Evening, 14 August 2008

Dear Teachers,

How do you do?

I am the mother of Zhang xx, a P. 3 student. Since I had only received very little education and can’t speak Putonghua, I can only express our gratitude to you in writing.

After having joined the summer camp for only two days, my daughter finally came up with a smile that we’ve not seen for a long time. Since the rarely seen earthquake on May 12, I found that she had not smiled happily. This disaster has brought her too big and too much pain. The earthquake took away her beloved great grandmother. What she saw was a body covered with blood and mud. She did not cry in front of others. Up till now, she only wiped her tears under the desk or at a corner of a bed when nobody was there. Whenever she came home from outside, she would take a look at the steps out of habit, because while her great grandmother was still alive, she would sit there and wait for her to come home from school and only returned to her home when we returned home from work.

A few days after the earthquake, the girl often said she wanted to go to school. She said if she studied, she could repair the flat and we could have a place to live. My daughter’s grandfather said, “Suinin has normal schooling.” I immediately borrowed 200 dollars from her grandfather and sent her to school in Suinin. However, the Maths. teacher often beat her with chalk and cursed her with bad words because she did not have a textbook. I had gone to the school to talk with the Maths. teacher. However, he gave me cold words. Since I found that my daughter was getting thinner and thinner and became frightened whenever she saw the Maths. teacher, I could only take her home at once.

My daughter liked drawing since she was very young. She also likes to mould mud into things she likes. Unfortunately, as parents, we are unable to provide her with training she needs. Her father does not have any skills. He can only do odd jobs at construction sites. After I have finished my work in the field, I would join him. We built a flat in 2000 and repaid all the debts in the year before last year. Last year, our living was improved a bit. But this year, we encountered the natural disaster. You take the trouble to come here from afar and work hard to bring my daughter happiness and health and a chance to learn. We really don’t know how to express our thanks. We can only let our tears flow, just like when we are in front of the military men who bring us new hope and power to continue to live, we cannot stop our tears.

You are always welcome to be our guests!

Our whole family wishes you peace throughout your lives!

My address is: Minzhu xx Tel: xx

Yours sincerely,

Rao xx