My Report on Gansu 2005 Summer Institution

Jenna Lu 2005-8-9 21:00 at home in Shanghai

 

Sth. to be appreciated,

Sth. to be treasured.

Sth. to be envied.

Sth. to feel shamed.

 

The road not taken

Robert Frost (1874–1963).  Mountain Interval.  1920.

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth,

 

Then took the other, just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 

I believe when Frost wrote this, there must be a sense of sadness in his mind, right as what I feel now.

We choose to spend our summer there in Gulang, where sky is so blue and mountains are so mute.

We met people, where water is scarce, just not as scarce as dreams.

Mr. Wen left us, leaving the yellow mansion and the dream, there standing, mourning for the absence of beautiful fancy.

 

People here are poor, very poor, not their pocket, but also their mind, said one teacher.

Maybe that’s true. 

 

Sick baby don’t want to be decayed, what they need is simply one warm hand. Say, need a hand.

Time and time again, we advocated, to the public, sth. must be done, emergent ‘cause people are dying and help needed.

Time and time again, we try our best to find the truth to tell, find the wound to heal, and what?

The truth is to be hidden and sth lost.  When the children are no longer smiling innocently as we hope.

 

We call the naïve naïve ‘cause that’s what we want.  We want people there to be naïve ‘cause we don’t want them to be sad.  When they are no longer content of their life. sth. inevitable occur, we call them the Unsatisfied.

 

We talked a lot. We argue a lot.  For the meaninglessness and meaningfulness.

What’s the possible criterion, what are gained and what lost?  Or simply the opportunity cost. 

 

We, supposed to deliver sth. And later find the sense of establishment to be achieved with the aid of the beneficiaries.  Who helps who?

 

Beautiful things are true and we call the truth beauty.

Hope you have the good time!  Such we had, the good time and light heart. 

-Why people won’t come here, what about the college graduates? 

-Will you come here after the graduation?

Speechless.

We are not simply having a good time here, I said to myself, and try to make myself believe.

 

-I love our hometown, as long as we can get the money and technology.

But how to get the money?

Government?

Businessman?

Oil?

Miracle?

 

Everywhere above the tables, alcohol is burning the stomachs and faces of men.  Happily laughed the local governors, who managed to get their awesome sons to the Lanzhou University.  And the grand headmasters, who drank cup after cup for sake of the deeply locked, the school gate and the heavy hopes of the local families.

Ironic?

 

Some people come and some people go.  Leave here where poverty is his name.  Betray?  We never know what what if is like.  So appreciate what we had and do what can be done though might be quite limited, hope remained.  Hope is as hope is.  We promise sth. never to fade and thus, the dreams remain and shine as the blue sky.