的時候，也會給我一個微笑，說“我不知道”。能遇到這樣的學生們，我倍感欣慰。因為無論在我之前做志愿者的菲律賓還是我做孔子學院教師的厄瓜多爾，學生們都沒有這么乖，例如上課聽音樂、聊天、玩手機、吃東西等等是很常見的，能靜下來聽老師講課的寥寥無幾。有時在他們眼里漢語課就像小提琴課、游泳課或者網球課，是興趣課，想來就來，不來也沒關系。這里的學生不一樣，我從他們的眼睛里能看到那種對學習的渴望、對知識的向往。

可是，漸漸地，我又發現了這些刻苦可愛的學生們的困難之處。首先，他們的飲食非常單一，營養不夠。原來，這所學校的一部分學生來自貧困家庭，有些甚至貧困到家里無法養活他們。政府把他們聚集在這所學校，為他們提供免費教育，還承擔吃、穿、住和學習用具等一切開銷。而學校給他們提供的免費的一日三餐的主要成分是米飯、豆類和蔬菜;沒有牛奶，沒有葷食，沒有水果，每個月只有特定的一天有葷食。這些學生基本上常年接受著這樣的飲食，營養怎么能跟得上？看到這些，已為人母的我感到特別心疼。

在學習上，他們教室里只有黑板和粉筆，沒有多媒體。聽說有一個活動室有一臺電視，有一臺DVD，偶爾可以看一些足球比賽和娛樂節目。但是，在這里，停電是家常便飯，所以我平時也很難給學生們上一些文化活動類的課程。另外，上課時只能是我在黑板上寫，學生抄寫到筆記本上。對于這些零基礎的初學者來說，抄寫拼音和意思不難，抄寫漢字就非常吃力。而且停電的時候很難看清黑板上的字，他們抄寫起來更加吃力。

他們沒有課本，很多課本上的練習題都無法完成，這樣使得教學效果相當不理想。我也和校長溝通過，問學校能不能拿點經費為他們復印課本，得到的答復是No。因為學生人數太多，學校沒有那么多經費。我能理解校長的難處，他們確實困難。第一學期將近過半，看著一份份字跡工整的家庭作業，一份份幾乎完美的試卷，我同丈夫商量：“要不，我們自己出錢去給學生復印課本吧？”他說：“只要你自己覺得值得，你就去做，我完全贊同。”于是我更加堅定了自己的想法。校長也非常激動，說代表學生謝謝我們。同時，校長告訴我，為了節省經費，可以在學校自己復印，不用去復印店。校長這份善意的建議，我也欣然接受了，并承諾自己也會協助復印的。

必修課的初一年級三個班一共有123人，選修課的初五年級有143人，教師班有20人，一共有286人，我提出要復印出300本，剩下的放在學校圖書館。于是，秘書和財務老師商量了一下，告訴我差不多要花81萬先令，合計人民幣大約2200多。第二天我就付了錢，告訴他們盡快去買復印所需的材料，我希望學生能盡快拿到課本。那時候，我的工資還沒發下來，手頭還有點拮據，就從朋友那兒借了一點錢。我不想再耽擱這事。

接下來的幾天，我都去校長秘書辦公室問是否開始復印了，但秘書總是說最近比較忙，要等幾天。十天過去了，我特別著急，心想如果一直這樣等著，估計到學期結束還不一定能復印完。于是我主動請纓，終于“動工”了。每天只要是非上課時間，我都在忙著復印;其間，秘書有空也會過來幫忙。學校一位老師偶爾也會過來幫忙。我基本上每天都在學校里忙碌。有一天，我那一歲四個月的孩子發高燒，一直哭鬧著要媽媽，可我還是咬著牙把她和她爸爸帶到學校，一面照顧她，一面教她爸爸如何復印、如何檢驗。幸好，后來孩子退燒了，我們的復印工作也沒有耽誤。盡管我試圖抓緊每一點時間，但進展并不順利，一來這里經常停電;二來學校這臺舊復印機總是出故障，不是卡紙就是自動停機。最耽誤事的是，每次復印到每張紙的第二頁的時候，機器總是吞紙，于是三百張紙中間有一半第二頁的空白頁，而且是夾著的，這就需要我們一張一張地去檢查，這浪費了很多時間。等所有的都復印完，排版又是一個大工程，比如缺頁，重頁，錯頁的等等問題都需要花時間和精力進行檢驗。還好，學校的學生們也會利于自己的課余時間主動幫忙，而他們很多并不是漢語課的學生。而因為我做最后的檢驗，一本一本地檢驗下來，我對《快樂漢語第一冊》這本書更加熟悉了。就這樣，差不多用了三周的時間，終于全部完工，教學秘書Andrea先生完成了最后的裝訂工作。

其實，這次行動的根源還來自于我內心對我自己初中和高中時的兩位班主任恩情的銘記。正是因為他們的慷慨饋贈，我這窮人家的孩子才能順利完成學業。我一直都想把這份愛延續下去。因為緣分，我在異國他鄉撒下了第一顆“愛的種子”。 愛無國界。看到學生拿到課本后臉上洋溢的笑容，我覺得愛的接力真是值了。

The ILBORU Secondary School

where I work is a key high schoolwhich is quite famous in Arusha andthroughout Tanzania.

I still remember how anxiousI was on the first day when I wentto this high school. The ILBORUSecondary School is about 10kilometers away from the urban areaof Arusha. Roads towards the schoolare not tarred or cement roads， butpitted dirt roads. Sometimes in anunguarded moment， you can feelyourself to be thrown out of the car.Outside the car window are low-risehouses， children playing barefootand all kinds of old small shopswith attractive scenery of lush trees，singing birds and fragrant flowers.

Besides， when the head teachertold me the ILBORU SecondarySchool is an all-boys boarding school，I was shocked and could not help butasking： \"AIl-boys school？ Are theydifficult to be controlled？\" \"You'1lknow later on.\" he said with a smile.At that time， I had already beaten aretreat in my heart. I thought thatwhen so many naughty boys weretogether， it must be exhausting andfrustrating to control them.

However， after getting along withthe students， my anxiety receded.I found that students in ILBORUlistened care fully in class， nevermade noise or left their seats withoutpermission. Even when they wantedto go to the toilet， they would asktheir teachers first. After class， theyare also very polite to teachers. Everytime they saw me， they would greetme politely： some saying \"Hello， MissZhang！\"， and others \"Good morning，Madaml\" Meanwhile， they finishedhomework on time. A small part ofstudents， who fall a little bit behindin study， would give me a smile andgently said \"I don't know\" when theycame across difficult questions inclass. I felt quite relieved to have suchstudents. Neither in the Philippineswhere I did volunteer job， nor inEcuador where I worked as a teacherat the Confucius Institute did thestudents there behave themselves inclass. Things like listening to music，chatting， using cell phones andeating in class were not big surprises.Few of them really paid attention totheir teachers. For them， sometimea Chinese class seemed like a violinclass， a swimming class， or a tennisclass-an interest class whetherthey came or skip out of their ownwill. They did not take it seriously.However， the students here weredifferent because， as I observed， theyhad desire for study and the longingfor knowledge.

However， as time passes， I foundthat these hard-working and sweetstudents also faced difficulties. First，they had monotonous diet of poornutrition. In fact， some students ofthis school were from poor families，some of which were even too poorto support their children. With thesupport of the government， the schoolenrolled the students with difficultfamily situations， provided themwith free education， and covered allliving and study expenses. Three freemeals every day provided in schoolmostly consisted of rice， beans andvegetables. No milk， no meat， no fruit.They could only have meat on a singlespecific day in a month. With suchdiet all the year round， how couldthey keep healthy？ Seeing this， I feltparticularly heartbroken as a mother.

As for study， there was onlya blackboard and chalks in theirclassrooms， and no multimedia at all.I heard that there was an activity roomwith a television and a DVD playerfor football games or entertainmentprograms at times. However， in thisplace， electricity was usually cut off，so it was difficult for me to do somecultural activities for students. Inaddition， the students had to copyby hand what I had written on theblackboard to their notebooks.For those beginners without anyfoundation of Chinese， to copy Pinyinand the meaning was an easyjob，whereas to copy characters was quitea big trouble. Moreover， when theelectricity was off， it was hard to seeclearly what was on the blackboard，which made it more exhausting forthem to copy down.

Without textbooks， they couldnot do any exercise to get improved，thus leading to unsatisfying teachingresults. I had talked with the headteacher， suggesting if the schoolcould fund more to duplicate thetextbooks. Unfortunately， the answerwas \"no\"， because there were toomany students and the school didn'thave much funding to support. Iunderstood his concerns. The plightwas real. The first semester wasnearly half. Seeing piles of well-written homework and pieces ofnearly perfect papers， I discussedwith my husband， \"How about wepaying the copy of textbooks for thestudents？\" \"As long as you felt it worthwhile， then go forit. I totally support.\" He said. Then I strengthened mymind. The head teacher felt very excited， and expressedgratitude on behalf of the students. Meanwhile， he toldme the copy work could be done in our school rather thanany copy shop to save money. I accepted the kindnessthankfully， and promised that I would help the work.

There were 123 students in three classes of Grade1 for compulsory courses， 143 in Grade 5 for electivecourses， and 20 teachers， counting 286 in total. I suggestedmaking 300 copies， rest of which would be collected inschool library after distribution. After consulting with thefinancial aid office， the secretary told me that it might costalmost 810 thousand shillings （about 2200 RM B）. I payedfor it the next day， and told them to buy copy materials assoon as possible， in a strong desire for getting studentstextbooks soon. At that time， I had not received my salaryyet. A little bit hard up for money， I borrowed some frommy friends. The work was the last thing I want it to bedelayed.

In the next few days， I often went to the office of thehead teacher's secretary to ask whether the copy work hadstarted， but the secretary always said that she was busyrecently and we had to wait for a few days. Ten days hadpassed. I was desperately worried. If we kept waiting， thecopy work might not be able to finish before the end of thissemester. Then I took the initiative to start the work. Everyday， when I had no class， I would be occupied with the copywork. During the time， the secretary would come to helpwhen she was free. Occasionally， a teacher at school wouldoffer help. I was busy at school almost every day. One day，my daughter， aged a year and four months， got a high feverand kept crying for mum， but I still took her and her fatherto school， taking care of her while telling her father howto copy and examine. Fortunately， afterwards the feverwas gone， and the work was not delayed. Although I triedto seize every moment， it did not go smoothly. For onething， the electricity was often cut off. For another， this oldcopy machine in school frequently went wrong with eitherthe paper getting jam or the machine stopping workingfor no reason. What most wasted time was that whenthe machine copied the other side of paper， it becamejammed. As a result， there was half of three hundredpieces of paper with a blank side， and those were scatteredamong good ones， which made us examine piece by pieceand thus wasted a lot of time. After the work was done，there also remained a huge proj ect-typography. Defectsincluding missing page， repeating page and wrong pagecost much time and energy to check. To my relief， somestudents at school， who did not have Chinese class， wouldoffer help in their spare time. Thanks to my examinationwork of the textbooks， I got more familiar with the bookHappy Chinese l after checking piles of piles. In thisway， it took almost three weeks to complete the work. Mr.Andrea， the Teaching Secretary， finished the last partbookbinding work.

In fact， the root of this action derived from theinner memory of the kindness of my two class teachersrelatively in my secondary school and high school. Itwas precisely because of their generosity that I， a kidfrom poor family， could finish school. I always want toextend love to others. Because of the destiny， I planted thefirst seed of love in a foreign country. Love can cross allborders. Seeing the brimming smile on my studentsl faceafter received textbooks， I felt that the relay of love was ofgreat value.