Hu Tao, Zhao Qi and Sui Haipeng, postgraduates from Harbin Institute of Technology, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, have served as volunteer teachers in Tibet for one year.
Born in 1985, Hu Tao, is now in poor health. Hu's mother was surprised and worried about his health upon hearing that he was going to Tibet.
Having arrived at Lhasa, capital of Tibet, Hu was assigned to teach computer English at Tibet Technical College. At his first class, he began to experience shortness of breath only after only 15 minutes.
Apart from the shortage of oxygen, the language barrier also poses a problem to volunteers in Tibet. Not able to understand the Mandarin spoken by the Tibetan students, Hu invited a student to serve as his interpreter.
Photo taken on November 8, 2009, shows volunteers making steamed stuffed-buns with local students in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. (Lhasa Evening News Photo)Tibet Medical College, where Sui Haipeng worked, is a pure Tibetan language environment with only four Han people. On the second day after Sui checked in, he went to attend a meeting with a notebook, but wrote down nothing, because he could not understand a single word.
Sui thought that altitude sickness was not the biggest challenge for him, but was instead his ability to immerse himself into the Tibetan language environment. With half a year's effort, he learned some Tibetan language and 30 Tibetan songs.
When asked about whether there were any differences between the real Tibet and Tibet in his imagination before he came, Hu Tao said, "Actually, living in Tibet is much better than I thought.
The sky over Tibet is as clean as that in my imagination. But what makes me surprised is that the students' eyes are as clean as the sky."
Deeply touched by the thirst for knowledge expressed in the students' eyes, the volunteers have tried their utmost to impart their knowledge to the students.
As time passes, the students love their volunteer teachers more and more. They have given Hu Tao and Zhao Qi each a Tibetan name. Hu is named Dawa Tashi, which means "a teacher blessed by the Moon Goddess" in the Tibetan language, while Zhao is named Nyima Jinzha, which means "a teacher as mighty as the sun."
On one afternoon when Hu was teaching, he found that the blackboard suddenly shook. "It is an earthquake," he shouted, "don't panic; run to the playground immediately."
Being the last one to the playground, Hu began the roll call and found that no one was missing. Having consoled the scared students, Hu started to introduce to them the knowledge on earthquake prevention.
Having lived together for one year, the volunteers were unwilling to leave their students. When they were going to leave, the students stood in front of the gate to the school to bid farewell to their teachers, holding the gifts for them: Tibetan costumes, handmade wallets, hada, and so on.
Source: cyol.net
http://chinatibet.people.com.cn/6826002.pdf
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