REPORT ON A VISIT TO YUNNAN PROVINCE

by Kim Chan Kwok Kin

Mofanggao, Fenshuiling,……, Ah Jia, Yong Ha,……..; a collection of names normally found only in Wu Xia novels. I cannot believe that I had the chance to visit these places and meet with these people.
In March 2004, through the children sponsorship programme of World Vision Canada, I had an unforgettable trip to Yunnan, China. Departing from Edmonton, we flew first to Kunming via Hong Kong, took a transfer flight to Lijiang, then had a long drive on mountainous roads for many hours before we arrived at the World Vision field office at Yongxing County. Although we had had to endure a long trans-continental flight, an impatient wait at all transfer points, and the scary experience of the local flight, due to severe air turbulence, our eagerness to meet with our sponsored children had not been dampened.
After a good night’s sleep, we took a four-wheel drive vehicle to the villages. After a bumpy ride of an hour, we arrived at Yangping. At last we had come to the home of the first child we had sponsored. Surprisingly, we did not feel any great excitement, but deep in my heart I seemed to have a strange feeling – peaceful, yet with a sense of uncertainty; something I could not really explain.
On the third day, we continued on our journey. This day, the route was more challenging. The driver told us that not too long ago there had been a fatal accident on this section of road. A jeep carrying local World Vision staff members had run off the road into a deep gorge. Immediately we could sense the tension inside our vehicle. Now, every time I think of the long-term staff of World Vision in this part of China, I feel a deep respect for them all. Finally, after more than two hours on the road, we came to the village of Mofanggao.
Here we met with three of the children we sponsored, and the same strange feeling of the day before came over me again. Now, I understood why. It was a mixed feeling: on the one hand I had been longing for the opportunity of meeting the children, yet we found each other to be strangers in our lives. We were delighted to meet them, but at the same time sad, because of what we saw in the condition of their lives. Although they were strangers to us, we were their sponsors – a kind of adopted parenthood. Seeing their melancholy appearance, we had an unspoken sadness in our hearts.
After a visit lasting two days, many of our team members were beginning to feel tired. Little did we realise that our last day of travel was to be the most dangerous one. Early in the morning, our jeep moved towards the high mountains in the direction of Fenshuiling. The road was only wide enough for one vehicle to travel, with the cliff on one side and a steep drop on the other. The driver drove with intense focus, and we kept perfectly silent. At one point, the jeep hit a big piece of rock and the vehicle almost flipped into the gorge. Fortunately our “heavy” member was sitting on the side closest to the cliff and this kept us out of trouble. The driver told us that although the road was dangerous, if a child in the village was taken sick at night, he sometimes had to drive the patient to the hospital along it. We were deeply touched by his dedicated attitude to service.
At the school in Fenshuiling, we received a warm welcome. We took the time to put temporary “tattoos” on the faces and hands of the children, and to play with them. We did not realise that such simple acts of kindness would bring such great pleasure to the village children. They appeared content and this caused us to reflect that we too should be content with what we have in our urbanised lives. Before our departure, we shared with them our vision and what we hoped to achieve with this sponsorship programme – that they might have a brighter future, with better education, so that one day they might eventually return the favour to the benefit of our country.
Looking back, many things touched me deeply on this trip:
1               One of the girls whom we sponsored got up very early in the morning and walked for two hours to the school so that she could meet us. On the road, she had picked many wild flowers and presented them to us as a gift.2               Another child that we sponsored did something we could not forget. He saw that several children had presented gifts to their sponsors, so ran home and picked up his only toy – a broken little ball – and gave it to us.3               When the photographer asked a little girl to have her picture taken with me, she refused to hold my hand. After a while, I began to understand the reason – she found her hands too dirty, and there was a black mole on one of them. After a long wait, she finally held my hand for the photo. At first, when I looked at her hands, I had a sense of poverty and dirtiness, but holding hands firmly with her symbolised our love and support, and a new hope for the future.4               On our way home, we had to make a stop-over at Lijiang. We found a hotel, but Mr. Fu, one of the local World Vision staff members, preferred to stay in more of a local style hotel in order save money for the World Vision ministry. We had agreed to meet at 7 o’clock for breakfast, but at 6 o’clock I found Mr. Fu already up, with sleepy eyes. He said that so many mice had infested his room that he had hardly had any sleep. Although this seems to be funny, it gave me much cause for reflection.
Dear friends, for the needs of the children in the mountainous regions, and for the sake of those unsung heroes who work so diligently behind the scenes, and with a deep love for humanity, I pray that you and I might be able to offer our help to assist and support the ministry of World Vision in bringing love and care to so many needy people.

Fly afar to send our heartfelt support

Foster hope by fostering a child

For more details of the work of World Vision look at:

www.worldvision.com.au (Australia) www.worldvision.ca (Canada) www.worldvision.org.nz (New Zealand) www.worldvision.org.uk (United Kingdom) www.worldvision.org (United States) or www.wvi.org (International)
If you would like to discuss this article with Kim, e-mail him at:

killartv@telusplanet.net