Nayong: Hardships that blossom into sunshine

Clothes had a broken zipper so she had fashioned a shoelace into a button and sewed it onto her jacket.

Compassion Nayong Public Welfare is based in Nayong, a poverty-stricken area in Guizhou Province. Taking the network as the platform, it carries out various public welfare activities to aid education.

In mainstream media, a large portion of dialogue surrounding the struggles of youth involves their mental  wellbeing.  Although there is no authoritative data to say so as of yet, the majority of average adolescents are introverted, and likely an even larger percentage of teens from troubled households are quiet and withdrawn. In articles of this subject matter, youth from troubled households are often depicted as introverted and being in a poorer frame of mind. In reality, interaction with children from troubled households paints a much different picture, one that reveals the youth as just as kind, sensible, and cheerful as their normal counterparts.

In some cases, their personalities shine even brighter than their peers from normal households. Today we are writing about Xue Er, a strong, optimistic child and who loves to laugh and is just a ray of sunshine. Xue Er is 13 years old and currently in sixth grade. Her father passed away before Xue Er’s birth, and her mother remarried not long after giving birth, only to leave and never come back. Xue er now lives with her grandparents; pictured is their family home. Because the road in front of the house was too muddy, volunteers were forced to park far from the house and walk there.
 
In early March, when spring had just begun and our volunteers visited Xue Er for the first time, there was no one at home. The neighbors generously went to summon them from the fields, and the grandma was the first to return. She said that Xue Er was carrying a sack of a farm manure and would be back as soon as she finished carrying it to the other side of the field. While we were waiting for her, we started talking about Xue Er to her grandma, who was pleased to tell us that her grandchild is smart, has good grades, is very sensible, and practices filial piety. Because her grandparents are old and their legs have become frail, most of the heavy household labor is performed by Xue Er. Today, for example, Xue Er was doing the heavy lifting while her grandparents perform the easier task of sowing corn seeds.

Exterior of Xue Er's house

Xue Er's bed

When Xue Er returned via the muddy path that the volunteers had been too cautious to take, the first thing we noticed was not her but instead the huge weight she was carrying on her back. When she saw us, she greeted us with a smile and a polite greeting, then went to put down her pack and put on a change of clothes.

​She changed into clothes which were much too large for her and had a broken zipper -- Xue Er had fashioned a shoelace into a button and sewed it onto her jacket. Her mature demeanor and her conviction-filled smile did not at all allude to her youth. 

The volunteers curiously inquired about the huge weight that Xue Er carries, and she replied by saying that it was no problem, and that she could make the mountainous climb without resting as most farmers do. She humorously demonstrated the resting position that farmers are all familiar with, and everyone laughed. ​

The lamp was Xue Er’s favorite. She uses the light of the lamp everyday to do her homework, and wipes it clean after she is finished using it.

Xue Er had also packed away the three quilt blankets that we had given her. She was waiting until Chinese New Year to use them

Xue Er was also using the soap that we gave her, and hid a portion of it away for future use

In the  autumn, we once again went to Xue Er's home. It was a sunny October afternoon, with the westward-slanted sunlight bathing the old wooden house, the mud-covered moss-ridden courtyard and the chickens in a pleasant glow.

When we arrived, Xue Er was washing clothes, but jumped up to arrange chairs as soon as she saw us. She was yet again her warm and cheerful self. When she learned that we wanted to check up on the status of the chickens that we had help fund, she brought us over to where they were kept, and explained to us what materials they had used and which they hadn’t. As she spoke to there was no sense of shyness or awkwardness.

The lamp that we had given her was Xue Er’s favorite. The lighting in their house is poor, and her grandmother told us that Xue Er uses the light of the lamp everyday to do her homework, and wipes it clean after she is finished using it. She is also using the soap that we gave her, and hid a portion of it away for future use Items in the release of soap, there is a Cher is being used, a Cher was a treasure. She took out the unopened soap out to show us, and when she saw the volunteer taking out his camera to take a picture, she struck a pose. Unfortunately the house was too narrow and dark, and not only could the photographer not get her full body in the picture, but he couldn’t even get the top half of her in it.
 
Xue Er had also packed away the three quilt blankets that we had given her. When we asked her why they weren’t using it, Xue Er said that it was too precious and she couldn’t bear to use it now -- she would wait until the New Year.
  
Even without the love of a mother and father, Xue Er has blossomed into a warm, loving young adult, and soothed the saddened hearts of her grandparents. Do not resent fate or the sorrows of being separated from loved ones, but instead use hope to forge a path towards to happiness.
 
Let us applaud this determined, optimistic girl!

Original article written by Yan Song, translated by Emma Cockerell,  edited by Yanyan Zhang