Having followed him around Dongxiang for several days， I tooam perplexed about how to explain all that he does.
One day we went to the post office to pick up mail and subscribeto a few magazines. Then we left to visit Machang Enyi School in MianguchiTownship and the six female teachers there.
Machang is about a 40-minute walk from the county seat. It wasbuilt in 2000 with investment from a Singaporean woman and theZhuhai Enyi School. It presently has first through fourth grade and 24students. David will purchase gifts for the teachers every year for InternationalWomen’s Day. In the past it was quilt covers， bedsheets， oran alarm clock， but David couldn’t come up with any good ideas thisyear. So he chose to get a few women’s magazines sent to the schoolfor them. He had planned to spend 100 yuan， and it came out to 109.
Another day was spent visiting Baoling Enyi School in DongyuanTownship. This school is quite far from the county seat， a half hourby local bus with a three mile walk on a mountain path. There was adust storm that day as well. Upon arrival at the school David muttered，“Why isn’t the national flag up?” Asking the headmaster， the replycame that it was taken down because of the dust storm， to prevent theflag being torn or blown away.
302 This school was originallybuilt in 1956， but the buildingshad fallen into disrepair andwere on the verge of collapse.
One teacher would instruct the20 students under the lone treein the courtyard. In 2002， Davidcollected 45，000 yuan from sevendonors to rebuild the school.
Now there are 11 0 students infive grade levels. Having justreceived a small donation in themail the previous week， Davidbrought the money to the schoolto give a small refund to the parents for their children’s tuition. Tuitionis 25 yuan a term， so the plan was to give back 5 yuan for eachboy and 10 for each girl. On this visit David needed to get a list of thestudents who had received to mail to the donor along with a thank youletter.
On another day we went to Qiya School in Chuntai Township todiscuss plans with the headmaster to get the children some school uniforms.
This is just a village schoolhouse located in the mountains about30 minutes’ walk from the county seat. They only have a first gradeclass there now， and the students have no Mandarin Chinese ability.
The school is undertaking a small experiment with a new bilingualcurriculum.
Once inside the school gate， David went first beside a classroomwindow to count the students present that day. He has a habit of doingthis whenever he goes to these schools. I learned from the headmaster，who happens to be the only teacher at Qiya， that the school has 3children. Last year there were 43 students but this number was inflateddue to the countywide school enrollment drive. The drive had temporarilybrought in a few extra children last year， but this term thoseextras had all left the school.
David has to put up with a lot of such unpredictability. He’s hadto go to the local power company to complain about the 1.5 yuan/unitcharge for the school’s electricity （that’s nearly three times the nationallegal standard price）。 He has spent time and energy to find a donor andhandicapped school for a mute student in one of his schools. He madea visit to the county education commission to report on a trip Davidarranged and led， taking six Dongxiang teachers for a week of trainingat the Guangdong Enyi schools. He volunteers himself out to theDongxiang Bilingual Education Experimental Project Office， doingmuch of their translation and paperwork for them.
Lots of people in Dongxiang know David as “the tall foreignerthat always goes walking about”。 But as for what he actually does， fewcan say for sure.
“Even I am not so sure about everything I’m doing here.” I sensetiredness and uncertainty in his voice as he says this. No one is requiringhim to do anything， and neither does anyone instruct him as towhat should be done.
“So do you think all this I’m doing has any real significance orvalue?” he asks me.
“I’m not here to be a so-called ‘foreign expert’ or to tell others whatto do. I’m just a kind of laborer， willing to serve.” He believes that thelocals all know a lot better what their needs truly are. But he doesn’twant to hear them just say， “We need money.” Could they really wantor need nothing besides more money?
Wherever David goes he always totes along a faded， worn-outdocument folder. He keeps all sorts of important papers inside： identification，a copy of his passport page， reports on money donationsand school construction projects， documents from the education commission，the savings account passbook for the donations， his accountsledger， school pictures， thank you letters， receipts to be mailed todonors to show where there money was used， etc， etc. He tells me inEnglish， “This thing is my life here. 304 Don’t Call Him “Lei Feng1”or“Norman Bethune2 Since David’s story appeared in the media， he has became a famousperson. He even appeared on the program “Tell It Like It Is hosted by Cui Yongyuan. There has been a continual flow of lettersand money donations sent to “Gansu， Dongxiang County， Ding Dawei over the past few years. Donations have already exceeded the100，000 yuan mark. Many people find it hard to believe David couldstill be in Dongxiang， so they mail letters from time to time just to seeif he’s still there.
“I probably get the most mail of anybody in Dongxiang.” Withsuch a high illiteracy rate， few locals write letters. The post office isbusiest with money orders and delivers relatively few letters.
It becomes David’s responsibility to determine how to best usethese donations. “I don’t want this money. Building schools， placingand paying teachers， ensuring all students can get an education， theseare the government’s responsibilities. However， these donations come with his name on them. How canhe refuse to be responsible for them?