Life education is funded by BCF and consistent with Mr.Tao Xingzhi's life education concept and training methodologies. The project areas include both Beijing and Guizhou. In Guizhou, the volunteers come from Guizhou University, Guizhou Normal University, Guizhou Ethnic Minority College, Guizhou Finance and Economics College and Guiyang Medical College.

The first project under Life Education is rural survey and training delivery in Ciba of Yanhe County which was conducted by Guizhou college students and funded by BCF. 11 students and 1 supervisor were selected from five universities of Guizhou. These students received training in camping, teaching and interview skills before. The field trip was well prepared and started on January 16 th , 2006. The trip ended on February 5 th , 2006. The length of period of time was 19 days.

During their stay in the countryside, they got along very well with local residents and won their support, they delivered training for 64 classes, they organized games such as basket, chess, table tennis, one performance and a party. The rural survey was conducted carefully. They worked well with children in the class, built ties with local residents through the performance and learn more about the countryside through survey. The villagers in Ciba village of Houping town had good impression on them through the half-month field trip

Project implementation

Yanhe Tujia County is one of the national designated poverty counties. It is located in the borders of three provinces. The per capita income is less than RMB 1,000. There is no road connecting the county with the outside world. This county is known for building a school by Mr.Liu Enhe's backpack. When we invited Mr.Liu to give a speech in Guizhou, we decided this place to be included in the Project.
This winter filed trip included training delivery, rural survey and rural cultural and physical exercise activities.

1、 Training delivery

All team members started to mobilize and recruit students once arrived. Training was organized on the second day (19 th ). On the first day, 30 students showed interested in the wisdom games we organized. When we explained our purpose, villagers had no idea what we were going to do. They asked their children to attend the class on the trial basis and went to the school to find out how we taught their children. After a couple of days' training, we can hear children singing the songs we taught them everywhere, children also wrote notes to us to reveal their minds. Students' cooperation and parents' support touched us. A village chief from a neighboring village of Sichuan sent his daughter to our class after he learned we were there. He told us: my daughter's English is not good, please help her. He picked her right before the Spring Festival. This trust made us feel very happy. With more classes were taught, students and their parents realized more our way of teaching, there were more than 100 students going for our class. To ensure the better effectiveness of teaching, we divided students into 1-3 rd grade group, 4-6 th grade group and junior middle school group. Each group had its own name, slogan and song after their own discussion. For example, the slogan of 1-3 rd grade group is ‘we unite, we are happy'. This inspired students to be more interested, motivated and be good team players.

All team members made good preparation for the classes and played games on class. Each class became pleasant experience to the students. The local teachers realized that classes can be taught in such a fun way.

2、 Rural cultural and physical exercise activities

Rural cultural and physical exercise activities are an effective way of becoming acquaint with local residents. We organized a party in the eve of New Year in the playground of the school. Almost one hundred people came for the Party. People danced, sang and played games around the fire. The first day of Spring Festival was one of the busiest days of the Carnival, after a short opening ceremony, a basketball game was underway with 6 teams, out of which, 2 were from other villages. We also organized tug of war and chess games. Each tug of war team was composed by 14 people. 30 people participated the chess game. Local people established reward and raised fund for them. And they discussed rules, grouping, judges and rewards. Although there was a shower on the second day, many teams still showed up. For table tennis games, the table used was a cement one, but there were a lot of audience. The third day was performance, most of the programs were performed by the elementary school students, who sang songs and played dramas. The whole village was so excited that the villagers all went to see the programs performed by their children rather than watching the TV. They were so happy with the children's show that may of them had tears in their eyes.

To prepare court for the basket ball games, we removed one hundred cubic of stones and earth and cleaned the campus, local people were very satisfied. Meanwhile, we learned from local people too, for example, their sincerity and honesty; we learned how to work together and support each other.

3、 Rural Survey

After extensive interviews with the villagers, we identified three key areas of the Survey: Mr.Liu Enhe's social mobilization, tobacco economy and children left behind by their parent who are working in the cities. For social mobilization, we interviewed different groups participating in building school and road; for tobacco economy, we collected such data as farming area, labor inputs, their incomes and government policies, such as subsidies, technical advice and purchase of the products; for survey of children, we collected data on the number of households, children's schooling, living and their minds. We talked to the farmers during each interview and made them feel more comfortable. All these survey were conducted very smoothly and laid foundation for a rural report.

Some thinking

We learned a lot and had a in-depth understanding of the rural society; we learned many knowledge, skills, competence from children and villagers, their sincerity and honesty impressed us as well. We were touched by the hard working and commitment of rural teachers. We tested our knowledge through practice. And we realized our limitations in our capacity and knowledge.

During our stay in the village, we were touched by the kindness of the villagers. They gave us vegetables, meat, eggs and bean curd. We had to send them back and explained our rules. But they did not quite understand them, and thought we looked them down. The distance between the water supply point and the place where we lived were 1.5 km, we had to carry water each morning, the villagers helped us to carry water without notifying us for several times. Because of the lack of water, many team members didn't take shower during their stay in the village. The male members washed themselves in a stream. We saved all the trash in the bags and carried them back to Guizhou. We took nothing from the villagers and refused the Principal's treatment for several times.

This trip was a life-time memory to me, especially the villagers and children, I will never forget them. We had a so meaningful Spring Festival.

Head of Ciba Team of Guizhou College Student Winter Rural Survey: Xiao Zuiyong